Online beauty products startups have been blooming around this year. Not too long ago, we talked to the founder of Deeper Than Fashion who started a new line of homemade goodies named Deeper Than Beauty, and just recently we reached out to Daughter Earth to get to know more about the benefits of essential oils. On helping consumers to embark on this healthy skin journey, another online beauty startup has grabbed our attention, Dirty Benefits.
Get Dirty With Me
Launched in early July, Dirty Benefits described themselves as “an all-natural skincare brand created for the bold and adventurous”. As the name suggests, the essence of their brand is created for people who don’t mind getting their hands a little dirty to achieve great results for their skin.
“The name was a deliberate decision on our end. It’s slightly suggestive and a paradox (associating something “negative”—Dirty, to something “positive”—Benefits), said the 27-year-old co-founder of Dirty Benefits, Eliza Lee.
Many working professionals must have dreamt of starting their own business at some point. Some people chose to take up the challenge as they do not want to work for others, for Eliza, she was looking to create something dedicated to the female audience.
She told Vulcan Post, “My partners Denise and Samantha are great, creative, entrepreneurial people too and we were looking for something fun and feminine to start together. We are also very much into skincare and apart from that, are inspired by all things creative.”
Benefits From Dirty Benefits
Currently, Dirty Benefits sells two different coffee scrubs, Classic Obsession Coffee Scrub and Coconut Confessions Coffee Scrub, set at a standard price of RM69 with free delivery within Malaysia.
In terms of ingredients, the team uses 100% Arabica Ground Coffee for their scrubs. They also have their own in-house production team, but Eliza said that in the future they want to move their manufacturing and operations overseas.
Before Dirty Benefits launched their product, Eliza and her team decided to go with coffee scrubs as their pioneering product simply because they tested it and they loved the result.”We use it around 2-3 times a week. I personally really love it and how it makes my skin feel,” Eliza shared.
“We decided to start out with coffee scrubs ’cause we really believe in it and its potential. However, it was never in our plans to stick with just scrubs or just coffee skincare. We are really looking forward to extending our skincare line and launching more variety in the future!”
Currently the core product of Dirty Benefits is coffee scrubs, however Eliza said that the team already have some ideas in the pipeline for product extension, at the same time, they hope to be a brand that stays true to what they believe in—to ‘get our hands a little dirty’ to achieve what we want.
If you are interested in getting dirty to have clear and healthy skin, head over to Dirty Benefits’ official website or check out their Facebook page.
From Fashion To Beauty Products
If the name Eliza Lee rings a bell, that is because she is one of founders of Phat Culture, an online boutique catering fashion goods from clothing to accessories such as shoes, bags, and other fashion necessities.
When Eliza first started Phat Culture few years ago, she described that she and her partner played it safe for most of their decisions and they didn’t quite take the bigger risks when they could. The reasons being they were both relatively inexperienced as they were both still college students at that time.
“We were hungry, but not too aggressive, which has allowed room for penetration of tons of competition in an already-competitive online fashion industry,” said Eliza. Therefore with Dirty Benefits, they are now open to new risks, challenges, and opportunity, and decided to avoid being safe.
Juggling different startups at the moment, Eliza personally doesn’t consider anything full-time or part-time because she treats every business with equal importance. Based on her experience, Eliza shared with us two misconceptions of being a female entrepreneur in attempt to expose some of the myths in the industry.
#1 Many great women entrepreneurs are made through nurture, and not nature.
“Most people think that entrepreneurship is something that you’re born with and a lot of girls (and also men) I know don’t think they have it in them to be a full-on entrepreneur. I don’t believe in this as I really believe entrepreneurship is a lifestyle choice and a deliberate decision to do something different—and something you really believe in—throughout your lifetime.”
#2 Entrepreneurship consists of a lot of hard work, and juggling long hours in the whole process of building something from ground up.
“A lot of friends think I have a lot of freedom when it comes to my work, but that is not true. Sure, there may be less scrutiny from a ‘boss’ but you need to be the one that both motivates yourself, and your partners, team, etc.”
All images are credited to Eliza Lee.