How Lorne Lucree used a beauty playbook to disrupt the allergy aisle with Wizard Wellness

Speaker A: Hi, everyone. Thanks for tuning in to the Glossy Beauty Podcast, a show about the business of beauty and wellness. I'm your host, Glossy's west coast correspondent, Lexi Lebzack. I've been thinking a lot about disruptor brands lately, specifically disruptors using a beauty industry playbook to launch into sleepy categories with a lot of Runway for innovation, new newness, nice branding, better marketing, cleaner ingredient lists, and so forth. Categories like Oral Care have been flooded with new brands and products, including the launch of Dyson's first toothbrush this week for only $500. But this also includes dandruff, shampoo, deodorant, eye care, and more recently, the allergy aisle. My guest today is Lauren Lucre, a longtime beauty formulator and executive turned allergy category disruptor. He's worked for a ton of great beauty brands. He is ex Unilever, ex Estee Lauder companies, and earlier this year, he launched an allergy company called Wizard Wellness. Wizard Wellness is drug free, focused on the microbiome of the nose. It comes in fun formats, including a mouth strip that dissolves on your tongue. The positioning is also very youthful. They're popping up around outdoor music festivals as one of their primary marketing levers. Wizard Wellness launched DTC in January and quickly entered cvs, Walmart, and as of this week, Target stores. I chatted with Lauren about his journey from beauty to wellness, including the challenges that he faced, what it took to enter brick and mortar mass retailers, the funding he needed to accomplish all of this, and so much more. So let's get into it. Here's my conversation with Lauren Lecreek, the CEO and founder of Wizard Wellness. Lauren, welcome to the Glossy Beauty Podcast. I'm so happy you're here.

Speaker B: So happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

Speaker A: It's my pleasure. And I've been wanting to have this conversation about disruptors in these categories that have been very sleepy, very dusty, and now we see big movement in things like toothpaste and deodorant and dandruff care, and now in allergy care, thanks to Wizard Wellness. A big, big congrats on the launch. You've done a lot in 10 months.

Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Thank you. Thank you. I probably look it too, so thank God for prestige beauty. But yes, uh, I appreciate it.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Well, you were very much a beauty guy, an executive, a formulator. Um, what was that moment where you decided, like, I'm going to do it, I'm going to disrupt the multibillion dollar allergy category?

Speaker B: Oh, my God. I was like, you know, like I always say, like when you're in product development or innovation, there's like all these levers you can pull to disrupt and break through. And typically with products there's maybe because it can be either consumer insight or a packaging or raw material or um, a brand new gesture or something you're introducing the market and oftentimes there's only a few of those levers you can pull and the rest you take a pass on. So maybe it's the existing packaging so you just focus more on a raw material to disrupt or things like that. I remember when I was the, when this idea first came to me, I was like, it's rare that it's like all the boxes are unchecked because it's like there's no disruption happening here. There's like cool science that's available. There's like a uh, consumer want for drug free options. I'm seeing it in beauty and supplements, et cetera and definitely trickling into to OTC space as well. And so it was one of those things where I was like, oh my gosh, like I gotta explore it. And then it's just literally one morning I woke up and I was like, told my poor husband. I was like, I have to do this. It was one of those, it just has to happen. I can't not do it because somebody else will do it if I don't. And I was like, I have this amazing beauty network around me and now's the time. Yeah.

Speaker A: Wow. So I'm assuming you were sort of dual tracking this along with a lot of your other work in beauty. Right?

Speaker B: It was an idea that I had had at the end of the course of my work at Unilever. Um, and um, I'd always thought about being an entrepreneur, honestly. I think as an innovator you always think about, you have all these random ideas and whatever it might be. And then I think it was one of those, I'm not one to ask for help that often. You know me, I'm an individual contributor most often of operating kind of by myself. And then I show, uh, and I never really asked for favors and I was like, now's the time. I have amazing retail partner friends, I've marketing friends, investor friends. Now's the time if this anytime now's the present and I'm going to regret it if I, if I don't do it. So, uh, yeah, that was it. Yeah.

Speaker A: How exciting. Okay, so how much did you take on in funding? How did you pitch investors and how did you sort of kick this off.

