Charles Brandon, the co-founder of Blank Beauty, said he initially got the idea for a machine that mixes custom nail polish on-site after seeing something similar for paints at a Walmart.
But creating a startup involving a machine had its own obstacles, he said. Namely, persevering over the spectacle created by Elizabeth Holmes. Holmes' Theranos involved a machine that purported to do multiple tests on a single drop of blood. It did not, and Holmes is now in prison for fraud.
"Elizabeth Holmes made things difficult for anybody trying to launch hardware," Brandon said. "Whenever you pitch people on hardware, they ask, 'Does it actually work?' She dug a hole for most of us. We started out trying to make a Keurig for cosmetics and it did work."
This Keurig-like device, since dubbed "Huey," had a pilot run at a Walmart in Collierville and in Franklin, Tennessee.
Blank Beauty's founders had originally considered positioning the Hueys for home use. But, after considering the practicalities of such an approach, they changed their strategy.
"If you think about the numbers, if I put one in your home, you'd use it twice a month," Brandon said. "If I put one in a nail salon, it's used maybe three times a day. If you put one of these machines at a retailer, you're not doing one or two bottles a day, you're doing 10 to 15 bottles a day."
Performance review
Brandon recently met with the Walmart team to go over the performance of the Huey. The meeting provided valuable insight into what fixes needed to be made, what could be improved, and how to prepare for a larger commercial launch.
"They have been incredible to work with and understand the needs of our business — even though we are a small startup growing quickly," Brandon said.
The partnership with Walmart was something of a two-way street, Brandon said. Walmart backed a small company, while Blank Beauty offered something unique to the retailer.
"Huey can make 16,000 colors of nail polish. If you were to get those many colors on a store shelf, it'd be half a mile long. So, from the retailer's perspective, that keeps customers engaged in the store. It's an entertaining experience for customers. It's actually better for the environment and requires less inventory," Brandon said.
Customization is the selling point here. Brandon points to an Instagram post by an influencer who stops by a Huey while shopping for groceries.
"Meet Huey," she said. "The guy who'll make all my dreams come true."
She's wearing a light pink sweater and vibrant blue pants (also purchased at Walmart). She uploads a photo. After about 90 seconds, perfectly matched nail polishes drop out of a slot.
Consider the possibilities. Students can make polishes that match their school colors; ditto for fans and their favorite teams.
"It can build a sense of community and offer targeted products in a very hyper-targeted environment, whereas most nail polish companies can never afford to make the Collierville Dragons color," Brandon said.
A base for brands
The Hueys use a base polish and color cartridges. A particular blue, for example, calls for three drops of blue and one drop of white. In addition, the polishes are formulated to be both fast-drying and long lasting. Brandon credits Jenny Lam, Blank Beauty's chief science officer. Lam collected nail polish ingredients and did testing on friends and family. She put her polishes in salons and gathered feedback. Brandon called her "the magician."
Nail polishes can be sticky and smell bad. It comes down to quality ingredients, Brandon said. The Hueys do need to be serviced every two weeks, however, so Blank Beauty has contracted with a group that services other, similar machines like Coinstar and Redbox.
Brandon said they've raised over $5 million for the startup, with $1 million of that coming from the Memphis area.
One expected route for Blank Beauty to pursue would be to go into other retail spots, such as Sephora or Target. But, the brand is thinking of another direction. They'd like to partner with existing cosmetic brands and those brands have been reaching out to them.
"It goes back to the Keurig model, where you've got Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, and hot teas coming out of the same machine," Brandon said. "It's about leveraging existing brands that spend a lot of money on marketing and then giving their customers the ability to not just consume a product but to create a product with the formula they are already familiar with. We can customize [a cosmetic brand's] formula that customers already know and love."
