The Interview: Bubble Skincare's founder Shai Eisenman on bursting into the affordable skincare market

Shai Eisenman, the founder and CEO of Bubble Skincare burst into the then untapped teen skincare market when she launched Bubble Skincare in 2020. Tackling a myriad of skincare concerns from acne breakouts to dullness, the affordable yet effective solutions thrust Bubble into the skincare stratosphere.

New York-based Eisenman began her career in business when she started her BA at the age of 15, yes 15. While most of us were learning to apply mascara or cover our acne, Eisenman was sewing the seeds to become the entrepreneur she is today.

In 2020, after noticing a gap in the skincare market, she founded Bubble Skincare - one of the first modern skincare brands created for young skin. After hosting a whole host of research groups, Shai developed what people wanted and needed - formulations that don’t compromise price for efficacy. Despite its affordable price points, set at around £15, Bubble's formulas could be worth up to £150, claimed Eisenmann.

On her recent trip to London, Eisenman sat down with TheIndustry.beauty to talk all things skincare and being a woman in business. Not only did she give us a first-hand demo, applying the brand's bestselling products and its recently launched eye cream, proving that they deliver an unmatched glow, but she also unveiled plans to grow its brand ambassador programme here in the UK.

You remarkably started your career at age 15. Can you tell us about your start?

I started my BA at 15 and started working full-time at 16. I finished my BA by the time I was 18 and relocated to London when I was 21, where I ran a subsidiary of a public company for about four years. I was only exposed to the beauty world about six and a half years ago, after working on a project and completely fell in love with it. I fell in love with the fact that skincare is the only industry that I could think of that has a connection between clinical and emotional. So I wanted to create something special and unique in this category.

What was the inspiration behind Bubble? Did you see a gap in the market for teenage-focused skincare?

Yes, but our products can be used by all ages. There was so much innovation and so many things happening for the prestige customer, but when you look at the price point of £20 and under, people are still stuck with the same products that I used when I was younger and the same products that my mom used when she was younger. I felt like there was an opportunity to give consumers something so much better and truly give them the quality and the ingredients in a much more affordable and accessible way.

I also couldn't understand why beauty companies need to take such an insane margin if I'm being very honest.

Many have followed in your footsteps and created skincare targeted at Gen Z. How do you differentiate Bubble with your understated marketing?

When you're giving the customer a strong product you don't need to go and shove it down their throat with marketing and celebrity endorsements. We wanted to create the quality and experience that doesn't exist for the price point and get consumers on board because they're smart and can tell the difference.

You're never going to see any of our advertising pictures featuring models, because we never work with models. We cast from our community. This is something that we're very proud of. I'm a parent myself and it's important to me that we demonstrate to consumers that you don't have to look in a certain way.

Can you tell us about your in-house team of chemists and why they're the key to Bubble's heart?

We are the only indie brand that I know of that has a full research and development team in-house. We have two in-house chemists, three product developers and eight advising dermatologists, who are part of every product development we have. We also have over 80,000 brand ambassadors who are the heart and soul of the brand, and they're part of every decision we make. We don't formulate any products before they approve this and before it has a 90% acceptance rate by our community, and if it doesn't, we'll go and reformulate it.

We want to be a force of good in the world and create something that is truly for our customers dealing with skin concerns, instead of taking an off-shelf formula and putting it back out there.

Take Water Slide, for example, we tested over 100 different hyaluronic acid serums before we developed it. It has hyaluronic acid and peptides, and it feels like a water slide. *Shai applies Water Slide*

I want you to see the formulation and how it's packed with hydration. It's a booster. The product was developed for a long time and I couldn't be prouder. I finished one of those every week and a half to two weeks, which is kind of embarrassing, but it's such a special product. Another special product is Super Clear, which is our acne-clearing serum. I personally struggled with acne most of my life.  It's one of the only acne serums I know of that contains colloidal oatmeal to soothe the skin.

What has your experience been like as a woman in business?

We're a real indie brand, which means we don't have big private equity behind it. I'm the majority shareholder. We do have investors, but they're very early-stage investors, and it's always a struggle because the way we do things is very different to most brands - we don't work with distributors, we work and partner directly with retailers.

I think that being a woman in business, and especially somebody who looks fairly young because I use great skincare, it's always a challenge. You need to carve out your own territory. I sometimes call it climbing with your fingernails.

Let's look at the entire industry, most beauty company CEOs are men who have never used a skincare product in their life, unless it's maybe sunscreen. So many people are missing out by just viewing beauty as another profitable category. At Bubble, we focus on being a force of good in the world and that's one of the reasons why the products are so playful, it is because we want to inject joy into your morning routine.

You talk about your community a lot. How did Bubble gather its community?

The community started when I began conducting focus groups six years ago. I learnt what products consumers liked and what they were excited about. Then, the day Covid started, we created an online community. Today, it's a brand ambassador programme of over 80,000 ambassadors who are on three different platforms.

Community members are vetted when they apply to ensure we're only approving people who are kind and never practice hate speech as they're a representation of the brand. We don't care about how many followers you have. We get close to 500 applications a week and those selected can be part of the conversation, they get to try new products and give their input, including helping name the new launches. They are the heart and soul of Bubble and we don't make any decisions without them.

Bubble recently launched the Tell All Secret Juicy Lip Balm. Are you looking to expand the product range further?

I can reveal that we will be launching something very exciting, which is made for people with dryer skin types in a few weeks. We just launched Stardew, which is our hydrating eye cream. We like to call the Stardew, 'the only eye cream that actually works'. It gives you a luminous look around the eyes while deeply hydrating. I have been travelling today, so Stardew is exactly what I needed.

We always say you don't have to use an eye cream, it's not mandatory in your routine. But, if you want that extra love around the eyes, it's just the perfect product.

When was the moment you thought, 'ah we’ve made it'?

As an entrepreneur, I don't think I have. I always think, 'How can it be better?'

We've scaled so quickly, but equally, there are still so many places we need to go and so many things we need to do. For me, the core of it all is the integrity and the quality of our product, we never want to bring something to the market that is not the absolute best in its category. But there's so much more to do.

What are your plans for 2025? Are you planning to expand Bubble’s presence in the UK?

We have had an amazing first year with our retail partner Boots and there's much more that we need to do together. So, we're not looking elsewhere just yet.

We want to meet the consumer where they are. For us, it's about accessibility rather than positioning. We ask ourselves, 'how do we ensure that all of our consumers who love the brands can access it and make that special purchase?'

I like to use toothpaste as an example. When you buy toothpaste, the last thing in the world that you want is to go to a specific website or specific store to order and wait for it. That's just not an experience that you want with the day-to-day items. Equally, we want Bubble to show up where it's easiest for the customer to restock.

What does the future hold for Bubble?

Our future is about launching really exciting products, as well as continuing to grow our awareness and our brand ambassador programme in the region. For a long time, we weren't available to consumers in the UK, so we're so excited to finally be available and to continue to expand. We want to help our growing community with their skincare concerns from acne and dryness to redness.