Speaker B: Like those early days, like an idiot. To be like, I was. Oh, my God. It's like, you think you know so much, and then when you're actually in it, I'm like, I have to build a deck. Like, what do I do? Like, what do I do? Like, how do you. And you're like, okay, so you start with the deck and it's like. And even then socializing idea. Because I remember the first. Some of the first conversations I had, it was like, you know, wait, like, you know, allergy here, like essential oils or stuff you put up your nose. And I'm like, but yeah, but it's like, bigger. It's a bigger idea than that. You know, it's all these other things, and you're. And you realize the importance of really having, like, clarity of story and messaging and truly identifying kind of what's new, better, different, and how. And then, you know, that kind of manifests itself in your deck. So that was, you know, first and foremost. And then it was really. It started with literally, like, one conversation that then, like, just led to another. Led to another. So it was like, it's interesting. Like, one of my first conversations was with, uh, he'll own up to this. It was with Rich from True Beauty. And he, of course, was like, this is a great idea. No, we're not funding. I was like, okay, well, thank you. But he did introduce me to the next call, was a gentleman who did Mike, who was amazing. And then we ended up coming back around to talk to Rich and Christina at True Beauty. And then they were excited, had come around at the time and just raised another fund. We're really excited about wellness. And so then it happened. So it's all right place, right time, but it truly was a lot of no's. And then talk to this person. Talk to this person. And it just goes to show, the magic of the beauty community, honestly, is like. It is, uh, is phenomenal. Honestly, I didn't. I didn't appreciate as much as I did after seeing how just generous and kind every was. Everybody was. Yeah.

Speaker A: It feels very emblematic of what's happening with beauty investments right now, where, you know, beauty investors, these VCs, these private equity firms, they are sort of reaching out and going into these other categories. Do you think that's a big trend, or do you think we'll hit a wall with that?

Speaker B: I think you're seeing it, like, you know, I. I often say, like, because everybody. That was. The other question was like, one. It's like, uh, you know. Yes. Essential oils and stuff up your nose. But two was like, why don't you. Why don't you just make a hair care brand or like, that's what you do. Like, you know, and I, uh, think my response was like, I don't even know what. What I would do, to be honest. It's so we've talked about, like, there's just so much. And everywhere you turn, it's like. And it's interesting now. I talk to buyers on the retail side and they feel the same, honestly. Like, it's like, how do you place your bets when everything and no shade, but like, when it ends up being somewhat of a slowdown in innovation at the end of the day? Because you just see a lot of more me toos. And it's happening in supplements as well, like creatine and protein and all these things. It's like, where do you. Where do you start to think, you know, in celebrity brands or not, or how do you start to think about these things? And I think what they appreciate, what the buyers appreciate, and I think what the investors do as well is like, one is a. You know, it's a. It's an untapped category, but I think it's just like bringing true, true science plus a. Well, a fully formed brand ID identity, consumer insights, all these things together in a way that's like, disruptive and feels like. I always say, I feel like the brand is a $500 million brand. We're not spoiler alert. But I feel like we should be the way we're thinking about it and presenting ourselves or trying to be that just based on all the experience and things like that. So I think that read to the investors, and I think they're excited by all these other categories, seeing how the consumers following along as well too.

Speaker A: Yeah. Are you sharing publicly how much funding you took on?

Speaker B: Yeah. We've raised almost 7 million to date. Um, and I know it sounds like a lot. It's wild to even say that. I remember when the first I remember. I'm like, who am I? I'm like, I remember when the first million came through in my little, like, amex. I love this in my little Amex cell phone. I'm like, checking for the wire to come, and then I've, like, literally dropped my phone because I'm like, I don't want to. I don't want to do anything to mess up the fun. I've never had that much fun of me in my life. So I'm like, uh, what do I

Speaker A: do Press the wrong button, it disappears totally. So now it's like so but it's,

Speaker B: but it's all went into you know, product testing, the science, the research, all the stuff you need even before retail, like all that stuff like the product development, the consumer tested every product, the clinical testing, all of it, um, all of it was money really well spent. But we needed to, to because if we didn't have one product we launched all those what, seven products, you know, uh, we needed a full suite which fed the insight of around the consumers and how they're shopping allergy and then, and then of course for retail invest, you know, investments in inventory and uh, awareness and all that which is a whole other beast, you know. So yeah.

