The Remote CEO Life Podcast

S306: Leaving Law to Create The DREAM Skincare Brand - The Glowcery, with Roshanne Dorsett

• Sophie Biggerstaff • Season 3 • Episode 6

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In this episode of the Remote CEO podcast, I’m joined by Roshanne Dorsett, the inspiring founder of The Glowcery, an award-winning natural skincare brand.

Roshanne shares her personal journey of transitioning from a high-pressure law career to creating a natural skincare brand focused on health and wellness.

We delved into the challenges she faced during this career change, including overcoming limiting beliefs and the pivotal role of networking in building her business.

Our conversation highlights the importance of visibility and putting yourself out there for opportunities rather than waiting for them to come to you.

Connect with Roshanne on LinkedIn here

Shop The Glowcery here

#Skincare #Entrepreneurship #NaturalProducts #PersonalJourney #OvercomingChallenges #Networking #BusinessGrowth #BeautyIndustry #SelfCare #MentalHealth #Ecommerce #PR #InfluencerMarketing #BrandAwareness #NaturalIngredients #CareerChange #DontWaitForOpportunityCreateIt #CareerChangeAdvice #HowToMakeACareerChange

About The Remote CEO Podcast:

This podcast is for freedom-seeking online entrepreneurs, offering practical, actionable advice to help you step up into your new role as CEO by building an online business that works for you - not one you work for.

Hosted by Sophie Biggerstaff, an online business mentor, e-commerce founder, mental health advocate, and full-time digital nomad. 🙋‍♀️

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Sophie (00:01.581)
Hello and welcome back to the Remote CEO podcast. Today I have a guest joining me, which is Roshan Dorsett. She is the founder of The Glow Surrey, an award winning natural skincare brand featured in British Vogue and partnered with Selfridges and Soho House. After leaving a high stress law career and struggling with problematic skin, she's created a skincare brand. So you were shocked obviously by ultra processed additives in skincare and set out to create a cold press, nutrient dense,

products using ethically sourced ingredients. So welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for joining me.

Roshanne Dorsett (00:36.608)
Thank you so much for having me, Sophie. I'm really excited to have this conversation.

Sophie (00:39.539)
Yeah, me too. So tell us a little bit more about your journey. Like tell me a bit more about your background, like where you've come from and where you're at today.

Roshanne Dorsett (00:49.07)
So yeah, hi everyone, I'm Ashanna Sophie Sead and I'm the founder of The Glowcery, a whole food skincare brand built on the belief that what you put on your body should be as healthy and nutritious as what you put into it. So we use cold press, nutrition dense skincare ingredients to create high performance skincare. But before I retrained as a natural skincare formulator and started creating skincare products, I used to work as a criminal law and human rights law paralegal.

So I was handling joint enterprise murder cases and public law cases and the job, yeah, my goodness. I look back at it now and I think, my, I was just in my early 20s and the nature of the job, I had to go to all these high security prisons. I had to go to Crown courts and I was just thinking, I just can't believe younger me had the confidence to just stroll into Belmarsh on her own. Yeah, who does that?

Sophie (01:40.428)
You

Roshanne Dorsett (01:46.88)
It was just an extremely demanding career and whilst I did really enjoy my law degree, actually working in law was just really intense. They don't really teach you the emotional side or the stress management side to dealing with cases at that degree. So I just remember finally getting a job, finally feeling like really happy, you you work for so long for your degree.

And at the time I also was interning for free at various human rights charities. So I'd finally got my city job. And within a year I was just like, this is not making me happy. I can't believe this is kind of like the crescendo moment of my life. I'd finally achieved what I suppose society tells you that you need to get in order to progress through your working career. And I was just extremely unhappy. And I kind of kept ignoring it.

because you as said, I'd finally secured a real job, but it kind of came to like a peak where I just broke down in my kitchen to my mum and my sister and I just remember saying to them, I'm just not happy. This is not making me happy. I'm stressed. I don't feel like I can switch off from the emotional toll of the job. So I just decided to quit. And it was challenging, but I knew I had made the right decision. So that's when...

Sophie (03:13.921)
Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (03:15.414)
When I quit, I was kind of just in a really low spot and I was looking for ways to bring me back to my usual bubbly self. I'm quite, I'm a bubbly person. And the job, it's not that, I suppose it's not the job, but it's just that what came with the job, the emotional stress and everything that came with this job, that just made me feel like really low and down. So I was trying to look for wellbeing options to just try and get me back to my normal bubbly self basically. And that led me down to...

veganism and as I became more conscious of what I was putting into my body naturally then I started looking at my skincare ingredients and I was just shocked that we was paying a premium price for products that were made with subpar and cheap ingredients and that's how then the idea started to retrain as a skincare formula later and eventually launched the Glow Cree. So it's been quite a journey so if you're from on this but I'm glad I'm glad I'm here now yeah.

Sophie (04:00.309)
Mm-hmm.

