Speaker 1: Beyond the Beauty is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Bobby Brown. So anyone that knows me
Speaker 1: knows I tell the truth, knows I'm very authentic and
Speaker 1: when I like something, I can't stop sharing it. And
Speaker 1: I have been talking about Dr august stein Bader. I
Speaker 1: have tried so hard to get this name done. It's
Speaker 1: this cream in a bottle that's from a German scientist
Speaker 1: and his partner who's a French investor, and it's incredible.
Speaker 1: I've heard about it through celebrities, I've heard about it
Speaker 1: through editors, but not until I actually tried it did I,
Speaker 1: you know, really fall in love with it. Even my
Speaker 1: future daughter in laws, who are thirty, say it's the
Speaker 1: best thing they've ever used on their on their skin.
Speaker 1: So I'm really excited about talking to Charles because it
Speaker 1: is an amazing product, an amazing idea, and I just
Speaker 1: want to understand what the company is about. Here's my
Speaker 1: conversation with Charles Rosier. So, Charles, I'm so excited to
Speaker 1: finally meet you. I can't believe we have never actually
Speaker 1: even done a zoom together. That's true, that's true. We
Speaker 1: had done install room dialogues email text emails, text, It's true,
Speaker 1: I feel like I know you though, same, same, same.
Speaker 1: It's been one of those weird, weird friendships. So where
Speaker 1: where are you right now? I'm in Paris right now,
Speaker 1: And how is it? Listen? We have officially is curpew
Speaker 1: at six. We authorized to work, to eat, to sleep
Speaker 1: and then go again. But no no social life whatsoever,
Speaker 1: no restaurants open. It is what it is. I was
Speaker 1: more optimistic about two one, but I guess we are.
Speaker 1: We're all in the same boat. We are are. But
Speaker 1: since we're here talking about your business, it's kind of
Speaker 1: crazy how your business is flourishing during this pandemic. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we happened to be on a on a
Speaker 1: sector that seems to maybe due to those zoom school
Speaker 1: you know, we we still want to look hydrated, having
Speaker 1: skin moist. I guess the skin care sector has been
Speaker 1: a little bit privileged compared to two others. So so
Speaker 1: that's that's one of the privilege of that pandemic is
Speaker 1: that we've been busy. So time is flying, which is
Speaker 1: good and and and one of my biggest problems is
Speaker 1: anyone that follows me knows how much I love this product.
Speaker 1: I have such trouble pronouncing the good doctor's name. So
Speaker 1: if you can help me, please, because David laughs at
Speaker 1: me all the time pronounced the name of this company,
Speaker 1: so I would pronounce it Augustine's batter. That's that's my way.
Speaker 1: But I'm French again, so you know it's German. So
Speaker 1: I guess everyone you know it's good. Everyone can take
Speaker 1: ownership of the way to pronounce it. So Augustus, Augustin,
Speaker 1: Augustine News, Augustine News, butter, yes, and the American way
Speaker 1: we call it a b or Augustine better. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It's what matters. And I'm I'm not someone I don't
Speaker 1: get paid a penny. I absolutely believe this product has
Speaker 1: changed my skin. I will never use anything else, and
Speaker 1: it's it's remarkable. Thank you so much. No, but it
Speaker 1: means means a lot to us because again, you know,
Speaker 1: coming from industry experts, it carries some way because obviously
Speaker 1: you have tried and you're trying, and you, I mean,
Speaker 1: you get gifted a lot of products to try. So
Speaker 1: for us, it's an endorsement coming from someone like you,
Speaker 1: is is big because that that's again a testimonial that
Speaker 1: the concept which was kind of translated Agustin's research into
Speaker 1: a skink care product worked, you know, because it was
Speaker 1: a nice concept, but it could have failed. Right. Well, well,
Speaker 1: let's talk a bit about your story and how you
Speaker 1: even met the good doctor and started this company, because
Speaker 1: you're not from the beauty space. No, neither him, nor
Speaker 1: nor nor me. Absolutely no. We we met through a
Speaker 1: common friend who is passionated about stem cells science. And
Speaker 1: he he used to be, you know, he used to
Speaker 1: be the kind of group of Steve Jobs at Rid College.
