Renée's 2019 Review and a Sneak Peek of 2020

Hey everyone, it’s Renée here. Happy 2020! I hope you’re enjoying the new year and use it as an opportunity to reset some intentions. There’s nothing like a fresh start but it’s always good to reflect on the past. I wanted to share with you all what went on for me in 2019, both personally and professionally, as well as what’s in store for Renée Rouleau Skin Care in 2020 to keep you, our loyal customers, in the loop (hint: Lots of exciting things! I can’t wait!). Here goes!

2019: My First Full Year Without Florian…

As so many of you know, my husband Florian, who was also our company COO, passed away from a short battle with cancer in November of 2018. If you follow me on my personal Instagram account, you’ll surely know that his legacy is being carried on in a big way. In 2019, I walked 110 miles in Spain and spread his ashes, I had his ashes made into a diamond and it has now been set into a piece of jewelry, I shared the secrets to our relationship and honored his wishes for my 50th birthday. It has been my greatest honor to share his stories as he wanted me to. I believe if our loved ones are never forgotten, then they never really leave us, so I choose to keep him close and celebrate his life. You can see all the posts at #thisisflorian.

I am so appreciative of all of the supportive emails, texts, and messages that I have received throughout this year. To know that I am not alone has meant the world to me.

2019: A Great Year at Renée Rouleau Skin Care

Big Shipping News

Since one of our company core values is ‘putting customers first,’ we implemented same-day shipping (up to 1 pm CST) so you can get your products faster. Unlike many companies, we actually do our own fulfillment in-house instead of outsourcing it. This allows us complete control and ensures better customer experience. Additionally, due to the large number of orders we get from our Canada and the UK customers, in 2019 we started offering free shipping to the UK and Canada with a $150 spend!

No Backorders

Between our in-house buyer Kacie, our warehouse team, and our inventory management system, I’m super proud to say that we didn’t have any backorders this year. We know it’s disappointing when you go to order something and it’s out of stock, so we do everything we can to lessen that chance. Again, we are always thinking of the customer experience!

New Products Launched

This year’s focus for new products was to address lessening breakouts in a gentle but powerful way. We launched the Rapid Response Detox Cleanser, Rapid Response Detox Toner, Rapid Response Detox Kit, and a Chin Breakout Kit. Emily Ferber from Into The Gloss said our new cleanser was her favorite product of the year! We knocked it out of the park with these products and our customers are finding them to be incredibly effective.

Award-Winning Products and Amazing Product Reviews

I’m always so proud when our products get recognition because nothing makes me happier than providing you, our customers, with high quality, results-oriented skincare that are called out by the media. Here is a brief wrap-up of some of the awards our products won in 2019:

Refinery29 gave our Skin Recovery Lotion a “Beauty Innovator” award. This product was the cure-all for my nephew’s skin and quickly became a top seller when it launched back in 2018. This product also won an Oprah Magazine Spring 2019 Beauty O-Ward!

Byrdie named our Triple Berry Smoothing Peel the “Best At-Home Peel” of the year. This product is definitely a fan-favorite and one that I’m super proud of. If you haven’t tried it yet, check it out!

Skin Correcting Serum won a Women’s Health 2019 Healthy Skin Award and was named the “Best Serum for Acne-Prone Skin.”

To top it all off, my client Camila Mendes from the popular TV show Riverdale shared this video of her nighttime routine, and I was so honored that she featured four Renée Rouleau products!

Podcasts + YouTube

I met up with some amazing people in the beauty space who I really admire and was interviewed on their platforms. I filmed a video in London with Caroline Hirons and was on the Gloss Angeles and Fat Mascara podcasts. These are so much fun for me and I jump at any opportunity to be able to share all I have learned about skin in my thirty years of being an esthetician and skin expert. Excited for more of these to happen this year!

Spa Closing Announcement

A few months back we announced that the Plano spa would be closing on January 31, 2020. It certainly was not because it hasn’t been successful but simply because I want to focus 100% on being an e-commerce product and content company. Read the full announcement here. Thank you for your support and understanding of my decision. It was not an easy one to make at all, but one that was carefully thought through.

Updated Skin Type Quiz

Our popular skin type quiz got a makeover and is now delivering more accurate results than ever before to help you determine which of our nine skin types best suits you. If you should happen to still need assistance, you can read through each of the skin type descriptions and decide that way, or you can schedule a virtual consultation with our in-house esthetician. The consultation is free with a $100 purchase and you’ll get an amazing personalized experience.

Attended an Industry Trade Show

Continuing education is everything to me. After all, one of our company core values is ‘learn and grow,’ so I love immersing myself for a few days at an industry trade show. Cosmoprof in Las Vegas was so good! My COO, Curtis joined me and he got a lot out of it, too.

New Company Leadership

When Florian passed away, we lost a leader in our company and his role needed to be replaced. Florian was adamant that I start looking while he was alive because he wanted to be a part of the process in finding the perfect person, so he could die in peace knowing that his wife and the company he loved so much would be in good hands. While this was our hope, even the best-laid plans don’t always work out and after Florian’s passing, I had to continue the search on my own.

It was absolutely the most difficult time for me. Both losing my husband, and then not having someone he approved of to immediately fill his role and create a smooth transition of leadership. So as the company founder and CEO, and a grieving widow, I mustered up the strength to stand in front of my team and say, “I’m now 100% in charge. I’m the captain of this ship and together, we can do this.” (As tears are rolling down my face.) I told them that when the time was right I would begin the search again.

