Watch the full conversation between Colette Laxton and Mark Curry and Fashionista’s Beauty + Style Director Steph Saltzman on The Fashionista Network.

How did Colette Laxton and Mark Curry first become business — and, ultimately, life — partners? “It was a LinkedIn love story,” Laxton told Steph live on The Fashionista Network. (Watch it here!) 

As the story goes, Laxton and Curry initially met while working for Boots U.K. Years after each of them had moved on from the company, Curry set out to establish his own beauty brand, so he messaged Laxton on LinkedIn to get her on board. With Curry’s background in science and Laxton’s experience in marketing and brand communications, they each brought different skillsets to the company.

“If we were one person, we’d be so magical,” Laxton laughed. “Mark [has] this crazy science-[oriented], but insanely creative entrepreneurial brain, but with that comes a huge lack of communication skills. […] With my communications brain and the ability to talk to the consumer, it was kind of like ‘There’s something here.’ The rest is history.”

In 2018, the duo saw a gap in the skin-care space for brands that communicate the benefits of their products in a way consumers can easily understand. So they launched The Inkey List, an accessibly-priced skin-care brand providing digestible information to help consumers make better purchasing decisions. 

“I think there’s this real demand for keeping this simple, yet really scientific, but also more affordable,” Curry said. But formulating quality skin care at a reasonable price doesn’t come without its challenges: In the full interview, the duo talked about perfecting pricing, being strategic with their ingredients and navigating operations and supply chain.

Once The Inkey List launched, it grew quickly: Its earliest stockist was Boots, their former employer. But the brand’s turning point came after launching its global partnership with Sephora. (The co-founders also explained how their deal with the leading beauty retailer came to be.) Today, The Inkey List is available in over 32 countries and growing.

During the show, Curry and Laxton talked more about the future of The Inkey List, plus their thoughts on the state of the industry and advice for skin-care entrepreneurs. Watch the full interview here.

This conversation was hosted on The Fashionista Network powered by interactive media platform Fireside, where viewers get the chance to participate and speak directly with industry figures. Learn more about The Fashionista Network here.

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