Kiwi skincare firm Beenigma to launch Honeybee campaign as it seeks expansion in Asia

The brand first introduced its products to Asia at Cosmoprof Asia, a trade show held in Hong Kong in November 2018. Since its Asian launch, Beenigma revealed to CosmeticsDesign Asia​ that it is currently in final negotiations with a large online distributor to bring its products to the Asian market.

Uniquely positioned for Asia

Currently, the skin care company is looking to launch its products in Hong Kong, China and Vietnam.

Vietnam is a particularly interesting and exciting venture for Beenigma, as the company believes they are bringing something entirely different to what is currently available in the market.

“We had a lot of interested people from Vietnam at [Cosmoprof Asia],” ​said Maria Prosperi-Porta, operational manager of Beenigma. “I think it has to do with its prestige and how it looks. We’re very different to what they are used to having such as bigger brands.”​

Prosperi-Porta believes that the brands products are uniquely positioned to address the needs and concerns of Asian skin.

“Our products have non-oily finish, what have what we call a firm finish. It doesn’t stick on the skin and stay oily as the day progress. Because bee venom and honey work so differently, it has a pulling effect,” ​said Prosperi-Porta.

“So with a humid climate and the fact that Asian skin is more prone to a higher acidity pH level, it actually works well for them because it stays matte. You’ll feel it leaves your skin dewy, but you won’t feel that it’s oily or slippery.”​

Core Ingredients

What makes Beeenigma and its products unique are its key ingredients, bee venom and Manuka honey, which can only be found on New Zealand.

Beenigma uses a concentrated amount of preserved and purified bee venom that is 100% non-oxidised. It is sustainably extracted from bees with the help of a glass plate which attracts the bees to sting it without causing the stinger to fall off, preventing the bees from dying.

Prosperi-Porta stressed that the purity of ingredients is extremely important to the company. “The skin is extraordinarily intelligent and it can only work with ingredients it has an affinity with. Ingredients with high purity have the ability to make a change to the skin, to correct, repair or regenerate. The concentration being medical grade allows us to have that clinical proven support behind us.”​

To get the purest Manuka honey, the company has invested in the farms that produces its honey. “By investing in the farms we buy from, we get the best produce, but also the farms can have the money to keep their beautiful farms going, to ensure the bees keep producing on those farms.”​

The Honeybee campaign

This year, Beengima will be launching its new Honeybee campaign, which rely heavily on Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) – or Honeybees, as the brand prefers to call them.

“We are looking for some strong KOLs to join the Beenigma family,” ​said Prosperi-Porta. “We don’t want to do what everybody does, which is use a superstar or a celebrity or a model. We want real people who are going to be a part of the bee family.”​

The brand will be rolling out the campaign in full force in 2019. However, it has slowly introduced the campaign in North America when it launched on QVC. Additionally. Beenigma recruited its very first Honeybees from Hong Kong while exhibiting at Cosmoprof Asia 2018.

This social media strategy is very much aligned with the nature of the company said Prosperi-Porta. “[Beenigma] is made up of a mixed team of young and mature individuals. We want to be community-based. If you think about the bee, it lives in a full community. We’re very much about the bee, it is more than just what is in our product. We want to bring that vision right back.”​