Speaker A: Did you work with retailers as you're putting this together or did you kind of come to them with a fully, fully baked concept ready to go?

Speaker B: It's, it's fascinating. Like the um, it was uh, a fully big concept with enough Runway to have their fingerprints on it. So I having years of working with Sephora, which I just think is, is an amazing brand partner in the way that they, they work upstream with brands and seeing the value that they add. They know their consumers backwards and forwards and like they are the experts. And so I wanted the same for, for wizards. You know, I wanted to get in front of these retailers as quickly as possible to, to be able to shape whether it's packaging or messaging or, or how we're showing up or whatever it might be. And so yes they did. So they were, you know we were able to get in front of them. I think one of my first retailer meetings was February of 20. February, uh, 25th. So it was me with like my little product samples and you know we didn't have our custom packaging was done whatever. So it was like you know, in the uh, showcasing everything and, and luckily they bought, you know, they were excited, they bought into the branding, they bought into the whole idea, et cetera. And so it was just really belie. So it's taking continuing the conversations from there but really from a proposition standpoint, not a lot of feedback. Only thing was around like some of the packaging was really where we, where we focused and getting that retail ready because of uh, you know, coming from Prestige, it's like you know my creative designer, she's amazing but she would have had a bare package with just a W on the front if she'd had her druthers. Um, so we needed to have it a bit, a bit more mass friendly at the end of the day. So yeah okay, so.

Speaker A: So that's the direction that packaging went in. They went in like bolder. More a more descriptive.

Speaker B: Yes, a more like. I'd say like the branding was great. It was a much more. It was much more sparse and looked probably a bit more prestige. What you'd find in. If you've downed allergic here at Sephora, maybe one day you will. Uh, but uh, we actually engaged an amazing Fred Hart, who's an amazing CPG packaging consultant. Um, and then he engaged us with Governess, which is a creative agency who does a lot of amazing CPG kind of food and bev packaging. And then they jumped in and did. We basically did a four week sprint to revamp all our packaging which was like both exciting and terrifying at the same time. Um, but it did like giving key points what to get rid of, what to add iconography, um, color, color stories, all those things which was all, you know, so it was really crash course and cpg, mass packaging. Yeah.

Speaker A: Wow. How did you know that this was going to work? Um, you know, it's like, yeah, how did you know that this was going to. Because it seems to be working so well. You're 10 months and we're going to talk about your retailers, but how did you know that this would work?

Speaker B: I think it's like as an entrepreneur, I just think you. I often read that you just have to have this almost inflated sense of belief that whatever and uh, almost manifesting that yes, this is going to. So I think that's one side of it, of just having this confidence that I truly believe that this is both good for the consumer, good for business, et cetera, but also balancing that with hearing and incorporating feedback. Like I lean on, I lean on my investors so much for inputs and feedback. I lean on my retail partner so much for feedback. That's actually things that feedback I've gotten is like, not all founders are the same. Some feel so confident about their idea, they're just like blinders on and just want to do that. And I feel like there's things I'm very aware of what I know what I know and I know what I don't know. And so having those inputs around, whether it's branding or retail partners or how to navigate some of these things, I've been really receptive to. And I think you have to as a founder to know that and have the humbleness to be able to say, like, I need help here. I don't know this part. Like, help me. Um, because I don't want to, you know, I want to move quickly. And that's. That's all part of it. You know, mistakes will happen, but it's minimizing those as you can. Um, but, yeah, fundamentally I think it goes back to that, like, just that gut feeling of, like, all these things, like, lining up of, like, this magic moment of like, wow, like this could be something, you know, and just following that through. Yeah.

Speaker A: How do you describe your point of difference? And like, how did you know consumers wanted that?