Sophie (04:09.182)
Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I can imagine like, like you say, you were so young, like to go into some of those like really high pressured environments. And as you say, with no real training on like the emotional stress management piece and

Roshanne Dorsett (04:24.504)
Uh-uh.

Sophie (04:26.644)
Especially, I don't know you're an empath, I'm very much an empath. I feel a lot of emotion about for myself, for other people, I can very clearly see and feel if somebody else is struggling. And I'm sure that that also absorbing so many other emotions is really does take a toll on you. But like you say, you've gone through the training and training for being a lawyer from my understanding is quite intensive. So it's probably feels like after a year into it.

Roshanne Dorsett (04:28.599)
Yes!

Roshanne Dorsett (04:33.387)
Yep.

Roshanne Dorsett (04:49.646)
being a lawyer from my own perspective is quite intense. So it probably feels like after a year into it, you get that.

Sophie (04:56.224)
you get to that point and you're like, like, I've done all of this work to become this thing. And actually I've realized that it's not for me, but I think it's a really brave and bold move to be able to recognize that it wasn't right for you so early on in your career, because you could have got five, six years down the line and been like.

Roshanne Dorsett (05:01.898)
Yeah.

Sophie (05:17.542)
now I don't want to do this anymore. Where actually you were brave enough to say, well, I've given it a go for a year, a decent enough time to know whether you like something or not, and then be like, this isn't making me happy. I think a lot of people will get to that point, even after a year, and be like, well, I've trained for five years to become this doctor or lawyer or whatever it is that you're doing. And you've invested all this money and all of this time. So then they don't feel like they can leave it. So I think...

Roshanne Dorsett (05:32.718)
Thank you

Sophie (05:46.603)
Well done you for recognising that that wasn't your path or your journey that you were meant to be on and stepping away from it because ultimately what's the point in working if it's making us miserable? Like it doesn't make any sense.

Roshanne Dorsett (05:58.562)
That's exactly what I told myself. That's exactly what I told myself. And even I look back to younger me and I think, wow, you had that confidence within yourself to say, you know what, family, friends, life, society, I can't put myself under this stress. And it's right. I didn't really understand what an empath was back then. I kind of just thought, why is all these emotions so affecting me? But now as I've got an older...

Sophie (06:12.467)
Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (06:26.136)
and I've looked into more, learned a bit more about spirituality. Now I understand why I was like that, but yeah, I just give grace to my younger self because it wasn't easy, if I'm honest. There was so much that I had to overcome to make that decision, but I'm proud of myself for doing it.

Sophie (06:41.996)
I'm sure. No, I'm sure. And what did you feel like you had to overcome? Like, did you have any like limiting beliefs? Was there a moment where you're like, I can't quit, but I need to quit. I think sometimes people need to be put in that breaking point situation where you are really, really, really unhappy, or it's making it, taking a massive toll on your mental health to get to the point of making a change. But it sounds like you caught it quite early, like where you weren't happy. What kind of, what did, what?

process, your mindset process, did you have to overcome in order to take that leap and move into the next thing that you then went on to work on?

Roshanne Dorsett (07:18.306)
Yeah, I definitely done a small pros and cons list. I put everything that, you know, was working out for me. I had a job, I had secure income. I was, I did enjoy the work and then I just put the cons and just stepping back and looking at the cons, I was just like, well, she can't be doing this. You absolutely can't be doing this. And then I just...

I just really spoke to friends and family. I spoke to my sister. My sister's really influential in my life. And she was just like, Rosh, I can see that you're just a shell of yourself. Every time, I know every time you're waking up, I can see that you're procrastinating because you don't want to get on the train to London and go to your job. So really just trusting that I would be okay. And also allowing myself to not really think about what others thought of me.

Because with working in a city law job, it does come with, I suppose, like a certain career status. You know, I can confidently say I work in the city and I work in a law firm and I'm working on all these big cases. So I suppose the fear of judgment I had to put aside and also the fear of embarrassment going back to tell my friends and family that, yeah, guys, you know, I you saw me studying hard for three years at uni.

and I've got my job now, but I'm walking away from this and walking away to then try and carve out something in an unknown arena such as entrepreneurship. And then considering that I didn't have beauty contacts when I started the glossary, was also that fear that I wasn't good enough because I had been in that kind of stringent nine to five working life with law.

that then stepping out into somewhere else that I didn't really know how to build a beauty brand if I'm honest. I didn't know the right people that I needed to speak to and it's just so, running your own business is just chaotic. Whereas in law, whilst it is stressful, there's processes. You go through the same processes to start a case and see it out through trial or see it out through to your client not being...

Roshanne Dorsett (09:34.702)
like a not guilty charge or whatever so there's steps that you have to go through but with entrepreneurship every day is a different day oh my god there's no there's no point yeah there's no process it's actually yeah sometimes i look back i think oh my god you've chosen this career from law but it's just it's just mind-boggling like you and i could do the same thing and we're not going to get the same results so it is just it's yeah it's just it's just it's just

minefield but there was a lot that I knew that I was confident in. I knew that I really enjoyed natural skincare. I knew that with the right accreditation behind me and the right skill set I could make incredible products. I was just like okay Rosh this is it's not looking it's not looking great currently but you can either stay here and you know what this experience is going to be like or you can leave and you can try and create a life for yourself or you know you're going to be happy.

