Meet Angela Tallon & Jo Harding from New Day Skin
What’s your elevator pitch for your lady startup?
New Day Skin exists to give tweens and teens quality sun protection products that are made just for them. We want young people to wake up to a NEW DAY and voluntarily apply sunscreen as part of their morning routine, just like cleaning their teeth or brushing their hair. Our signature products are our SPF 50, mineral, daily face creams that look invisible, are lightweight and smell amazing!
What was the inspiration behind it?
My sister, Jo, and I have five children between us and have always been super vigilant about protecting them from the sun’s dangerous UVA/UVB rays. Jo’s daughter Lucy, has red hair and very fair skin and Jo would battle with Lucy every day to convince her to wear sunscreen – it was always a chore! One morning when Jo was getting ready for work, Lucy asked her mother if she could try on her face cream, which was an SPF 50 moisturiser with a subtle, citrus fragrance. Lucy loved it and the next morning asked if she could use it again. That was the lightbulb moment.
Lucy had no idea it was sunscreen – she was so enthusiastic about applying. She just knew the cream felt nice on her skin and it smelt delicious. Being $70 per tube however, as well as containing other active ingredients inappropriate for her skin, it was not an option for Jo to let Lucy continue to use it. That’s when the hunt began for an SPF 50 daily face cream that appealed to tweens and teens, but nothing existed. We discussed it and decided to create our own sunscreen products.
After 2.5 years of countless, late-night brainstorming sessions and testing hundreds of creams on the market, flying across the country and convincing a world class manufacturer to help us develop our own formulation, we finally launched NEW DAY SKIN in January 2021.
What was your background?
Most recently, I have worked in new business/startup environments within the technology and recruitment sector, and Jo has had a long-standing career within the consumer goods industry.
Did you dive right in or was it a side hustle?
We’re still both working full-time in our day jobs and managing New Day Skin outside of our normal working hours.
How do you find juggling a small business and being a mum?
Working full-time, juggling a business and having young children is quite the challenge! We have subscribed to numerous applications to help automate our processes as much as possible – and we wouldn’t be able to survive without Slack! We’re both very fortunate to have supportive husbands. Our lives are pretty manic most of the time and naturally some things have to give, but we seem to make it work – we think anyway!
How do you reset and recharge after feeling burnt-out or overwhelmed?
When overwhelm sets in, we tend to reassure each other that we’re on the right track and to just keep on keeping on. It’s always motivating to have encouragement from friends and family and we started New Day Skin so that our kids had sun protection products that they loved to use, so that keeps us charging forward.
Proudest achievements so far?
Six months after launching, we sold out of stock and quickly reordered and continued to increase our daily sales. We are proud to have achieved an above average online store conversion rate and have close to 2000 customers. Since integrating a review system on our website last September, we have received almost 100 5/5 star reviews. We were fortunate to appear on A Current Affair in a feature segment for female startups, as well as having Mia Freedman endorse our products on her Mamamia network.
What kind of challenges have you overcome?
New Day Skin has two target audiences – our buyer and our user. Our primary target is 30-55 year-old mums, whose kids are 8-16 years of age. Our secondary target is our user – the tweens and teens. Having two different audiences poses its challenges for a new brand. We have also had to manage delays with deliveries and general supply chain issues due to COVID-19. When selling a physical product, the supply chain can be challenging, especially initially when you’re learning supply vs demand. We experienced this after running out of stock of Happy Days. The catch is having the cash readily available to place your next order and the balance is not spending it all selling your first run! That can be a fine and challenging line!
Best piece of customer feedback?
We just love it when customers tell us their teenage kids are voluntarily applying our products every day. It’s a great feeling knowing that we are creating sun smart habits in young people. We’ve also received so much feedback from grandparents telling us that they purchased Good Vibes or Happy Days for their grandkids, however when trying it themselves they can’t understand why we’re not targeting age 60+ as they love the texture and scent also (bless).
What advice would you give others thinking of becoming ‘mumpreneurs’?
 Be very clear on the problem you’re trying to solve, the genuine consumer need that exists and the competition in the market. Seek out ‘white space’ even in a saturated, mature category like sunscreen, and fill it! And have a purpose behind your venture. It has to mean something to you and has to meet your own expectations… you’re investing your life into it!
Throughout all of our R&D our litmus test was to ask ourselves would we be happy applying this cream to our own faces every day? If the honest answer was no, we went straight back to the lab. So if it means going back to the drawing board, go back to the drawing board until you are 100% confident and happy with your product. And also, remember to think about the channels you’re going to be selling in and get your pricing architecture right from the outset!
The most surprising thing you’ve discovered?
The power of pushing back on the status quo and not accepting ‘no’ for an answer. Don’t be pressured into adhering to what might be considered the ‘normal process’ if it doesn’t work for you. Propose alternative ideas and solutions to make it happen – you will never know if you don’t ask!
Future goals for your lady startup?
We have big plans to expand our product portfolio to include a full body SPF 50 mineral sunscreen, SPF 50 lip balm, beach zinc, and apparel such as caps and sunglasses. Within the next 12 months our goal is to release the full body sunscreen at the very least. Ultimately we want kids of all ages to wake up to a NEW DAY and voluntarily apply high protection SPF 50 sunscreen as part of their morning routine, just like cleaning their teeth and brushing their hair, and reduce the overwhelming statistics of melanoma and skin cancer in our country and around the world.
We have a special discount offer for your first order of New Day Skin. Simply buy Everly Issue 3 and turn to page 69 to find the code for 20% off.
newdayskin.com.au
Insta: @new_day_skin
Facebook: @newdayskinaustralia