When Hailey Bieber’s beauty line Rhode was first announced I was extremely excited to get my hands on the dry-skin approved range of serums and toners.
Sadly Ms Bieber is yet to offer her range to those in Australia and if you try to find a direct shipping route yourself it could set you back as much as $45.
But the founder of tbh Skincare Rachael Wilde has done us all a great service by developing the Rebound Skin Milk Activated Cica Toner, a $29.95 product — or on sale for Black Friday weekend at $20.97 —that shares many similarities to the Rhode Glazing Milk.
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Rachael says both toners have “a lot of barrier supportive ingredients in them starting with skin-identical ceramides” and also contain cholesterol and glycerin that help to keep your skin plump, hydrated and smooth.
The tbh Skincare product has been shipped more than 640 times a week since it launched and those who have tested it out on social media have praised it for filling a gap in the Australian market.
Many are copying Ms Bieber’s approach of mixing a milky toner — like the tbh Skincare one — with their foundation to create a dewier result.
Rachael, who lives in Sydney, was working in medical sales when she came up with the idea for tbh Skincare — in amongst fighting her own demons with chronic acne.
“Through working in this field, I came across a medical research and development company who had developed a technology that could break through biofilm in the body to treat infections,” Rachael has previously told Best Picks.
This piqued Rachael’s interest, as she wondered: What if this technology could be adapted and used in skincare, specifically in order to help those with acne?
And so her “game-changing” idea for “miracle” skincare range, tbh Skincare, was born.
Once she had made the discovery about the technology and figured out that it was something that could be transplanted to the skincare industry, Rachael set to work.
“The first thing I did was basically put pen to paper in order to figure out what tbh Skincare could look like as a brand and what the business model would be,” she tells 7Life.
She had to get the technology — which helps to deconstruct bacteria’s protective barrier — patented.
And then, she had to work out how to fund her idea, recruiting her mother as a financial analyst and working out of her Northern Beaches family home for the first few months.
“It was crazy when we started tbh,” Rachael says.
“Every room was packed with boxes, the business basically took over the entirety of the house!”
So what is it that makes tbh Skincare’s patented acne technology so different to other spot-fighting brands on the market?
“Our best-selling Acne Hack Cream is formulated with a new patented technology which combines the ingredients in a way that allows them to destroy the extracellular matrix that protects breakout causing bacteria,” Rachael explains.
“This in turn exposes the individual bacteria, and makes them susceptible to attack.”
She adds: “It is a completely new approach to treating acne that works off a method of action, rather than just one key ingredient like benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid.”
A clinical trial in April last year conducted by tbh Skincare found that their budget buy outperforms traditional acne treatments, thanks to its unique combination of ingredients comprising citric acid, bezalkonium chloride and sodium citrate dihydrate.
It wasn’t long before tbh Skincare products began selling out, and these days it operates out of a sprawling Sydney CBD office.
“Before the brand launched, I organically built momentum on social media where I could,” Rachael remembers.
“I showed all of the behind the scenes and told people it was coming soon, generating a waitlist and such.”
After selling an impressive $4,000 worth of products on the first day, Rachael later turned over $800,000 in 18 months.
The brand is now stocked in Priceline.
For more information about tbh Skincare, click here.