The Big 'O'

The Big 'O'
Designer Skin Takes Tanners To New Sunless Heights

by Matt Morgan

Designer Skin has positioned itself as a premier manufacturer of indoor tanning lotions in just its first four years of existence. Its line of products--well marketed and packaged to pop--are made for a wide array of skincare needs. For this tanning season, the Tempe, Ariz.-based lotion manufacturer ventures into the world of sunless products with a self-tanning spray, The Big "O." The staff is excited for the future of "O," and it's easy to see why.

A sunless tanning formula was the next logical addition to the Designer Skin line, which already features the wildly popular Bombshell 100XX Bronzer. "Our goal is to create extraordinary products that meet the needs and desires of every tanner," says Beth Felker, vice president of sales and marketing. "One of those obvious needs is a self-tanning product."

Sunless has been part of the company's vision from the beginning. Research of the indoor tanning and cosmetic industries revealed that self-tanning sprays were in demand, so Designer Skin began work on a product of its own--one that has what the company calls a "Designer Skin advantage."

Getting that edge is a fairly involved process, Felker says. The staff started by sampling a large amount of products in the marketplace and took a "how can we make this better?" approach to develop their own self-tanner.

"We determined what improvements were necessary in order to satisfy our extremely discerning quality control," Felker says. "For example, we found many products to be sticky or streaky in their application, to have that terrible sunless odor, to turn you 'orange-ish,' etc. We were extremely stringent about all these factors when developing our formula."

Formula For Success

The successful formula for The Big "O" is, well, in the formula. "It has the perfect level of instant bronzers and DHA that delivers a gorgeous, golden radiance," Felker says. "It does not streak, and the tinted formula gives you instant results that allows for mistake-proof application."

The Big "O" yields beautiful color for every skin type, and the fragrance is fantastic, she says. "It does not have that horrible odor associated with so many sunless products on the market," she adds. "We call it 'a day at the beach' in a bottle--and it is."

After fine-tuning the chemical composition of The Big "O," Designer Skin turned its attention toward application. The company spent considerable time figuring out how the lotion would go from the bottle to the user's skin. To go after the perfect mist, the company actually studied spray patterns for weeks to determine the best method.

"I know it may sound silly to do that, but we expect every aspect of our product--from formula to packaging and design--to be extraordinary," Felker says. "It may cost more or take more development time, but the end result is a product that our consumers love. That's what it is all about."

Putting It All Together

To get the word out about The Big "O," its maker looked no further than the Bombshell 100XX Bronzer. Designer Skin rolled out its product launch in May, offering The Big "O" free to salons that purchased a full-size bottle of the bronzer.

"That was not only a great value but made sense from a combination standpoint," Felker says. The reason? Customers tend to avoid applying Bombshell to their faces due to its extreme tingle action, so using the "O" is a perfect way for tanners to augment facial color, she says. "It is a very easy sale for salons."

Designer Skin hopes The Big "O" will be a great stand-alone seller, too. "It is really our 'baby' at the moment," Felker says. "We strove to create packaging that automatically draws the consumer's eye and stimulates interest."

The focal point on the bottle, of course, is a big "O," followed by the tagline, "It's OK to Fake It!" The bottle uses high-performance shrink-wrapping for the same vibrant, eye-catching visuals found on other products in Designer Skin's Tantrum Collection.

The combination of painstaking research, stimulating packaging, flawless application and desirable results has Designer Skin thinking The Big "O" has what it takes to be a big hit this tanning season. "We anticipate The Big 'O' to generate as much enthusiasm and success as our existing products," Felker says. "For the entire Designer Skin staff, however, it already has achieved that goal."