Wilde–meets–Elon Musk figure who helped build it into
a global force (at the beginning of 2020, the company
will have 40 stores from Los Angeles to Hong Kong)—
found the building a couple of
years ago as its growth was
cresting. The Ordinary’s lineup
of clinical-grade ingredients at
strikingly low price points (30ml
of 10% resurfacing Lactic Acid
or 2% hydrating Hyaluronic
Acid for just $6.80) took off in
2016 as consumer interest in high-
performance skin care exploded.
Social media were also key to
the company’s success, allowing
Deciem to engage with a sizable
community of beauty obsessives—
fans, editors, influencers—as
Truaxe himself regularly slid into
Instagram comment sections to
answer questions from 300,000-
plus followers.
But last year, Truaxe’s online
and workplace behavior became
erratic. He publicly antagonized
competitors and customers,
threatened to shut down store
locations with little reason,
and abruptly laid off members
of his executive team without
warning, including Kilner. “2018
she says earnestly as we sit in a high-ceilinged
boardroom, her British accent exhausted
by a bout of bronchitis. Truaxe’s actions,
reportedly linked to drugs and mental
health issues (Truaxe vehemently denied
he was mentally ill), became spectacle,
tracked by gossip and beauty blogs—and
eventually major news organizations—
until he died unexpectedly in January after
a fall from a Toronto condominium.
Kilner had officially taken over as CEO
only weeks before, while pregnant with her
daughter, and has been focused on
restoring stability ever since. “Still,” she
says, “we got through it because Brandon
had built a sense of loyalty and family, and we all
believed in what he wanted to do.”
Petite and blonde, Kilner breaks into a smile when
speaking of Truaxe, whom she repeatedly calls a
“genius” and her “best friend.” She credits his vision
for Deciem’s quick growth—investment from Estée
Lauder in 2017; the accrual of $300 million in revenue;
the creation of almost 900 jobs worldwide. It was
Truaxe’s contagious enthusiasm and novel idea to buck
the outsourcing approach to beauty entrepreneurship
and bring everything, from formulation to packaging,
under one roof that compelled her to leave her job as
a buyer for the British health-and-beauty chain Boots
and join him when Deciem was just five people working
in a small factory on Toronto’s Queen Street West.
Kilner hopes to continue that self-sustaining model
under her tenure, with special emphasis on Deciem’s
employees, whom she sees as individual entrepreneurs.
“I very much believe that you have to create the right
environment to inspire people to do their best,” she says,
describing a corporate culture that encourages a free
exchange of ideas, and a nimbleness that allows Deciem
to innovate quickly. Through the end of the year and
into the beginning of 2020, the company will launch 32
new products, including an SPF and concealer from
The Ordinary, a new Copper Amino Isolate Lipid from
NIOD’s core regimen collection, as well as two new
categories: Hippooh brings a minimal-ingredient mind-
set to the ever-growing baby skin-care market, while
a full bath-and-body collection called Loopha features
unconventional scents. (One of its offerings is best
described as smelling pleasantly chalky.) There is also
talk about reviving Avestan,
an unrealized fragrance brand
Truaxe—who was something of
a perfume enthusiast—had big
ambitions for, including a stand-
alone store in London. “I’m not
sure it’s going to be profitable,”
Kilner says of the maiden olfactory
voyage from a team of internal
and external collaborators. “But it’s
the right thing to do for Brandon.”
The Avestan store would be Deciem’s sixth retail
includes a bustling Covent Garden location, which
I recently visited during the summer’s heat wave. As
industrial fans cooled the space,
customers stood shoulder to
shoulder, sampling the cultish
Glow Radiance Booster, a tone-
evening serum that imparts a slight
the new HQ this spring. Among
its more noteworthy architectural
details: a pane of glass that
separates shoppers from the
on-site production facility,
a symbol of transparency in its
purest form.—a n u pa mistry
“I very much believe that
you have to create the
right environment to inspire
people to do their best,”
K ilner says
COUNTER CULTURE
THE COMPANY WILL
LAUNCH 32 NEW
PRODUCTS—INCLUDING
A SUNSCREEN FROM
THE ORDINARY, AND
A NEW BABY-CARE
BRAND—OVER THE
NEXT FEW MONTHS.
VLIFE
66 NOVEMBER 2019 VOGUE.COM
COURTESY OF DECIEM
