GMT BEAUTY is the leading professional cosmetics brand in Latvia with a clear vision of what it wants to achieve. You can read how it started in the interview with the brand's creators, Terēzi and Jānis.
Why did you establish GMT BEAUTY?
Jānis: It was a good time to create an offer specifically in the field of professional cosmetics. In 2007 and 2008, the field of beauty care in Latvia developed rapidly, but the offer did not keep up with it. Because we had knowledge and experience in this field, we found very good specialists to help create the first formulas and products. Our first cooperation partners were "Veselības centrs 4" Aesthetic medicine clinic "4. Dimension", with which we developed and tested the first products together. Excellent team of professionals! Therefore, the first products were very successful.
Terese: Here I would like to say a big thank you to our first cooperation partner: "Veselības centrs 4" manager Māris Rēvalds, the team of dermatologists and the Aesthetic Medicine Clinic "4. Dimension" for a team of beauty professionals.
What does GMT BEAUTY mean?
Tereza: abbreviation of the first letters of the names of the three creators of the GMT brand. Over time, we have created our slogan from this acronym: Green Meets Technology (Nature meets technology), which is the basis of the brand's philosophy.
Jānis: We were one of the first to include small molecular peptides and proteins in our formulas back then. Over the years, the brand and formulas have evolved, maintaining the idea that each product contains the best of our experience, beliefs and technological developments. Currently, we cooperate with the world's leading biotechnological laboratories, which offer the most advanced developments in the beauty care market.
What makes GMT BEAUTY different from other skin care brands?
Tereza: GMT BEAUTY products are multifunctional, effective, easy to apply, combinable and result-oriented. They are designed as naturally as possible, maintaining their effectiveness, working in synergy and complementing each other. The effects of the products are long-lasting – they form accumulations of active substances in the skin, which continue to work after the procedure. The customer sees the effect immediately after the procedure, and it is maintained in the long term by continuing to use our products for home use.
Jānis: Initially, we developed only professional products. This brought with it a lot of responsibility and a high quality bar, which we also carried over to home cosmetics, which we started producing a little later. GMT BEAUTY products and procedures are permeated with a holistic approach. The beautician not only performs the procedure, but advises the client what to use at home, what else needs to be done for the health and beauty of the skin. We have created a diagnostic system to be able to correctly diagnose the condition of the client's skin and tissues and offer the most effective way to achieve the result. Therefore, our goal is not to create just cosmetics, but a whole lifestyle philosophy.
What have been the biggest difficulties during these 12 years?
Terese: It must be said that it is the most difficult to prove that a company created in Latvia can create a valuable product. We often come across the illusion that only beauty care products from France, Germany or Switzerland are very good and effective. We have an idea that products made in Latvia are not that good.
Jānis: It is good that people in Latvia are increasingly valuing and choosing local products. The most important thing is to prove not only in Latvia, but all over the world: to both the beauty care specialist and the customer, that our product is of high value. To show that, as a small company from Latvia, we are competitive with big brands in the field of professional cosmetics.
What have been the biggest wins over the past 12 years?
Jānis: The biggest victory or satisfaction is that our very first customers are still our customers, they recommend us, even our competitors recommend us to each other. It means that we have been able to prove ourselves and show that we can give customers what they need. We are trusted - that is the biggest victory.
Worth noting is the assessment of "Pastaiga" magazine in 2018. The magazine made a report on 130 facts - important things that have happened in Latvia in the field of lifestyle during 100 years. The most important event of 2008 was the birth of GMT BEAUTY.
Tereza: Our victories are the new products we create. Creation involves long tests, the desire to develop the best we can, and it is very powerful that customers say thank you that I can be "in your circle" and enjoy these products. It is a matter of great pride that professional beauty care educational institutions work with our products and choose them as a brand to train young professionals with. We work with almost all beauty schools in Latvia.
Would you start such a business again and what would you do differently?
Jānis: I like the saying that by the end of the work, we all knew how it should have started. This also applies to this particular case. Now we know a lot more, we have more experience, and we would certainly do a lot differently.
Teresa: I would definitely start this business again without changing the original team because they were brilliant. What would I do differently? I would definitely plan more sales, invest more in sales rather than development. With today's mind, I see that producing can be easier to implement than selling.
