Launched in October 2019, RSF is a luxury skin care brand that focuses on anti-ageing products made with cold-pressed botanical and marine extracts sourced from Australia.
Founder and CEO Michelle Chen, who has a background in retail merchandising and product development, created the brand to fill a gap in the market for high-performing anti-ageing products made with natural extracts.
The brand’s core consumer base is made up of gen X consumers who are interested in natural products but demand quick results.
“The customers in my target demographic are more concerned with preserving their youth. They are interested in natural products, but at the same time they are not sure natural ingredients can give them the level of effectiveness they want,” said Chen.
“These people need to see results, if not they will just move on and try another product with a nice advertisement that catches their eye.”
The brand employs heatless cellular extraction methods, which it claims preserves nutrients better and makes the ingredient more potent and powerful.
“In addition to this, our products work because we pack in many actives – we don’t just allocate one or two. And we use fewer ‘base’ ingredients so we can add in more active ingredients,” Chen elaborated.
The brand is set to launch its first flagship store in Landmark, the city’s swanky shopping destination, as it approaches its one-year anniversary.
Chen considers being able to open its flagship store in such an exclusive location within its first year was a true testament to the brand.
The RSF flagship store is a crucial element to its positioning as a prestige beauty brand.
Chen told CosmeticsDesign-Asia that she has been approached by many retailers, including larger department stores but declined offers to stock her brand because of her vision of a standalone store.
“Our aim was never to allocate our products to large retailers, that’s not our tactic. We don’t want our brand to be blended with others, but to be exclusive.”
The flagship store will not just serve as a retail touchpoint, but as a place for workshops, consultations and even facial services that showcase the company’s professional skin care line.
“In order for our brand to grow more, I realised we needed to have that one-on-one interaction with our customers. We want them to be able to experience and play around with the products. This space will allow us to host workshops and education sessions to help build confidence in our brand,” said Chen.
China expansion on the horizon
Moving forward, the company is looking to expand its product line into China within the next six months via a WeChat store.
“Having a WeChat shop fits in with this exclusive positioning that we want and it’s more personal. It’s very important that we execute with the right brand positioning,” said Chen.
Currently, the company is laying down the foundations for its China launch.
It is in talks with a digital marketing company specialising in WeChat and looking to hire people to help with data analysis and logistics.
Chen said: “First we will launch our WeChat social media account as well as Weibo. We are also getting celebrities to back our products. We want to create the hype first, see the response and then actually enter the market. We won’t just enter for the sake of it because we want the brand to last.”