613: From Zero To Skincare CEO: How Cristina Brooks Potts Built Her Dream Brand

00:00
Welcome back to the podcast, the show where I cover all the latest strategies and current events related to e-commerce and online business. Now in this episode, I interview a student in my Create a Profitable Online Store course, Christina Brooks Potts, on how she created her own successful skincare company from complete scratch over at Authenticego.com. And her story is truly inspirational. But before we begin, I want to let you know that tickets for Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale over at SellerSummit.com. And if you sell physical products online,

00:29
this is the event that you should be at. Unlike most events that are filled with high level fluff and inspirational stories, Solo Summit is all about tactical step-by-step strategies you can actually use in your business right away. Every speaker I invite is deep in the trenches, people who are running their own e-commerce stores, managing inventory, dealing with suppliers, and scaling real businesses. No corporate execs and no consultants. Also, I hate big events, so I intentionally keep it small and intimate.

00:55
We cap attendance at around 200 people so you can actually have real conversations and connect with everyone in the room. We’ve sold out every single year for the past nine years and I expect this year to be no different. It’s happening April 21st to 23rd in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And if you’re doing over 250K or $1 million in revenue, we also offer a private mastermind for high level sellers. Right now, tickets are the cheapest they’re ever gonna be. So if you want in, go over to sellersummit.com and grab your ticket. Now onto the show.

01:30
Welcome to the My Wife Quitter Job Podcast. Today I’m thrilled to have a student in my Create a Profitable Online Store course on the show, Christina Brooks Potts. Now, Christina is someone who joined back in 2021. We spoke over Zoom and then off she went working hard for the next four years on her business, Authenticego.com. Now, Authenticego is a skincare company that provides safe evidence-backed formulas for hormonal, sensitive, and acne

02:00
She launched in 2023. She’s had some crazy growth since then, so much so that she has attracted the interest from venture capital. Now, I don’t believe that I’ve ever had a student on the podcast selling skincare products before. So I am really excited to hear Christina’s story. And with that, welcome to the show, Christina. How are you doing today? Thank you. I’m so excited to be talking to you again, Steve. It’s like…

02:27
It feels like it was literally yesterday and I don’t know where the last four years of my life went. But I’m so excited to catch up. It’s funny. Yeah, I think I spoke to you during the pandemic, right? Yeah. Yeah, it was it was like near the tail end of it. But like I had some you know, wasn’t going out much. So was like, I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna start it now. Yeah, now’s the time. Yeah, I am very curious. How did you come up with the idea of selling a beauty brand?

02:56
and specifically focusing on focusing on acne prone skin. Yeah, so it’s interesting. I came up with this idea literally like 15 years ago. So yeah, I was really young. I was like 22. I was working at Sephora in in downtown Toronto at the Eaton Center, which is like the busiest one of the busiest Sephora is in the world. And I worked in skincare. Because I was always like that nerdy person who

03:23
like loved ingredients and like I was always reading labels and stuff and I wasn’t so interested in like you know working at the front of the store but I noticed like a trend of women coming in and this is a problem I eventually developed myself women coming in in their late 20s early 30s with that second resurgence of hormonal acne right so like we all get acne as a teen it kind of goes away but for so many women like most women more than half of us it comes back right

03:51
And I just saw a real gap in the offerings of skincare because when we’ll come in and like, you know, they, you know, not only are you concerned with acne in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s too, because we have customers in our 50s, you’re concerned with aging, fine lines, hyperpigmentation, hydration, dehydration. And a lot of women are developing, you know, concurrent sensitivity. So like we’re talking rosacea, eczema, peril, dermatitis.

04:16
ah Fungal Acne, AK Malassezia folliculitis, that kind of thing. I just noticed that there wasn’t really anything that tailored to women and we’re kind of left with nothing to use because all the acne targeted products are very much like one note active. So like benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, let’s exfoliate, let’s kill bacteria. But a lot of times those products even have ingredients in them that are not great for acne prone skin.

04:46
And that’s based on like just the physiological processes that go on behind, you know, the acne development process and like it’s super technical. And like I eventually like had a, you know, pharma and science background. So I was able to really go deep into it and then really develop this. But that’s how I came up with the idea. I just saw a gap in the market. And then like, you know, 15 years later, the gap still hasn’t been filled. I was like, I need to do that. So that’s your so so your background is in

05:16
biochemical engineering or? No, not biochemical engineering. So, you know, I had an undergrad in political science and law. But, you know, after that, you know, I really got into wanting to work in, you know, pharmaceuticals like like drugs. Right. So in Canada, there’s this license you take and it’s like a two year course and it’s like university level and it’s a professional accreditation in anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology. So I took that.