Yeah, there was a lot of fears, but I eventually decided to try and adjust back myself really.

Sophie (10:34.955)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, I completely resonate. Like I came from a background before I started my business in corporate fashion buying, which again comes with processes. And I've learned, don't get me wrong, every company you work for has its different processes. It's probably not quite as intensive and structured as law, but still there's processes, right? Like it's structured. You're in a corporate environment. There's politics, there's office rules to follow, all of that stuff. So when I then ventured out and did my own thing, I was like,

Roshanne Dorsett (10:42.638)
Roshanne Dorsett (10:55.662)
still the president is structured.

Roshanne Dorsett (11:01.474)
Yep.

Sophie (11:06.75)
I've got no structure anymore. is and I have to be the structure and I.

Roshanne Dorsett (11:08.032)
Yeah, I have to be the structure!

Sophie (11:14.956)
I'm chaos, in all honesty. I have no focus. My life is chaos. I'm trying to rein it in currently. It is definitely, but I thrive, honestly, off of chaos. I thrive off of change. I don't want to, but I do. So I've really had to learn the skill of creating structure in my day, creating structure in my business, putting processes into those businesses. And although I did all of that, I could do that in a corporate job.

Roshanne Dorsett (11:26.498)
Right, okay.

Sophie (11:42.253)
because there was somebody sat there telling me this is what needs to be done to achieve X result. But when you have that free rein over your own business, it's so challenging to be able to sit there and be like, you have to work these hours, you have to put in this process because this process is gonna be rinsed and repeated over and over again. So there's no point in reinventing the wheel every time you're gonna do it. But I can totally understand that. And going into a new industry as well, like I actually started my business and it was still kind of.

Roshanne Dorsett (11:44.768)
huh.

Roshanne Dorsett (11:56.974)
in this process because this process is going to be repeated over and over again so there's no point in reinventing the wheel every time you're going to do it but I can totally understand that and going into a new industry as well like I actually start my business and it's still kind of somewhat in the industry that I just let go of for you, you were going into a brand new industry so I can imagine even more limiting things coming up in that part where like you say you didn't have content

Sophie (12:10.88)
somewhat in the industry that I just left, but for you, you were going into a brand new industry. So I can imagine even more limiting beliefs coming up in that part where, like you say, you didn't have the contacts, you didn't have that experience essentially in that skincare world. So how did you go about kind of getting those contacts, getting the experience, understanding how to put one step.

Roshanne Dorsett (12:24.014)
experience in the future world. how did you go about getting those kinds of experiences, understanding what has the one step in front of the other? I'm sure that you were maybe learning more in a new world. I did. So with me, how my brain works is I just have to go get the data. I have to go get the statistics, the reports, the trend reports that are going to back up what I'm saying.

Sophie (12:33.977)
in front of the other. I'm sure that you felt like a newborn baby learning to walk in a new world.

Roshanne Dorsett (12:52.302)
initially before I even knew kind of what brand I knew it was going to be a skincare brand but before the I suppose the idea of what the GlowCityBrand is now I was just like you need to do your research Ross you need to do your research if you get challenged by anyone you can say no actually this trend report says X Y & Z so I spent a lot of time in the British Library's Business and IP Centre

And you can access a lot of research and trend reports, which are usually behind expensive paywalls. So I looked at Mintel and they had really in-depth reports about customer data, market trends in the UK, EU and worldwide. And then I looked at adjacent industries such as food and drink, just to see whether there'll be any crossovers of food and drink trends that we're now starting to see in the skincare and wellness department.

So I really, really, really got really comfortable with who I wanted my consumers to be, what skincare brands they were buying, where they were buying it, what also their wellness or lifestyle activities looked for. And then that's how I then started cultivating what I wanted the glossary brand to look like. But in terms of then going out and building my, I suppose, my beauty industry community, a lot of it initially was online.

So I would just follow, I would just read up from the magazines, for example, British Vogue, and I'd be like, okay, so who is writing about the beauty industry? And I'd be like, okay, I'll go follow them on Instagram, start engaging with their posts, start commenting. And then naturally, then if you found it in your industry, you'll go to an event and you'll see someone, you'll see them or you'll see someone that knows them and then start connecting with them in real life.

even though the, I say the beauty industry is quite small, you know, could, yeah, I don't know everyone in the beauty industry, but you know someone that knows someone that knows someone. So putting, putting myself out there in real life was really a turning point for me. And now I feel comfortable and confident that I have incredible like beauty founder friends, journalist friends, influencers. So was a hard graft, but.

Sophie (15:03.892)
Yeah.

Sophie (15:11.904)
That's great.

