The launch of Ulé in early May marked the culmination of a two-year collaboration between our agency and the Shiseido Group. Rooted in innovation and transparency, Ulé is a truly ground-breaking new beauty brand.
“The goal of the brand is to respond to the growing concerns of consumers who are looking for more transparency from the industry as well as a prioritization of nature that integrates mindful technology to ensure uncompromising performance and safety,” explains Lindsay Azpitarte, Founder of Ulé. “With Ulé, the Shiseido Group is pioneering a new vision of beauty: reasoned beauty.”
1/ Born of an intrapreneurial mindset
The project was created in the spirit of “intrapreneurship” – a core team sitting within the Shiseido Group, guided and assisted by a blend of in-house and outside experts selected by the Creator Lindsay Azpitarte and Marketing Director Sandrine Henrie. The agency’s Leila Rochet brought her expertise in innovation, and was joined by formulation specialist Frederic Burtin, ethno-botanist Patrice André and nutritionist Beatrice de Reynal. This core team was also supported by the Shiseido structure, led by Christophe Hadjur, which oversaw the regulatory and manufacturing aspects of the launch.
The resulting brand structure marries the agility and ingenuity of a start-up with all the regulatory tools and testing processes of a 150-year old business.
2/ The vertical farming future
With transparency a driving motivation for Lindsay, finding a new way to bring potent, local ingredients to the formulation was key. Instead of sourcing from the other side of the world, usually in dry format, the scientists and experts worked on creating extracts cultivated in a vertical farm in the center of Paris. Working alongside urban agriculture start-up Tower Farm, Ulé is able to harvest plants at their maximum potency, using the whole plant - leaf to root - in the process. This partnership ensures 100% traceable plants and 100% fresh extracts.
“With our indoor method, we can recreate a new land where the plant is preserved and avoids stress, like it's wrapped in cotton wool. This allows the true nature of the plant to be revealed and also gives us access to molecular profiles that have never been worked on before. We can be extremely innovative, even working with recognised plants," explains Patrice André, Ethnobotanist for Ulé.
Ulé has created an eco-venient local solution using less land and less water. Smart technology creates the perfect environmental conditions for every plant - 19 individual factors are monitored 24/7.
3/ Three complementary plants
Potent Ayurvedic plants that have been used since ancient times were selected for their synergistic effect on skin resilience; Coleus for protection, Centella for regeneration and Tulsi to destress. Combined, these plants represent the trifecta of botanical beauty.
4/ A unique method of extraction
The process of creating Ulé’s powerful botanic blend begins just 150km from the farm. The cold extraction method is inspired by age-old techniques and begins with extracting the water of the plant to create a concentrated extract, followed by the slow maceration of the plant to derive a pure botany tincture. This proprietary method has been developed by scientists to create the most potent extract of the three plants, which are at the core of all the serum formulas (at 55%).
5/ Positive vision of resilience
Ulé is a lifestyle brand that believes that beautiful skin is resilient, able to maintain its vitality and gracefully adapt to the changing world around it. The brand is infused with positivity and liveliness, approaching the botanical and sustainability space with zeal. Nature is respected, allowing users to find their joie de vivre.
This lightness is reflected throughout the brand’s narrative - product names are a twist of French and English such as Joie de Youth, Oh la Plump, Tout est Clear, and Avoir It All. Playful semantics are of course balanced with a rigorous dedication to efficiency; products are supplemented with peptides, hyaluronic acid, pre-pro-post biotics, and even CBD. And the brand supports its vision with skin, gender and age-inclusive visuals - every product has been tested on all tones of beauty phototypes..
6/ Keeping a sustainable mindset
True to Lindsay’s original vision, Ulé is built on the spirit of radical traceability. It is a rigorously local brand - 84% of ingredients are sourced in France, 96% of which are of minimum natural origin. Products are packaged in ultra-light glass bottles, bio-sourced Sudapac lids and printed with eco-responsible lacquers. With its laser focus on traceability and provenance, Ulé has developed products that travel just 340 km from seed to bottle.
CIC’s Take:
Tomorrow’s brands cannot succeed without a sustainably-minded approach - work on the concept of Conscious Beauty before even working on the project itself.
"I think that we should aim for 'reasoned beauty', i.e. acting transparently and consciously, realizing the impact of our actions. Innovation can no longer be just about performance and pleasure, it must also be accompanied by a holistic approach to improvement, and a more respectful attitude towards the skin, nature, the environment and towards people."
Leila Rochet, Chief Innovation Officer, Cosmetics Inspiration & Creation