05:45
So I developed a really, really deep understanding of drugs and molecules and all that kind of stuff and just processes in the skin at a deeper level because I learned a lot at Sephora about life works is next level deep and I really honed my research skills there. So that’s how I was able to really bring it to life and use my research background and um to develop the formulas myself.

06:14
How does one even go about creating a skin cream? Like what were your steps? Yeah. Right. So I mean, the way it works for most companies is it’s there’s basically two buckets. There’s skincare, there’s marketing led skincare and there’s R &D led skincare. So marketing led skincare is when, you know, someone will come up with an idea for a brand based on a vibe.

06:36
And it’s like, want a fun skincare brand that reflects, you know, our personality and fun and like, you know, late nights and all this stuff. That’s most skincare brands. Then they’ll go to a third party manufacturer, contract manufacturer and say, I want a cream that, you know, we’re going to, these are the claims we’re going to make. And they’ll just like basically give you a formula that’s already existing. And then they’ll just throw in some actives, right? So you’re not really getting any- Sorry, what? Throw in some actives? Actives, yeah, like active ingredients.

07:06
Yeah, so active ingredients, we’re talking about things that like if you go on Google Trends, a lot of brands start there, they’re like, oh, what ingredients are trending? What can we use to like increase our SEO? Right? So people will find us, right? So it’s very, very backwards. uh In terms of it’s not really starting with a problem. It’s starting with a trend. um customers are really becoming aware of that. And it’s super annoying because

07:33
you start to see all of these brands that look very different, but when you actually try them, they’re all 99 % the same. And they’re not really addressing any real concerns. um Well, all those celebrity brands that you see out there really are just formulations of what’s already out there, and then they put their own marketing spin on Yeah, for the most part. Yeah, or they can hire a private R &D chemist to say, we want something unique, but it’s not really problem solution focused. And that’s where

08:01
a lot of brands fall short. On the flip side, and this is what we do, and this is what I really focused on, is being problem solution focused. So really identifying like what are the key drivers of, early drivers of acne development? What ingredients do we have that already exist that we can use to treat them? And then coming up with a formula based around that that will solve those problems. uh

08:28
So that process is very research intensive. It takes a lot of time. And if the person developing it doesn’t have a research or science background, they would have to outsource it to like a scientist, an R &D scientist or chemist. Okay. Who a lot of times has like a classically trained background. So even they have those preconceived notions of what should and shouldn’t be used. So it kind of stifles innovation, in my opinion. So that’s like where we’ve been a little bit different is

08:58
I’m the one actually coming up with the formulas and all the active ingredients based on research. um Yeah. So does that imply like you have a little lab somewhere where you’re testing everything and mixing everything yourself or? No. So basically what I do is I do all the preliminary R &D and I’ll come up with all the list of actives, all the emulsifiers, all the preserves, basically the recipe for what we’re going to use. Okay. And then I have a… um

09:27
a chemist that I work with. And she’s like a true actual, like she has a biochemistry background that I work with who then builds that recipe in the lab. And we have a lab in California. So she is like independent. She’s not one of those big like, there’s basically these, like, I don’t know, like kind of like mass market contract manufacturers where they’re like just really concerned about churning out products quickly. And they’ll offer you all of their items to white label.

09:56
this woman is really just building my recipe and kind of operationalizing it instead of, you know, going with something that’s already made. So I work with her really, really closely. So she’s, she’s the one actually with the lab and we like troubleshoot together. Okay. How did you find this person or was she a friend of yours or did you have to know? So it’s interesting when I started, when I started the brand, I spoke to like 30 or 40 orange

10:26
like chemists, right? Um, they all told me I was crazy and that they’re like, you can’t do this because you know, like it’s just not like the ingredients you don’t want to use. It’s just, it’s too restrictive. It’s not feasible. And I was like, well, it needs to be done. And we need to kind of maybe change the way we think about what ingredients we use in skincare for acne prone skin. And a lot of them just said no, because it makes, you know, when you challenge the status quo, it makes people uncomfortable. Yeah.

