Indu Beauty Wants to Make Space for Teens in the Industry
Courtesy of Indu Beauty.
It’s a sunny late summer afternoon in London, but a group of teens have chosen to be inside a studio for the new Indu Beauty shoot, showcasing the English beauty brand’s first-ever SPF. It’s probably not the first way you’d expect a teen to spend their scarce free time with this weather, but the team behind Indu is set on challenging assumptions like that.
The very idea of Indu wasn’t drafted by a corporate marketing team in an office but rather sparked by two teenage twins on vacation with their father, Feelunique co-founder Aaron Chatterley. His daughters, Frankie and India, told him about the lack of beauty products in the market that were specifically designed for teenagers—and not the ultra sparkly, hot pink options typically adopted by younger children. The self-described “#girldad” was moved, especially when he considered the products they were using instead, such as Nars Orgasm Blush and Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara.
“I've got my head in my hands and I'm like, ‘So, girls, as a parent, the issue that I have with this is not so much the fact that they're using sexualized names — which is a thing, and it's slightly problematic for me as a parent of young girls — but the brands that you're buying into and the way that they're [marketed to] a much, much older audience,” Chatterley recounted to Teen Vogue a day before the photoshoot. “‘What you are then aspiring to is this idealized vision of what beauty is and you should really be thinking about yourself as a teenager at the moment.’”
Noting the gap in the market, Chatterley joined forces with his former Feelunique co-founder Richard Schiessl and Reena Hammer, previously managing director of Urban Retreat. With Hammer as CEO, they created Indu, a beauty brand specifically for teens made by a team of people whose focus is just that. Indu consults a child psychologist, hired a community manager, and most notably, works with a committee of teenagers. The teens are able to work with the brand to earn the Duke of Edinburgh Award, a program where young people in the United Kingdom set goals to gain work experience, develop skills, and build their résumés. Hammer says, “It's about basically helping society, and it's kind of work experience.” She shares that they contribute to the business by offering them feedback, perspective, and, on occasion, modeling.
Before she gets her hair and makeup done for the shoot, I get a few minutes to speak to 15-year-old Evie Frith, one of the members of the teen committee. The Indu team scouted her in a mall before the brand even had released products, and she was intrigued by the teen-focused concept. “There's so many brands where the packaging is [like] they want teens to be involved, but what's actually in the skin care is really bad for the skin,” she says. “But Indu, the whole point was [that] it's good for the teen skin. I feel like that's what I was really happy about.”
This is something Hammer also mentioned when we met the day prior, “They just want to feel elements of being heard, elements of being listened to, being able to have bits of control in their lives.” She continues to share how she had to try to convince retailers that teens are not just set on acting older than their age and would be interested in products designed for them. The problem is that the market is mostly filled with products meant for children and adults, leaving teens unrecognized. Indu wanted to fill that gap.
While TikTok users were debating whether children should be in beauty stores stateside, Indu was unveiling new displays in Sephora UK stores. “Just as we were coming up to launch the brand — I'm not going to say the story broke, I think it's always kind of been there — things started to bubble to the surface a lot more about young children and teenagers buying into products and brands, which were, in some cases, potentially harmful for them and their skin.”
Having seen the Sephora kids discourse online, Firth says, “I feel like they definitely shouldn't be using some of the products they do, like 11-year-olds using retinol and stuff like that.” She adds that kids are becoming more competitive about their appearance at a younger age at school and on social media.
This was part of the inspiration behind their sunscreen launch. While there’s a new phenomenon of young children becoming beauty influencers with impressive collections of high-end beauty products, this isn’t something Indu subscribes to. “We definitely don't believe in 20 stage rituals of skincare and making things complicated,” Hammer says. “It needs to be simple. And going back to what we were discussing earlier, having clean skin and then protecting your skin are the most important things.”
Although the teen committee is meant to guide them, Hammer also shares that there are some things they feel many young people have yet to learn like proper face-washing techniques and the true importance of wearing SPF at a young age.
Everyday Hero SPF 50+
$25.00, Indu Beauty
Hammer recognized that a good formula was going to influence how likely teens would be wearing the sunscreen. She noted that it shouldn’t be sticky, pore-clogging, or have a white-cast. Instead, it needed to be lightweight and look good under makeup. She says it was important to the brand as they also needed to fight the misconception that SPF only needed to be worn when it’s sunny, which as the locals frequently mentioned, isn’t very often in London.
As the brand aims to go stateside soon, the team is already considering the climate of the new market. They’re eager to find the best retailers, brand reps, and more, all with teens in mind.
Want to give it a try yourself? Shop some Indu Beauty products below, and use the exclusive code “TEENVOGUE” for a free One & Only pH GlowOil when you add it to your cart and spend £20 or more.
Stand Up Tubing Mascara
$14.00, Indu Beauty
LiquidEyes
$10.00, Indu Beauty
Cheeky Smile - Currant Crush
$12.00, Indu Beauty
One & Only pH GlowOil
$16.00, Indu Beauty
Universal Cream Cleanser
$18.00, Indu Beauty
Universal Soft-Cream Moisturiser
$22.00, Indu Beauty
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
Want more style stories from Teen Vogue? Check these out:
9 Sunscreens Teen Vogue Editors Swear By for Year-Round Protection
From Rose Water to Eyeliner, An Ode to Middle Eastern & North African Beauty
I Dressed Like Bella Hadid for a Week to Find the Best Plus-Size Alternatives
What Is Underconsumption Core? Experts Explain the Trend Putting Dirty Shoes All Over Your Feed