Speaker B: So it's interesting. So we, um. In two ways. I'll start with the consumer piece of it, because I'm a data nerd and I feel like those in pd, you can often. I think product developers often go with their gut or intuition, or they're often like makeup junkies or, you know, and they kind of know what they know and they feel like everybody else. And I always find that the perfect balance is having that gut, but balancing that with either consumer feedback or insights or things like that, to balance it out, to validate it. And so we did a ton of consumer work upfront, probably too much of pulling research reports, ah, data, et cetera. Uh, our own, um, survey as well, of 600 consumers. And what we realized was that one, there is a huge, I call it this experience and efficacy gap. So almost 80% of consumers are looking for a better experience, so no burning or no side effects, et cetera. And almost 84% were looking for a better, improved, uh, efficacy. So almost those neck and neck. So they want it to work, but they also don't want it to, like, you know, suck, like, hurt and burn, all those things. And only seven, only 7% were loyal to their current solutions, which is bananas. So you would never find that in skincare. Like, skincare, at least you have your favorites.

Speaker A: No, no, no.

Speaker B: So lesson is like, nobody's like, you know, writing love letters to, you know, Flonase or Zyrtec or whatever, God bless them. So it's just as a necessary evil of, like, what they're having, what they're left with. And so we knew that there's this kind of like, oh, my God, there's like just being resigned to, like, this is the aisle I have to choose from. And here's my. Here's the options. And then what we see, like, educate education on microbiomes. So brands like Poppy and, uh, seed and skincare brands like Laroche, Marseille and others, educating on what prebiotics are and postbiotics and M. Probiotics, so consumers getting those. And in our surveys, we didn't even have to explain what probiotics were. They just saw it and they're like, you know, it's gonna work. I love it. I'm like, do you wanna know how? And it's like, not really.

Speaker A: It's like.

Speaker B: But I love it. So I'm like, okay. Uh, and then uh, and then the shift to looking for cleaner and drug free options which we know in beauty we've seen that play out of like I don't want, you know, I want where, where possible I'd like to have cleaner options. And it doesn't necessarily mean like 100% natural, just means like maybe less synthetics or less, um, uh, less harmful to my skin or less whatever it might be, just cleaner where I can. And um, and potentially non OTC options, you know, where I can. And I think that pulling all that into this category we've seen really resonate as consumers seeing it and we've heard it from the retail partners as well. When you look at the category of OTC versus non and what's popping. So yeah, that's a great, that's a

Speaker A: great little breakdown and makes perfect sense. I love that you're leading with data here. It's so smart.

Speaker B: Thank you. Appreciate that. It is. No, it is.

Speaker A: I mean like, it's like what consumers want. It's like there's so much data out there. You launched Wizard Wellness in January, we are now in August and you're already in CVS, Walmart, you're entering Target on August 31st. What does it take to compete in a retail landscape against. I mean, can I call them like big allergy? Is that fair?

Speaker B: Yes, yes. Big allergy, yes, yes. Um, it takes a couple different, couple things. One is an amazing retail partner. So having that and I, again I've never worked with Walmart or Target or CVS in my life. And so having somebody on the other side of the table that gets your brand but also gets that you are six months old like and competing in this category. And so you're gonna need like to be thought of differently than the big allergy as you call it. So I think that understanding uh, it almost taking cues from what they've seen happen in beauty, like and we've seen, actually I've seen that with my own eyes happen of referencing other, other categories of how to treat us like whether it's like digestive health or whether it's like brands and beauty of like treating emerging brands differently than established brands and how to enable them to be successful in their environment. So I think that's One is just having an amazing retail partner on the other side of the table that's gonna, that's gonna really get you and help you to grow. Uh, I'd say in a different approach than big, big allergy. The second is again, I go back to that differentiated idea that's going to show up on shelf to consumers in a way that's understandable but also breakthrough, um, as well. So I think that's the second we've heard that playback around not being a me too or uh, just another brand that's leveraging maybe because we could just use another steroid and just launch it in pretty packaging and that's one way to go about it. But we chose not to. We chose a route around drug free but uh, you know, proving efficacy, B, testing, et cetera. So all these other things. So leveraging microbiome science. So that's, I think that's two. And then the third is like it's a new world within the within. As you know, in beauty we take this for granted of the power of TikTok shop, the power of social. That doesn't, that mindset doesn't apply in all categories yet it's so fascinating and so leveraging that beauty playbook in other categories I think has got to be. And you see that, uh, I see like uh, I look at what's happening in oral care we talked about like now, now and it's like, it's pretty rad to see how they're finally applying that to this category that you know, like, like we said Bokeh's been around since for what, five years. And now that category is catching up. You're seeing these disruptors come in, but utilizing social, utilizing all these other uh, all these other channels to really disrupt and break through. And I think we, we are taking the same playbook as well because that halo effect from TikTok is just bananas. So. Yeah.