10:56
It really makes people uncomfortable and they just reject it right? They’re like for you to say that so I’m like, well, here’s my research Like here’s the science it makes sense But you know this woman has been in the industry for like the woman I work with for like over 40 years Super experienced and she was like, I love this She’s like this is exciting. She’s like this is really neat. She’s like this makes sense because she has a really deep background in chemistry and and like

11:25
biomedical sciences. So she has a deep understanding as well. And she’s like, it’s so cool that you’re doing this. I’d love to like work with you. So I’m so lucky because she’s one of those people who in the past has worked with, you know, really, really big brands, right? If you want to start a skincare brand, can be very difficult to find a manufacturer because a lot of them don’t really give you the time of day because you’re starting out small, right? You’re going to be doing product runs of a thousand, not 10,000. So

11:54
they’re just like not interested, right? So is this chemist the one putting together your, she put together your sampling quantities in the beginning too? Sorry? Is she just a formulator and you had someone else manufacture? Yeah, she actually has her own like little manufacturing team. So she has like a small team and I really like her because she’s uh like, she’s very responsive and like they’re very, they’re not like a big company, right?

12:22
right. She manufactures and fills as well. So you know, I send over our bottles and our packaging from Korea, and they fill it and they pack it and send it to our warehouse in Texas. Okay, perfect. And then you just found this person just from googling or just doing your own research, intense googling, like forensic googling for it took a few months. I don’t even remember how I found her. I just was like,

12:46
This was before chat GBT. So I’m like, how did I do anything before that tool existed? And it was just like days of forensic Googling, I used to call it right, like, that’s why I found it like on page four of Google search results. Because these people don’t have good websites, like, right, I find the best people in the industry, they don’t have a good website, because they don’t even need one. Right, they’re so hard to find, right? It’s the ones who like, you know, I think they’re kind of dicey, and they want your business they have

13:15
beautiful flashy site with all these things, right, in that industry. So I always look for the hidden gems. So realistically, how much did it cost you to just start this entire idea? I imagine there’s a lot of upfront costs. Yeah, so it is quite high because, you know, like the just buying inventory and skincare and doing product runs is very capital intensive.

13:41
So I think the total cost, I cashed out my retirement, I cashed out my life savings. I was working in high level consulting tech sales, so I took all those savings and invested it. In total it was like 80,000 US to get started. This includes the formulation and getting that first batch? That includes getting the first two products out.

14:09
Yeah, and doing like a small run like of a thousand units. So this is a pretty big bet for you. How did you know that it was going to do well? Yeah, so before I really pulled the trigger on this idea, did, I’d say about two years of market research. Okay. And I primarily use Reddit. I think Reddit is like the best untouched corner of the internet. um Because there’s, it’s just

14:38
like people are so real on there and you have all these niche independent communities and you really can get a really, really deep understanding. If you take the time to read through posts every day, you can build an amazing business around problems people are having, right? So I just, you know, I joined all the fungal acne subreddit, acne subreddit, skincare addiction.

15:00
to get a deeper understanding of what those specific problems were, even though I had an idea from working in beauty, working in support, and then later experiencing the problem myself. Reddit was really where I turned to. And I was on there as just a civilian, not as a brand, with an account, asking questions. It’s like, bothers you about skincare? What do you wish was better for acne-prone skincare? And that’s how I came up with the whole premise of,

15:31
like how I would position the brand, right? um And it worked really well, yeah. Let me ask you this then, uh did you take any pre-sales? how did you know that it was gonna do, like how did you take that leap of faith to drop 80K? Did you have pre-orders, like an email list of interested parties or anything like that? I had nothing. No, so I was one of those people, and it did scare me a bit, because you know a lot of people, like they build a community, then they launch a brand.

15:59
Yeah. It’s like super common. um I had none of that. Like I don’t even really have social media. I’m kind of one of those people who’s kind of off the grid. Like I just, I just set up my own personal account. So I didn’t do presales. I didn’t do wait lists. I didn’t do any of that stuff. I just launched, right. And I focused on having good on-page SEO. And people just found us and then it just kind of spiraled organically.

16:28
really. That is so interesting because the students in my class that sell, I would consider as a very competitive niche what you’re in, right? Oh, yeah. Probably the worst business to go into for competition because it’s just everyone has a skincare brand including Brad Pitt, Oh, Brad Pitt has one too? I did not know that. What are doing? Yeah. Yeah, come to think of it, uh there is one other student in the class that I know of at least that sells like some lip

16:56
lip gloss or whatever. I’m pretty sure she just went to one of those uh companies that just do private label. Yeah, and then just you pick and choose what you want. then they and then they uh make it for you. Yeah. Everything is manufactured in the United States, right? This is not something that you would ever consider making in like China, for example. uh no. And so what’s really important and what’s key in this industry is a lot of brands and this has become an issue with the the tariff situation.

