Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Davenport.
Hi Shannon, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstory.
For me, bathing has always been a source of calm. Even when my schedule was stressful, I knew coming home and taking a warm tub was the most soothing, self-preserving thing I could do. For a long time, the beauty industry has considered body care an afterthought, but that never made sense to me. I started Esker to bring elevated, clean products into body care. I wanted to create beautiful, thoughtful, and unique products that also help people make a ritual at home that they could turn to when they need to practice self-care. Body care was always where I wanted to be. I come from a trend forecasting background, and I always thought the body was such a perfect space within the beauty that other brands weren’t paying attention to it meaningfully. I saw so many products focused on the face or clean makeup and very little specialized in the body. Our skin is our largest organ, and 90% of it is from the neck down, so it made sense to me to treat the skin on our bodies with as much care as our faces. We spend so much time and attention on our faces, but 90% of our skin is from the neck down.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Bootstrapping is hard. Before I started my company, I worked full-time for 12 years. Leaving the security of a regular paycheck, benefits, and paid vacation is scary, but I planned carefully before I leaped to work at my company full-time. In the beginning, it was a lot of nights and weekends, but I felt so proud and excited about what I was doing that it didn’t feel like work. But you can’t grind it out forever, so I’m incredibly grateful to have been able to grow the brand and bring in talent and support to help me scale.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about Esker Beauty?
Esker is the leading beauty brand explicitly crafted for the skin below your chin. Esker’s mission is to create simple self-care practices that promote wellness through bathing and body care rituals. With Esker, you can make meaningful moments of relaxation and restoration every day in your home. Elevate your me-time and turn every day into a spa day. I hope we can remind people of some of the simplest, most tried, and proper methods of feeling good. Our brand is about having glowing, beautiful, super soft skin, but it’s also about creating deep, meaningful rituals that anyone can do at home. It’s about finding moments of indulgence daily and letting yourself have them with no reservations.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
For me, bathing has always been a source of calm. Even when my schedule was stressful, I knew coming home and taking a warm tub was the most soothing, self-preserving thing I could do. For a long time, the beauty industry has considered body care an afterthought, but that never made sense to me. I started Esker to bring high, clean products into body care. We spend so much time and attention on our faces, but 90% of our skin is from the neck down. I wanted to create beautiful, thoughtful, and unique products that also help people make a ritual at home that they could turn to when they need to practice self-care.
Contact Info:
- Website: eskerbeauty.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/eskerbeauty
