AN entrepreneur is hoping to propel her skincare brand into top department stores when it is launched this summer.
Sara Jane Lynch, 26, set up Tru:Beauty Skincare after being unable to find glamorous products which would help control her eczema.
Now she is in the final stages of testing and approval for the first three products in the skincare range. Those will be a cleanser, toner and facial moisturiser, with prices starting at around £16.
All are being manufactured in England after Ms Lynch found the Scottish companies she approached were not willing to sign non-disclosure agreements or meet her timetable for the products' launch.
Ms Lynch, who has been involved with the Entrepreneurial Spark organisation in Glasgow and counts Fake Bake founder Sandra McClumpha and Baillie Gifford's Kenneth Barker as mentors, is pitching her products to department-store buyers at the end of this month.
She said: "I'm in talks now with a few department stores and I want to get the brand aligned with the best.
"I'm trying to create an aspirational cult brand for high-maintenance skin.
"A big grey tub of cream is not really what the urban professional is looking for."
Ms Lynch is also looking at online partners to stock the brand alongside her own e-shop.
She hopes to secure office space in Edinburgh during the autumn as her first sales start to come through.
Her "conservative" estimates for turnover in the first 12 months of trading are around £600,000 with further product launches planned once the initial range is established.
Ms Lynch studied beauty therapy at the Mary Reid Spa Academy in Edinburgh and consulted academics at Napier University on her ideas for skincare products following her degree in business with entrepreneurship.
A £5000 loan from the Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust helped pay for a cosmetologist to formulate the range.
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