and body lotion in two signature scents, sea salt and santal, which sold out within 72 hours.  “We’ve started with an essentials range, but we have more and more in the performance, skin elasticity, innovation space coming because as a category, body was just so underdeveloped,” Gilbert told Inside Retail. “Bronte really is the beginning of what we consider a performance brand,” she added.  Proudly Australian  The co-founders have set out to transform both the category and consumers’ daily rituals with an elevated offering that they couldn’t find on the Australian market. The name itself, Bronte, gives insight into how personal this brand is to the duo as well as their aspirations for the trajectory of the brand. Peressini’s daughter’s middle name is Bronte, not named after the infamous Sydney beach but a tiny town at the base of Mt Etna in Sicily where her grandmother was born. Moreover, the founders wanted to link their product with a familiar experience. “Australia is synonymous with beautiful beaches, days in the sun, natural outdoor living, so we really wanted to try and capture the essence of what we associate with the Australian lifestyle,” Peressini told Inside Retail. “Brands that can tap into that nostalgia and really create a picture for a consumer of where you are without having to do a huge amount of storytelling,” she added. This comes through in the brand imagery where all kinds of skin types, including stretch marks, wrinkles and rolls, are shown in warm, golden and sandy frames – to remind consumers of the feeling of being at Bronte Beach.  Moreover, Bronte is not just Australian in name – its formulas contain Australian ingredients and are created by Australian manufacturers. Now they are getting Bronte ‘retail ready’ and are in the process of switching over to new packaging after iterating the current design of their bottles. “From an aesthetic perspective, we very much wanted Bronte to be a millennial brand. There is so much in Gen Z, pastels, bright colored space and as millennials, we were like ‘what talks to us?’” Gilbert explained. “There are beautiful global brands like Merit or Gucci Westman that just have this gorgeous sophistication in how they do their branding,” she added. In contrast, in Australia, she said, customers typically have to choose between uninspiring pharmacy product lines, or underwhelming and expensive product lines.  “[Bronte] is minimalistically designed for millennials, so when you have it in your bathroom, on your shelf, it should look and feel just as gorgeous as any beautiful product would in Mecca,” Gilbert stated. Opening doors The co-founders second bodycare brand Soma, part of their overarching business ‘A Brand For’, is already stocked in Woolworths supermarkets across the country. Like Bronte, Soma offers a fragrance-rich bodywash experience but at a more accessible price point. Bronte’s first retail partner is The Memo, Australia’s premium retail destination for expecting and existing parents. Gilbert told Inside Retail that she and Peressini have big retail distribution plans, but it feels like they are “playing a game of Tetris” as they work to get Bronte’s distribution right because “you get one very effective go at that”. “Obviously, having the privilege that we did, working with so many beautiful brands at Mecca, the brands I think succeed over the long run are about product and product experience,” Peressini elaborated.  “Customers will generally buy into something once, if it comes with a lot of hype, a referral from a friend, a celebrity endorsement or whatever it might be,” she continued. “But the brands at Mecca that truly stood the test of time, focused on great product experience.” Despite spending over a decade leading the skincare and new concepts categories at Mecca, Gilbert and Peressini are looking at different retail partners. “We really love the Mecca offer and the experience; it’s second to none in a retail space, but then equally, what comes with that is limited distribution, limited stores and this real sense of exclusivity,” Peressini said. “Having broad distribution is something that’s fundamentally important to us, and not gatekeeping,” she added. “Our retail strategy is to not be in an exclusive retail environment, but actually really think about who our customer is, how they shop, how they like to shop and making sure that we have a presence in those locations.” From October, Bronte will be broadly distributed Australia-wide with numerous retail partners.