Marine Chevalier, founder of My Beauty Community

Marine Chevalier, founder of My Beauty Community

Today, the application is part of the Top 3 beauty apps on Android and keeps widening its community circle: it already counts almost 50,000 downloads. The founder, Marine Chevalier, started from the simple observation that an increasing number of consumers are interested in sharing their opinions on cosmetic products online. However, these comments raise suspicion and create restraint among people in search of advice who think they are often biased, due to the influence of brands on certain platforms.

In 2017, over 70% of consumers visited online platforms before making a purchase, but 90% of them had doubts about the authenticity of the reviews they read. So, I wanted to create a genuine, neutral platform where real customers would talk about Beauty,” she explains.

Following a ten-year professional marketing career at Doux Me, Birchbox, and Sephora, and after creating and maintaining a beauty blog, Marine Chevalier benefitted from a 360° vision of the industry. In 2017, she partnered with computer scientist and technical director David Moothen to launch My Beauty Community, based on the idea that people would share their opinions within a community of subscribers.

Tests and events

The user shapes up their own profile by answering a few questions to be able to exchange with other community subscribers with a similar profile. “We suggest other profiles of users sharing the same problems and interests, so that they can create a bespoke community to their own image and receive authentic, relevant reviews,” adds Marine Chevalier.

Then, they can have conversations about products, needs, tips, or flops, and they can share their own favourite products and make recommendations. The more active the user, the more points they get in their own kitty, which gives them priority access to product tests at home or to various event experiences.

Consumer insights

The lucrative side of the concept lies in the test campaigns, which are accurately targeted according to the beauty profiles of a community. “We have extremely precise data and we know our subscribers very well, which helps brands very accurately target individuals based on 30 profiling questions, but also on their activities,” says the co-founder. Personal data are absolutely never transmitted to brands. “As regards test campaigns, it is not the brand that manages the shipments to our subscribers’ postal addresses, it is a supplier,” she adds.

Based on these data, My Beauty Community also conducts ad hoc researches at the request of brands . The website generates 250 spontaneous posts per day on average, which represents a valuable source of information for them.

Affiliate program

The other profitable part of the concept relies on the membership to various platforms: it gives access to product flows suggested to the subscribers willing to buy a product directly on the distributor’s website. So far, 60,000 product references have been made available through the Sephora, Feelunique, Nocibé, or Yves Rocher catalogues.

What is also differentiating is that we put people in contact with each other, and they help each other, for example by recommending products. We do not take part in this, we do not push products. And it corresponds to our vision: it is much better to be advised by someone authentic,” explains Marine Chevalier.

Today, My Beauty Community mainly reaches the Millennials generation and is developing in France, Benelux, and North Africa. Right now, they are raising funds for the application, which should be deployed on the global level.