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Dubbo-founded men's skincare brand Frasé Skin is gearing up to launch in the United States this weekend with co-founders Beau and Zac London planning a Times Square billboard campaign timed for American Independence Day to mark the brand's entry into the world's largest skincare market.
The brothers, who started the business from their parents' home in regional NSW, are simultaneously raising up to $3 million through an equity crowdfunding campaign on OnMarket at a pre-money valuation of $16.5 million.
The raise has so far attracted just under $800,000 from 256 investors.
Frasé Skin has grown from $48,000 in revenue at launch in mid-2023 to $3.4 million in FY26 revenue to date, claiming 128 per cent year-on-year growth and a customer base exceeding 40,000.
After gaining traction in the domestic market, the brothers plan to launch in the US which they see has an underserved segment of blue-collar male workers.
The plan is to distribute through Amazon with the Times Square billboard intended to generate brand awareness during one of the highest-traffic periods in New York City.
Beau, a plumber, and Zac, a carpenter, founded Frasé Skin after getting frustrated at the lack of grooming products for men who work outdoors.
Their success with the brand has come despite the brothers having no business background, no beauty industry connections and no marketing budget. But for Beau London, the rationale to have a go was fairly simple.
"Honestly, we were the market," Beau tells Business news Australia.
"Zac and I spent years on the tools and there was nothing out there made for blokes like us.
"Everything in skincare felt like it was designed for someone else, We just looked at each other and thought, if we need this, so do thousands of other guys.
"We didn’t come from beauty or retail, but we knew our customer better than anyone because we were him. That was our edge. And honestly? We had delusional faith in ourselves and I think that’s exactly what you need in business."
Frasé Skin's hero product features what it describes as Activated Vitamin D SPF technology, which it says allows vitamin D absorption while providing sun protection.
The company sells a range of face car, body care and accessories specifically for people who work in labor-intensive or dirty environments.
"We kept it simple - that’s the whole point," says Zac.
"Blokes don’t want a 10-step routine; they want something that works and doesn’t take forever. We built a range that covers everything you need without the overwhelm.
"One of our standout products is our SPF. It’s a sunscreen that actually does more for you as it allows you to still naturally produce vitamin D while protecting you, which is huge for guys working outdoors every day.
"The routine is straightforward, the products do what they say, and that’s why guys stick with it."
Beau says the breakthrough for Frasé Skin is backed by the changing face of masculinity, even in the trenches of the construction industry.
"The bloke of today isn’t the same as 20 years ago, and that’s a good thing," he says.
"Guys are more switched on about their health, how they look, how they feel. Skincare used to feel like it wasn’t for them, but I think that was more about how it was marketed than what blokes actually wanted.
"We just took the ego out of it, made it no BS, and spoke their language. Turns out when you make something actually for them, they’re into it."
Their faith in the strategy is backed by research undertaken by Pureprofile which found that blue collar and outdoor workers are facing a "perfect storm" of lifestyle factors that accelerate skin ageing and damage at a rate their white-collar counterparts simply aren't.
The research says this demographic is the most ignored in Australia's near $1 billion men's grooming industry.
"We surveyed 524 Australian men and what came back was damning," says Beau.
"Blue collar workers are getting hit from every direction - more sun exposure, less sunscreen, worse sleep, higher energy drink consumption, and almost no support from an industry that has never really spoken to them.
"These are the men ageing fastest and the ones the industry ignores most. We started this brand in a spare bedroom in Dubbo because we were those blokes.
"The big skincare brands come from Paris, New York and Milan. We come from Dubbo. Turns out that's exactly why it worked."
The brothers plan to use the funds raised through the crowdfunding campaign to "double down" and take the business to the next level with more marketing, expanding into retail and pushing into the US market.
The plan to launch in New York on 4 July is backed up by a broader marketing strategy.
"New York is the advertising capital of the world," says Zac.
"If you can make noise there, the whole world notices. We got a billboard up in Times Square, landed a feature in the New York Post and we’re over there filming content with a mate whose friends run a big concrete business.
"It’s not just a stunt. The US is a massive market and we think what we’ve built translates. Aussie brands punch above their weight internationally and we back ourselves to do the same.
"Dubbo to Amazon USA. We're not embarrassed by where we came from. Dubbo is exactly why we built what we built. It just turns out the problem we were solving wasn't only an Australian one."
Frasé Skin is also finalising distribution with a major Australian supermarket chain, according to the company, adding a bricks-and-mortar retail channel to its direct-to-consumer model.
The company has appointed Mathew Collett, a former banking executive with experience at Merrill Lynch, JBWere and HSBC, as chief executive officer to lead the expansion phase.
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