DERMAFLASH Dual-Benefit Device Maker Targets $10M In First-Year Sales

Designed both for facial exfoliation and “peach fuzz” removal, DD Karma’s $189 DERMAFLASH system provides a smooth canvas that facilitates skin-care and makeup application. The company is focused on educating sales personnel and teaming with traditional beauty brands while continuing to roll out to luxury and specialty retailers around the US.

DD Karma LLC is projecting at least $10m in 2016 sales for its DERMAFLASH Facial Exfoliation Device, and expects to “blow that out of the water” in 2017, according to the brand’s creator and CEO Dara Levy.

Launched in January, DERMAFLASH offers multiple benefits that are resonating with consumers and helping the brand to carve out a niche for itself in the rapidly growing beauty device market.

According to the company, the gadget uses sonic vibrations that, while “subtle,” deliver powerful exfoliation, sweeping away dead skin and debris for a renewed complexion. Levy, previously the owner of a high-end spa in Chicago that specialized in dermaplaning, characterizes the effect as “exfoliation on steroids.”

At the same time, the device removes fine, vellus hair – or “peach fuzz” – from the user’s cheeks, jawline, lip area, chin and forehead.

“There are a lot of products on the market that exfoliate, and a lot of devices that remove hair,” Levy noted in a June 29 interview. “This is the only one that does both.”

The result, the company says, is “a perfectly smooth, luminous canvas for truly flawless skin care and makeup application.”

The company’s first partnership is with Perricone MD, with “pack-ups” slated to roll out in October that combine the brand’s skin-care formulas with the DERMAFLASH device.

The $189 system comes with a prep cleanser, soothing balm and six single-use blades, or exfoliating “edges,” plus a charging base and cord. It currently can be purchased in Sephora doors and at sephora.com, as well as at luxury department stores including Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.

In addition, Levy has made repeat appearances with the device on QVC, which has been the primary sales driver to date, she said.

Joyus, Inc. also sells the device through its e-commerce portal. The San Francisco-based startup partners with brands to create custom videos that promote their products to consumers looking to “discover, shop and share the latest products and trends.” The videos can have the patina of editorial content, making them potentially highly effective, provided that disclosures satisfy regulatory expectations (Also see "NAD: Native Ad Disclosures Needed Before Click-Through, 'Visual Cues'" - HBW Insight, 2 Jun, 2016.).

Given that DERMAFLASH is designed to set the stage for the rest of a user’s beauty routine, creating an immaculate canvas for topical product application, DD Karma is looking to team up with traditional personal-care brands for collaborative marketing opportunities going forward.

Its first partnership is with Perricone MD, with “pack-ups” slated to roll out in October that combine the brand’s skin-care formulas with the DERMAFLASH device.

Levy said the company is in conversations with makeup outfits as well.

“I love the idea of partnering with people, because it’s such a compelling story, to show how the efficacy of everything is amped up,” she said. “It’s sort of a no-brainer, to be honest with you. It’s for everyone, and it adds value to anyone else’s array of offerings.”

Fuzz Removal The ‘Game Changer’?

Chicago-based DD Karma is still tinkering with its value proposition and the optimal balance in its marketing when it comes to highlighting DERMAFLASH’s two key functions.

The company is in the process of partnering with a marketing agency to refine its strategy. At the moment, its website emphasizes exfoliation, focusing on results including “soft and supple” skin and enhanced radiance.

While site visitors currently have to navigate to an FAQ page before finding a discussion of DERMAFLASH’s advantages over face shaving, DD Karma has toyed with taglines including “From fuzzy to fabulous in a flash.”

Levy provided perspective on the company’s internal debate. “When we first started creating the device I thought, ‘We are not even going to talk about hair removal.’ But I’ve had Hollywood producers call me and say, ‘You should only talk about hair removal. Because that’s the game changer.’”

Shifting its focus would mean broadening conversation about a common beauty practice that traditionally has gone on quietly and discreetly behind closed doors.

“DERMAFLASH is so empowering because it allows women to take this uncomfortable idea – getting rid of their peach fuzz – into their own hands,” Levy suggested.

“Women have been hiding in the bathroom using a man’s razor forever. But a man’s razor is meant for a man’s skin and a man’s firm, thick, terminal hair, and it’s counterintuitive, as a woman with delicate skin and peach fuzz, to use something that was made by men, for men.” – DERMAFLASH CEO Levy

Women from time immemorial either have chosen to ignore facial hair or struggled over removal options. Waxing can be painful and irritating, and many women harbor the unfounded fear that shaving causes hair to grow back thicker and darker.

Beauty blogs and YouTube tutorials have helped to dispel that myth and opened discussion about facial shaving among women, bringing a practice to the mainstream that has long been an underground trend. What once was considered a cult founded on a Hollywood beauty “secret,” passed down by such iconic beauties as Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe, has become an outspoken razor-happy community.

But just because women increasingly are entertaining the idea of shaving above the neck doesn’t mean they’re equipped with the proper tools to do so, according to Levy.

“Women have been hiding in the bathroom using a man’s razor forever,” she said. “But a man’s razor is meant for a man’s skin and a man’s firm, thick, terminal hair. And it’s counterintuitive, as a woman with delicate skin and peach fuzz, to use something that was made by men, for men.”

According to the exec, DERMAFLASH blades were specifically designed with a woman’s skin and downy facial hair in mind, and the device has built-in safety features to ensure painless, nick-free hair removal.

