If you are still searching the market for a reliable, luxurious haircare brand, may we introduce to you, Dizziak. The hair and beauty brand putting an end to the bog-standard products lining the shelves. Dizziak products are super inclusive and accessible as were designed for all hair and skin types. The ultra-hydrating blends are extravagantly luxurious without a luxurious price tag- love that for us. The reviews are exceptional, there is a reason everyone that tries the products are getting hooked and becoming loyal customers.
A crazy strong brand with an even stronger founder and entrepreneur – we interviewed Loretta, the brains behind the brand.
I was really excited to hear your story as it’s very much what Voir fashion is about; bold females that shake up industries.
Just to kick off, you come from a musical background, don’t you?
I spent around 16 years working in live music. That’s what I always used to want to do, so, I started when I was about 16 and just worked my way up from intern to music agent. I always knew I’d work in live music so that was a big passion at the time.
That’s really cool. So, when you were working in live music were you personally performing?
I wasn’t performing. What we did with the music agent is looked after the live careers of artists and bands. So, anything to do with live shows such as booking festivals, gigs and seeing where they would play and building their live career was managed through us.
I know with most entrepreneurial stories, it is about seeing a gap or feeling some sort of frustration. How did you transition into beauty?
I had a friend who was the beauty director at Stylist magazine and we used to go on nights out and I would complain about the hair products available to me, where I had to go and buy them, and just my experiences in general. Then she asked me to write about it and put it into an article for her so I did. It was one of their most read articles so they asked me to contribute as a beauty writer on a freelance basis which I did for two years and that’s how I got into it. I’ve always been passionate about beauty but I just didn’t feel like it was for me and part of my role was to recommend beauty products for the magazine and I struggled. I was putting in products that were just ‘ok’ because I didn’t have anything else to recommend.
At the time, which was about 5 to 7 years ago, a lot of the products I was importing were from the US and back then it used to take around 3 to 4 weeks to arrive. So I really struggled to find products that I thought were great and that’s where the seed was really planted. I remember waiting for a brand like this to come along and I couldn’t understand why there wasn’t anything that was effective for my hair, smelt great, looked great and was cool. It didn’t exist and I couldn’t see it anywhere so that’s when I decided to do it.
That’s funny because when I was researching, I saw one of your comments when you said that you were sick of seeing the same bog-standard pictures on black hair products and you know… it’s all like the same sort of graphics and visuals that you see in all the stores. I thought that was quite an interesting point as well and because the brand is so cool, it’s got a real 90’s flair to it.
So, in terms of taking the shift to do that, that’s quite a jump and quite bold you know because launching a product brand is very expensive… How did you find that process?
Well, I left my big music job and went to another job but then got made redundant almost immediately. I had nothing to do there anyway *laughs* so it was no surprise. I then spent about 6 months looking for another job in music and there were a few things that I could have taken but I realised my heart wasn’t in it and after about 6 months I was like you know what “this is the time to give this a shot!” So, I used some redundancy money, maxed my credit cards, I was unemployed at the time and just went for it. I got it to sample level and then tested it on about 40 to 50 people. This was for the conditioner, as I had just launched it and they all came back saying it was the best conditioner they’d ever tried so that’s when I knew it was time to just go for it.
One thing I definitely did was created the brand before it even existed, I wrote a press release, had the design which I worked on with an artist called ‘Ted’s Draws’ and if someone would ask me “What do you do for a living?”, I would say “Oh I’m just about to launch a beauty brand”. I just spoke it into existence I think *laughs*. It was so different that when I took it to a PR, they wanted it immediately and then helped me get contacts for Liberty and Cult beauty. For the Liberty meeting, I prepared a week, got a taxi in because I didn’t want to look like I’d been on the tube *Jyoti laughs* and walked into this meeting ready to pitch the hell out of it. They were like “we’re definitely having this product” and I was like Oh! And then I gone within 10 minutes. I didn’t know what to do with myself.
They said they tried it, absolutely loved; the branding, everything. So, they launched it in the front window of the store. I got nothing but yes’ so it just felt like a no brainer, I can’t really describe it any other way. The product was there, everything was there, the branding was there and that had been because of years and years of my life experiences which I feel went into that bottle… tube! Not bottle *laughs*
That’s crazy. It sounds like there’s been some triumph there. But I have to be completely honest when I say I’ve spoken to so many entrepreneurs and I’ve rarely had anyone say to me that they got so many yes’. Did you feel like it happened quite soon, that it went like that for you or was it quite a tough one?
I don’t feel like it was soon because this was years of writing and experience, and I spent a year working on it before it launched. So, it wasn’t immediate but I didn’t put it out there until I knew it was 100% ready. It was so different that it couldn’t be ignored and ultimately the results spoke for themselves so when people tried it, they were like “Wow! Look at my hair!”