Speaker 1: He that comment from Robert Finland. He used to he
Speaker 1: was actually the guy who taught him yoga and brought
Speaker 1: him to India. So and he was part of that
Speaker 1: same hippique community. And he became, like Steve Jobs, a
Speaker 1: self made billionaire. And and he's based out of Singapore,
Speaker 1: travels a lot, you know, like three continents in the
Speaker 1: same week. So he didn't want to, you know, to
Speaker 1: suffer from jet lag. He wanted to stay young and
Speaker 1: healthy and was very interested into the stem cells science
Speaker 1: in in that kind of anti aging implications. And he
Speaker 1: introduced me Agustiness one day, telling me he was the
Speaker 1: best brain to day in stem cell research. And because
Speaker 1: he was himself so obsessed about that sector, and he
Speaker 1: was a very demanding character. He's very similar to the
Speaker 1: personator you can imagine of Steve Jobs. So his endorsement
Speaker 1: meant a lot to me. I thought, wow, so if
Speaker 1: he's saying that, that's probably true. And I took really
Speaker 1: his word very seriously and philanthropically. I was funding the
Speaker 1: research of a French professor called e tenemibou And and
Speaker 1: he was basically very advanced on research on trying to
Speaker 1: find a soution for spinal cold injury. And so I
Speaker 1: stayed in touch with Augustineis for the stem cell implication
Speaker 1: of spinal cold injury treatment because my professor I was
Speaker 1: founding in France had another approach um and I wanted
Speaker 1: to put them in contact and keep the dialogue. And
Speaker 1: I visited Augustus in Leipzig, because you know he's the
Speaker 1: still today the head of the stem seve research at
Speaker 1: the University of Leipzig in Germany. Cluse to Berlin and
Speaker 1: he showed me the picture of a four year old
Speaker 1: girl that was burned second third degree and was scheduled
Speaker 1: for skin graft and after four days after applying a
Speaker 1: wound jail he created in two thousand and eight, the
Speaker 1: skin of that of that child started to heal and
Speaker 1: after two weeks it was like visible. And so, to
Speaker 1: cut a long story short, she didn't have to go
Speaker 1: through skin graft and she didn't have to any scarring
Speaker 1: after just a few months. And I was shocked by
Speaker 1: the fact that such a treatment existed and the public
Speaker 1: was not aware. I thought, you know, this is so
Speaker 1: incredible because obviously burned child, they have to sometimes be
Speaker 1: reoperated up to ten times as they grow, they have
Speaker 1: to reopen the scar so you have the psychological trauma
Speaker 1: and the pain, but avoiding scarring is actually huge in
Speaker 1: terms of consequences, and obviously such a that can have
Speaker 1: you know, a big impact on in war zone, for
Speaker 1: the Red Cross, even for every I guess mother going
Speaker 1: with their children on holidays. And so I was really
Speaker 1: again shocked that that was created, that that did you know,
Speaker 1: existed and seemed to work, and the pictures were there
Speaker 1: to show that it worked. And I discussed with another
Speaker 1: professor that has been collaborating with Augustinus and and treating
Speaker 1: more than fifty patients on different types of wounds and burns,
Speaker 1: and confirmed that in every single case, it worked, and
Speaker 1: because I helped that other professor, I did not have
Speaker 1: any liquidity to help Agustinus. And my mind was saying, okay,
Speaker 1: but how can we help that guy get that research out,
Speaker 1: you know, because as a university professor, he didn't have
Speaker 1: the fancial means to fund it. And apparently, as he
Speaker 1: told me that day, from a city group, because half
Speaker 1: of humanity used fire to cook and get hitting. But
Speaker 1: it's in developing countries, and therefore burn accidents are in
Speaker 1: major every in developing countries. So it's not that interesting
Speaker 1: to fund the research of someone on burns because it's
Speaker 1: not such a big thing in developing countries. I mean,
Speaker 1: thankfully it's not just big things in developing countries, but
Speaker 1: but it's so unfortunate that in seeing the risk reward
Speaker 1: for pharmastical group to be so interesting, and therefore my
Speaker 1: mind was, okay, burn skin to perfect skin, so I thought,
Speaker 1: wrinkle to perfect skin, and that he was during a dinner.
