Watching the news as the impact of COVID 19 unfolded in China and overseas made me aware of how this situation could potentially negatively impact the Brazilian Beauty clinics and The Australian Skin Institute (ASI) brands a few months ago. It was scary to think about.
Scary, not just the impact on the business, but the impact on the team members, customers and our wider communities. We pride ourselves on being more than a beauty provider, we pride ourselves on being there for our customers to 'believe in beautiful', whatever that sense or style of beautiful is to that particular customer.
Over the years, we have been a source of therapy to our customers. From talking through good and bad relationship issues to celebrating the good things in life like weddings, formals and crazy Christmas parties. We've always played a part in the community by supporting events and charities with giveaway prizes and donations.
As the CEO, along with my Brazilian Beauty and ASI management teams, we put our heads together (like I'm sure many businesses are doing right now) and asked ourselves what could we do to help? Because, that's what we love doing, helping people, that's why we do what we do in our industry.
The hand sanitiser idea was thrown around and as we have been formulating and creating high end skincare for 10 years, it felt like the perfect fit for our brands to try and pivot in some way. We were fortunate to secure a high grade continuous supply of ethanol in early March and from there, have had the opportunity to formulate and create an effective hand sanitiser that kills germs with the addition of some beautiful 100% Australian essential oils.
Our hand sanitiser is different in that it's a liquid, so it contains no thickening agents and not only can it be used for hands, it can also be used on surfaces, like mobile phones and steering wheels without leaving a sticky residue. Plus it smells amazing!
Since launching, we are proud to be supporting and supplying hand sanitiser to other local businesses from the QLD police, nursing sector, aged care, childcare centres to builders, truck drivers and other retailers that require hand sanitiser to remain open and trading.
This new business along with retailing skincare on our online platforms to Brazilian Beauty and ASI customers has enabled us to retain our ASI team and re-engage some of our Brazilian Beauty team members for now.
Being part of the #MakingItForQld movement has made my team and I feel more connected to the wider Qld community, it's been a new experience delivering hand sanitiser products to front line customers who have most likely never visited a Brazilian Beauty clinic before but have heard of our brand.
Feedback received from customers has been heart warming and has made us feel part of a community QLD movement in these times of uncertainty. It's possibly the most rewarding project we as a team have ever worked on and the community support has been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging.
This project has given both me and the team a massive sense of community purpose during this crazy time and as much as there have been tears of sadness for the changes that we have had to make with temporary clinic closure, there have been tears of joy with a new project that just might help our brands survive throughout these unprecedented times.
It's made me think that wherever possible I will support the local business down the road or next door and I will choose to purchase products that are made in Australia and support Australian brands.
It's not easy being a small business owner and I'm so incredibly proud of the ASI and Brazilian Beauty teams for embracing this project, flipping their usual day to day roles in the business and for ‘believing that a new kind of beautiful’ is possible.
With love,
Francesca Webster
