The Interview: Anna Lahey, Founder of Vida Glow

Anna Lahey is the founder of Vida Glow, an ingestible beauty and wellness brand that has become the number one global retailer of marine collagen.

Anna discovered the benefits of the fish-derived collagen when she was travelling in Japan. She launched Vida Glow in 2014 after finding a gap in the market for the product in her home country Australia.

Vida Glow has also expanded internationally, and is available in Australia, as well as the UK, the US, France and Germany, and is stocked in Liberty, Harrods, Selfridges, FeelUnique and Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche.

To find out more about Anna and Vida Glow you can also listen to our In Conversation podcast episode, where Anna talks in greater depth about how she founded the company with her now-husband and deep-dives into the science behind the molecular size of marine collagen.

You're having huge expansion plans this year - congrats! But take me back to the beginning. Why did you want to launch VidaGlow in the first place?

I discovered marine collagen while travelling overseas visiting a friend in Japan. I had never really heard about collagen then, it was 2012, but collagen supplementation was everywhere, you know in the equivalent of the Seven Eleven. I went to the gym and they asked if I wanted a collagen water, I went to a restaurant and they asked if I wanted my soup infused with collagen.

At the time was suffering from quite significant hair loss. And so, I was intrigued enough about all the positive things I was hearing, to speak to a local pharmacists. She explained that collagen supplementation had been around for thousands of years, and honestly it all just sounded a little bit too good to be true. But after taking it myself I got incredible results, so that began months of researching and really educating myself on the science of marine collagen and the clinical evidence.

I guess this was really when I saw this gap in the market - there was nothing else like this in Australia at the time. I was so passionate and I was recommending it to everyone and this was really what set the foundation for the business.

I've read that you've become the global number #1 marine collagen brand, with one unit sold globally every four seconds. That's a huge amount of growth in a relatively short amount of time.

I know maybe that is one of the advantages of being a first mover. I mean I still pinch myself looking at the journey that we've been on, but it it hasn't all been smooth sailing - let me tell you it's blood, sweat and tears. And it's also really been about supporting brand awareness and category education, which is a real passion of mine because education still remains the biggest barrier to entry in in this category.

When I came across Vida Glow and saw that it's marine collagen, I thought great, as a pescatarian this is something I can actually get on board with. Aside from that, I believe it also has a lot of health benefits?

So we use the skin of fish and the studies are pretty clear on the differences between bovine and marine collagen. Marine collagen is more effective for pharmaceutical purposes, it's more efficiently absorbed and distributed in the body and really the main reason for that is because it has a lower molecule weight. Our collagen is also responsibly sourced from open water farms from high quality fish bred for the hospitality and fish industry. It's really important to note that it is a by-product so it would otherwise be discarded as waste.

Speaking to you now I can not only feel your passion but your knowledge as well. You’ve touched a bit on the scientific studies that prove the efficacy of Vida Glow products. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

I think our focus on investing in science it what really continues to benchmark us as leaders. Last year we invested over $1 million into independent clinical trials and we are focused on ensuring that every new product development is substantiated with really robust clinical backing.

Building that credibility as a brand in a very new category isn't easy, it takes a huge amount of investment - not only of money but also of resources. You know bringing a new product to market like Hairology and Radiance, once you've got the idea on paper, the actual formulation of these products is a two-year journey. This commitment to results is why we have such a loyal customer base.

How did you formulate your current range of products? 

We were really heavily reliant on our manufacturers for the first offering but today we have our in-house scientists - we have an R&D team and an innovation lab. That means that we own all of our formulation, our IP, and our clinical data which is truly unique in our category.

The process either starts with a beauty concern - so pigmentation or hair loss, dehydrated skin - or the discovery of an exciting ingredient. And then we start building the formulation. We start testing formats and we start trialling products.

Collagen can be ingested in all kinds of ways. You chose to package it as powder and I believe that probably has something to do with the size of the molecules, is that right?

I'm actually obsessed with delivery methods! We’re just really being extremely conscious of how we are delivering the key ingredients to get the best results for the consumer.

Our collagen for example has been in a hydrolysed peptide powder since we launched, because collagen is most effective when it is dissolved in water. On the other hand, radiance is a very sensitive active ingredient so we have chosen a vegan cellulose capsule for that.

Anti-G-Ox is another example, which has no collagen in it. It's a collagen boosting product, I suppose, but it's completely vegan. And it is for the three root causes of premature ageing. It's really targeting oxidative stress inflammation and glycation (the presence of excess glucose in skin fibres and impairs skin elasticity). And it's actually delicious, even though it has only three calories and there's no sugar in it. It just melts onto the tongue as an effervescent powder to get into the blood vessels for maximum absorption.

You are stocked in Liberty, Harrods, Selfridges, FeelUnique and most recently in Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche – who was your first wholesale partner and how important is that channel for the business? 

Working with retail partners is an important channel for the business for a few reasons. Firstly, influential retailers adopting the ingestible beauty category early on has been integral to the growth of the category.

Secondly, as we continue expanding, keeping Vida Glow relatable and attainable to our community is top of mind. Being stocked at trusted retailers allows us to engage directly, letting consumers sample and interact with our product firsthand, whilst providing them with a tangible understanding of their efficacy.