Speaker 1: So at the end of the dinner, I very candidly
Speaker 1: asked him if you could do an anti recal cream
Speaker 1: that worked, and he said yes, why And it took
Speaker 1: me two years for him to take that idea seriously,
Speaker 1: So what experience did you have to say I can
Speaker 1: do this and this could be something. I mean, talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about your career beforehand. I mean the
Speaker 1: number one quality I had is I was a naive.
Speaker 1: I was totally enthusiastic by by the concept and I
Speaker 1: was hardcore believer and I went all in and I
Speaker 1: stopped everything I was doing. I had a flat in
Speaker 1: London that I sold to find the beginning of it,
Speaker 1: and all my savings from twenty years were putting the project,
Speaker 1: and everyone around me thought I was completely crazy, and
Speaker 1: I was convinced it would work, not having even a
Speaker 1: prototype in the hand. So that, yeah, that's so so
Speaker 1: naive was was the word. Um No. I had the
Speaker 1: past as a as an investor, I was, I was
Speaker 1: a partner and I worked at women Sacks. I worked
Speaker 1: in a Brasidan investment bank as a partner. So but again,
Speaker 1: nothing really prepared me to be an entrepreneur. But but
Speaker 1: when when I was about to study at university, I
Speaker 1: was passionate about medicine. So in some ways that project
Speaker 1: reconciled too of my passion because I had the dream
Speaker 1: to be an entrepreneur one day and I always was
Speaker 1: fascinated by biology and how the human body was working.
Speaker 1: And suddenly I had a project that reconciled the fact
Speaker 1: of being an entrepreneur and dealing every day with great
Speaker 1: minds in the medical field. Because Augustinus and his colleagues
Speaker 1: are just genius, and they are genius about how marvelous
Speaker 1: is the body as a machine, because everything about obviously
Speaker 1: this discovery is really about the inner doctor, because it's
Speaker 1: about triggering your own stem cells to work and not
Speaker 1: actually manipulating or cultivating stem cells and injecting them from outside.
Speaker 1: It's really about, you know, empowering your body to works
Speaker 1: at its best. So I was crazy naive according to
Speaker 1: my entourage with hand side, I think they were right,
Speaker 1: and luckily I did not listen to anyone and I
Speaker 1: was crazy enough to go for it. And I guess
Speaker 1: a little bit of you know, mix of luck and
Speaker 1: hard work. And obviously, the the invention of agushness is
Speaker 1: amazing because, as you said, if the cream didn't work,
Speaker 1: it would not be a fan the only reason that's
Speaker 1: also something fair to recognize that the product is amazing.
Speaker 1: And did the doctor need convincing to go into the
Speaker 1: beauty industry like yeah, absolutely, I mean I think he had.
Speaker 1: I think he never used himself like a scheme are
Speaker 1: beauty cream, and his wife is a doctor and probably
Speaker 1: never used one either, So I I really think they
Speaker 1: did not understand the concept of financing a medical project,
Speaker 1: a research project with a skincare product, because they had
Speaker 1: no idea of you know, the dynamics and the demand
Speaker 1: for this type of product in this type of industry.
Speaker 1: So I really per severed and went back and went back.
Speaker 1: But but the last time, at the time I decided,
Speaker 1: this is really the last time I go there. I
Speaker 1: very bluntly told that since I said, listen, if we
Speaker 1: would have studied two years ago, we would probably have
Speaker 1: a product in the market today. So what is holding
Speaker 1: you back? Because I was again offering to provide you know,
Speaker 1: the financing, the structuring, putting the team together, etcetera. And
Speaker 1: so there was no kind of risk according to me,
Speaker 1: to to him, a part of course wasting a bit
Speaker 1: of time, which is which is relevant risk. And that
Speaker 1: day when I was really about to it up, he
Speaker 1: kind of confessed to me that in the last three
Speaker 1: months he was giving to his patience prototype of the cream,
Speaker 1: and that those patients after one month, instead of calling
Speaker 1: him back to talk about their treatment and how they felt,
Speaker 1: they were calling him back to have another cream. And
Speaker 1: so in a very candid as well, and since your wig,
Speaker 1: he said, you know what, people seems happy about that cream,
Speaker 1: so let's do it. And it was really like that.
