Meet the Powerhouse Behind Supergoop!
Holly Thaggard is a woman who takes sun care very seriously. It all began when a close friend was diagnosed with melanoma at age 29. Thaggard calls it her 'lightbulb moment' – the catalyst for embarking on a lifelong mission to change the way we protect our skin. Ten years and many, many sunscreen products later, the former third grade school teacher is now an industry pioneer at the helm of the world's first prestige suncare brand, Supergoop!.
After shaking up the American beauty industry, Thaggard has now set her sights on world domination. First up, Southeast Asia. She shares with us her trials, tribulations, and what's it like teaming up with tennis star Maria Sharapova to spread the word on suncare around the globe.
Congratulations on turning 10! Did you ever imagine that Supergoop! would turn out to be this successful?
It has been an incredible and very busy decade for us but I think that we still have a long way to go. For us to stay true to our mission of changing the way people think about sun protection, we need to go bigger and have Supergoop!'s presence felt all around the world. So I'd say that we're only just getting started.
Did you face any obstacles when starting out?
One of our biggest obstacles was the public's perception of sun care. To most people in the US, it's a seasonal issue. So when Supergoop! first launched in Sephora and Nordstrom, both retailers wanted to stock our brand only for the summer. That was unacceptable to me because it went against my belief that sun care needs to be carried out 365 days in a year. The challenge was to convince the retailers to dedicate shelf space to Supergoop! all year-round. So we had to dig deep and deliver innovative SPF products that women would use every single day even in the dead of winter.
Supergoop!'s tie-up with Maria Sharapova seems like a perfect match. How did that come about?
Maria came on board as a co-owner in 2014 and it has simply been a great fit. She first discovered the Supergoop! Everyday Sunscreen in Sephora, fell in love with it, and reached out to us to get involved from an investment standpoint. She makes the ideal Supergoop! woman because she's an incredible role model, truly believes in the brand, and practices what she preaches when it comes to sun protection.
Supergoop!'s product range now range from CC creams to setting mists, anti-aging eye creams, lip balms, cheek tints, and mineral powders. Which one's your personal favourite?
That’s like asking me to pick my favourite child! I'd have to say the City Sun Screen Serum SPF 30. It is infused with anti-aging vitamin E and B5, has an incredibly lightweight texture, and provides protection against infra red rays, heat rays, pollution – all the things that I’m stressed about when I’m running around New York. It's definitely the first product I would grab to pack in my bag. Another favourite of mine is our new Super Power Sunscreen Mousse SPF 50. I love it because it makes sunscreen fun and my kids aways beg for more. If you can get kids excited about SPF, you know it's a winner.
What’s next for Supergoop?
This is the next step for us – launching in our first international market. There’s not a day that goes by that we're not approached by a different country around the world. But I know what it took to launch for Supergoop! to launch in the US so I needed to make sure we had the right people in place to do things correctly before coming to Asia.
What do you want your legacy to be?
I want to witness a decline in the skin cancer epidemic and see sunscreen in school classrooms all over the world. To do that, I need to change the way people think about sun protection and inspire a 365 days-a-year approach to taking care of your skin.
Supergoop! is available at all Sephora stores and Sephora.sg.
