Teadora, a skin care brand utilizing superfood actives sourced from the Amazon rainforest, is eyeing growth in 2020 with its first retail partnership. On January 16, the brand, which is on track to reach $2 million in revenue, soft-launched at Bergdorf Goodman as part of the retailer’s new clean beauty initiative.

“With the exception of a couple of local retailers in Portland, Oregon where we are based, we had decided to focus primarily on our DTC business,” said Valeria Cole, who co-founded Teadora with her husband, Tom, in 2015. “But partnerships are important to building awareness. Bergdorf is selecting 30 brands to launch in April, with 10 part of the pre-launch this week and we’re excited to be among them.”

Twelve of the brand’s 18 sku’s will be available, including its latest launch, Wild Superfood Plumping Lip Drops, a single-use treatment packaged in biodegradable vegi-cap applicators. The product, which sells for $66 for 60 vegi-caps, is designed to plump, smooth and soften lips utilizing a combination of pequi oil, geranium oil, wild tomato extract and tripeptides from sustainably sourced palm oil. In late February, a seven-treatment blister pack will be offered as a free gift with any Teadora purchase.

The lip drops were developed in response to the brand’s online community. “We have a questionnaire on our website, which we use for product development information,” explained Val. “Somehow it got picked up and 1,500 people signed up in 3 months – this was something we spent no money on at all. Today, we have a community of 400 highly-engaged consumers, and when we asked what product they wanted to see from us next, lip care always came up.”

In 2018, Teadora was accepted into the Tory Burch Foundation Fellows Program, which provided a small round of equity funding, and in 2019 they joined Built Oregon, a Portland-based startup accelerator, and secured a few more investors. The brand is currently exploring institutional funding and is hoping to secure additional retail partnerships.
“We would like to build relationships with more companies that are building clean and sustainable beauty initiatives,” said Val. “Our goal is to get into two more channels this year, and if I have my way, I’d love to get into The Detox Market.”