Georgia Douvall is the Co-Founder of premium Argan oil skincare range Douvall’s. She started up the business 10 years ago with her mother Alicia when they discovered the incredible results argan oil had on their skin. They have been running the business together ever since. Check out the Douvall’s range at www.douvalls.com
Thank you for interviewing with us today, can you introduce yourself to us?
Georgia Douvall, co-founder of Douvall’s, an eco-luxury, organic Argan skincare and wellness brand, working directly with a women’s co-operative.
Can you take us through your journey to where you are now?
We started Douvall’s over 12 years ago now, after discovering the amazing multi-tasking transforming benefits of Argan oil on our travels, we travelled to the semi deserts of Morocco to find the very best organic first cold pressed Argan oil, visiting dozens of women’s co-operatives. We started Douvall’s in our kitchen of our flat in Chelsea, launched in Harrods then Fortnum and Mason and become the trusted best Argan brand in the UK. We are now stocked with Sephora, Superdrug and many more!
Since starting, have you made any changes to your business model?
We have had to adjust making changes along the way many times, in Covid had to change from outsourcing our PR, fulfillment and packing to inhouse. We started pretty simply with just Argan oil, since then we have expanded the brand to over 60 SKU’s, and branched into haircare, wellness and make up.
Have you ever had a mentor? If so how has this benefitted you either personally or professionally?
We have always tried to have mentors around us, we feel these are fundamental to the business, you have to be open to new idea’s what is going wrong, and right and what can be done better. We pride ourselves in being good listeners to our customers, apprentice staff members to retail giant advisers.
What outlets do use for marketing?
For marketing we believe it is important to be authentic, honest and have integrity, we don’t pay celebrities or influencers to endorse our products, we only go so far as gifting. We do not pay for awards that want money to use their badge. Our marketing is predominantly social media and word of mouth.
What or Who has inspired you most recently?
We get our inspiration from nature, from our customers feedback, our philosophy is the customer is always right, our customers are our biggest inspiration we are always trying to meet their needs. The current challenging climate means our customers needs have changed, so right now for instance we are focusing on multi-tasking products that save money for our customers.
What is the best piece of business advice you have received to date?
I would say it was ‘Happiness is to serve others.’
But lots of advise has helped us for form a successful business like, be flexible, evolve, and business is basically a series of problems to solve, and most importantly put your customer first at all times.
How do you create an evenly balanced work and personal life?
We feel it’s important to have balance in life, when we first started the business it was 24/7 with no balance, but that was not sustainable so we learnt to take time out, to recharge, to find inspiration in unexpected places, from walking on the beach for a new scent to visiting botanical plant centres for amazing superfoods to help a certain skin conditions.
Name a seminal point in your career so far?
Recently I, was a finalist for the Pour Moi Amazing women awards, it was an incredible achievement and amazing to be recognised for the incredible work with our women’s co-operative by a large renowned brand such as Pour Moi.
What gives you ultimate career satisfaction?
Career satisfaction for us, is hearing feedback from our customers how we have helped them in some way, for example a teen with acne gaining her confidence from her acne clearing up, a cancer survivor how she got her eyebrows back with our growth serum, and how an eczema sufferer found healed with our First cold pressed Organic Argan oil. This is why we do what we do. Another motivator for us is the changes we can make to the women in Morocco, we have helped them gain fair wage, good working conditions, support for them and their families as well as building a school room and providing a teacher for their children. Women supporting women.
Are there any leading entrepreneurs or SME leaders that you admire and if so, why?
We love successful women, so the likes of Liz Earle, Charlotte Tilbury, are big inspirations to us. I also follow female founders such as Krissy Cela.
How do you define your own success?
We define our success by our feedback from our customers, their repeat business, the changes that we can make to women around the world and if we wake up loving what we do.
Finally, what can we expect from you next?
The brand is growing, we hope to expand not only the range but where we can be bought so we are easily accessible.
