Bronze Mettle

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Katianna Nightingale loved to look tan.

But she didn’t love skin cancer.


After years of using tanning beds to get that golden glow, though, Nightingale was diagnosed with the ailment in 2002. Even though the dangers of tanning beds had been widely publicized, it took her by surprise.


“I was on this table having surgery and I thought, how many other people don’t know what tanning is doing to their skin?” she said.


Nightingale then became vigilant about maintaining her skin’s health, although she didn’t want to have to sacrifice that bronzed look. But tanning creams were a problem, too: She hated the smell and streaky orange look.


Hence Aqua Tan Inc., an El Segundo-based company that Nightingale founded in 2003.


Aqua Tan makes a self-tanning spray that is clear, odor-free and won’t stain clothing. Like other self-tanning products, its active ingredient is DHA, a Food and Drug Administration-approved fermented sugar derivative used in tanning lotions, creams and sprays. DHA reacts with amino acids in the top layers of skin to produce a tanned look. Aqua Tan is different from most other tanning products because it doesn’t use dyes or other additives to hasten the bronzing effect.


The effects last three or four days and each bottle contains about 170 applications. Retail price for a bottle is $45.


The high price could be a competitive disadvantage on shelves crowded with lower-priced products. Giants such as L’Oreal SA, Johnson & Johnson’s Neutrogena, Clarins and Kao Corp.’s Jergens have multiple tanning products on shelves nationwide.


“It seems Aqua Tan is trying to appeal to the high end of the market,” said Clara Pettitt, editor of Web site Sunless.com, which reviews self-tanning products. “In the mid-1990s, when sunless tanning products really took off, you did have to spend more money to get a good product, but now that’s just not the case. Johnson & Johnson and those large companies have enormous budgets and can focus on coming up with innovative products that can dominate the mass market. Those brands generally account for the bulk of the sales.”


Competing with other creams and tanning beds isn’t the only challenge the company faces. Aqua Tan products are only distributed in a small number of spas, resorts and boutiques across the nation.


Nightingale first intended to make and distribute professional-grade spray tanning machines for use inside salons. The equipment was heavy-duty: Nightingale had to go to auto parts and paint stores to get all the elements she needed. She sold 50 or so of the $8,000 devices to salons. The machines are still available, but now sell for about $3,000. However, customers seemed to like the formula better than the machines. And the spray didn’t require labor or service, so she changed her strategy.


“I realized it was best to keep it easy,” Nightingale said. “The spray bottles are a lot easier to lift.”



Cannes giveaway


To launch the product, Nightingale gave away hundreds of sample-sized Aqua Tan minibottles at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003. With the help of some friends, she filled the bottles and stuck on labels by hand since she couldn’t afford to outsource the work.


Nightingale put in $200,000 of her own money and found a facility willing to make just 5,000 bottles, a smaller-than-average order for a cosmetics product.


Aqua Tan took about a year to perfect, and Nightingale oversaw much of the process herself.


“I have had people refuse to work with me,” she said. “I am totally high maintenance and it has to be perfect. The big order-fill houses don’t take the time to dedicate to each product.”


With a background in marketing, one thing Nightingale realized was that she’d have to do something to make the bottle stand out most tanning products come in yellow or orange packaging and that could showcase the novel clear formulation.


She chose nautical-type colors for the packaging, a silver-colored top and detailing with white lettering on a clear blue plastic bottle. An added bonus of the blue and silver design is that it makes the tanner more appealing to men, since it has a more “unisex” appearance.


“My male friends would always complain about the smell of the self-tanner their wives and girlfriends were using,” Nightingale said. “I’ve actually gotten feedback that men really like the product and love the smell.”



Good fortune


A series of lucky breaks helped Aqua Tan get noticed along the way Nightingale didn’t have the money to undertake a formal marketing campaign.


She was asked to donate items to be placed in gift-bags that were given to people at a post-Oscar celebration of Forest Whitaker’s actor award for “The Last King of Scotland.” Companies mostly have to pay for this kind of publicity, so it was a fortunate happenstance for Aqua Tan.


Then, Aqua Tan was chosen as this year’s official sunless tanning product of the Miss Universe pageant. QVC, which is credited with launching a variety of successful brands, also came calling, and sales shot up after a good showing on the Liberty Media Corp. channel.


“It was a major coup for us,” she said.


Nightingale hopes that new products will keep that trend going.


Last month, the company introduced a self-tanning milk and a gel. Nightingale also added “sacred water” to the formula. It comes from a stream in Lourdes, France, that is reputed to have healing powers.


“It’s hard to get distribution if you have only one product, so I had to do a soft, slow launch,” Nightingale said. “I needed to wait until I had launched a whole line before trying to work with someone to pick us up and put us out there in a big way.”


She is anticipating big growth for the company once distribution currently under negotiation with several firms, Nightingale said is secured. Aqua Tan is already profitable, and this year the company did about $500,000 in revenue; the projection for next year is $3 million.


Despite her plans for Aqua Tan’s growth, Nightingale has no intention of taking on partners or investors in the near future.


“I know I’m on the right track,” she said. “I don’t want to have to give up control and have other people calling the shots.”



Aqua Tan Inc.

Founded:

2003


Core Business:

Protective skin care


Employees in 2006:

6


Employees in 2007:

10


Goal:

Becoming a national market product while raising skin cancer awareness


Driving Force:

Desire for quick tans

without the health risks of tanning beds

or streaks and stains associated with some mass-market products

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