Roshanne Dorsett (15:14.698)
At that time I'd like it to lose right? I just come from a stressful law career. was just like no, you're actually enjoying to speak to British Vogue journalists. You've read British Vogue all your life. How incredible that this is now your life.

Sophie (15:18.25)
For sure.

Sophie (15:31.137)
That's cool. mean, yeah, you basically validated your idea. You started where most people should start, but usually don't and followed the data, looked, checked out the facts, which is what I would call the data, to understand like what opportunity did this business potentially have? Did it have legs?

Roshanne Dorsett (15:34.19)
Mm-hmm

Roshanne Dorsett (15:45.442)
Yeah.

Sophie (15:52.405)
identify that yes, it does have legs, let's run with it and then put all of the measures in place to help you get it to where you wanted it to be. And I think there is so much power in networking and I...

Roshanne Dorsett (15:56.979)
Yeah.

Sophie (16:05.34)
Same thing, like I definitely have got quite a lot of clients through networking in person. Naturally, I'm a nomad, right? So I travel a lot. So, but when I was in London, I used to run networking events for founders in the e-commerce world. And the power of those events was incredible. Like it would either be online or it would be in person and we'd have such a big community of like people that would then go and work with each other or then they would come and work with me or my co-founder of that Clare. And we would have such this like massive

Roshanne Dorsett (16:18.315)
Nice.

Sophie (16:35.244)
community of like people that were just interested in the same thing and I think there's so much to be said about collaboration over competition and I think a lot of people particularly in the fashion and beauty space I would say are

Roshanne Dorsett (16:41.358)
Mm-hmm.

Sophie (16:47.616)
quite bad at sharing information because they think that people are going to steal the information and run with it for themselves. But actually there's so much power in sharing information because what somebody else's strength might be, might be your weakness. So you and vice versa. So if you can collaborate rather than see it as like a threat or a competition, I think that there's so much power in that. So I think that's a great way. And clearly that's how you've built your brand is by like having those contacts and networking and not just

Roshanne Dorsett (16:50.958)
Yes.

Sophie (17:17.55)
from a business perspective, but also I assume on a friendship perspective as well, you've built solid relationships there.

Roshanne Dorsett (17:21.602)
Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (17:25.038)
100 % and even with networking I actually go into it like I want to learn about you. It's not transactional and I think people can tell when you're like I want to be your friend because I know that you're gonna introduce me to someone and that's not how you build everlasting connections. People can see through that in authenticity so I was generally just going in it being like I've been a fan of your work it would be great to connect and

Sophie (17:36.595)
Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (17:54.486)
I don't know, just chat, have a match, I go for a coffee, whatever. even from what we've had the glow through five years now, there's people, influencers, editors that I've been supporting from the beginning who I'm still friends with now. And yeah, you can tell, you can tell. So I would say to anyone listening, you have to go in with authentic intentions.

Sophie (18:09.138)
Amazing.

Yeah.

Sophie (18:16.394)
Definitely. So tell us a more about the close through then. Like, so obviously you started out like from the networking piece, doing the research, like then how did you build the business? And I know that you use some personal savings to start the business. So where did you invest that money? I think the one big barrier I see when I work with founders of e-commerce businesses, particularly, is investment is I, maybe they don't have anything to invest. So then obviously it's very difficult to get your brand off the ground because

Roshanne Dorsett (18:23.214)
Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (18:39.435)
Yeah

Sophie (18:46.388)
naturally things cost money and it's very hard to do everything organically without any investment but also there's a mindset thing of like but it's a risk to invest so how did you, where did you invest, how did you invest and was there any kind of like barrier for you to do that particularly with your own personal savings?

Roshanne Dorsett (18:57.518)
How did you invest and was there any kind of barrier for you to do that?

Roshanne Dorsett (19:27.606)
you can that are needed especially if you've got an e-commerce brand so I had to invest in professional branding to do a really high quality logo and just brand vision and brand book and then use some of the money for website hosting I am on Shopify but I just wanted to just make the

website just reflect more of the GlowSeries brand values and then professional photography. think you can tell, I understand that some people might not have the investment to pay for professional photography but I think especially when you're starting off at Ecom, being able to see a professional image versus an image that you've taken on your iPhone and you've taken on your own camera

is just, I think it's just table stakes at the point, especially in the beginning of the journey. And especially also if you want to get into press, because they will ask you for high res images and as well as, so branding, professional photography, website development. And then I also used it for bulk buying of ingredients, my packaging, and I then had to put the products through product safety testing. So that was where the bulk of the investment went on. Yeah.

Sophie (20:38.037)
Mm-hmm.

Sophie (20:41.835)
Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (20:41.88)
So it's possible to do, and I think I could have, if I was really creative, I could have done it on a even smaller budget, but I think it was around three, three K, three, four K, yeah.

Sophie (20:53.674)
Nice. And where, when did you start to see some results in terms of like when you launched it and you put the sales out there, obviously, most businesses are not profitable for their first like three to five years in some cases. So like, did you start to see revenue coming in that helped reassure and validate your idea that this was the right decision for you to invest that money? Or was it like a slow start and then you saw some growth over a period of time?