Speaker 1: It was really get people seems to enjoy it, So
Speaker 1: let's let's do it. And that's how it started. So
Speaker 1: I don't know how much of the story is in
Speaker 1: your marketing of the product, because I think most people
Speaker 1: see this beautiful bottle, this very high price point, and
Speaker 1: they hear celebrities like it, they hear all sorts of things.
Speaker 1: So do you have a strategy in your marketing, like
Speaker 1: is this something that you talk about telling the story
Speaker 1: or is it more just this beautiful blue bottle with
Speaker 1: this magic dream. Personally, when when I try to to
Speaker 1: share that story, I show I show the picture of
Speaker 1: that of that little girl, that four year old girl,
Speaker 1: and that's enough convincing about you know the project. Now
Speaker 1: when it comes to communication to the outside world, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a debate I'm having with the team all the time,
Speaker 1: and I keep telling the team, we need to go
Speaker 1: back to science, you know, we launched in much two
Speaker 1: thousand and eighteen, so that we're very new brand, we're
Speaker 1: very recent brand, and and therefore our story becomes what
Speaker 1: people make out of it because we don't have As
Speaker 1: you know, you've been part of a big group. You
Speaker 1: were collaborating with this the order at some point in
Speaker 1: your life, and those guys have incredible means, financial means
Speaker 1: when it comes to marketing. When you're an entrepreneur like
Speaker 1: you are today and I am today, you hustle with
Speaker 1: the financial means you have, which are completely different than
Speaker 1: those guys, than the big groups. And therefore, the celebrity
Speaker 1: endorsement was to us an incredible tool, as well as
Speaker 1: the journalist endorsement, like the beauty journalists who try the
Speaker 1: cream and then put black and white their own experience
Speaker 1: with the cream and endorsed it. It was this kind
Speaker 1: of you know, cross references of journalists and awards and celebrities, etcetera.
Speaker 1: I don't think what I've discovered is I think for
Speaker 1: a premium product, people need to understand the reason why
Speaker 1: to buy, it's not enough. Celebrities are not enough. They
Speaker 1: might be enough for a ten year, ten dollar limbo,
Speaker 1: but they're not enough to buy a moisturizer that is
Speaker 1: supposed to have an impact on the health of your skin.
Speaker 1: I agree with you because it's your. The true story,
Speaker 1: the authentic story, is your point of difference. It's your
Speaker 1: above everyone else. You know, it's not just here's another cream.
Speaker 1: So did you launch with one product? Yes, so we
Speaker 1: launched with one product and to texture, you know, the
Speaker 1: rich texture, the lighter texture, and and that was you know,
Speaker 1: out of like I guess, we have now nearly three
Speaker 1: years of life. I'm out of those three years of life.
Speaker 1: Nearly two years was just with those like two creams,
Speaker 1: the rich cream and the creat You're you're expanding like crazy,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about. But the out of the cream
Speaker 1: and the rich cream, which one out cells because I
Speaker 1: know my favorite, Yeah, the rich cream out sails the
Speaker 1: cream globally. But but again, you know, it's like it's
Speaker 1: like I guess, colors and preference depending on your skin texture.
Speaker 1: You know, one could think that the cream could be
Speaker 1: used the day on the rich cream at night. I
Speaker 1: guess it's a combination of that and the climate for
Speaker 1: example in l a is very dry and the winter
Speaker 1: in New York is very dry too. Now I I
Speaker 1: think I heard the rumor, has it that you're in Florida.
