When Americans speak of the ‘Golden Age of Advertising’, they are typically referring to the period from the 1960s to the 80s, marking rapid capitalist expansion into uncharted media domains and the mad rush of ideas, personalities and capital that came to make cultural institutions of many household brands and their archetypes. The developments that were pioneered on that digital front also helped to catapult Jamaican culture onto the world stage and marked a paradigm shift to the highly simulated postmodern era that we continue to thrive in today. With that period of rapid expansion providing countless case studies, academia caught on quickly, and branding became meme.
Today, innovation in advertising is focused on finding new ways to engage consumers through their own stories, making the shopping experience and the products more personalised and personal.
Likewise, more brands are emerging with their own compelling origin stories, fulfilling the market demand for authenticity, intentionality and corporate social responsibility. Take twenty-six-year-old Jamaican Danyelle Pike, for example. Pike is the owner and chief practitioner over at Lev Beauty Bar, an aesthetic practice located at 5 Holborn Road, New Kingston. The aesthetician also has her own skincare line, Farmacology. Pike’s story, however, goes deeper than her impressive business acumen.
“So I actually have lupus, and one of the symptoms of lupus is that it aggravates inflammatory skin conditions and causes flare-ups. I really struggled with this during university, and it was difficult to find the right products for my skin. Products that were effective and also designed for sensitive skin; products that were made with high-quality ingredients and focused on long-term efficacy,” Pike said of how her journey in skincare began.
After completing her marketing degree, Pike’s experience with treating her lupus-aggravated skin symptoms led her down the path of aesthetic medicine. She received her certification in the field from the Face Place Institute in Kingston and started her own practice during the pandemic. Now, Lev Beauty Bar is a go-to aesthetic practice for many young professionals in the city.
Even as she treated her growing clientele, Pike still felt like there was more she could do to address the concerns her clients were facing, concerns similar to what she had dealt with in her own skincare journey.
“When I started treating people, I realised that there were a lot of gaps in the local market for skincare products that use really high-quality ingredients. I also found that a lot of my clients were interested in an all-natural product line,” she said these were some of the issues that inspired her to create her own skincare line.
The skincare industry is a prime example of how individual experiences can inform market trends and drive product and treatment innovations. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all skincare. Customers are more informed and more discerning, recognising that there is a way to optimise treatment results for their particular skin type and condition. Individualised treatment options have always been available for a high-end clientele, but the practice is now more accessible to a wider market in search of their best skin.
Armed with the knowledge and insight she gained from treating her own skin condition and from her aesthetic practice, Pike created Farmacology to address the needs of her more sensitive-skinned clientele. Farmacology’s slogan, ‘Keep simple things, simple’, is Pike’s own philosophy, which not only extends to the ingredients in her products but also to the brand’s platform of transparency, safe formulations, product education, and empowerment.
A Skincare Line for Truly Sensitive Skin
Today’s skincare lines are designed to reflect a multiplicity of considerations, balanced to target specific concerns. This gives consumers a lot more freedom in designing a regimen that works best for their skin. It also means that the market is highly differentiated, and new players have to know exactly how they are bringing value to consumers. Pike already had a market she could help, but only if she could deliver the right product.
“One of the main considerations with all-natural product lines is shelf-life. It’s not as easy as you might think to get all the things you want from a product. So you want to use quality, natural ingredients, but you also want the product to last on the shelf and deliver consistent results,” Pike said, highlighting aspects of the myriad considerations that went into developing the right product, which she first tested on herself.
Pike searched fastidiously for a chemist and lab that could deliver a consistent result she knew her clients could rely on. The result, Farmacology, is a top-shelf skincare line for sensitive skin that takes a balanced approach to holistic skincare solutions, keeping simple things simple, as the brand’s slogan put it. Like her aesthetic spa, Lev Beauty Bar, young Kingstonians can’t seem to get enough of Farmacology.
“I use the product in treatment with clients, and both the results and the feedback have been really good. The product I use in the spa for treatments is a little stronger because it is being used by a professional for the level of treatment that we do, but for the line we wanted something more balanced for everyday use. I wanted to find a balance that made sense for my clients and for the Jamaican public in general. Jamaicans are very specific with the things that they like and how they like things done. So I didn’t want to sacrifice or compromise my integrity or the integrity of the product and the ingredients that I knew I wanted in the product,” Pike explained.