Speaker A: Wow. Do the retailers you're working with give you advice or like any kind of like beauty playbook? Um, like what, what does sort of their help look like?

Speaker B: Um, help looks like one helping to enable smooth navigation within their four walls. So whether that's communication with them, communication with their teams or cross functional teams to help you be successful. So I think that's navigating that because you don't have. I have an amazing head of retail, Catherine, but that's my retail team. We don't have a full suite of, a full suite of retail, uh, members that are going and one dedicated to cvs, one to whatever we have one person who's awesome. But so having that, removing that friction has been really helpful. So to help to navigate, to leverage all the tools that they have, whether it's in store media or, you know, with CBS, we're leveraging DoorDash. They do a lot of amazing work with, um, you know, um, uh, uh, DoorDash almost as like kind of ghost, um, ghost, uh, distribution. So for cbs, which is awesome. So participate in that because when you need solutions, you need them quickly. So allergy is a perfect way to pilot that. So things like that. So they've enabled a lot of that. And leading in with like Walmart on Social, uh, will be activating at the Daisy Chain Fields Festival this weekend with Olivia, Rodrigo and Cat's Eye, or what's left.

Speaker A: Fun.

Speaker B: Cat's Eye, yes. Uh, and leaning in with like Walmart on Social for that, um, uh, as well, which is great. And planning and so connecting them with their social team. So things like that, that help us feel more connected to them without feeling like a small dish in this huge, huge pond. I think the other ways is then us being smart about how we're thinking about terms, contract, uh, details, et cetera. And that's where actually the investors are really so helpful because they've seen this movie before. They can help us to understand. Correct?

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: So help us to understand where to push, et cetera. Because I'm like, again, I'm like, that is not my superpower and I hate negotiating conflict. So it's nice to have a point of reference to be able to think about. Um, and then I think being able to chat through, I'd say, and this is a lesson for any founder going into these, is thinking about Velocity Expectations as not a moment in time, but a journey. And I think that's been one of the key unlocks. And that was a. I didn't think of that. Uh, one of our retail consultants helped me to think differently about that. Is that, you know, if you think about it as a moment in time, you're setting yourself up for failure. If you think about that Velocity Expectations as a journey of a brand growing with awareness and you're putting. Doing all the right things and the retail partners being great partner, you should naturally see that uptick and start to think about those velocities as a, As a partnership discussion, you need to, you know, you want to be flying off the shelves, but as awareness builds, you'll see that improve as well. And so think having. Having a bit of a different approach to that. Yeah.

Speaker A: You mentioned the Daisy Chain Festival. This has been a big part of your, of your sort of top of funnel. Right. Marketing. Um, you've done other music festivals. Um, it's super smart way to kind of get out there.

Speaker B: I think so. I mean, it's, it speaks to the brand. I'm like, I love, I'm a music. I love a music. I DJ'd in New York for four years. When I was there. I was like, I'm a big music. It's a past life for kids and dog. But yes. So, uh, I love that.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Every Friday night. Uh, so like music to me is like, I'm. I'm like, not like a TV or movie guy. I'm a music guy. So I feel like it's a natural fit with the brand too. Like, I just love, I love concerts and so, And I feel like those outdoor concerts are. If you have allergies, are painful and like, uh, the amount of Zyrtec I've seen in bags, those, ah, clear bags, you know, people like having to suffer through or whatever. Anyway, so when we're chatting, we're like, Coachella is such a great, a great way to bring the brand to life. I mean, it's so, it's so busy. But again, allergy is such a weird category that it's like, it's so unique. And I tell you, like, that Palm Desert Walmart was the sinus aisle. I've never seen anything like it was, uh, uh, like a bomb went off, like decimated. So if you want a use case for sinus care, it is the desert in April at a outdoor music festival in the middle of fields like that is your place to be, like rinsing out your sinuses and the whole thing. Yeah, yeah,

Speaker A: it's very, very smart, Very smart direction to go in. Um, okay, so we talked a little bit about your differentiators. So the microbiome, clinical cleaner ingredients, cuter packaging, um, we're seeing these, you know, across CPG disruption sort of categories. You know, is there anything else that's on your radar that consumers really, really want? Like, what's like V2 of this?

