How two Leeds entrepreneurs quit the rat race and launched a £1m skincare firm

Wake Skincare was founded by Leeds University friends Alex Mavor and Anton Burton in 2017 after seeing their friends and colleagues complaining about dark circles and bags under their eyes.

Their first product is now Amazon’s best-selling eye gel with over 2,000 reviews and a bottle sold every two minutes on the platform.

Two more products – a face cream and a face mask – followed, with a waiting list of 10,000 when the face mask was launched.

Now the Leeds-based business has a fourth product on the way and is targeting overseas growth.

Alongside Amazon, Wake also sells on its own website and in independent stores in London and Liverpool.

Export is a small percentage of the business but the brand is growing its international reach via its Amazon platform in Hong Kong, Italy and the US.

Mr Burton said: “Over the last month, Italy and Hong Kong have been our two biggest markets. They are two of the leading places in the world for style and beauty.”

A skincare business targeting tired millennials is expected to smash through the 1m turnover milestone next year after taking on the beauty giants and targeting international growth.

One of the biggest challenges for the company is competing with global household names.

Mr Mavor said: “It’s a challenge but it can be turned into our advantage. We don’t have the same advertising budget but people now, particularly millennials, are more interested in buying from independents and knowing the people behind the brand rather than it being a faceless entity.”

The company is on track to double its turnover to around £800,000 this year. Next year it hopes to achieve well over £1m.

Growth in the US is also on the cards over the next 12 months as Wake ramps up its marketing.

“We want to become better known in the UK but we also want to hit the US market hard,” Mr Burton said.

The pair work alongside a chemist in Leeds to develop their products and also manufacture in the city.

Although the brand is aimed at millennial women, the pair have noticed that their products also attract male shoppers.

“I’d say 80-85 per cent of our sales are women but the problems we’re solving are unisex,” Mr Burton said.

Wake Eye Gel is never tested on animals and five per cent of the company’s annual profits are donated to Women’s Aid.