Meanwhile, DD Karma potentially has provided itself with a recurring sales base, as the blades that fit its device “self-destruct after usage … to maintain the most sanitary conditions,” the company says.

Assuming that DERMAFLASH users stick with the device and follow the company’s recommended once-a-week protocol, they’ll be shelling out $39 every six weeks for replenishment packets. It’s a model that premium men’s razor brands have come to rely on, and Levy is confident that DERMAFLASH will find its own loyal adherents.

“With every other device you have to take a hurry-up-and-wait attitude,” she said. “With DERMAFLASH, one treatment and you have transformed your skin. And your skin just keeps getting better every time you use it.”

‘Boots On The Ground’ Training Is Key

DERMAFLASH enters an at-home beauty device market that accounted for $23bn in global sales in 2015, with hair-removal systems leading the charge. P&S Market Research projects that the market will grow at a compound annual rate of 19% through 2022 (Also see "In Brief: L'Oreal Partners With Founders Factory; Beauty Device Market; Grush Gaming Toothbrush" - HBW Insight, 3 Jun, 2016.).

In the US, beauty device sales totaled $9.2bn in 2014, and Research and Markets projects a CAGR of 19% for the market from 2015-2020 (Also see "In Brief: Australian Cosmetic Animal-Test Ban; Revlon Buys Cutex International; More" - HBW Insight, 19 Jun, 2016.).

DERMAFLASH is quick to point out that its device works for all women, regardless of skin type and color, whereas many competing hair-removal systems cannot safely target unpigmented hair or be used on medium to dark skin tones.

Levy expects DERMAFLASH’s success to hinge largely on having an educated sales force in place that can effectively demo and convey the device’s benefits and points of distinction to consumers.

“If you just put it on the shelf, it sits there. So the education process is really important,” she noted.

The company is focused on providing weekly “boots on the ground” training to sales personnel in prestige and specialty retail doors where the device is sold. According to Levy, upcoming launches are planned in Ulta, Nordstrom and Lord & Taylor locations, and the company aims to roll out to medical spas and dermatology offices in 2017.

One element that DD Karma will be addressing in its education efforts is the use – and loading and ejecting – of DERMAFLASH blades, which could be a turn-off for women who are tentative about the idea of taking a cutting edge to their faces.

Even its sales people at present – “they are women, and they’re freaked out too,” Levy admitted.

The company also likely will face questions about how DERMAFLASH differs from other hair-removal devices on the market for DIY home use.

DD Karma is quick to point out that its system works for all women, regardless of skin type and color, whereas many existing options, particularly light-based devices, cannot safely target unpigmented hair or be used on medium to dark skin tones.

Such devices include Tria Beauty Inc.’s Hair Removal Laser 4X ($449) and Hair Removal Laser Precision ($299), LumaRx’s Full Body IPL Skin Beauty System ($449), Philips’ Lumea Comfort IPL Hair Removal System ($229.99) and Home Skinovations Inc.’s Silk’n Flash & Go ($199-$299).

“The beauty of DERMAFLASH is it’s for all women – it’s colorblind,” Levy said. “Certain skin types can’t even do a laser. And lasers hurt.”

There also are plenty of hair-removal devices that are not designed to be used on the face at all.

The recently launched Elos Touch Advance Laser Hair Removal System is safe for facial hair removal and is touted as effective for all skin types and hair colors. The device eliminates hair via the company’s combination Intense Pulsed Light/Radio Frequency technology at the brand’s highest strength to date – 500,000 pulses – but is considerably more expensive than DERMAFLASH, priced at $599 (Also see "New Products In Brief: L’Oreal’s Emoji Keyboard; Latest Elos Device; More" - HBW Insight, 7 Jul, 2016.).

Noxzema Derma Wand – Rival Or Rogue?

There is another commercially available product that has a marketing angle remarkably like DERMAFLASH’s and can be had for a fraction of the price – $12.95 – through online retailers.

The Noxzema Shaving About Face Sonic Derma Wand is battery-operated, and according to the company behind it, which has a licensing agreement with Noxzema owner Unilever, the product “goes beyond hair removal to gently ‘derma-plane’ your skin” via “precise sonic waves,” enabling easy makeup application.

The similarity to DERMAFLASH messaging is not a coincidence, according to DD Karma. The firm filed suit against Universal Razor Industries, LLC and Kai USA, Ltd. in March in an Illinois district court, alleging that the razor and blade manufacturers developed and marketed the Noxzema device after participating in discussions with DD Karma in 2014 about a possible partnership, during which time the firms were operating under a Non-Disclosure and Non-Circumvention Agreement.

According to DD Karma, the defendants are now in breach of that agreement, having misappropriated and capitalized on confidential business information related to the DERMAFLASH product concept, marketing plans and strategy.

The DERMAFLASH marketer is seeking injunctive relief, compensatory damages and legal fees.

The Noxzema case aside, DD Karma sees DERMAFLASH as first-to-market in a “nascent” category for combination exfoliation/hair removal and considers established devices with existing fan bases – such as L’Oreal S.A.’s Clarisonic facial cleansers and Carole Cole Company’s NuFACE range – complements rather than competitors.

“I love these devices,” she said. “In fact, use your Clarisonic, use your DERMAFLASH, and then use your NuFACE– it’s a beautiful pairing. It’s actually a total beauty story. We are not telling anybody, ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that.’ We’re saying, ‘Do it all, but let us be your first line of defense.’”