Fast forward, I’m so happy to say that in February of 2019 I found the perfect person to work by my side as a leader in our growing company. His name is Curtis and I can honestly say that I hit the jackpot finding him. His years of operational experience with big companies are just the experience we needed and as a human being, he is so honest and caring and has the utmost integrity for how he lives his life. The team and I are stronger than ever, he absolutely is on the same page with my vision of “people over profits,” and our company culture is amazing. I absolutely know that Florian is proud.

We also added another leader to our team in 2019. After twenty-three years of being in the marketing director seat, I handed over this role to Veronica. She, too, has years of experience, and I could not be happier to have found someone I trust so much to continue sharing the messages of the heart and soul of Renée Rouleau. She is the reason I can now travel so much and be out there as the face and brand ambassador of our company as well as focus on being the visionary of the company. It’s a very exciting time for me to be exclusively focused on all the things I’m inherently wired for. (Creating!)

Between Curtis, Veronica and our Operations Director, Ben, we are a strong leadership team who gets along so well and stays true to our company vision. I could not be more grateful to have these beautiful people by my side.

Life Planning for our Team

Before Florian passed away, he allocated his own personal money to give back to the people in our company. We put it towards a program called Life Pulse. Four times throughout 2019, Matt, the founder of Life Pulse, came in to help everyone in our company identify ninety-day goals for both our personal and professional lives. The program has been super enlightening to allow us all to get more happiness and satisfaction in our daily lives. It’s so special to be able to provide the people in my company with way more than just a paycheck. This has been life-changing stuff.

I Turned 50

A big milestone for sure, but I’m feeling good and have so much to be grateful for. I honor what was, what is and what will be.

A lot of people ask how I care for my skin and whatnot, so here is a blog post I wrote about turning 50.

2020: What We Have Coming!

Video Production Studio

In our office in Austin, TX, we are building out a beautiful space to be able to film video content for our social channels and YouTube. This is very exciting and has been a long time coming. As a company, we love sharing our knowledge with you to make you a smarter skincare consumer and no doubt, these videos will make you an expert in no time!

Sustainable Focus

Being a responsible and environmentally sustainable company means doing the right thing even when no one is looking. At Renée Rouleau, we are always mindful of our impact and continually strive to lower our footprint, both customer-facing and at our Austin facilities. Our corporate office has a reuse-and-recycle program in place, where our employees take great pride in keeping our waste to a minimum. Next month, we will be working with an environmental consultant to identify possible reductions in our Austin carbon footprint. Additionally, we have been meeting with our vendors and are experimenting with viable solutions for bottles and jars, such as renewably sourced material and alternative packaging. For shipments, we purposely use only simple brown cardboard boxes and brown kraft paper in shipping. No Styrofoam, plastics, or unnecessary fills. We will definitely keep you updated on initiatives and changes as we progress in 2020.

For me personally, my focus this year is to really reduce my own use of plastic. For example, when I’m traveling (which is almost weekly), there are so many plastic bottles I’m using on the road so I just bought a Life Straw bottle. I literally only drink water (no coffee, no soda, no tea, no juice) so I go through a lot of it and am excited about doing my tiny little part to help the planet.

New Products Coming!

I got back into the lab last month to start creating five new products. (My favorite part of the job!) As usual, they will be effective for problem-solving and will combine the best of clean science ingredients and nature.

I’m certain that you all are curious as to what they will be so I’ll give you a hint about a few of them. I’m working on a gentle facial scrub with enzymes, a makeup removing cleanser and a barrier-repairing mask for acne-prone skin as well as two other products. As for when the products will launch, it won’t be for many more months. This process takes a while when I’m seeking absolute perfection.

And Much More

There will be no shortage of good things to come for our loyal customers, clients, fans, friends, and followers. As always, we help make you smarter skincare consumers and seek to give everyone the confidence that comes from healthy, clear and glowing skin. This mission is more than skin deep. We genuinely care about our customers and our community.

Our company has five internal core values that we operate by. These are our guiding light, and we use them as a tool in all of our decision making to ensure we are staying true to who we are and are best serving you in the process:

Putting customers first
Learn and grow
Trustworthy
Team player
Value of reputation

I would love to hear how your 2019 experience was with us and how we can improve or what you might like to see in 2020. You can email me with your thoughts.

From my heart to your eyes, ears, and skin.

Gratefully,

Renée

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Renée Rouleau

Celebrity Esthetician & Skincare Expert
As an esthetician trained in cosmetic chemistry, Renée Rouleau has spent 30 years researching skin, educating her audience, and building an award-winning line of products. Her hands-on experience as an esthetician and trusted skin care expert has created a real-world solution — products that are formulated for nine different types of skin so your face will get exactly what it needs to look and feel its best. Trusted by celebrities, editors, bloggers, and skincare obsessives around the globe, her vast real-world knowledge and constant research are why Marie Claire calls her “the most passionate skin practitioner we know.”

Comments:

What is the best way to fade freckles and control unusual sensitivity to heat – my face goes all red but nobody elsesdoes.
Posted By: Maura Louise Gallagher | January 5, 2020
- Hi! Check out these blog posts about freckles and redness to learn how to handle these conditions.
  Posted By: Renée Rouleau | January 31, 2020

Renée’s 2019 Review and a Sneak Peek of 2020

2019: My First Full Year Without Florian…