HAMPTON, N.B. — After years of working for a significant magnificence model in Paris and New York, Julie Chamberlain helps construct one out of her dwelling in Hampton.
Chamberlain is the overall supervisor of Sweet Spot Labs, an organization that focuses on skincare and wellness merchandise for the pores and skin under the neck, extra particularly, under the belt.
The firm, which was initially based in 2003 by a lady named Shari Creed, was acquired in 2014 by Halifax-headquartered Skinfix, a skincare firm that’s at the moment exploding at magnificence retail big Sephora. But whereas Skinfix merchandise predominately concentrate on the face, Sweet Spot Labs create targeted on girls’s intimate pores and skin well being.
“We actually exist to serve intimate pores and skin well being for all girls at all ages and stage,” says Chamberlain. “We do this in comparable philosophy to Skinfix in that we actually consider in designing merchandise with a better normal which might be past clear, and with components which might be clinically lively at clinically lively ranges and examined and authorised by dermatologists and gynecologists.”
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Chamberlain joined the corporate again in November 2020, when Skinfix CEO Amy Gordinier reached out to her about main the model. But earlier than that, the Bathurst native had labored with magnificence big L’Oréal from its workplaces in each Canada, New York and Paris. But after her first two youngsters have been born, she began to overlook the tempo of lifetime of the Maritimes.
I really like my profession, I really like magnificence, I really like girls, I really like constructing manufacturers and working companies,” says Chamberlain. “But I additionally love my dwelling and the way I used to be raised and the way I may essentially get that candy spot, which I ended up doing, however it took some time to get there.”
In 2016 Chamberlain left L’Oréal and moved together with her household again to New Brunswick. Shortly after, she took on a undertaking function at Irving Oil as a senior model strategist, a possibility that got here not lengthy after assembly Irving Oil govt vice-president and chief model officer Sara Irving in New York whereas she was nonetheless working for L’Oréal.
“I cherished working with Sarah,” says Chamberlain. “I discovered I tonne from her as a pacesetter but additionally about model constructing from inside out, which was one thing I hadn’t actually carried out at L’Oréal as a result of it was actually a faculty of product advertising and marketing.”
After the undertaking at Irving Oil wrapped up, Chamberlain realized she missed working in shopper items. She went again to work for L’Oréal in Montreal, however as soon as once more realized how a lot she wished to be dwelling. After assembly the executives at Moncton-based hashish producer Organigram, she noticed one other likelihood. In 2019 she joined the corporate as its govt vice-president of promoting.
“I cherished the whole lot about it. It completely confirmed for me that I used to be truly fairly entrepreneurial, which was a doubt I had working at a legacy model for therefore lengthy,” she says. “Even if their tradition is entrepreneurial, that’s one factor. But truly constructing one thing is kind of one other and that was wonderful.”
It was a 12 months and a half working at Organigram when she bought the decision from Gordinier, who she met on the similar convention the place she met Sarah Irving. Gordinier was on the lookout for somebody to guide the expansion of Sweet Spot Labs, which the corporate bought in 2014, however didn’t have devoted management for up till that time. As common supervisor, Chamberlain may as soon as once more work within the trade she cherished, assist develop a model, all of the whereas doing it from her dwelling in Hampton.
Obviously, she stated sure.
“I felt like I used to be working not away from one thing, however in direction of one thing. It was extra what I had confirmed that I cherished at Organigram however even higher suited … and I may do it from dwelling just about,” says Chamberlain. “So it was a ‘Hell sure.’”
Sweet Spot Labs merchandise. Image: Submitted.
Sweet Spot Labs creates merchandise that concentrate on girls’s intimate well being (although some merchandise, like Gentle Wash, can be utilized all around the physique).
Its product line contains washes, wipes, serums, exfoliators, moisturizers and balms, all utilizing components which might be each secure and helpful for the pores and skin round intimate areas.
Their merchandise assist deal with points equivalent to vulvar dryness, ingrown hairs, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation and different kinds of pores and skin irritations that may affect that space.
“We actually consider within the emotional connection between wholesome pores and skin and a wholesome spirit. and that pores and skin well being doesn’t cease on the neck. It follows very a lot the philosophy of Skinfix in eager to deal with compromised pores and skin to deliver it again to a state of wellness and maintain it there,” says Chamberlain.
“But our model of that’s that it’s under the neck and we actually consider that each one pores and skin wants and deserves to be cared for even when others don’t see as a result of there are actual points down there.”
Right now Sweet Spot Labs merchandise are offered on-line by its web site, Amazon and Well.ca. It’s additionally carried at Ulta within the United Stated and Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada.
Since becoming a member of the corporate in November, Chamberlain says the corporate is targeted on accelerating its e-commerce presence on each its web site and Amazon. It additionally desires to cement its relationship with Ulta within the United States, the place it’s certainly one of few manufacturers in its class.
“We’re certainly one of solely three manufacturers that they invested thus far to be a part of this wellness class for them. They’re going to be additional creating that over the following couple of years,” says Chamberlian. “So it’s actually our alternative to go to market with the primary actual built-in advertising and marketing marketing campaign the model has carried out as a way to drive to [point of sale] to make {that a} success with Ulta and set up ourselves as a class chief.”
Meanwhile, Chamberlain shall be doing all this from her Hampton dwelling, the place she remotely works together with her staff that’s scattered throughout Canada (together with the Atlantic Region) and the United States.
“I’m so grateful for that. I’ve three younger youngsters and it actually helps me reside in my very own candy spot and thrive and really feel like I can do large issues, however then get on my bike and go to Kedl’s for ice cream with the children,” she says.
“There actually is nothing higher than that. I don’t really feel in any respect that I sacrifice something for it.”
Though some corporations like Sweet Spot Labs and its dad or mum firm SkinFix had all the time supplied alternatives to work remotely, the Covid-19 pandemic has proven that a whole lot of jobs might be carried out from wherever. Chamberlain hopes that each her journey and Sweet Spot Labs can present folks and companies that it’s potential to do large issues from wherever.
“I hope Sweet Spot Labs and I are an instance for them to say you don’t have to decide on either-or. It might be ‘and’,” she says. “You can have a satisfying, strategic, large profession and reside someplace that aligns together with your values. It doesn’t should be one or the opposite. I feel there isn’t a time higher than now.”
