Brianne West

Past projects

The Ethique story.

The world's first full range solid beauty and lifestyle brand. I stepped down from Ethique in 2023 and have no affiliation with the brand.

Illustrative recreation of Ethique's beginnings in a Christchurch kitchen

2012–2023

Raising the bar for business.

  1. 2012

    The first formulas

    Formulated in my kitchen

    I was 24 and studying half-heartedly towards a science degree when I reached the logical conclusion that with so much water in our bathrooms, there's no need to add it to shampoo, conditioner and moisturiser. That's the idea that kicked off Ethique (then called Sorbet). My first solid products were formulated in my kitchen and tested on my long-suffering friends and family. 

    Illustrative recreation of early solid beauty bar formulation in a home kitchen

  2. 2015

    BECOMING A REAL BUSINESS

    350 people said yes

    In 2015 we had reached that horrible stage where we were too busy to keep operating in the place we were (my flat kitchen), but not necessarily making enough money to lease a factory. Then I met a wonderful landlord who believed in the mission, and not long after we did our equity crowdfunding through PledgeMe. Sorbet became Ethique and the brand look changed quite dramatically...

    Illustrative recreation of an early solid beauty bar factory

  3. 2017

    22 countries · 8,000 retailers

    A bar in every shower

    You only create change through scale, and scale we did! From 2016-2018 we expanded into 22 countries around the world and more than 8,000 retailers. It was... chaotic. We also moved factories several times as we outgrew each, we featured in international press constantly, we hired team members left right and centre and I had to learn a lot very quickly. But it was incredible. 

    Illustrative arrangement of solid beauty bars representing global expansion

  4. 2020

    Majority sale

    The sale

    In the middle of Covid it became pretty apparent that managing all of those 22 countries from Aotearoa was going to be a struggle. Our whole team was based in AoNZ and we couldn't travel anymore to our partners. So it made sense to look for a strategic partnership with an offshore organisation. Eventually we sold a majority of the company to a family office who had a phenomenal history of ocean conservation. One of my proudest moments still is realising how many of our shareholders' mortgages we paid off when we were able to return their faith in us - at 48x their original investment!

    A solid beauty bar on a pale pink background

  5. 2023

    FOUNDER CHAPTER ONE COMPLETE

    On to the next thing

    After staying on as CEO for nearly three years after the sale I stepped down in April 2023. By then we had prevented more than 32 million plastic bottles from being made and disposed of in landfills, and over 600,000kg of carbon emissions.

    Then came Incredibrands... and the rest of it.