Temple Skincare – Black-owned Skincare for the modern man.
Temple Skincare x FAULT Magazine
While there is still a long way to go within the male grooming community, we should never forget just how much progression has been made within certain communities to remove the stigma and connotations surrounding extended skincare routines.
Indeed, within the black male community, hair care and fashion have been important throughout the diaspora for many years; it is seldom seen that this passion has extended to skincare in the same way.
For this reason, it is refreshing to see a brand such as Temple both reshaping what it means to be a contemporary black man while at the same time ensuring that the ingredients used in their products are as revolutionary as their mission statement.
Accessibility is clearly at the heart of their brand; while a journey into their ingredient list proves that substantial research has gone into every product, their Essential Skincare Sets, Daily Supplement Pack, and Whole-Body System offering are easy for any customer to pick up and follow.
After falling in love with the products ourselves, we caught up with the brand to find out more about their journey, their passion for skincare and, of course, their FAULTs.
Was there a specific event that occurred that made you realise that the world needed a product like Temple?
Temple Skincare: aTemple was created because there is a deep lack of options in retailers and on highstreets when it comes to beauty, grooming and personal care products for men with darker shades of skin. This is partly due to the fact that black men are hugely underrepresented in the grooming and beauty space.
We had known for a long time that products marketed specifically to black consumers didn’t always contain high-quality ingredients, and reports were published that recorded one in 12 beauty products for black consumers were ranked highly hazardous. We were motivated to challenge the industry standards and provide a better quality option for black consumers through Temple products.
In your early development, what were some of the main hurdles you had to overcome with the product?
Temple Skincare: Meeting the minimum order quantities (MOQ) set by manufacturers was one of the hurdles we faced when launching Temple. It was particularly tricky because everything is self-funded, we’ve received no external investment to date. After months of meetings and pitching our vision to manufacturers, home and abroad, we did eventually find a UK based producer willing to work with us with reduced MOQ demands and met our quality requirements and believed in our brand vision and values.
Having launched Temple in December 2020 at the height of the pandemic, we also came across a challenge in the form of being able to source our packaging. With the increased demand for hand sanitiser and pump-action bottles – there was a global shortage of the pump-action bottles we initially wanted to use for our cleansers – it nearly put our launch on hold. Eventually, we had to source another option – this is just part of business; things won’t always be exactly as you planned, so you need to be adaptable.
The product is created with Men of Colour in mind, are there any unexpected changes you had to make from the standard workflow to really cater to darker shades of skin?
Temple Skincare: Before we launched, we spent a lot of time speaking with experts to understand the unique needs of men of colour when it came to general healthcare, nutrition and skincare. It’s important to us that we use the best natural ingredients that are science-backed and researched with proven results. We knew very early on that we wanted to help men with their overall health, not just one singular area – so we knew right from the start we would need to have experts involved in developing our products to better suit men of colour.
You’re entering a crowded market with a very specific product line; what brings you confidence at times when the path to success looks uneasy?
Temple Skincare: While there’s an argument to say the beauty sector is crowded, the men’s personal care market is growing rapidly and becoming a hot space; the market that we are operating in is a space that we see very few men’s skincare brands, hence the need for Temple.
That being said, we’re really encouraged by the comments and testimonials that we get from our customers. These are men who have been secretly experimenting with products they found in their partner’s bag or did nothing at all because they just didn’t know where to start. We’ve created a brand that men love; they feel seen by us and are really proud to shout about the Temple brand.
Temple has such a strong aesthetic; how important were the visuals when developing the brand?
Temple Skincare: On a scale of 1-10, The importance of the Temple aesthetic is 10! It was hugely important to us and still is today – we’re constantly looking at what we’re producing and looking for ways to improve and execute at an even higher level. We’re serving an audience that has been overlooked and underserved for far too long, so we wanted to ensure that we give black and brown men exactly what they deserve – an elite experience. From the product itself to the look and feel of the brand, whether that be the visuals on our socials pages, to our website, the packaging and the unboxing experience – we wanted to set an example for our customers, the same level of respect we’re paying you each and every time you order from Temple – is the standard we expect you to now set for yourself. Every time you use our products, it’s an experience.
While great strides have been made with men’s attitudes towards skincare within the community, how do you plan to further break down those barriers to more complex skincare routines?
Temple Skincare: In a word, content. We’re big believers that our community needs to see themselves visually in content to be able to identify with it. We are big on creating video-based content that shows men not only practising self-care routines but showing men in different lights that they may be not used to seeing or expressing. For example, very recently, we did a Father’s Day campaign on Instagram where we had men showing a more vulnerable and softer side to themselves – talking about their experiences as dads; our aim here was to humanise black men as fathers.
What is the current greatest challenge that your brand faces?
Temple Skincare: I’d say our current greatest challenge is just ensuring that our audience is aware that we exist. From what our customers tell us, we’ve done an amazing job to create products that are effective at helping men clear acne, brighten their skin and have visibly improved skin and wellbeing. I believe we’ve done a great job of creating a brand that resonates with our consumers, but what we need to do now is ensure that our target audience knows we exist. We have big ambitions, there are other problems we want to solve for black men when it comes to personal care, and while I mention this to be a ‘challenge’, it’s only really because I’m an impatient person. I want Temple to help even more people; we’ve been seeing and reading how transformative it has been for the men who have already discovered us so early on in our journey.
What is your FAULT?
Temple Skincare: Impatience – I’m excited and really passionate about what Temple is doing for men that look like us, and because of this, I want us to help everyone almost instantly.
Our customers are more confident in themselves as a result of the changes they see from using our products, and our brand is making space for new conversations in our community. Temple has the potential and the opportunity to be a really impactful brand. We’re helping men look, feel and perform their best every single day, which in turn means they have a brighter outlook on life – it’s a knock-on effect, you do better to people when you feel better about yourself, and that’s really exciting to me.