17:26
A lot of brands are actually manufacturing their skincare over in Korea. and they’re working with these big Korean contract manufacturers. It’s very cost-effective over there because it’s hyper competitive. have the best economies of scale in the world. But one thing I’ve always been wary of, because I’m a paranoid person, is owning my IP to my product, right? Right. And also as a student of political science, I’m always scared of tariffs. That’s why I set up my…

17:54
I because of my bottles coming from Korea from day one because I just I don’t know I kind of like saw the writing on the wall with the the political situation. But yeah, like the issue now is brands don’t own their IP and it’s too expensive to import into the US now from Korea. Like I mean, it’s better now because he you know, Mr. D changes every day. But yeah, yeah, he lowered it a bit but like who knows tomorrow, right?

18:23
But owning your IP is super, super important. What’ll happen when you go to a lot of big labs and they won’t give you your IP. So if you want to go somewhere else, you can’t, you’re stuck with them. Which to me is like really bad business practice, anti-competitive. I mean, if you’re not making your own formula, it makes sense that they will own it because it is theirs, right? If you’re just white labeling, like you can’t own that recipe. You can come up with it.

18:48
But if you’re paying a lab, know, if I was to give advice to anyone, if you’re paying a lab to make you something that new, then you need to own it, right? And the bio rights shouldn’t be crazy. I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about a free resource that I offer on my website that you may not be aware of. If you are interested in starting your own online store, I put together a comprehensive six day mini course on how to get started in e-commerce that you should all check out.

19:16
It contains both video and text based tutorials that go over the entire process of finding products to sell all the way to getting your first sales online. Now this course is free and can be attained at mywifequitterjob.com slash free. Just sign up right there on the front page via email and I’ll send you the course right away. Once again, that’s mywifequitterjob.com slash free. Now back to the show. So how do you protect your IP? Do you have a patent or anything like that or how does it work?

19:45
Yeah, no, so I don’t have a patent. mean, a patent is someone we could potentially pursue. I know it would be heinously expensive, so I’m kind of holding off on that. like, the IP is really, you know, a lot of it’s in my head. There’s a huge list of things that we don’t use that other brands aren’t really tapped into. And it’s based on, you know, the research that I’ve, you know, developed over the last few years. So it’s kind of hard for people to

20:14
copy what we do because they just don’t know the underlying basically blueprint of why I choose what I do. um And we also, mean, in terms of like our protectable IP, we also, you know, we formulate based on, you know, four principles of early acne development, which are oxidative stress, liquid proxidation, microbiome dysbiosis and inflammation. Whereas other brands are formulating with exfoliation and killing bacteria. Right. Right.

20:44
it’s something that I don’t know, brands don’t seem interested in doing because they just want to perpetuate the status quo. And I’m like, I feel like we’re the first brand to really challenge that. And that’s why we’ve had such a positive response. When you create a product like this, do you need any certifications or anything from the government to sell it? can you just, can anyone just create a formula and just start selling? Yeah, yeah, it’s a good question. So I mean, with the FDA, there’s monograph acne,

21:14
as per the FDA. We don’t use any of those, not because they’re bad per se, but I just feel like the science is moving forward. And as we know, the FDA doesn’t. I don’t know what they do, but they’re not really working. They haven’t approved a sunscreen filter in over 40 years, right? But in terms of like, do we need a certification? No, it’s still considered a cosmetic. And the only caveat is that on our product page, we have to be mindful of the claims we make.

21:44
Right? So even though we’re really targeting and supporting acne prone skin, we can’t make claims like treats acne at the root. Just make acne disappear in 12 hours. You just have to be reasonable about the claims you make. The FDA really goes after people who make egregious claims. um And last I checked, haven’t gone after anyone in like over 10 years. So you just have to be respectful, right? And I’m sure the department got downsized. Yeah.

22:12
I don’t think they exist anymore. seem to be different. I think the last time they sent out a warning letter was the Obama administration. Okay. And that was for like really egregious stuff like, you know, melts fat in 12 hours, like just like crazy stuff. True. just really not true. But no, consider it a cosmetic. Like my goal though, you know, when we get funding is to start doing clinicals, which are just super, super expensive to help strengthen our evidence base of what you know, what we’re doing and how it works and how effective.

