Magnum’s beauty move: Behind its collab with skincare start-up Fayshell

Retailers of all sizes and industries are using the success of experiential activations to create brand awareness and, as a result, drive more business.

Sydney’s Bondi Beach has become home to many pop-up activations and brand collaborations, including, most recently, a beach club venture between membership-based skin clinic Fayshell and ice-cream giant Magnum.

A beach club birthday celebration

The collaboration was orchestrated by event management company Studio Messa, which contacted the Fayshell team and pitched its concept of a”sensory experience” that incorporated two new Magnum flavours – Double Sunlover and Double Starchaser – into a mini-facial. In December, just shy of the new year, Fayshell celebrated its first birthday since launching and opening a store in Bondi.

As part of the partnership, Fayshell offered a bespoke five-minute express service free of charge to those who booked through the portal. The offer was at capacity within 10 minutes of going live, and the team completed 300 mini-facials across two days.

Katelin Gregg, co-founder and director of Fayshell, told Inside Retail, “It was a super effective collaboration for us. As soon as it went live on socials the event booked out in under 10 minutes for the whole weekend.”

“Fayshell received a lot of tags and follows across socials. It is really hard to measure where bookings are coming from, but we’ve definitely had an influx of bookings this week.”

A gym membership for your skin

In addition to the pop-up with Magnum at Bondi Beach, the membership-based skin clinic recently opened a second location in Sydney’s Neutral Bay. The new location is bigger than the first and feels like walking into a skincare spaceship with its monochromatic colour palette and metallic surfaces.

Best friends Katelin Gregg and Ella James co-founded Fayshell in 2022 after they saw an opportunity to make facials more accessible. “We wanted to create a business concept that made it affordable, time efficient, and completely customised,” Gregg told Inside Retail.
“It felt like there wasn’t a business model out there that just facilitated regular monthly facials.”

Fayshell doesn’t have a treatment menu as everything is customised to the consumer’s needs. The business also sells take-home skincare products that the founders and their team have consciously curated to ensure everyone and their skin is catered for.

The business is also breaking stereotypes around the cost of facials and other skin treatments with its transparent prices, affordability and quality retail products to support the in-clinic treatments at home.

Gregg has a background in the beauty industry and previously worked for her parents’ medical distribution company, which sells products ranging from fillers to advanced dermal products used by doctors in medical clinics. “My dad would import it and sell it so then I started working with him,” Gregg told Inside Retail.
Fayshell’s retail offering is consciously curated with brands that the founders have used for years, including Synergie Skin, Dr Spiller, Hydropeptide, Oxygenetix and Image Skincare to name a few. They are available in-clinic and through the online Fayshell shop.

Transparency for clear skin

Fayshell was founded to avoid the all-too-common experience of visiting a skin clinic, only to find that the recommended treatments and products cost much more than expected.

“We researched the industry a lot and we tried so many kinds of skin-needling devices and all of these different treatments. To be honest, there’s just such a big markup in the skin industry,” Gregg said. “We have quite reduced margins compared to other clinics, our whole goal is in making treatments accessible.”

As a membership-based business, Fayshell has flipped the script – by offering affordable prices, it is better able to build loyalty.

“For us Fayshell is all about how we can add the most value. We want to create lasting long-term relationships and see people more regularly rather than it just be that icky and expensive experience that you have on that one-off basis,” Gregg said.

Gregg credits this value proposition as one of the major reasons why the business has succeeded and continues to grow. “In times of downturn when people are saving their pennies, the one thing that a lot of people still have managed to budget for is how they look,” she said. “We are getting a lot of clients that might typically go down the road for a very expensive treatment. They might not be going there anymore, but they can budget coming to a Fayshell that’s more affordable and they’re actually getting the same treatment.”

Shared values key for success

While the collaboration between Fayshell and Magnum might not make sense at first glance, Andrea DeAlmeida, brand manager of Magnum told Inside Retail that it was based on the brands’ shared values.

“What truly drew us together was the mutual commitment to excellence in our respective fields. Magnum has always been synonymous with indulgence and the pleasure of pure luxury. Fayshell, with its unique facial approach and being Australia’s first membership-based skincare clinic, resonated with our brand ethos. It was a perfect match,” she said.

“What stood out most during our collaboration was the seamless integration of our respective brand identities. Since the beginning Fayshell was willing to bring the Magnum Sunlover flavours into the facial experience, making it super tailored and unique to our consumers. Their willingness to explore innovative ideas made the collaboration not only smooth but also inspiring,” DeAlmeida said.

The one-of-a-kind sensory experience between Fayshell and Magnum resulted in an immersive, premium consumer experience that created brand awareness – both for Fayshell as a business and for Magnum’s new product offerings.

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