With the effort that Pike has put into her brand, the standard of excellence she has established for herself and the response it has garnered, it is no wonder that the young entrepreneur has caught the eye of one of Jamaica’s leading figures in aesthetic medicine, Dr. Dainia Baugh, who recently announced a collaboration with Pike to carry the Farmacology line at her boutique medical spa, The DB Glow.
“The first thing that drew me to Danyelle is that she is young, vibrant, and Jamaican. I was very interested to see what a Jamaican creator of a skincare line would come up with and be able to manufacture locally and also to see and evaluate if it would meet the standard that I require in order to offer it to my patients. After having a discussion and going through her methodology and figuring out how the chemist with whom she worked thought and what they created, I thought it was a good line to bring in, especially for my most sensitive-skinned patients,” Dr. Baugh expressed about her decision to work with Pike.
According to Dr. Baugh, sensitive skin typically does not do well with a lot of product or a wide variety of products unless those products are designed specifically for that skin. So, aside from Pike’s passion, it was also important to Dr. Baugh that Pike was knowledgeable about her ingredients and what they do.
“You can have the best product, but if you don’t know what your product does, how to describe it or how to make it clear to a patient or client why this product would work for their skin, then it cannot work in a clinical setting. People come into a medical practice or an aesthetics clinic expecting the professionals to know what the product is going to do for them. Clients hold us to a higher standard. So her knowing her product, creating the product for specific goals and being able to bring that to life, for me, meets that minimum bar of impact that I require. Everything I do has to have impact. Everything has to have a standard, and everything has to be about excellence, so if you’re not meeting that, you have to at least have a plan to get there,” the master practitioner explained.
As a serial entrepreneur herself, Dr. Baugh knows her business. This highlights one of the many similarities between both women. You might not be surprised to learn then that Dr. Baugh also developed her skincare line, Everyday Skin, based on her personal needs.
“I also loved that her product was created for her the same way mine was created for me as a busy, working woman with little time to do 40 steps. I needed something that would give maximum impact in the shortest amount of steps, and Pike’s line also delivers that impact with the necessary considerations for her clientele,” Dr. Baugh observed.
For Pike, the collaboration, which was announced at MoDA Market 2023, is another step towards helping more people.
“I’m excited. I didn’t expect it. I feel very grateful. I feel like I’ve been working very hard at this thing, which is my job, and I just want to be able to share it with more people. So for me, this is an opportunity to help educate more people and provide products that are safe for people; products that are coming from someone who actually cares about treating your skin condition and wants the product to actually work for you,” Pike said, adding that she hopes to be a brand people can trust.
Pike’s line will now join the list of other Jamaican small-batch producers at Locale, the artisan concept store where The DB Glow is housed at 4 Holborn Road.
“I just want it to be a brand that people can trust, and if it’s at Locale with so many other great local brands and with Dr. B - she’s amazing - then I think that’s a seal of quality approval,” said the young business owner, adding that she was excited for the journey ahead.
Dr. Baugh revealed that she was equally impressed with Pike, her passion and her journey. With personalities like theirs, however, one might be wondering, What next? For now, Pike has her hands full, balancing the demands of her aesthetic spa and her skincare line.
“The hardest part has been scaling, especially because I am also working with patients at the spa, which I love. I’m grateful. I love it. I love helping people. I love educating people about skincare and skincare conditions. Why is something happening, what products can I use to fix it, and how is it fixing it? I always encourage my clients to ask me any questions. If you are coming to me for treatment you should be comfortable enough to discuss everything about the treatment,” Pike said.
Dr. Dainia Baugh
Dr. Dainia S. Baugh, MD has practiced across the US and Jamaica for over 25 years. She holds several distinguished fellowships, including Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh.
As a leader in her field, Dr. Baugh consistently incorporates the most advanced technologies in her treatment programs with success. Everyday Skin is Dr. Baugh's flagship skincare line, leveraging patented formulas for a naturally youthful look.
The DB Glow, Dr. Baugh's aesthetic medicine practice, is proud to bring patients the best in aesthetic and wellness treatments while maintaining personal relationships and forming lasting friendships.
Learn more about DB Glow's services and locations here.
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