(It was she and her team who determined if a line was a fit for the mega-retailer.)
“I had this flashback moment of whatlipstickmeant to her,” Arriagada says.
“Products that have meaning and purpose and are an extension of the person who wears them.”
Courtesy brand
This is what it took to win it.
“I kept saying, ‘How do I merge these two?'”
“The meaning of ‘very’ is placing emphasis,” she says.
PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOSEPHINE SCHIELE
Arriagada then had to redo the four-month process herself via LegalZoom.
At one point, she showed Arriagada how to analyze the light-reflecting particles in the formula.
“She took me into the light and said, ‘You see this?
PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOSEPHINE SCHIELE
This shade has too much,'” Arriagada recalls.
(She tapped into skills shed learned long ago when she took figure drawing classes.)
Her next launch,lip gloss, will also click into the existing casing.
The panelists (whom Arriagada says became more like brand evangelists) were chosen for their beauty market knowledge.
Risky Business
Every penny spent on Valde came out of Arriagadas bank account.
“I’m fully aware of the risk that I’m undertaking,” she says.
“I believe in this enough to put my money where my mouth is.”
How much money are we talking about?
From her experience, most premium-category brands need a minimum of $500,000 to get started.
But creating such detailed, custom packaging added to her expense.
Now read more about lipstick:
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