22:43
Like right now, that’s not feasible, but yeah. Like a huge study clinical trial, you mean, right? Yeah, I mean, not a clinical trial in that we would be, you know, pursuing like a new drug application for like the ingredients and to have them monographed by the FDA, because I think that would take probably till I’m like 80 to make its way through the bureaucratic system. Sure. But you know, like in terms of like clinical studies, we mean like, you know, having like a panel of like

23:12
50 people who have hormonal acne and then they’re supervised by a clinical team and we follow them for, you know, their starting point and then we measure them at 30, 60, 90 days. And then, you know, we can assess and show the evidence like photographic, right? Objective, not self-reported because in this industry, there’s a lot of what are called consumer perception studies. And that’s when you go on a page and you see a claim like, oh

23:38
80 % of consumers agreed it made their skin more hydrated or it you know, that’s like perception. It’s like you try a product, give it to someone for free, of course, they’re going to say it works. Sure. Right. And it’s amazing, right? Because they want to keep getting it. We’re not going to do that just because I feel like it’s very wishy washy. It’s deceptive to me. Yeah. Yeah. But anyways, yeah. Okay, so you’re going to do it right with a, you know, do it the right way. Yeah, I want to do it the right way because consumer perception studies, I’m like, what?

24:07
What is this even? It’s just so people can use numbers. Because numbers sell, right? But you can pull numbers from your reviews, which are more objective, right? Sure. So, yeah. All right. So you drop $80,000 on this without any pre-orders and without any influencers. How does one make sales? I think you mentioned Reddit earlier. And when I Googled your site, there was a lot of Reddit that came up, actually.

24:37
So I’m curious, how did you market this without social media, which would have been in my instinct, like the first way you would have done this. But you’re right. You don’t do a lot on social media. So honestly, I think it’s because the way people, the way our core demographic of customer is searching, they’re very problem solution based. These are not people who go into Sephora looking for skincare. They’re going on the internet. They’re going on Reddit. So

25:05
Basically, you know, that first customer who found us left us a review and then one and mentioned us on Reddit. Oh, I found this cool new brand. And then the second customer found us, you know, they told someone else and they added us to, you know, a third party review site like thing testing. And then someone added us to skin sort. And we got, you know, I think we had like almost 300 backlinks.

25:30
Um, which I didn’t even really know about. Like I just brought on a founding, like developer, you know, specialist to the team. And he’s like, where do you file these backlinks? I’m like, what are you talking about? Right. He’s like, you have so many backlists. I’m like, I think it’s from like just people linking us because they find us and they’re so excited. Right. Um, so it just, it just really was like truly organic. I know I wouldn’t recommend it because I know the first 30 days you were open, I didn’t have a sale.

26:00
there was no, I had no sale in the first 30 days we were open, but then it slowly started to trickle in and just build and build and build. So I did also, you know, start to go on TikTok, like as me, the founder, and that really resonated with people just talking about our product over and over, like in a, in a, in a genuine way. And, um, like we built it really like small, but like engaged following and people.

26:27
talk about us to their friends and other people on forums and stuff, right? Yeah. So that is a testament to the product that it works. Right. Okay. Yeah. mean, so I was always wary of being a brand at the beginning that went in really, really heavy and hard with like marketing and PR because in this industry, it’s really easy to get that first sale.

26:55
Like anyone can buy a product once, but you know, you’re they’re buying it because the marketing is good, not the product. And I wanted to make sure that, you know, I built a brand that’s product first, like R &D first, not marketing first. We’re not a marketing like brand, you know, you know, we’re gonna start to have some good marketing. Not just me talking in my sweatshirt on TikTok. Um, actually, I watched a couple of those. They’re quite convincing, like the one where you said, hey,

27:25
you have to buy like five products to do with this one bottle does right? And then yeah, yeah, that video did really, really well. And like, I spent like, you know, a couple dollars a day to run that as an ad for like a year. And it just like, what kind of viral, right? Yeah, it was really interesting. Yeah, so I was I was really, adamant about like, at the beginning, no more. It was

27:54
I don’t know if it’s the right decision, but it seems to be working like, you know, not really focusing on relying on marketing and like vanity metrics and follower counts and like PR and just focusing on like having the best product because the best product will literally sell itself. Right. So if it gets discovered, this is an amazing story. So did you end up doing anything in Reddit? Because I know you can’t be promotional on Reddit at all. Right. So I made some

28:24
like blog posts on Reddit um that were resource guides really, um like for adjacent things like, know, taking B5 for acne or using a water filter or making your own cleansing oil. Those still get a lot of like views, right? So people do find us that way. And, um you know, I’m gonna start going back on Reddit again because I got kind of frustrated with it because they launched Reddit ads.

