What Motivated you to buy back your brand?
It was very important for me to buy my brand back in order to bring the brand to great relevancy as I realized that my brand was not relevant anymore to our modern life. So, when I got the opportunity to acquire it, I wanted to develop a new packaging with 95% recycled plastic and 100% recyclable and clean, vegan, and cruelty-free formulas.
What was the inspiration for your new product line? When did you know it was the right moment to launch it?
I was excited to see the food and beverage industry get so innovative and healthy both with packaging and ingredients. I thought well, I can do that. Seeing the great demand from our customers and retailers made me excited and rushed to get to market. Being green also became important to me over a decade ago, and since then I’ve made a commitment to live a more sustainable life both personally and professionally.
What has the response been so far?
Clients are intrigued but overwhelmingly loving the products because they realize that the performance is there and that they are not polluting the planet.
How has the current climate affected your business and how are you adapting?
This pandemic has shaken us and forced us to rethink the business model. Pre-COVID we were strategizing our DTC business and now we are full force executing our E-commerce and looking at every possible way to stay in touch with our customers and deliver trust, confidence, and quality.
What does the future of your brand look like? Are you able to share some exciting news?
We are coming up with some exciting innovations (can’t share yet) but the most exciting news is that we just launched at Ulta.com.
What’s one piece of advice you would give your fellow entrepreneurs that you wish somebody would have told you?
Don’t ever give up. Just believe in your story and know that perseverance is more valuable than an MBA.
Inside and outside of the industry, who inspires you?
— Bill Gates because he never stops thinking, learning, and giving back to humanity in a tremendous way.
— Chanel for consistently being chic, innovative, rarely distracted and super-performing in all their categories (really hard to achieve)
What would you tell your 25-year old self?
Work hard, play hard, and take care of yourself.
ABOUT Frédéric Fekkai
Provence-born and Paris-trained, Frédéric Fekkai opened his groundbreaking namesake salon atop New York’s Bergdorf Goodman Department Store, creating the concept of beauty hospitality, revolutionizing the industry standard and becoming one of the world’s lead hair stylists. In 2015, he embarked on a quest to restore artisanally-made Provençal fragrance and beauty brand Côté Bastide with his wife, Shirin Von Wulffen, renaming the brand Bastide and infusing its products with clean and environmentally-respectful ingredients. Three years later, Fekkai returned as the chairman of Blue Mistral, a holding company of his growing beauty and wellness brand portfolio. His commitment to revolutionizing the industry and focusing on naturality have remained unchanged, but now include a focus on blue beauty—reversing the damage done to the planet and eliminating excess plastic usage from the industry as a whole.
Categorized in: Beauty Declassified