That is so cool. You also had a big year last year. Are you going into Skincare now as well?
Yeah, there were 2 body products that I always wanted. The body conditioner came about because people kept telling me that they were putting the deep conditioner on their skin *laughs* and I was like “don’t do that!” *laughs* and I just kept getting loads of comments like “I wish this was a body butter” or “I wish this was a body cream”. Body lotions traditionally have no fun in them; They take ages to sink in when your cold out of the shower. And there’s either the really expensive ones that you’re rationing so that it can last a long time, or there’s the drug store ones that you put on but it doesn’t really do anything. So, I knew that there was a massive space to upgrade the body lotion experience where it smelt great, hydrated your skin, lasted a long time and sunk in fast.
Same with the body scrub, it would either be the expensive ones or too thick and too coarse, so you’re in there scrubbing for hours. There’s just no joy from that experience and I’ve always loved to scrub. I love it! Like it’s my treatment of choice. I used to go to a spa and love a body scrub so it’s something I wanted to bring to Dizziak formulas.
Dizziak Body Scrub
That’s really cool. Where do you operate from now? Do you have your own office space or do you still work from home?
I work from different spaces, I’ve got some spots *laughs* around London but I just need my laptop so I can move around.
Another highlight you had last year was Dua Lipa becoming one of your investors. How did that come about?
Well, I knew her management at the time a few years back and I passed some Dizziak over to her and she loved it. That’s when the conversation started a few years back and I guess I just presented it and said “do you want to come in?”. I’d always had her in mind; I thought she was really cool and I loved her strong opinions. She’s London centric but has global appeal. I just thought it would be a really good match, and it has been.
You also won some awards last year! It’s been a big year in which you’ve had quite a lot happen. Would you say that’s been the biggest year so far?
Erm, I don’t know *laughs* I just keep going *laughs* I don’t really stop. When everyone stops at the end of the year and goes through everything, I don’t. *laugh* I never stop so I don’t really see it, I see it as one. Just keep going, keep the energy up and keep moving is one of my moto’s that I kind of live by anyways!
Is there anything that you’ve got coming up in 2023 that you’re allowed to tell us about?
There’s some hair products that will be coming out. The range for Dizziak will always be kept relatively small. I don’t want to be one of these brands that have 30 different products that all do the same sort of thing. I work hard on each formula so they come out when they’re ready and when they’re done. But, there’s definitely a couple that you will see quite soon.
It’s so exciting because there’s so many positive reviews and it seems like as soon as people they get their hands on it, they can’t really live without it. What’s your secret sauce… what sets you apart from your competitors?
I don’t care about profit margin enough, so that’s probably what it is. I spend the money on the ingredients to get the product where it needs to be. I think, if you’re a massive multi-national brand, you’re not going to spend that money. You’re just going to focus on marketing and branding of something that’s kind of average and that will get you sales. I take the hit basically on the cost of it because why else would I do it? I didn’t dream of being a businesswoman, ever! I just wanted to like, I mean I’d do nothing if I.. *laughs* No I’m joking *laughs*. If I know the market is so competitive, then why would I go out there with something average? That wasn’t going to be me.
So branding is the key part, most importantly it’s your formulas and you’re prepared to take whatever it takes?
Yeah, number one, it’s got to be effective and there’s no reason why it can’t also look great! The scent was so important to me as well. I’d grown up having to use products that always had this sort of artificial sickly fruit smell that I cannot bear. So I really wanted something that was fresh, genderless, and that you would never get sick of. It’s been a long, long time for me! *laughs*
Also the branding is just timeless!
That’s what I wanted. I wanted a staple brand that wasn’t going to be the ‘hypiest’ brand out there because I wanted it to be a “you can trust this brand” and you can always come back to it. It will always be there, be the best it can be and not just hype for a couple of years and then go away.
So I know you said you never really set out to be a businesswoman and never had a big entrepreneurial journey in mind but what advice would you give to someone who wants to launch a beauty brand or would want to come into this?
I feel like people need to listen to themselves more and I mean that quite broadly in the sense that you should listen to advice but you really need to have some sort of gut instinct about things, and you need to be able to trust that.
Also, if you’re looking to launch a brand, stop looking at what everyone else is doing because we’re just getting millions and millions of these copycat brands. Find something that actually matters, that’s different, that’s unique. Otherwise, unless you have millions and millions of pounds, you’re just going to be struggling next to other brands for the rest of time. And it is hard work, so essentially listen to yourself, set yourself apart.
It’s been so amazing speaking to you and listening! Thank you so much. To say you never set out this journey, you were clearly naturally always an entrepreneur and destined to be one!
Interview By Jyoti Matoo
