A 3D printing machine and her mum’s unusual beauty routine of icing her face led Sarah Forrai to a side hustle that has already made $100,000 in just eight months.
The 29-year-old said her mum had always “loved” icing her face but it wasn’t until she started to incorporate it into her own skincare regime that she realised there was something crucial missing.
“I realised how inconvenient, messy and awkward using tiny ice cubes are and it makes your hand so cold,” she told news.com.au.
“I thought surely there is a tool that solves the problem but I found no tool for facial icing. So I put pen to paper and was drawing different designs on what I wanted the tool to look like as I’m a graphic designer by background.”
The Sydneysider was lucky her partner also owned a 3D printer.
“Once I was happy with the design it was crazy to have a prototype printed in a couple of hours and then have it in my hand,” she said.
“I created a little mould for my mum to test out the shape and she really loved it.”
Ms Forrai’s business, Contour Cube was born, and since then her one bedroom apartment has been turned into a beauty warehouse with around 2000 products sold since launch.
Her first video on TikTok reached 20,000 people and she said it was “crazy” to gain sales when “no one had seen the product before”.
But it was her third TikTok video which went “viral” on Valentine’s Day that saw the product completely sell out with half a million views. She made $20,000 in just two weeks.
“I really didn’t expect the product to kick off as much of as it did and I would have set myself up for scale a lot earlier if I had known it was going to go viral and have such positive feedback,” she said.
“I was very surprised and obviously when I sold out I wanted to keep momentum going and during that time I had to get the tooling done and during Covid everything is a lot slower, so I had to go on pre-order, because videos were getting so many views and there were 30,000 people on the website in the space of three days.”
Just three months after launching, the Contour Cube was also stocked in Urban Outfitters in the US.
“It was a massive deal being able to have that large retailer back us – it really validated demand for the product because a lot of our market is in the US and the product has been trending over there,” she said.
“It’s really helped grow our brand awareness as well. From there we landed another US retailer, which we will launch in at the end of September, and we want to look towards more local distribution because we are Australian designed.”
The product sells for $34.95 and come in a range of different colours, with pink the most popular.
Ms Forrai said facial icing has been around for centuries and offers many benefits.
“It’s a quick remedy for puffiness, it’s good for visibly firming and contouring the face, reduces dark circles under eyes and it’s good to treat acne as it helps soak oil away from skin. It increases blood circulation and gives you that radiant natural glow,” she said.
“I think there is a misconception that it’s supposed to be an elongated process, but you should use it in 30-second intervals for one to two minutes on each side of face and follow with moisturiser.”
Customers also enjoying making up their own ice facial recipes, such as freezing green tea for inflammation, coconut milk for hydration and cucumber water for depuffing.
Ms Forrai added that her mum is her biggest fan but also is a star on TikTok.
“One video I posted with my mum and me hit over six million views and now she said it’s not viral status unless it gets to that number,” she laughed.
“That was a really good video, talking about how mum was the inspiration for the product, but she’s camera shy so I forced her into that one. I’ve convinced her she’s got to be in more videos.”
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The online retail employee said beauty wellness has grown since the pandemic hit and she is hoping to turn her side hustle into a full-time gig by making the Contour Cube a “beauty staple”.
She said she plans to expand the range and look at the ice facial process from start to finish to make it as easy as possible for people.
“I recently launched a Contour Cloth made of bamboo so if you don’t want to put ice directly on you skin you can use it,” she said.
Read related topics:Australian Small BusinessTikTokncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7HWrGWcp51jrrZ7xaKlmqaTmny0ucClo2aapai2r7HSrGacp56pvLa%2BjJysm52jYq%2BmrdStsGaooqSxtq%2FTZqSao5WoenJ8j2lnaWWZo3quu82tn6xnnprEtHnSraarsV%2BZhKZ%2BlnKbmmqSaLJ2sZibbGydaGaAcoOQnJpyammWfQ%3D%3D