28:52
Which is not up to snuff in terms of… So I was like until you guys can fix these like problems that you have I don’t really want to like participate in like, you know promoting on Reddit But like we can totally organically post on Reddit. It’s an amazing community you just The problem is it’s like the the mods which can sometimes be mall cops um on some boards

29:20
don’t like when brands go on, even when they’re trying to be helpful. Like, so say if someone was to mention, like I got banned from the Acne subreddit because someone asked a question about authentic ego and I went to answer it as authentic ego thinking I was being helpful and they just banned me for life. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. From that subreddit. So I can never I can’t even post an ad on Acne. And it’s just because a mod on there is having a bad day or likes to feel in control. Right. And I can’t control that. But

29:50
Well, there’s whole companies now that market on Reddit for you, right? Yeah. the person asking the question is a plant. Yeah. And you know, so I think they’re just very sensitive to all that stuff. Yeah. Because Google is indexing Reddit now, right? At the top. So yeah, I like I always used to tell people like only use Google if you type the word Reddit at the end of what you’re typing. Other than that, Google is useless. It’s been like that for the last five years. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

30:17
I love Reddit. I think it’s the last untouched corner of the internet, for sure. All right. So your expertise seems to lie in creating the product. So I am actually curious, what were some of the challenges with creating this? I know you said it took a long time, but what is it like? Do I create a formula? You try it. Is it scientific in the way you decide whether it works or not? How do you tweak the formula? What’s the process like? Right.

30:46
So yeah, once you come up with the actives and basically the recipe, I’d have my chemist make it and she would make a first prototype sample. And then I would get a bunch of it to me and I would have people I knew, friends, family, neighbors with acne prone skin try it and give me their feedback on the performance. ah The moisturizer took a little bit longer to finalize because moisturizer is one of those very personal things.

31:16
um But this serum was like a home run from the very beginning. just like I’ve never I don’t like I’ve ever heard anyone say they don’t love the texture performance of it, right? um Just because the combo of ingredients is there in there. It’s very very different from what you see in most products. But yeah, the process is really just trying it on real people who are experiencing that problem, right? And trying to get a good cross section of you know people to make sure it’s good. I mean

31:44
And the last step in that is safety testing. So, you you want to make sure, you know, the preservative system is effective over a period of time. It’s stable over time. And then you can also do dermatologist testing, which is, I think we’re going to move away from that because basically what that is, is you hire clinical lab and they will, you know, get like 50 volunteers and we’ll apply the product. uh

32:13
for two weeks on an occluded patch, right? To make sure no one has a reaction. Well, the thing that brands don’t talk about is that they apply it on people’s backs. So it doesn’t reflect real world use. So when you see, you know, skincare that says dermatologist tested, hypoallergenic, non-apigenic, they’re testing it on someone’s back and on their face. And to me, I’m like, well, like, obviously, you’re not, you know, you’re putting it on someone’s back and the volunteers, you can’t control their age.

32:42
And I remember when we did it the first time, I see the volunteers age, they’re like between 60 and 85. Well, like, of course you’re not breaking out, right? So we’re pulling back all those claims and we’re going to say, you we touched on people’s faces, not their backs. Cause I think we need more transparency in the industry because, you know, I’m about to release a TikTok video talking about that. And I know people are going to be shocked. I know I was.

33:09
Right? You would think that when you’re hiring a lab to test your product, they test it on your face. Nine times out of 10, they’re not. They’re putting it on someone’s back and putting a piece of tape over it. I would think that they’d be getting people in your target demographic, right? If you want them. That’s not an option. It’s hard because these labs have to rely on people to volunteer and apply. And it’s a very low paying thing.

33:38
Okay, right. They pay them like probably like, you know, a couple dollars like for clinical studies, you get a lot of like older retirees looking for supplemental income. It’s a pain because you have to go in and have, you know, it assessed repeatedly. So it’s not like exactly something that would be convenient for someone, you know, who’s in our target demographic, who’s working with kids busy. So what we’re going to be doing in the future is, you know, I have a

34:05
I’m going to send them the product to use on their face in real life and report back to me to make sure that they’re tolerating it well and it works. So Christina, knowing what you know today, I mean, you’ve gone through the entire process. What would you have done differently? Let’s say actually, know, just the other day someone did email me wanting to create their own skincare product. I wasn’t sure what type to classify. assume it’s

34:33
it would be like research led and whatnot, what advice would you give someone? Like if you were to do this all over again, what were some of the mistakes that you made? I think in the beginning, I was very scared of going on social media. And I should have just been doing it really early, just going on like every day talking about like what I’m building in a way that’s customer focused. Like so for a long time, I you know, a conflict that you know, I see all these founder led

35:01
brands, especially skincare, beauty, makeup, where it seems to be all about the founder. And I was very obsessed. Well, I don’t want to be about me. I want to be about my customers. right. um So I shied away from social media, but I didn’t realize that I’m really just the conduit to making it about the customers. Right. So I now realize that like I was a bit too black and white in my thinking at the beginning. So I definitely would advise anyone at the beginning. do have to show up on social media consistently.

