Take it slow

With a pared-back product range and a 55-year career in skincare, Slow Ageing Essentials managing director David Lieber tells Eve Oxberry about his ambitious plans for the brand

When former Decléor distributor David Lieber launched Slow Ageing Essentials in February 2020 he, like the rest of the world, had no idea we were about to enter a global pandemic, and therefore the brand, true to its name, understandably began life as a bit of a slow burner. However, Lieber is now embarking on a new growth phase for the line. Currently in around 50 accounts, he hopes to take that number well into the hundreds over the next two years.

But Lieber, who began his spa career back in 1968, opening a health club in Nottingham, says that success is as much about giving back to the industry that has supported him for so long as it is about growing the brand. “I want to give back a little bit of my experience to people, rather than just going out there to sell,” he says. “Every company has to make money, that’s what we’re in business for, but whatever I produce has to be authentic and help salons to be profitable too.”

Best known for running Decléor in the UK from the 1970s until 2006 when it was sold to Shiseido (and subsequently discontinued by its next owner, L’Oréal), Lieber has also run salons, spas and health clubs during his career, including the renowned Spa Illuminata in Mayfair, London.

His Slow Ageing Essentials brand centres around Lieber and wife Margot’s passion for pure essential oils, natural botanicals and their combined effects on slowing the skin’s ageing process in a gentle way. Made in Britain, it’s sustainably packed in recyclable glass bottles and jars with no outer packaging.

It also taps into the clean-living philosophy that Lieber has been living by for decades, which involves extensive daily exercise and natural food and skincare. “It’s important to me that people understand I’m living the life that my brand promotes,” he says.

The line-up

Slow Ageing Essentials was founded with a “less is more” approach and the brand comprises just eight products. There are five for the face: two cleansers, a moisturiser, face balm, and facial oil; plus three for the body: an exfoliating polish, body oil and a bath and shower oil, with RRPs from £27 to £58 for the retail versions.

“There’s a reason for every product,” says Lieber. While some brands continually launch products to have constant newness to shout about, Lieber comments, “what on earth do you need 10 or 12 cleansers for?”

In fact, his decision to keep the range small and use quality ingredients has been met with surprise by many. “Financial directors do not like having 50 or 150 SKUs. At the end of the year, there’s always stock left over,” he says. “With me, they love that they’ve got eight SKUs so they can control it, the training’s easy and the investment is lower.”

While the products are retailed online, Lieber says they won’t be discounted in a way that would undercut salons, and plans to add a website function to give therapists commission on referrals for online sales.

Like the product line-up, the treatment offer is also deliberately small. “We have a 30-minute treatment, a 60, then a 90, so they build on each other,” says Lieber. “We go into salons to train or I work with a training site in London too.”

Looking to the future, Lieber says the core range will grow but only to about 12 products. And, while all products are unisex – and dermatologically tested to be safe on all skin types – the brand intends to create a men’s range in the summer.