To build a beauty brand from the ground up that requires equal parts instinct, persistence and an unwavering belief in your vision. For the founder of elacia, Bridgette Gale, that vision began with a simple idea: that achieving a healthy, bronzed glow shouldn’t come at the expense of a person’s skin, nor the planet.
Since launching, elacia has carved out its place in the beauty space with a skincare-led approach to self-tanning, creating products designed to nourish the skin while delivering a sun-kissed finish. But behind the polished branding and beautiful bottles is the reality of building a new business — one that comes with its own challenges, lessons and unexpected highlights.
Growing without losing vision
For any emerging brand, growth can bring pressure to move faster, but staying true to the original vision has remained a priority. The advice Bridgette would give to other business owners is simple: “One of the biggest challenges has been managing growth while making sure the quality of the product and brand never gets compromised,” Bridgette says.
Some of the best decisions Bridgette has made have come from understanding what her customers want and adapting accordingly — without losing sight of why the business was created in the first place. “Trust your instincts while also listening closely to your customers,” she says.
A milestone worth celebrating
Creating a small business means facing daily challenges, and learning new things as they pop up, but speak to any business owner and they’ll also tell you to remember to celebrate the milestone moments, as well as the smaller wins. “Selling out of our Sea Foam Tan multiple times since launching has been a huge highlight for me, particularly because elacia is still such a young brand,” Bridgette says.
But while sell-outs are an obvious milestone, the most rewarding part has been something much more personal: seeing customers genuinely love the product, return to repurchase and recommend it to others.
For Bridgette, that response confirmed the original thoughts that sparked the brand’s creation: there was a genuine gap in the market for a more elevated, skincare-led approach to self-tanning.
When it comes to building elacia online, inspiration comes from a mix of worlds — the ocean, skincare, fashion and the way luxury brands create and communicate stories. But there’s also a conscious decision not to make social media feel too polished or overthought. “I try not to overthink social media,” Bridgette says. “Sometimes keeping things natural and simple is best.”
The founder behind every detail
Founder-led content has become an important part of elacia’s identity, with the story behind the product becoming just as important as the product itself. Sharing why she created it, the decisions happening behind the scenes and the realities of building a brand allows customers to see the person and purpose behind the business.
That sense of authenticity is something that carries through the entire brand. The vision and creative direction for elacia have been very founder-led, from identifying the gap in the market and developing the products to the packaging, branding and way the brand communicates. But creating a beauty product is never entirely a one-person job.
“Bringing a beauty product to life requires working with incredible chemists, manufacturers, designers and other specialists, but I’ve remained very hands-on with every part of the brand,” Bridgette says.
Creating with purpose
The next chapter will see elacia continue to expand its range, including a deeper version of its Sea Foam Tan and travel sizes, while growing its retail presence across Australia. “Longer term, the vision has always been to go global,” Bridgette says. “At the heart of that ambition are a few guiding principles that extend beyond business. “I really believe in creating with purpose rather than simply creating more stuff.”
For elacia, that philosophy is reflected in the belief that a healthy glow should come from nourishment, not UV damage. More broadly, the business is being built around quality, authenticity and creating products that genuinely improve a customer’s experience.
It’s a philosophy that also extends to the environment. The ocean has always been a major source of inspiration for Bridgette, making the question of sustainability particularly important. The brand uses refillable glass bottles and has introduced refill options to help reduce unnecessary packaging.
Yet Bridgette is careful not to position sustainability as something that can ever be considered finished. “I think sustainability is about continually looking for ways to do better, as a business and as individuals, rather than claiming to be perfect,” she says.
If you like this story on elacia self-tanning products, check out how Humble Bee is making the world a better place, one bee at a time
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