Speaker 1: I guess in Florida. Maybe the cream during the day
Speaker 1: is more relevant than the rich I don't know. You know,
Speaker 1: I love the rich cream just because I'm very dry,
Speaker 1: and I think I told you this. I really swear
Speaker 1: that my eyebrows have grown in because of it. Have
Speaker 1: you tried it for hair growth? So yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's something we're thinking about. Yeah, because the science behind
Speaker 1: you know, again, nourishing the environment of your of yourselves
Speaker 1: so that they work at their best. That philosophy works
Speaker 1: for your skin, but it does work as well for
Speaker 1: your hair. So you know, hellos is multi factorial. It
Speaker 1: can be linked to hormone stress and sterrustle. It's um
Speaker 1: it's a complex issue, but I think we do have
Speaker 1: a potential to contribute positively to that that issue. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's very exciting. So tell me about your pipeline, because
Speaker 1: you started with these two amazing products, and now how
Speaker 1: many sks do you have? So I'm not even totally sure,
Speaker 1: but I guess around nine something like that. Must be
Speaker 1: around nine, maybe between eight to ten. I'm guessing that's it.
Speaker 1: It seems like more you think. So we have the
Speaker 1: hand cream, the moisturize, is the body cream, body lotion,
Speaker 1: body oil, face oil, cleansing, bol cream cleansing, gael expoliating, torner,
Speaker 1: all the essence. So we are at nine. So if
Speaker 1: we consider that the cream that have to texture, we
Speaker 1: are ten. I guess we have launched certainly a lot
Speaker 1: of products this last here two thousand twenty between July
Speaker 1: and September. And the reality is it's not that we
Speaker 1: suddenly wanted another Nuncher of product. Is that some products
Speaker 1: that were supposed to launch in February got delayed. I mean,
Speaker 1: we all had to reinvent ourselves due due to the pandemic.
Speaker 1: And you know, some of our suppliers are were based
Speaker 1: in Italy, and you know Italy was hit very hard
Speaker 1: from the beginning. So so it's not that we certainly
Speaker 1: wanted to create this concept that we were going from
Speaker 1: two to three products to to ten in the space
Speaker 1: of you know, four months. It's just that we don't
Speaker 1: have such a corporate planning, you know. We we we
Speaker 1: have Augustinus and the New Product Team, etcetera working on
Speaker 1: the formula and then and and we work on different
Speaker 1: projects that we think from from talking to the consumers
Speaker 1: will receive feedback, you know, the same way when we
Speaker 1: release the face cream, people were saying, oh, I love
Speaker 1: what I see on my face. Can I have that
Speaker 1: the same for my body? So we decided to do
Speaker 1: the body cream. And but but we don't kind of
Speaker 1: planet a precise data where to launch, depending on the
Speaker 1: strategy of season or whether it's like when something is ready,
Speaker 1: we get it out. And I know it can seem
Speaker 1: a little bit unconventional in some ways, but but why not.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, the main criteria for
Speaker 1: us is that the product match our standard. And I
Speaker 1: think if we're true to that, if we're true believers
Speaker 1: that the product are special and they add something, then
Speaker 1: then the day they are ready, they should be there.
Speaker 1: They should be they should be proposed to the to
Speaker 1: the consumer. And by the way, it's the new way
Speaker 1: of doing business. So you are doing not you know,
Speaker 1: you're not doing things traditionally. You don't want to be
Speaker 1: doing that. That's like that it's a beast that you
Speaker 1: could never change. I think you're on the sweet spot.
Speaker 1: I think you're exactly where you should be. How do
Speaker 1: you take care of yourself? What is your what is
Speaker 1: your self care routine? I mean, I speak to so
Speaker 1: many women, I don't speak to that many guys, so
Speaker 1: I'm just curious. No, I've tried. I just like many
Speaker 1: people during the pandemic, I've tried to I've tried to
Speaker 1: do sports like I've tried to impose on myself. When
Speaker 1: I was waking up in the morning the first phase
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, when we had confinement in Paris, we
Speaker 1: actually had something very weird. We had three months of
Speaker 1: good weather in a rule in Paris from March to June.
Speaker 1: And I was born in Paris, and so I've been
Speaker 1: there for quite a few years now and I've never
Speaker 1: seen that. And I'm lucky enough that i have a
Speaker 1: little bit of outdoor space. So I was every morning
Speaker 1: outdoor one hour, you know, enjoying a bit of sun.
