Aesop co-founder Suzanne Santos shares the secrets behind cult skincare company success

The Australian luxury cosmetics brand has fans around the world including in the Middle East

Susanne Santos is the co-founder of skincare brand Aesop. Photo: Aesop

“It always comes down to the science,” explains Suzanne Santos. With its minimalist packaging and top-notch formulas, Aesop has earned a cult-like status among its clientele, who appreciate its unfussy products, pared-back design and uncompromising approach to the efficiency of its offerings. Steering clear of wild claims about wonder potions, Aesop instead prefers to position itself as a knowledgeable ally, diligently perfecting the optimum skincare products for your age, whatever that may be.

Santos is living proof of this, with the kind of peachy skin that comes from a lifetime of expert care. Not that the company – which is now owned by L'Oreal – is judgemental, Santos explains. She says that it is never too late, even for those who have already opted for steps such as skin tightening surgery or injectables. “We’re not demonising," she explains,"we’re saying come to us thereafter. We’ve got the products that will help your skin to endure.”

Launched in a Melbourne hair salon in 1987 by Dennis Paphitis – with Santos as his right hand – Aesop was born with a rebellious spirit and only four products that delivered high-quality ingredients to a new audience. Eschewing wasteful packaging from the beginning, except where legally mandated, and with no flashy marketing campaigns, the company has grown organically over the years mainly via word of mouth.

Its products are simple to use, made with good quality ingredients and blended in such a way to bring the best out of every constituent. “The ingredients we buy are there to perform. When we choose magnesium ascorbyl phosphate as a vitamin C, that is intentional,” Santos explains. “The honouring of science and what it can create, more than a reverence to it, is what we are.”

These formulations include bestsellers such as the Parsley Seed Anti-Oxidant Intense Serum, which utilises the natural antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties of parsley seed to fight free radicals, and the lightweight, vitamin-enriched Exalted Eye Serum, which is crafted for the delicate area around the eyes.

The Sublime Replenishing Night Masque, meanwhile, is loaded with antioxidant-rich sodium ascorbyl phosphate, frankincense and vitamins B, C, E and F, creating a creamy lotion designed to hydrate the skin while you sleep. Ideal for hotter, drier climes, it is little wonder it is flying off the shelves in the Gulf.

“It is about the health of your skin, this incredibly robust barrier. This sense of self that we take almost for granted. And all that ravages it, from our genes to our lifestyle,” says Santos. “Our question has always been ‘How can that be strengthened?’ How can we provide answers and solutions that are genuine and real?’”

As well as having the science-based expertise to blend ingredients for optimal potency, cutting through the jargon and buzzwords is a key part of what Aesop stands for, explains Santos.

It is not enough to shout about a single ingredient unless that can be backed up with knowledge of how to best optimise it. “To have isolated ingredients drawn out as if they are the protagonist? This is not science. Ingredients need to be held and contained, they need to be preserved. They need to be held in order to activate their performance-driven activities by other ingredients,” she explains.

“It always comes down to what’s the dream and what is possible,” Santos explains. “We could argue that people should just put on more hydration on their skin because when you step outside, whatever the amount of hydration you have, it should probably be three times more for the world that we live in.”

When we meet, Santos is in Dubai for the opening of the brand’s new Dubai Mall Store, a haven of calm and painted a soothing shade of blue-ish grey. The walls are lined with shelves, stacked with neat rows of bottles and jars and the counter is covered with glass beakers and containers. Think old-fashioned apothecary meets high-tech lab. Santos is proud of the effect, explaining how every element has been chosen in a bid to create that Aesop “experience”, long before it became a buzzword.

“That to me is a very important reflection of why we have the lighting, the aromas, the music. This music is not incidental. It doesn’t just get selected randomly with a Spotify list," says Santos. "I could be standing in any country in the world and it would be the same. There’s a unification because it’s not about culture. It’s about a set of experiences, lives and lifestyles.”

Aesop has been in the Middle East for a decade, which might come as a surprise to some people, given their low profile. “We’re not new on the ground. We are, I would argue, not large in a physical presence, but present in the minds and part of the lives of very many. We are now a foundational brand within the region,” she says proudly. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but people walk into our stores with a very clear understanding of why they are there. They are responding to every effort that is put into the birth of the product, the concept behind it.”

“People want effortlessness,” explains Santos. In a complicated world and 37 years after launching in a hair salon, she has perhaps just revealed the secret to Aesop’s monumental success – a breezy effortlessness underpinned by the rigours of science.