Roshanne Dorsett (21:18.486)
Yeah, so it was an interesting time because we launched during COVID. So March 2020, so I launched on the 11th of March 2020. And I think we went into lockdown in the UK around the 23rd, 24th. So at that time, I thought, you're joking me. You've just gone through all of this with your law career to now launch a beauty brand and the world is shutting down. But it did turn out to be quite a good time for the glossary and for other skincare brands as well, because everyone was at home. Everyone was, I suppose, doing

Sophie (21:22.494)
Okay.

Sophie (21:28.746)
Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (21:47.584)
Online calls, their skincare became more of an importance to them. So I believe within, it was like four months, we started seeing a lot of traction. So we got featured in British Vogue on ITV this morning with Sarah Drossel, the beauty editor of the Sunday Times, and then also in Stylus. And that's when I started seeing the orders start rolling in. And it was also during like the Black Lives Matter movement.

and that was again a hyper focus on black owned brands so I think the culmination of Covid people want to support more black owned brands within like four months we started seeing traction which was great yeah I know

Sophie (22:31.724)
Yeah, it sounds like everything aligned in the right way for you to get yourself seen and I think that that's the biggest problem usually. Like I have my own e-commerce business and to be honest it's a bit of an afterthought at the moment because I've got other things going on in my first business but...

Roshanne Dorsett (22:35.31)
It did, it did.

Sophie (22:51.274)
The biggest problem that we struggle with is being seen. Like we do all of the things. And like you said at the beginning, what you could do the exact same thing as me. We could have exactly the same strategy, but the results are to be completely different.

Roshanne Dorsett (22:52.014)
Literally.

Sophie (23:04.394)
We are very much struggling to be seen right now because we haven't got a lot of budget. Like what we've invested into the business is like bare minimum at the moment. So we are having to look at like ways to invest and fund that business to get us seen. Cause ultimately sometimes organic doesn't work. Organic strategies aren't right for every single business and ours I don't think it is. I think we need to be looking at paid marketing strategies. But what was your primary route of marketing to get yourself seen and spread the word out there? Obviously you said about like being featured in different places. Was it solely that or like...

Roshanne Dorsett (23:19.36)
Yeah.

Sophie (23:34.318)
where you're using kind of more organic strategies and internal processes from like social media perspective or ads to help you complement those other strategies that you had in terms of like brand awareness, brand building through PR strategies.

Roshanne Dorsett (23:49.088)
Yeah so I have to say PR was the bulk of it. Yeah we used an incredible freelance PR who just, she just went on a rampage. was incredible. Like it was like week after week we was getting featured in some well-known press articles. As I did mention British Vogue but we was also in like Cosmo, Glamour. We then was able to do a pop-up in Box Park.

Sophie (23:53.142)
Cool.

Roshanne Dorsett (24:17.102)
So the PR side of it, but it was also then the influencer side. We were heavily gifted in the first couple of years from the influencers that I had started building connections with initially. And yeah, they would just, I UCG wasn't a term back then, but then they would create content, they would post about it. And then through that, it grew through their communities. So then people started coming over to the glossaries page and then...

A lot of it was also showing the before and afters and I know it's just such a small thing but I think natural skincare still has that, I can't think of the word, reputation of being for people that already have great skin. People don't see it as if you've got skincare issues you can use natural skincare so a part of our strategy was also showing that look guys if you have eczema you can use our body butter.

If you have hyperpigmentation or dull skin, can use our Clean Green Superfood Serum. Softened with dry lips, our sweet orange superfood lip balm is for you. So showing, being able to see physically, see I suppose that's why they say a picture paints a thousand words, right? Being able to see that, okay, this isn't just a cool looking skincare brand. It actually is high performance and gets results was also one of the drivers that helped.

Sophie (25:19.627)
Yeah.

Sophie (25:35.509)
Yeah, definitely. It sounds like you had like a very clear unique selling point that the customers wanted. So tell me a bit about the misconceptions that people have around those skincare ingredients and a bit about like also how does like, you mentioned that ultra processed products that you wanted to kind of move away from and make the grocery difference that like, how do they normally impact our health? And what's that connection between that and skincare and why your products are different essentially?

