A plastic surgeon, Sam Speron, has scored an enviable win by garnering a spot for his Neaclear skin-care products on the store shelves at Ulta, the Romeoville-based cosmetics and skin-care retailer.
Ulta’s 198 stores this month started carrying six Neaclear products: an acne wash, a scar-healing gel, an anti-aging eye cream and facial cleanser, toner and moisturizers.
The products’ key ingredient is oxygen, a vital substance to help the skin hold moisture.
The products also contain Vitamins C, E, A and D, and are made of all-natural ingredients.
Speron, 36, has had slow, steady progress winning chain retailers to his products, despite lack of a household name.
He estimated he spent $2 million to $3 million in marketing and research and development.
“We think we have a great product, but the marketing will come around slower for us” than for global consumer products, said Speron, a plastic surgeon in northwest suburban Park Ridge who created his own skin-care company 3½ years ago.
An Ulta spokeswoman said Monday that the retailer chose Neaclear because it liked Speron’s Chicago roots, his credibility as a dermatologist and the affordable prices.
The acne wash sells for $7.49, the scar smoother for $19.99, and the facial-care products from $14.99 to $19.99.
Mass marketers are snapping up anti-aging products because baby boomers are spending more on them, said Tina Wells, CEO of Buzz Marketing Group, a Voorhees, N.J.-based lifestyle marketing firm.
Speron patented a technology to stabilize liquid oxygen and inject it into skin-care products in an effort to make skin softer and less oily.
Speron worked for a year and a half to develop the technology that uses hydrogen peroxide as a carrier and stabilizes oxygen in liquid form.
Speron has found success selling his Neaclear hand soap and hand and body lotions on the Web and at local Sunset Foods, Kroger and Treasure Island grocery stores.
He also found a niche in the Canadian market, where Neaclear products are sold at Shopper’s Drug Mart, grocery chains Katz and Loblaws and soon at Jean Coutu pharmacy stores.
Yet Speron expects his sales to the mass market will eventually outgrow sales of his higher-priced products with extra ingredients to doctors’ offices.
Indeed, anti-aging products are rapidly expanding in drugstores, grocery stores and department stores, as well as in specialty stores such as Sephora.
CVS drugstores has partnered with dermatologist Jeffrey Dover to sell Skin Effects, Bath & Body Works sells products by Dr. Patricia Wexler, and J.C. Penney has started setting up Sephora boutiques inside its stores nationwide.
Yet it is difficult to win a niche in the $185 billion worldwide beauty-care market, said Lauren DeSanto, an equity analyst at Chicago-based Morningstar.
“Beauty care is the most competitive and heated part of the consumer-products market, and skin care tops the list,” she said.
-Adam
Surgeon’s skin-care products gain ground (Chicago Sun-Times)
Local plastic surgeon Sam Speron has scored an enviable win by garnering a spot for his Neaclear skin-care products on the store shelves at Ulta, the Romeoville-based cosmetics and skin-care retailer.