Glo30 aims to make luxury skincare services routine with its customized facials.
When Dr. Arleen Lamba finished medical school and became an anesthesiologist, she wasn’t thinking about starting her own business, but found herself dealing with a common problem: acne. Becoming a patient herself, she discovered a disjointed market and decided to be the “bang” in what she called a “noise-filled” industry.
“If it’s this hard for me to deep dive into skincare and find programs that are affordable and accessible, it’s gotta be hard for other people,” she said. “I created Glo30 because I had a need for myself.”
In 2012, when Lamba launched Glo30, skincare wasn’t the social media darling it is today. Facials, treatments and the like were considered luxuries, akin to a spa weekend. With Glo30, Lamba wanted to make these a part of someone’s monthly health routine.
Since skin cells fully reset every 26 to 45 days, Lamba makes custom facial and skin treatments for clients based on their needs. Back in 2012, this took “a lot of explaining and education” on the part of Lamba and her team, she said.
In recent years, things have changed. “The consumer has grown up, and the age of social media has been a big factor,” she said. “Knowledge is everywhere.”
So, too, are facial bars. Heyday, Oasis, Face Foundrie, Clean Your Dirty Face, Skoah and Skinphorea are among the concepts franchising their models. Glo30 aims to stand out in a few ways, one of which is offering services that take into account individual skin factors.
Using its proprietary AI technology, Glo30’s FreshGlo treatment plans involve a scan of the customer’s face to assess levels of dryness, oil and dirt, which are all uniquely accounted for. Glo30 studios also offer peels, light therapy, microdermabrasion and other services.
“We create a facial that is very specific to the area, and it changes every 30 days because the environment changes every 30 days,” Lamba said. “The pollutants can change every 30 days, the moisture, all of it.”
Originally, Lamba scanned faces every three months as a way to track a client’s progress. As technology advanced, Lamba took it in stride and said “it would be a shame for us not to use it.”
“We’re aiming to lead the way, because the way I look at skincare is like technology,” she continued. “Skincare is scientific, and you must utilize technology.”
Now at this for 11 years, Lamba sees it as one long learning experience. Adapting to customer needs and changes has been paramount when it comes to tackling challenges. During the pandemic, Glo30 found a way to provide its services even when customers couldn’t come in for a facial.
Dr. Arleen Lamba
“That was a time when things were uncharted territory,” said Lamba. “We learned that the consumer couldn’t come to us, but we could go to them.”
Adapting Glo30’s programs into Glo on the Go was fairly simple: create monthly facial kits and send them straight to the customer. Glo on the Go boxes come with a range of products, plus written and video instructions to follow along, and customers can sign up for a monthly subscription.
“It became a way to connect when we couldn’t connect,” said Lamba. Glo on the Go is still around, and has since become a new revenue stream for the business.
Over the last couple years, people and companies began approaching Lamba with expansion ideas. She researched various methods and eventually got in contact with franchise development firm Fransmart.
“My passion is to bring this concept to everybody,” she said. “All neighborhoods, all areas, but I also feel in order to do this you have to have a team of people who are really ingrained in what you do and how you do it.”
Glo30 announced its franchise program earlier this year. It has four company locations in the Washington, D.C., area and is preparing to open a spot at Amazon’s second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Its facial studios have a footprint of 600 to 1,200 square feet, and the cost to open a location ranges from $200,000 to $550,000.