Roshanne Dorsett (25:38.942)
Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (26:03.726)
Yeah, it's just from a beauty consumer perspective, I think the biggest misconception is a few but the biggest one for me is that luxury price tags equal luxury ingredients and that's just it's not the blanket statement for all luxury brands. Some luxury brands do it incredibly well but I was even recently in just a beauty department and I was reading these well-known luxury brands ingredients list and the first ingredients is our petrochemicals which are really cheap

not don't really have a nutritional value to the skin they're extremely costly to our skin's health they can disrupt our hormones the production of them can severely severely damage people's respiratory health and they're just not good for the environment so I was reading this brand and I was just like this serum is like 64 pounds and the first ingredient is a cheap petrochemical called

dimethicone, dimethicone, and then there's also like paraffin, liquidium and mineral oil and they're just, they're just not nutritionally beneficial. So I'm like, how can you as a luxury brand, who's got all this money for expensive marketing, not invest in a whole food nutrition, rich skincare product. And it's just, yeah, it's just really infuriating. It's just, yeah, it infuriating that.

people are parting with their hard earned money on products that have no nutritional benefit to their skin and have such a costly detrimental effect to the environment that we might not see it because we live in the UK but in countries further afield they're suffering the impacts of that. So yeah it's just it's just uncomfortable that the beauty industry has such ugly processes behind it and

really and truly I think the customer should know more about it so they're able to make a choice. If customers knew that that ingredient was causing health issues in people from around the world, they buy it? But it's because, I suppose, we're duped by the big marketing spend or the celebrity endorsement that they then buy that product because it's got that illusion of luxury to it when really...

Roshanne Dorsett (28:29.064)
extremely cheap ingredients in there. So with the glossary I wanted to make sure that we were creating a whole food nutrition dense skincare products that were high performance but were also beneficial to your skin and the environment. just thought as a I suppose as a natural skincare brand it would be kind of an oxymoron to use natural ingredients but then not also then take care of mother nature so

sustainability, suppose, high performance ingredients comes hand in hand in the grocery. we can, if we're like, we're tiny compared to some of these conglomerates, right? We have a 0.01 % one of the marketing budget that they have. So if we can do it, they can do it. I just don't, yeah, I suppose some of these other brands, the values are different. For sure.

Sophie (29:20.0)
for sure. And like the most important part is that you like stick to your values because obviously that is what makes you unique and people come to you. So I think that that's really great that you've been able to carve your own space in a very crowded marketplace. a lot of, there's a lot of brands, beauty brands, new ones popping up all the time as well. So it's great that you've been able to carve out your space and really stick to your unique selling point and stick to your values. Cause that's obviously why people come into you, which is, which is amazing. But like you saying, like there's just a massive lack of education.

Roshanne Dorsett (29:24.558)
Mm.

Roshanne Dorsett (29:34.732)
Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (29:45.078)
Yeah.

Sophie (29:49.887)
think around the things that are actually good for us. And even for example, like in the wellbeing world, let's say like in the supplements industry, for example, the amount, if you go into Holland and Barrett, 90 % of the things on their shelves are full of like fillers and things that are not actually have any benefit to your health in those magnesium supplements that you're taking. We are educated that we need these magnesium supplements like from like wellness experts,

Roshanne Dorsett (29:50.142)
Yeah!

Roshanne Dorsett (29:59.63)
you

Roshanne Dorsett (30:04.14)
Mm.

Sophie (30:19.79)
online for example, but we're not actually shown like what part of that is actually going to be beneficial to our health and what to look out for in ingredients lists to make sure that it's going to be beneficial for our health. Now there's two issues I guess with that especially the same thing in the beauty world is like

Roshanne Dorsett (30:24.046)
what part of that is actually going be beneficial.

Roshanne Dorsett (30:33.562)
Yeah.

Sophie (30:37.832)
Why is somebody not looking at that on like a top line level? Like why you've had to do those safety testings? Why is somebody not looking at it on top line level and being like, well, these ingredients are actually a waste of time for us. Why are we still using those? Why are we still deeming them to be safe for health? Because actually some of them aren't. And we're not educated enough to know about it. But yeah, equally it's also like the brands.

Roshanne Dorsett (30:56.322)
No!

Sophie (31:04.4)
the brand's responsibility to say we don't want to use those things and then also the consumer's responsibility to educate themselves to understand like what's in these ingredients what they're putting on their skin and in their body so I think yeah it's great that you've come at it from like a brand perspective of saying right this is how we're going to create change in this industry and hopefully hopefully more brands follow suit of that as well because it's it's it's important.

Roshanne Dorsett (31:08.423)
Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (31:28.752)
Hopefully you would It's extremely important and you think I think the bigger brands know that I just think I Suppose you can get it in like fast fashion some some brands are like money grabs some brands actually create long lasting sustainable pieces I suppose the same can go for beauty because there's no way that these bigger brands

don't know where they're getting their products from. Petrochemicals are derivatives of crude oil which then makes petrol. They know this but yet they're still putting it as a first ingredient in some of their expensive serums. just... It's money!

Sophie (32:03.433)
Yeah.

Well, it's money, right? It all comes down to money. It all comes down to money. And I had the same conversation, but in a completely different topic yesterday around like schools and how schools spend their money. It's the same in any organization, any business that has targets to hit, particularly if they are on the stock market, like they have to hit certain margins, they have to hit certain revenue goals, they have to hit everything, right? Like based on like their share value. So like there's so much more if you factor in like

Roshanne Dorsett (32:12.695)
Mm.