35:30
You have to practice. You do have to, you know, go on there as often as possible. And it’s one of those things where it’s easy to not do it because you get so busy doing so many other things, right? um The other thing I would do is, you know, bring on people earlier. So now I have a team of ah four other people I brought on just like in the last two months. um I was worried for the longest time that no one would want to join this.

35:57
business, but you know, it turns out like people are really excited. I have an amazing co-founder now and someone just joined to help scale Medicaid in the past who sold to L’Oreal for a billion dollars, right? So like people are excited to join the brand, but it just, I think it’s just a matter of like being confident, right? You I think you get that imposter syndrome and you’re like, oh, no one’s going to want to join my startup for like equity and no pay. Yeah. m

36:26
But people get excited by that, right? So just like understanding that, like if you are solving a real problem, people are gonna wanna be part of that journey.

36:38
And in terms of creating your formulation, did you feel that 80k was about average or did you spend more than average? Like what would be the bare minimum if you wanted to start your own skincare line with a custom formulation? I mean, Per Scew, you’re looking at 25,000 US. Per Scew, right?

37:04
ah I mean, it really depends on your skill set with the startup cost you’re going to be. So if you can like build up your own website, take your own photos on the cheap, which I think is a lot easier now than it was four years ago, you can do it for way less than what I did. Like, you know, I’m very much like a technical person, like sciencey. I was not like, I didn’t really even know how to use Instagram.

37:29
I didn’t know how to use a Shopify store when I started, so I was paying someone to help me build that out. But I think if you want to start your own skincare brand, you’re looking at bare minimum $50,000. And that’s to launch with one to two SKUs that are net new, not just a white label.

37:51
because there’s also the cost of the primary and secondary packaging, the testing, the brokerage fees to get bottles across the ocean. um And then you’re looking at like your 3PL. um Let me ask you about that actually. Why did you get bottles from Korea? um So I chose to source from Korea because I was concerned at the time about a terror situation happening.

38:17
And I know it was 2021, it was way before it happened. But you know, I had been following that story from like, I followed politics very closely and I was like, oh, like, they’re going to get rid of the de minimis thing. Like it’s going, it’s going to be bad. There’s going to be a trade war. It’s like intellectual. So that’s why I chose to source from Korea. Right. I mean, foolishly, I thought Korea would be exempt from any like tariff like war and they’re not, but I mean, it’s that they’re at 15 % as of today.

38:47
Right, which is way lower than the 55. Yes. Yeah. So it’s not too bad. um So I mean, the quality in China is just as good as Korea, right? And like, let’s be honest, most components in Korea are sourced from China. you know, in one way or another stuff comes from China. ah Most most ingredients in skincare come from China. So all the raw

39:15
material components that make up a formula, I’d say it’s like 80 % that are actually coming from China. Okay. And then in terms of finding the suppliers in Korea, how did you find those? I looked in some, you know, industry magazines and trade magazines online and just I did like, you know, forensic googling again, and I found this

39:40
you know, not a huge, huge supplier, someone would be willing to work with, you know, a small startup and do lower MOPs. Because a lot of the, you know, I looked at, you know, sourcing domestically. um And I just, didn’t, I just hit a dead end. No one would give me the time of day. They’re like, oh, our MOP was like 50,000 bottles. And it’s like, oh my God. Yeah. not gonna happen. So like this supplier, the MOP was 5,000, which is very reasonable. ah You know, it seems high, but like,

40:09
for a bottle that is that great of quality and customized and has all the matte coating and everything, that’s a really good, know, and I built a really good relationship with them. What’s funny is you did all this stuff when there was no tariffs or nothing from China. Did you look at China at all or? I did. But when I got and I got samples, so I would always recommend someone to get samples of just the bottles to look at the architecture of how they’re made. Like I’m super technical.

