Beauty Boss Jamie Steenbakkers is an alum of Babson College. After entering college she started her company Busy Beauty, which started off with a showerless shave gel and has not expanded to a range of products. Can you imagine a shave gel that does not require any water? Read on to find out more about Jamie and her brand: Busy Beauty.
Can you tell us a bit more about your company Busy Beauty and how did you come up with the idea?
In freshman year, I was having trouble with my college dorm bathrooms. The bathrooms were dirty and small and I never wanted to shave there. The only other option was to shave in the room, but that was annoying as well as I would have to take a cup of water to the room every time. For one of my business classes in freshman year, I came up with the idea of creating a shave gel that did not require water. Although I could not pursue it in my business class, I took the idea and developed Lixa with my partner Michael. Lixa (now called Busy Beauty) is a Showerless Shave Gel; a two-in-one shave gel and moisturizer that requires absolutely no water, lather, or rinse. This allows women to shave anytime and anywhere. Together Michael and I worked on everything from coming up with the idea to branding the product.
Does Busy Beauty plan on expanding from just selling showerless shaving gel?
Yes. I see a huge trend with “dry” products in the beauty industry. For example, did you know that the sales of dry shampoos have grown around 500% in just 5 years? I definitely want to expand our company’s line of products and sell dry shampoo, dry conditioner, etc.
By 2018 you had a goal of selling in 5 retail stores and also 2 national wide chain stores? How is that coming along?
It is going well and we have various exciting projects coming up. Currently, are already on Amazon and various small stores such as hair salons. I have a meeting with Bed Bath & Beyond soon and we are also considering expanding into Europe and partnering with the drugstore company Boots.
As you scale your business, what is a challenge you are facing?
China manufactures the products and the actual formulation is created in a laboratory in California. Currently, we do not have enough inventory and that is the challenge we are trying to overcome.
What was it like running a startup and balancing college life?
Very hard for sure. I took the previous semester off from college and that helped my partner and my focus on the business. Now with school work as well, it is definitely a whole mental shift. It is different working from eight hours on the business to working on it for two hours a day. However, at the end of the day, Busy Beauty always comes first.