Sophie (32:33.934)
these big companies like, let's just say like L'Oreal in like the beauty world, there's so much more that goes into it rather than just like creating good products. There is so much more. And I know that from working with businesses, if I think about the time when I worked for Burberry, for example, every single decision I made had to factor in that share price, everything. it's so, and it was crazy to me, like to the point of like, we were taking products off of the shop floor because we didn't want to hit more sales than

Roshanne Dorsett (32:54.728)
Wow.

Sophie (33:03.864)
our target. Like it was it was wild. So there's so many more decisions I think so that factor into that even down to the level of like ingredient lists based on like those bigger companies and bigger organisations. So yeah, it's wild everything, everything in especially in big companies comes down to money is wild.

Roshanne Dorsett (33:17.838)
Yeah, it's wild. especially in big companies, comes out with money. Wow. That's insane. Taking products off the shelf. Wow. I do my best.

Sophie (33:27.444)
Yeah, it was crazy. I blew my mind when I was experiencing these things. But yeah, it happens. And it's a hidden part of any kind of commercial business, I think that.

That is the goal. like, I mean, obviously any every business is created to generate money, of course. But there's healthy ways to go about that and unhealthy ways to go about that. So commendments to you for going about it in a healthy way. So just to kind of understand like your journey then over the past five years, obviously you launched throughout Covid, you've got quite a lot of press, which I think is amazing to hear that side of your journey, because from experience of working with

Roshanne Dorsett (33:41.55)
you

Roshanne Dorsett (33:46.574)
course.

Roshanne Dorsett (33:50.805)
Yes.

Thank you.

Roshanne Dorsett (34:00.974)
you've watched throughout COVID, you've got quite a lot of friends, which I think is amazing, is that side of your family.

Sophie (34:09.262)
a lot of e-commerce businesses, PR is the afterthought. Like right there thinking about, let's do everything on social media, let's do everything in ads. PR, most people don't even know what it is until like way later down the line. So I think that's amazing that you've built your reputation and your brand awareness and through that to start off with, because I think that that lays a really solid foundation for growth in your business. Where are you today? Like how would you say the business has evolved in the past five years based on the fact that you've been stocked in?

Roshanne Dorsett (34:18.668)
Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (34:32.558)
Yeah.

Sophie (34:39.192)
Is it Selfridges and Soho House or partnered with So House and Selfridges and then you've been featured in British Vogue? Like where is your business now and where do you kind of want it to go in the future?

Roshanne Dorsett (34:49.558)
I would still say we're still a extremely young business, still really getting to grips with the entrepreneur journey. But I would definitely say that we have built a solid, solid brand. Even when I do my in real life pop ups, if I go to a networking event, I'm speaking to people that I just connected with and they're like, no, I've definitely heard of the Glow Cee, Glow Cee is a great brand name, love what you're doing. So we're still, we're still on the

of what I see the brand being, but I definitely think we've got the foundations right. We've got really great micro community. We've got incredible effective products. I feel like we've got a really different and strong USP and brand story. So we have the makings of an incredible brand. We're still in that, I suppose, early stage hustle phase where I am trying to...

cross the chasm into like scaling and growing but it's exciting because again I put back to what I was doing in law just feeling really I suppose demotivated now I'm like no no no Rosh you're working in your gift keep going even when yeah even when and I'm sure you can attest there's days there's days where I'm like what is going on what am I doing

Sophie (36:07.094)
What am I doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (36:12.152)
But see it as just now I just see it as part of the process. So we're growing, it's exciting in the direction that we're moving in. We've got two new products that are launching this year. It's taken me again, hasn't the formulation process hasn't been as smooth as I wanted it to be. was a product that I was last year. was like, it will be launched by April that is still in its research and development phase, but I'm planning to get out.

by this summer. This is one of the, I suppose, negatives of formulating products by yourself. The process just takes a lot of time, but initial initial testings and before and afters are great. So I know we've got a good foundation for a great brand, a great product that works. I'm excited to get that out. for the, for CBO, especially 2025, we're really just focusing on building

and engaging more with our community. So we've been doing that a lot with, I've done a, I suppose, focus group, I just done it online with our VIP customers, just really getting to know a bit more about them. Like I do know what products they buy. I can see that in the backend of my Shopify, but just really understanding what they like, what they don't like.

where they hang out, where they spend their money, what they prefer to splurge on versus save on, what they look for in the brand. So really just getting a better understanding of them and how I can better serve them and then use that in our new product development and our marketing strategies.

Sophie (37:50.285)
amazing and you feel more fulfilled now like with everything you're doing you're happy you stepped outside of like those societal norms and you can see this kind of being your your path now.

Roshanne Dorsett (37:58.936)
see this kind of thing.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, it's still a challenge like it's and again as we mentioned at the beginning of this conversation, not knowing, I suppose we're just doing from blind faith right, was before in our previous careers there were strategies and we knew what the outcome would be. So there are times where I have to then get myself back into my growth mindset and be like no rush, remember where you started and remember what now, now see what you've actually built and just keep going.

Sophie (38:14.507)
Mm-hmm.

