Tara Elmore and Lisa Lundy, the sisters behind Complex Creatures, have set out to create the breast care category.
In 2016, Elmore was diagnosed with breast cancer, although she had no family history, igniting her sister’s interest in breast health.
“I’ve always been a little bit breast obsessed,” Lundy said. “They were always on my radar from puberty, and I just thought, ‘God for all the attention that breasts get, a certain kind of attention, there’s so much we don’t know. There’s so much we’re not taking care of.’”
During treatment, Elmore struggled to find clean, efficacious products, aside from a breast balm made in small batches by a local survivor which was a struggle to share this with friends and other people with cancer. At the same time, entering perimenopause and dealing with sore breasts, Lundy also searched, to no avail, for clean breast-centered products. Seeing the opportunity in the space, the duo set to create a breast care brand called Complex Creatures, now just over a year old.
“We really see a massive opportunity and want to be the leaders in building this category,” Lundy said. “There’s really no one thinking about the breast holistically from puberty to pregnancy to menopause.”
Complex Creatures is currently comprised of two stock keeping units — Deep Reservoir Breast Oil, $78, a detoxing, moisturizing, blood flow-boosting oil, and High Vibe Healing Balm, $60, a reparative salve — with several new products on the horizon this year, including a lymph kit and ingestibles to support overall breast health.
While Elmore and Lundy have seen other brands launch singular breast-related products, Complex Creatures is setting out to create an entire category focused on breasts, offering users the chance to become more consistent in caring for them and more familiar with their anatomy. Lundy said they recognize other brands on the market have launched breast oils for aesthetic purposes, but their products are meant to be more health and wellness-focused. With this, building a relationship with breasts, rather than only focusing on them in moments of crisis, is a key driver for the sisters.
“What’s become overwhelmingly clear is that it’s such a scary process, and there are not great resources,” said Elmore, who often personally answers the brand’s direct messages in an effort to help breast cancer patients globally. “To be a place and a resource feels like such a gift and an honor. It feels like service for me. It feels like a way that, when it’s not triggering, that I can really show up, even when it is triggering.”
With this in mind, the brand is launching a new virtual coaching program led by Elmore for people in survivorship. After receiving a clean bill of health, Elmore focused on creating a healthy lifestyle and received her coaching certificate to do the same for others.
“Tara’s vision is for this new Complex Creatures service to provide the resources, community and accountability to build the bridge back to sustained health and thriving,” Lundy said.
Breast care is a new category that requires education and content to get the word out. To raise awareness, the duo knew they had to start within the breast cancer community.
“Before we launched we really started building relationships within the breast cancer community. They know how underserved this space is,” Lundy told Beauty Inc. “That was really our strategy to go there first and then move out more into the wellness space.”
This strategy proved successful and necessary. Complex Creatures was able to establish itself within the breast cancer community, working with providers to carry the products and influencers who promoted the brand. The brand has a wholesale network of providers, from medical specialists to lymphatic drainage experts, who sell the products.
“These communities are people seeking each other out finding each other. There are so many women that are very vocal about their experience with breast cancer, influencers within that space,” Lundy said.
Now, the brand has partnered with other women’s wellness brands like Tia, a women’s health care clinic; August, a period care brand, and Wile, a menopause brand. In bootstrapping the brand — Complex Creatures recently opened a raise but previously had only received funding from friends, family and angel investors — partnering with established women’s wellness brands was key for recognition.
While direct-to-consumer and digital content has built the brand, Elmore and Lundy are eager for future retail partnerships, especially as they are looking to build out an expansive breast care category.
“We really want to help lead and partner with the right people at those companies and help them, build it together almost,” Lundy told Beauty Inc. “Our mission really is that every person with breasts has a ritual to care for them and that they feel connected and comfortable with them and confident and familiar.”
Source: WWD