Speaker 1: I know it's not very good for the skin officially,
Speaker 1: but I like enjoying the sun. And that's that's where
Speaker 1: my I which is better, helps me and repair a
Speaker 1: little bit of damage I do. But that damage, it's
Speaker 1: vitamin D and I agree, I agree, And I'm in
Speaker 1: the A lot of SPF. A lot of SPF are
Speaker 1: chemicals and we need to be careful about those chemical
Speaker 1: SPF two. Um. So yeah, so I've been I've been
Speaker 1: kind of discipline about doing sports, and I like, I mean,
Speaker 1: usually I'd rather do sports like swimming and being the ocean.
Speaker 1: But obviously being in Paris, I still I was disciplined
Speaker 1: in that, and I guess it helped me, you know.
Speaker 1: And as I said, I think we were very privileged
Speaker 1: to be busy. You know, we were in a phase
Speaker 1: of problem solving. We wanted to contribute as well for
Speaker 1: the pandemic, so we which changed the production to create
Speaker 1: the hand treatment and to gift as well to to
Speaker 1: hospitals and frontliners the sanitizers, and so we went onto
Speaker 1: those kind of getting busy, and actually getting busy just
Speaker 1: gets through through the day because, as you know, some
Speaker 1: of the people they're based in New York. So waking
Speaker 1: up in Paris, I had my kind of morning, a
Speaker 1: little bit free to do their sports. But then come
Speaker 1: to p M, my time the video called kicks in
Speaker 1: and that was still till dinner time, non stop. And
Speaker 1: again I feel blessed about that because I think for
Speaker 1: a lot of people that unfortunately and sadly lost their job,
Speaker 1: the pandemic was probably harder because you know, the time,
Speaker 1: more anxiety, more worries about the future. But every day
Speaker 1: I guess and and also more time to think about it,
Speaker 1: and so I think that was part as well. You know,
Speaker 1: being busy was also part of the of the self
Speaker 1: care routine. Okay, now I have a speed round for you,
Speaker 1: and these are the same questions I asked everybody. First
Speaker 1: of all, what does beauty mean to you? What is
Speaker 1: beauty mean to me? Energy? That's a good one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a really good one. What's your personal daily skincare routine?
Speaker 1: It's been a big thing up in the in the
Speaker 1: last three months, as you know, you know, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: convinced about our products, so I add them to my routine.
Speaker 1: So Sarah steps, Yeah, what are your steps? So I do?
Speaker 1: I do cleanser, face, soil cream during the day and
Speaker 1: uh and I'm done, and then the same with maybe
Speaker 1: a return for night. And how about the last TV
Speaker 1: show or movie you binged or the Queen's Gambit? Loved it?
Speaker 1: Yeah it was, it was so good. And now you're
Speaker 1: in Paris. What have you eaten today? Actually? Tight food? Yeah,
Speaker 1: very good, tight food. I love spicy food. And it's
Speaker 1: healthy food too, you know, I try with influence, so
Speaker 1: rich new stuff, tried to with vegetables of tried, I
Speaker 1: don't know. When I'm in Paris, it's bread and cheese.
Speaker 1: But okay, um, I know, I know, I know that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what is your favorite cocktail recently because I've been to
Speaker 1: Mexico recently on the holidays, mescalita because I've heard that
Speaker 1: mescal is not so processed. So I'm kind of again
Speaker 1: trying to be healthy while while being an alcoholic. No, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I believe in that. And what are you most What
Speaker 1: is Charles most looking forward to in two thousand and
Speaker 1: twenty one? I, I mean, I, like all of us,
Speaker 1: I guess the end of the end of the pandemic
Speaker 1: because the end of you know, worrying about the our
Speaker 1: loved ones, the end of seeing people losing their jobs,
Speaker 1: and you know, anxiety everywhere. We all want that kind
Speaker 1: of me to be over for so many reasons. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, congratulations and everything you've done, You've only started.
Speaker 1: I know the brand is one of the fastest growing
Speaker 1: skincare brands. By the way, I hear that your online
Speaker 1: searches have jumped from five thousand to forty thousand, like
Speaker 1: it's happening. You keep saying you're a small little brand,
Speaker 1: no one knows about you. It's happening. So enjoy the journey.
Speaker 1: And I'm really excited I get to be I'm how
Speaker 1: part of it. So nice to meet you, and so
Speaker 1: and so great to talk to you, and thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you big. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.