Speaker B: I think V2 is like we, you know, because we think about like, uh, there's a lot to unpack with Wizard. Like, um. And it's like a reflection of how, like I think of all the data, the research, etc. Because we just identified all these area of opportunities. And I think when I was doing a lot of the work pre launch, I got to talk to a lot of people and the one thing I heard over and over again was like you have to work. That's table stakes, like instant relief and allergies table stakes. So before you get to any of your microbiome and your preventative health and the ritual, if you don't work, the game is over. But, but our point of difference as you mentioned is like is microbiome, it is preventative usage, it's ritual, it's all those things which I believe is truly the future of taking control of your health. Just like you wear your whoop or your oura ring or whatever your Google, your Google did. Uh, so all those things are to me where the consumer is going I think about the launch as a couple Phase one being around educating on how we provide incident relief. And that's why we did consumer claim consumer testing on all the products to convince people that actually does work. But along the way teaching them around the power of preventative. And so once you start to use the products, using it every day because it tastes good, it doesn't burn, you enjoy looking at it, you don't mind it in your purse, all those things, it travels well. Then you start to see the benefits of over time. And like you know, within two weeks you see less dark under eye circles and less puffy face, you're sleeping well, better, better mood, all these other things. And so getting people to think differently and change the, change the way so change the way they think about allergy overall as a more holistic approach. I say like the nose is the air filter for the body as they say. So like if you picture like cleaning out your like home air filter, like how disgusting that is like that ah is happening on the daily and like wouldn't you want to and then how that impacts everything else. And so V2 then of this brand is like beyond just educating uh on core and ritual then is like well what else with allergy is there? And to me it's so rich with consumer insights and usage. So like you'll see, you know we're pushing into like more beauty related categories, expanded demographics, more clinical around precision, microbiome, um care, all related to all laddering back up to all allergy forward and first but leveraging my sweet spot which is all product innovation. So like you know what we're seeing cross category, pulling that in here and then you know, cool suppliers that I've worked with pulling them in and things like that, some form factors and things like that that we can excite consumers with.

Speaker A: Yeah, so cool. Um, okay, so these like more beauty focused things coming soon. What can you tell us about them. And is there a space in beauty retail for allergy?

Speaker B: Oh, man. So, um, I, I believe so. I mean, to me, like, I always like. So if you look at like an early, early canva deck, God bless it, uh, was on, uh, one of those, on one of my inspo. Was Jolie as like a shower, like, because I do think that, like, it's so fascinating what Ryan did with Jolie. I say this over and over again of like, how he got people to think about this. Like, a showerhead of all things is like hair health. And to me that's like ultimate. You know, like, he's such a great job at consumer claims and education. And to me, if I can get people to think about allergy as beauty almost, which, you know, people, People will adopt things for different reasons. But vanity is a. Is a strong. A strong for all good one all little. Yes, it's powerful one. So I feel like, so as much as you can link it to that around routine and reminding yourself, etcetera, I feel like it's like, so that was always so for me, like a beauty retailer would be like my erewhon, if you may like. To me that signals that allergy, that beauty allergy link of like. And to me, that's a really, a really cool place to be. And then, you know, the products we're thinking about are all again, related to, rooted in consumer insights around how, you know, how allergies affect other, other parts of your body and, and other parts and pieces and other delivery systems and approaches to reduce allergy symptoms in new ways that you haven't even thought about. So, um, yeah, anyway, but not to reveal too much, but, yeah, it's pretty rad, not gonna lie.

Speaker A: Very cool. Lauren, thank you so much for such a great conversation. I wish you all the luck. I'm sure you are going to do

Speaker B: so well with this.

Speaker A: Big congrats.

Speaker B: Well, thank you so much. Uh, you're the best. I really appreciate it.

Speaker A: And thank you for listening to this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. If you enjoyed it, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you're listening. And for even more coverage on the beauty industry and more, please visit Glossy Co slash Beauty.