Singaporean beauty entrepreneur eyes SEA expansion for ‘effortless beauty’ brand

The Feisty Chick launched last month with two eyeliner sets which consists of an eyeliner stamp and a felt-tip liner, were designed to help Asian consumers perfect the winged eyeliner look.

Founder Chua Si Ting, a lawyer, believes most beauty consumers want products that take the stress out of the morning routine and get them out of the door quicker.

“The nature of my legal job meant I had to work till late and start early. In situations like this, every second counts. So, I wanted to create a cosmetics brand to help the modern-day woman achieve flawless make-up effortlessly. So every product has to be time-saving and work well,” ​Chua told CosmeticsDesign-Asia.​

Chua estimated that the winged eyeliner stamp idea has been around as early as 2016. While it is not a brand new idea, Chua saw a gap in the market as these stamps were not suitable for Asian beauty consumers.

“It’s not a new idea but the original was just not as refined. There was one stamp for both left and right eyes. The stamps, usually triangle- or diamond-shaped, were very big and unsuitable for Asian eyes which can have single, parallel double, or hooded lids,” ​said Chua.

The eyeliner stamps come in two different sizes, 7.5mm and 9.5mm, which Chua have applied design registration for.

“If someone copies my wing mould with the same height and the same length, I could have legal action taken,” ​she said.

The company is actively developing new products, including a third mould to cater to more ethnicities in the South East Asian region.

“We are coming up with a third mould which will also be created from scratch and not a duplicate of anything in the market. This mould will cater to other ethnicities in SEA which may have more defined eyes,” ​Chua said.

Eventually, Chua’s goal is to develop a full range of colour cosmetic products that can help consumers save time and effort.

Eyeing expansion

Currently, The Feisty Chick is available on its website and ships internationally but Chua has her sights set on expanding the brand to neighbouring markets including Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, where Chua believes there is a consumer demand.

Chua hopes to achieve this by entering physical channels. “We hope to go offline eventually. Not only will it give us physical presence, but also helps our distribution. For instance, working with retailers like Sephora and Watsons will help us enter new markets. Omni-channel distribution is still important for a beauty brand.”​

She added that entering new markets was important, considering the small market size of Singapore.

“It’s definitely a challenge with a small market. Not only that, make-up consumption is lower in Singapore compared to countries like Vietnam, where consumers there are very into make-up and are willing to spend money on it,” ​said Chua.

She continued: “On the other hand, the Singaporean consumer wants to see something unique with proof that it works. A brand needs to have a real winning product for Singaporeans to want to invest their money in it.”​

In order to overcome this, the brand is utilising social media content, such as images, videos and testimonials, to communicate with consumers.