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Jacqueline Tsang

In the latest instalment in our series with luxury CEOs, we sat down with Suzanne Santos, chief customer officer of Aesop, who has spearheaded the luxury skincare brand’s initiative to create unique experiences for its customers. Since joining the brand at its inception in 1987, Santos has worked closely with founder Dennis Paphitis to evolve Aesop’s DNA within Australia and to reach out to international markets.
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As an Australian brand, how do you think Aesop appeals to the Chinese market?
Aesop has had a presence in Asia for decades now – in fact, our second stand-alone store opened in Taiwan – and we’ve always felt a great affinity with our customers in the region. It’s a sophisticated market that appreciates quality and efficacy. As for Hong Kong, it’s a very cosmopolitan city with a great population of frequent travellers, which, I suspect, also plays a part. We’ve heard many stories of customers first encountering our products while overseas, whether in-store, in a hotel, or at a restaurant, and seeking out their local Aesop store when the return home.
With e-commerce more prevalent than ever before, how has the brand reached consumers online in fresh and exciting ways?
We’ve operated with very simple but strongly held objectives: to welcome our customers as we would a guest in our home; to find the right product for each person; to offer sensory refuge in a world of ever-increasing stimulation; and to provide space for conversation. There are, of course, elements of our in-store experience that cannot be neatly translated to the online space – our sink demonstrations are perhaps the most obvious example. But those objectives remain fundamentally the same across all our retail channels, whether physical or online. So where, for example, a consultant in-store might engage a customer in conversation about a particular film or restaurant, our digital presence might engage with cinema in a different way – a recommendation for weekend viewing made on Instagram; or a film made to celebrate the launch of a new product, available to enjoy on our website. The medium or geographic location may change, but the essence of who we are and how we do things should feel consistent no matter what.
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What would you say has been the brand’s most innovative or surprising product?
Sublime Replenishing Night Masque is certainly among our most innovative products – an intensive treatment formulated to restore moisture to dry and dehydrated skin, and a formulation that uses the latest developments in scientifically proven and botanical ingredients to nourish and rebalance skin. Another perennial favourite among staff and long-time customers alike is B Triple C Facial Balancing Cream, which, like Sublime Replenishing Night Masque, is part of our Skin Care+ range. It has a unique, viscous texture, almost like honey, but is easily applied to skin and absorbs within a few minutes. It delivers concentrated doses of vitamins B and C, hence its name, to fortify and balance skin. Each of these products endured years of testing and trials over the course of their development, but, in both cases, the result was well worth the lengthy process.
Aesop has just launched a night mask for the first time. What brought about this product launch? Why now?
Like many of our products, Sublime Replenishing Night Masque was some years in the making. We’ve long hoped to develop a vitamin-enriched treatment or Masque to sit within the Skin Care+ category. The idea was to create a product that would combine our full palette of water-soluble and oil-soluble vitamins to offer compound benefits to dry, dehydrated, dull or patchy and fatigued skin in need. In late 2015, we launched Blue Chamomile Facial Hydrating Masque, which gave us confidence in formulating a wipe-off hydrating product with enduring benefits. We began to explore how we might include vitamins in a similar format to provide additional nourishment to skin.
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Why did the Sublime Replenishing Night Masque take four years to develop? What were the key factors/objectives that this product was meant to achieve?
Having worked to produce Blue Chamomile Facial Hydrating Masque, we understood that texture and skin-feel would be of great importance. With this in mind, we sought to create a product that delivered emollients and intensive hydration, but which had a light, refined and elegant feel when applied. One of the challenges we faced was that Vitamin C, one of four key vitamins incorporated into the masque, is renowned for its ability to destabilise emulsions and sera, and so it must be handled very delicately. This, combined with our desire to incorporate meaningful levels of skin-nourishing emollients, meant that we needed to explore an different base formula to that used in Blue Chamomile Facial Hydrating Masque – that is, a base sensitive to the presence of any level of Vitamin C.
We arrived at a combination of an olive-based emulsifying agent and various stabilising polymers which yielded a highly stable product with a light yet cushiony skin-feel, delivering the hydration and nourishment sought for Sublime Replenishing Night Masque. The result is a product of exceptional hydrating ability. On initial application, the skin feels nourished and comforted. Thirty minutes post-application, following initial absorption, the product has a refined, matt finish.
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How is it different from other overnight masks on the market?
Conceptually, Sublime Replenishing Night Masque is not so different from a sheet mask, whose popularity has surged in recent years. We wanted to create a vitamin-enriched formulation that delivered not only immediate hydration, but also sustained replenishment – suitable for most skin types, and particularly effective for dry, dehydrated, dull or patchy skin, or where a nourishing boost is required. Sublime Replenishing Night Masque has been specifically formulated to strengthen the skin’s barrier function to promote moisture retention, while delivering a number of skin-supportive vitamins in concentrated quantities.
How would the Night Masque fit into the consumer’s nightly routine?
We recommend applying Sublime Replenishing Night Masque in the evening, after cleansing and toning, so that skin is optimally prepared for hydration. Like a good meal, skin care should never be ungenerous; we recommend applying a teaspoon or so to your face and neck. The formula will offer sustained hydration irrespective of how long it is left on the skin and is therefore not limited to overnight use, although we recommend leaving it on for at least thirty minutes – as long as it takes to enjoy an episode of your favourite show, to cook a simple meal, or to phone a friend. Longer exposure times will simply amplify the benefits of this vitamin-rich formulation, which is why we suggest applying it before climbing into bed for the evening, and allowing it to work as you sleep.
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Aesop’s Suzanne Santos talks e-commerce, bringing Australian luxury skincare to China and why the Sublime Replenishing Night Masque took four years to develop

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}With wellness brand founder Dennis Paphitis, chief customer officer Suzanne Santos has focused on building customer experience, in-store and online

With wellness brand founder Dennis Paphitis, chief customer officer Suzanne Santos has focused on building customer experience, in-store and online