Roshanne Dorsett (38:30.444)
Just keep going. As long as I keep going, I know that I'm going to achieve what I need to achieve. So yeah, definitely feeling happy, definitely feeling fulfilled. And it is just hearing our community talk about our products. You know, we've had people that have had eczema for X amount of years have used our body butter and had really transformative results within 90 days. And it's that. And it's that that keeps me going that no, you're not just doing it because you want to create pretty products that sit on the shelf. You're actually...

Sophie (38:35.713)
Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (38:57.974)
empowering people to feel naturally confident in your skin. So that keeps me that keeps me going. Yeah. Thanks.

Sophie (39:01.108)
Yeah, amazing. Well, I think the story is very inspirational going from law to starting your own thing. And like you say, it's not easy. I can vouch for that.

it is worthwhile if it allows you to live the lifestyle that you want to live, if it allows you to wake up every day feeling fulfilled and happy. think starting your own thing and venturing into entrepreneurship is worth the struggle because ultimately you could be waking up. Like, yeah, there's obviously struggles that you're working through for sure, I'm sure. But like, what's the price like versus like the struggles that you would be having if you were still in that law career, really feeling unfulfilled? What price would that pay on your mental health and your physical well-being versus the

Roshanne Dorsett (39:29.909)
Definitely.

Sophie (39:42.67)
that you're facing now, at least finding enjoyment and fulfilment in everything that you're doing. So I think that there's a lot to be said for the different types of struggles that you're facing through entrepreneurship versus the ones that you would be having if you were still in that career.

Roshanne Dorsett (39:46.56)
Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Exactly. I can't remember, me and my sister were having a conversation and I can't remember who said this quote but she repeated it to me. like choose your hard. Everything's, yes, everything's going to be difficult right? Everything worth working for is going to take a lot of hard work. I could be still working hard in my law degree, in my law career being upset or I could work hard in alignment with what I'm doing now. So yeah, choose your hard guys.

Sophie (40:04.436)
Yes. Yes.

Sophie (40:14.313)
Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I feel the same. I love it. I like that advice. Amazing. So where can people find the glossary then?

Roshanne Dorsett (40:27.182)
So we're on all socials, so predominantly Instagram, at the Glowcery Shop, we're also on TikTok with the same username, Twitter as well, and you can find me, I'm on Instagram, Roshan Dorsett, no, Rosh Dorsett on Instagram, and then Roshan Dorsett on TikTok, I'm also on LinkedIn if you wanna connect on there as well.

Sophie (40:47.272)
Amazing. And just before we go, what's the number one tip that you would give someone that is looking to expand their network? Because obviously you've done so much work in building out your network and that's got you some really great results in your business. What would you, what advice would you give someone that wants to go down that path as well?

Roshanne Dorsett (41:06.477)
That's a really good question. I would say make a list of the people that you want to engage with. Check out them on digital first. will say digital's a really, even though it's not person to person, digital's a really great way just to start, I suppose, putting yourself in their arena, supporting their content, maybe dropping a comment. That's an open-ended question, so they might respond.

And then when you're seeing them in real life, just keep it calm. Don't go in with, my God, you're amazing. Can I ask you X, Y, and Z question? Let's you just go in as you're talking to a friend. I read the article that you wrote on British Vogue. I really liked it because X, Y, and Z. Would you be open to having a match? Do you want to go if you do have time for a call? Try and go into networking.

Sophie (41:44.192)
Ha.

Roshanne Dorsett (42:02.354)
as you would trying to make a new friend. Don't try and go into it as a business transaction because as I said, people will spot that a mile off and just be comfortable with what you're bringing to the table as well. Don't just feel like, don't shrink yourself. We do, even now I put myself in situations, I'm like, my God, that's like the CFO of Sephora. can't go and speak to her. But I'm like, no, absolutely I can. If I'm in the same room.

Sophie (42:13.515)
Yeah.

Sophie (42:28.308)
Why not? She's just another human being. Yeah.

Roshanne Dorsett (42:29.75)
Yeah, if I'm in the same room, I'm just going to go introduce myself. And if you ever find that you get that awkward piece of silence, I always say, so what's something exciting that you're working on at the moment? And, you know, it just flips it. So it's not so it's not as heavy as, yeah, I don't know that awkward silence. And then people like to talk about what makes them happy. Right. So then that's it. That's a good icebreaker. Yeah.

Sophie (42:55.558)
That's so good. Like to have a backup question is so important, I think, in those circumstances. And that's a great one because, like you say, people will, you'll be able to flip the mood instantly if someone's talking about something they're actually excited by. That's really cool. Amazing. Well, congratulations on all of your successes with the Glowstree. I'm excited to see kind of what comes next for it and yourself. And thank you so much for joining me today. It's been great chatting to you.

Roshanne Dorsett (42:59.179)
Always.

Roshanne Dorsett (43:02.946)
Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Thank you.

Roshanne Dorsett (43:20.514)
Thank you for having me, I've really really really loved turning to you too. Take care, bye!

Sophie (43:23.725)
Amazing! Thank you so much!