40:39
I have them here, I don’t want to be that person. And I remember working before, it’s like, you get an airless pump and you have to pump it like 50 times for product to come out. I was like, I don’t want that to be the customer experience. So I would get samples from suppliers and this was the highest quality one I could find. So that’s who I went with. And it’s a model material. So it’s somewhat recyclable, know, compared to things with a metal pump, spring pump. So Christina, what lies in the future of

41:07
authentic ego. So you mentioned perhaps getting funding doing the clinical testing. What do you have a whole bunch of products in the pipeline? Yeah. So I mean, we were approached by a VC a few months ago who was really interested in what we were doing. And I was like, so flattered and like honored that they reached out to me and wanted to talk and like build an early relationship because they like, you know, the gap that we’re feeling like the white space that needs to be filled in the market. So

41:37
You know, they’re like, you got to build a team. You got to, you know, 10 X your revenue and then like come back to us. That’s essentially my goal. Um, you know how we’re going to get there. So I mean, I have an amazing team. Now I have a co-founder as someone who’s helping with strategy and growth. Um, you know, we have a creative director. have, um, someone specializing in like our it and like backend stuff, but, um,

42:04
You know, I think in the future, like what we’re going to be doing, focusing on in the near future, it’s Kickstarter, right? So we decided we’re going to launch a Kickstarter in September. And that’s because we need to basically fund more skew development because there’s huge, huge like pent up demand from the customers. Like I want a cleanser. I want to see them for this. I want a product for this. I want this. And I’m like, oh my gosh, like it just, it’s going to take like a lot of capital to finance that inventory.

42:34
And like we have such a strong community of backers that we decided like Kickstarter is the best way to go. I mean, another route one can take is like angel investing, but you know, I think because we have like such a strong community and people want to be part of this journey, we’re going with Kickstarter. So we’re to be launching that like in the middle of September. And that’s going to help us kind of accelerate and exponentially grow over the next 18 months to 24 months. So that’s our…

43:04
Does this product work on teenagers or is it meant for adults? It does work on teenagers. mean, a lot of times teenager acne is a little bit more simple and that it’s you know, have a bit of it, you know, excess oil production and sebum buildup and it’s not really inflammatory in nature. I do have like, you know, like, you know, parents who reach out to me asking, you is continued to use absolutely. It’s super gentle.

43:32
But you know, I don’t specifically market to teenagers just because I guess I’m a mom and I don’t want to be targeting to kids and teens. You know what I mean? I just feel like it crosses an ethical line. don’t want kids or teens to ever think they need to use something, right? I feel like it’s something the parents should help them with. I don’t know, maybe I’ve been old fashioned that way, but you know, we do have like people younger on the younger side using our product.

44:00
I might pick up a bottle for my daughter. That’s why I’m asking for yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and all of sudden I’ll definitely send you some Well Christina, thank you so much for sharing your journey. Yeah, it’s crazy that we spoke but four years ago I think you you joined in 2021 and then you launched in 2023 which means it took a full two years for you to come up with your Formulation. That’s right. Yeah, and and a lot of that was I was working full-time

44:27
And I was funneling a lot of the money I made in my job to building the business. Wow. So I was hustling by day to make commission because I was working in sales, like enterprise sales at the time, then like pharma consulting, and then just using it on the back end to fund the business. So, yeah.

44:51
Well for anyone listening and it sounds like this is actually a widespread problem So for anyone listening, where can people find your products online and where’s the best place to purchase them? Are you’re not on Amazon, right? Is it a website only store? Okay. I’m a never Amazon person Don’t get me started on them. Um, so we only sell direct consumer through our website Authentic ego comm that’s where you can find this. We do have international shipping

45:19
you know, try and keep as affordable as possible. I apologize for the tariffs. I cry every day that they’re there. uh But yeah, just on our website and we have new products coming soon and we’re going to be launching a Kickstarter so people can find us there and follow us. And like I’m always available for you to answer any questions people have. Well, thank you so much, Christina. It’s amazing. I love it when things come full circle and

45:48
I’m so glad that you agreed to come on this podcast. Thank you. I’m so happy. Thanks so much, Hope you enjoyed this episode. believe Christina recently redesigned her website. For more information and resources, go to mywifequitterjob.com slash episode 613. Once again, tickets to the Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale over at sellersummit.com. If you want to hang out in person in a small intimate setting, develop real relationships with like-minded entrepreneurs and learn a ton.

46:18
then come to my event. Go to SellersSummit.com. And if you’re interested in starting your own e-commerce store, head on over to my wife QuitHerJob.com and sign up for my free six-day mini course. Just type in your email and I’ll send the course right away via email.