With its millennial pink-hued packaging and formula, Australia-based brand Sand & Sky became an instant social media hit when its Porefining Face Mask ($49) debuted in April 2017, selling out in three months. It’s follow-up product, Flash Perfection Exfoliating Treatment ($43), launched in May 2018 and amassed a 14,000-person waitlist before it was even released. Today, the indie brand is selling an average of 2,000 units of its original clay mask per day, and recently entered the U.S. market within Riley Rose, Revolve and Amazon. This month, the brand is preparing to launch at its biggest retailer yet, Sephora, where it will become available on sephora.com on October 1 and in stores beginning in January.

“We are thrilled to partner with Sephora so early in our development,” said Sarah Hamilton, Co-founder, Sand & Sky. “We believe it will help us to develop our brand and our strategy even faster while staying at the leading edge of what customers want. Using Sand & Sky products is a sensory experience so being able to smell the mask and exfoliator and see the packaging and consistency before purchasing is a great experience to bring to our customers.”

The self-funded brand was developed by Sarah and her twin sister, Emily, an entrepreneurial duo who also launched Bellabox (Australia’s version of Birchbox). When sourcing products for their subscription service, the pair noticed a lack of skin care products that contained ingredients native to Australia, so they decided to launch their own brand.

“Australia is one of the least polluted continents in the world and 80% of its flora and fauna is indigenous to the country, so we have access to pure and unique ingredients,” said Sarah. “We believe that our key ingredient, Australian Pink Clay (which is one of the purest clays in the world) along with the purity of the Australian environment, really pushes the results beyond typical clay masks. Our, Porefining Face Mask, for example, is designed as a multitasker that purifies the skin, tightens pores, and leaves skin glowing.”

While it took a while to build momentum with influencer marketing, the brand got a push when big online identities such as Huda Beauty and Jeffree Star began promoting its products. Additionally, customers eager to show off the picturesque pink-tinted hue of the masks flooded social media with posts and reviews, helping the brand grow organically. Sand & Sky also utilizes Instagram to post educational information on its Stories and taps its in-house Beauty Guru and Head of Product, Sam Taylor, to share her skin care secrets and answer customer questions across its social media channels. Still, the most important assets for consumer education are the brand’s packaging and website.

“We recently added a page to our website to educate our audience about Australian Beauty (A-Beauty), which is about being simple, natural and effective,” said Sarah. “People are more and more cautious about what they put on their skin these days and we want to support our customers through this journey towards natural beauty, so we made it easy for them to understand our ingredients with an interactive map that shows where everything is sourced from.”

As of now, there are 2 skus in the Pink Clay Range, with other products featuring Australian botanicals in the works.

“Our first products showed that if you built the best products for your customers, they follow you. We believe we have the best ingredients here in Australia to deliver the best results, so we will continue developing our brand in that direction.”