How has the beauty industry changed over the past 12 years? How has this affected GMT BEAUTY?
Terese: The requirements that are dictated to beauty care products today began to emerge already in 2008. At that time, these were ideas that were talked about in scientific congresses and exhibitions in the form of trends. Today, they have come true and demand a long-term result from a beauty product.
Jānis: In the last 3-4 years, a term that was not previously used in this field has entered beauty care. This is sustainability, or in Latvian - 'permanence'. Today we look at beauty care in a complex way - how we affect the environment, the client, the beauty care professional and the society in this process. Now you have to think much more broadly.
Tereza: We need to think about how to use clean, high-quality raw materials, low-molecular raw materials, so that they reach the target tissues as quickly as possible and work at the cellular level. Today, cosmetics are like a means that preserves, restores and stimulates the body's own resources.
Jānis: Such an approach is applicable to companies that are highly technological, like GMT BEAUTY.
Tereza: The world is aging, and 60+ and 70+ cosmetics are in demand today. The industry has moved to a complex approach to beauty care that includes a holistic view, and this has also led us to develop new, high-tech products and constantly evolve.
How has the customer changed over these 12 years? How has this affected GMT BEAUTY?
Tereza: The customer demands pure, natural, vegan-friendly products with a minimal impact on nature. That is why we use packaging that can be recycled. We use as few preservatives as possible, thanks to the special packaging in which we fill our products.
Jānis: The customer has become more demanding and choosy, has changed the selection criteria in the use of cosmetics. Client groups have emerged that were not previously covered. Now Kim Kardashian's opinion in choosing cosmetics is more important than the doctor's opinion. The client has changed dramatically. Information is available very much and quickly, and the customer makes his choice based on completely different criteria.
Tereza: 12 years ago, we could not have imagined that it would be possible to buy professional products directly from the manufacturer, not through a local distributor, on the Internet. Now it has changed and we have a lot of professional customers outside the borders of Latvia who buy professional products on our website. Currently, it is a unique situation that you can train the client and demonstrate the procedure online through the Internet. Thus, communication is much faster and more dynamic, all thanks to modern technologies and trends.
Has GMT BEAUTY's mission changed over these 12 years?
Jānis: I believe that it has not changed. The mission is to provide beauty around the world, to give customers the opportunity to be beautiful and healthy, not to damage life with chemistry. But it has transformed and become wider. If we used to look only at the beautician as our client, now we look at that specialist's client as well. Consequently, our mission has expanded - we want not only a beautiful and healthy client, but also a beautiful and healthy world, the surrounding environment and the beauty care specialist himself. This is where our contribution and efforts count. Our approach has become much broader and deeper.
Terese: From the very beginning, we looked at beauty through the prism of health - healthy beauty. By creating the Natura Concept product line, our mission of healthy beauty had a direct positive impact on beauty professionals. For the first time in the world, products were created that can be safely used in the long term by a beauty care specialist who works with these cosmetics 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. Household chemistry and cosmetic chemistry, often contained in beauty care products, have a great impact on the health of the beauty care specialist. We have to think about this, so that the specialist can work with our cosmetics safely, and it does not leave a negative impact on either people or the environment. We think about the whole chain: human and environmental friendly product, packaging and production process resulting in healthy beauty.
How do you see the future of GMT BEAUTY in 5-10 years?
Jānis: We are in the TOP 3 of professional cosmetics brands in Latvia, in the TOP 20 in the world.
"We are valued as a reliable, safe, stable, effective, and exclusive brand."
I don't want to talk about money and numbers, but about the feeling that in 5-10 years any client would look at us with full confidence that we provide what they want.
Tereza: The strangest realization I've had to face is that you create a product, create a description of the application, a procedure protocol, and realize that everyone will do as you say... You dictate the rules yourself. It is a huge responsibility.
I would like GMT BEAUTY's holistic approach to be a stable and recognizable approach in the beauty world in 5-10 years.
Jānis: Our company is such a "strange formation", like a unicorn. We don't do everything by the book. We don't know what we can't do. So we do and we get. If we knew what we couldn't do, we wouldn't do it. Since we don't know that, we have absolutely everything in our power.