A £500 skincare product that lasts only a month’s use has attracted a waiting list of 30,000 people, with the company’s founder admitting to being “bowled over by the reaction”.
Industry experts say the success of the product is due to it leading with science-backed messaging, which is increasingly popular among consumers, as well as backing from celebrities.
The Lyma skincare duo is £495 for a starter set, made up of a 50 ml of serum that is applied first and then 50 ml of cream. The product comes in a gold package and a refill costs £445. It is used by applying three pumps each morning and night, and lasts for about a month.
Lyma’s founder, Lucy Goff, said she has been “bowled over by the reaction”, saying the company “sold through months of commercial plans in 24 hours”.
Maddie Malone, Mintel senior beauty and personal care analyst, said its success was due to a combination of “leading with science-backed skincare messaging” . It was also co-created by an accredited plastic surgeon “who claims the product is the first to address why skin ages”. The brand has further “instilled purchase confidence ... [by] releasing results of the product’s clinical trials,” Malone added.
It also helps that Lyma has a following among A-listers. Goff says that the brand was promoted organically by celebrities who were sent products but not paid to endorse them. Lyma’s daily supplement, which retails at £199 a month, proved popular with Kim Kardashian and Kate Hudson. It then launched its £1,999 at-home laser two years later in 2020, which won over Gwyneth Paltrow.
Goff said: “[Getting endorsement like this] is fundamental to a brand’s success. Consumers today are way more clued up than ever before and you cannot just work with influencers who are pedalling multiple products everyday with hashtag ads.”
Dr Tijion Esho, an expert in aesthetic medicine, said: “There’s a psychology that if something is too cheap it’s not good and if it’s expensive it’s really good but there is a limit. Also influencer marketing plays a key role … if celeb x uses it then it must be great. But, again, post-pandemic we have seen a shift away from influencer culture when it comes to products and consumers tend to be driven by doctor led and clinical brands.”
Goff says Lyma’s customers are not just the super-wealthy but a “cross section”, mainly from the US and the UK. “Fundamentally our products have worked and, since we emerged from Covid, health and beauty is no longer considered a luxury ... It’s the way today’s consumer prioritises their money, into health and into their skin.”
While critics may question the cost and efficacy of skincare creams, Lyma says it conducted a trial led by doctors over 12 weeks for its skincare product, although it was not done using a double-blind placebo control used in the pharmaceutical industry. Results showed a 72% improvement to skin hydration and 51% firmer skin.
Millie Kendall, chief executive of the British Beauty Council, said it was not an “overnight success story” and that the brand has been “around for some time”.
“If genuinely you have a new ingredient, like for example No7’s new peptide [in their Future Renew serum] then this will create demand. The consumer will want what is technologically new and improved. Equally Lyma has a celebrity following, because as I said the supplements and device have been in circulation for some time. And then you have a well-known model like Amber Valletta as the face of the skincare.
“I think sometimes it’s like playing the slot machines in Vegas, if all the lemons line up you win the jackpot.”
