A young couple launching their own skincare brand got the shock of their lives when they realized the name they were using had already been taken by a porn website.
Talia Jackson and Salvatori Agostino invested $80,000 they had saved for their home deposit into buying shares and setting up their online store and even registered the company name 'Mr Skin' with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
“One mistake in choosing our brand almost got us canceled,” Ms. Jackson said in a recently shared post on Instagram.
The couple started the business in 2022 and had checked if the name was available and scoured social media to make sure they could use the handles.
What they didn't do was an old-fashioned, simple Google search.
Just a few days before going live with their business, Ms. Jackson typed the name into a search engine to see if they had been picked up by SEO.
That's when the couple got the rude shock.
“Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw next,” Ms. Jackson said.
'It's every entrepreneur's worst nightmare. It was a famous corn site in America.”
Corn is an online euphemism to circumvent censorship of references to porn.
All their products already had their own 'Mr Skin' logo and they were told it would cost $15,000 to have the name changed to 'Mr Skincare' on their future orders.
The couple eventually had to come up with the money to update their product labels and had to go through the arduous process of filing paperwork to change the name of their company and then scrambling to get the new social media handles.
Mr Agostino also had to pay $1,000 to change his personalized Mr Skin license plate on his beloved Audi, so people wouldn't get the wrong idea.
Their company is now known as Mr Skincare.
The couple believes that despite the highly competitive landscape of the cosmetics industry and battling international giants in the sector with huge budgets, they have found a gap in the market.
The couple spent a year testing and formulating their products with a professional chemist to come up with their own simple and effective formula for men's skin to treat multiple issues such as acne, scars and dehydration.
Mr. Agostino suffered from acne growing up and found that many products already on the market either did not help or made the condition worse.
Talia Jackson and Salvatori Agostino excitedly thought they'd managed to snag a brilliant name for their male-targeted skincare company – until they found out it was an X-rated site
The couple have now rebranded themselves as Mr Skincare and hope to earn $10,000 in sales per month to make the business viable and help them move out of their parents' home.
Ms. Jackson, meanwhile, worked at makeup retailer Mecca for several years, learning not only the ins and outs of cosmetic ingredients, but also how the industry worked.
She said many wives, girlfriends, mothers and sisters would come looking for products for the men in their lives, but none lived up to expectations.
The company focuses on men's skin care by offering no-nonsense products that they say work for many skin concerns, which their customers love.
Ms Jackson said the skincare routines she sold in Mecca often required six or seven steps and they wanted to simplify that for men.
It focuses on a three-step approach that provides a combined solution that they believe no other company offers.
After formulating their skincare line, the couple designed packaging with step numbers and abbreviations for the time of day to use, which is a first in the men's market.
Mr. Agostino struggled with acne his entire life and the couple spent a year coming up with their own formula (Photo: Before and After)
The pair achieved their first 1,000 orders in a week on Black Friday and hope to get their products in stock in Mecca
The system includes a face and beard wash for the morning, a deep pore exfoliant for the evening, and a hydrating moisturizer that can be used at either time.
They are also vegan, free from nasties like parabens and made in Australia.
According to research firm Inkwood, the Australian skincare industry alone was worth around $3 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to around $4.4 billion by 2028.
It is said that growth in the sector is expected to be largely around the trend of natural, 'minimalist' and vegan formulas.
