The company was founded in April after co-founder Genevieve Jayne Ng, a former cabin crew found herself out of work due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Ng roped in business partner Gerald Goh and launched the brand’s first product, a personalised body wash in October, just seven months after starting the company.
The company aimed to fill a gap in the market for what Ng believed was a lack of variety of body care products that were suitable for more sensitive skin conditions.
“I myself suffer from eczema and honestly, it can be quite boring. I found myself limited to a few brands – the kind that are dermatologist-tested. The idea was to fill the gap in the market for products that are not just functional, but fun too,” said Ng.
Nude & Jar developed a gentle and natural body wash base formulation made out of coconut oil, glycerine, water and potassium hydroxide.
Consumers can add two ingredients out of nine depending on the kind of benefits they want in their product.
The brand offers seaweed collagen for moisturising, juniper berry as an antioxidant, and neem as an antibacterial ingredient.
Additionally, consumer can also choose their own fragrance and colours.
Ng added the company began to explore the option of personalisation as a way to ‘value-add’ to the brand and product.
“The Singapore market is quite tough because they are price conscious. They will definitely question why they should pay a premium price of around $20 for a $8 product they can get at the supermarket.”
Furthermore, the option to personalise a product would give consumers to discover and explore formulations, she said.
“With personalisation, you can keep trying new formulations till you find the one you want. At the end of the day, I wanted to create something that is fun to use.”
Personalised body and bath care
The company does not intend to stop at body wash but develop a whole range of personalised body care products.
Ng said: “We don’t want to limit ourselves at all. I’ve looked into creating personalised body lotions and bath bombs. As you know bath bombs are really popular, but a lot of them on the market are not suitable for sensitive skin. I hope to create one with natural ingredients everyone can use without worry.”
In the next 12 months, the company is working towards raising brand awareness in its home market through online channels.
“Based on the current situation I don’t think its wise into look at physical retail. After all, everyone is now shopping online and getting used to it. So, we will just maintain an online presence,” said Ng.
The firm has no plans yet to undertake any market expansion due to the challenges related to scaling up production of a personalised product.
Eventually, the company intends to expand its presence in the South East Asia region and beyond, said Ng.
“We did explore the idea of moving into the US market early on. Reason because it’s a big market to tap into and there are more people that are willing to spend on their body care products. However, the shipping cost, especially during this time, were very costly. When we’re ready to expand, maybe we will hit Malaysia first,” said Ng.
