Every woman knows the pains that come with maintaining beauty under unfavorable weather conditions. Whether your sleek hair gets puffy amid a humid environment or your skin gets extra ashy in dry conditions, we could all benefit from receiving tips on what styles and products could help us keep our look together before we step outside. Thanks to Sian Morson, this is now a reality.
Morson, author and founder of Kollective Mobile in Oakland, California, created the Cast Beauty app to assist women who value making informed purchases and keeping their beauty in check. The app provides users with products and tips based on the weather, but also based on users’ specific hair and skin type. The app is the first of its kind, and it’s already available in the Apple App store and the Google Play store.
Morson let rolling out in on her thought process behind creating the app and more info on Cast Beauty.
What inspired you to create this app?
The app was inspired by a move to Atlanta in 2014. Since I was living in the Bay Area, which has a relatively cool and dry climate, I experienced some adverse effects and found that the products, particularly skin and hair care products that I was using, needed to be adjusted. After speaking with women who had relocated from various parts of the country who had similar experiences, I realized that I wasn’t alone and decided to do something about it. The result is the Cast Beauty app.
What was the process of getting your app on iTunes?
Getting your app into the App Store is fairly straightforward — you design and develop the app. Apple has very clear guidelines about what they are looking for in apps when it comes to design and development guidelines. You submit the app and after review, it is either rejected or approved, and the app goes live.
How does a business or brand get on this app?
Currently, this is the No. 1 question we’ve been receiving, and its something we are working on. The app is pulling products from Amazon. We are working on trying to find a way for smaller, independent brands that aren’t on Amazon to be able to list their products in the app. For larger brands, we can do a partnership — they just need to reach out to us for more details on using the Cast Beauty technology or creating a branded version of the app featuring just their products.
How do you market?
As a bootstrapped startup, our marketing budget is limited to social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) and great write-ups and reviews. Word of mouth also plays a big part in getting the word out about the apps. Our community is very loyal and very vocal about the app. So, everything that we do revolves around them and making the app better for them. Our users are everything!
What kind of woman (based on personality, interests, etc.) would be the typical Cast Beauty user?
Cast Beauty’s mission is to empower today’s busy woman with a new understanding of the relationship between the weather and her body and to provide the tools she needs to feel her most beautiful everyday. The kind of woman who will find Cast Beauty useful is the woman who is empowered by her mobile device and sees it as the “control-center” of her life. She values how she looks but isn’t superficial. But, she also tends to stay informed by doing the necessary research and tends to make informed purchases. Cast Beauty envisions a world where women have the power to take control of how weather impacts their beauty and personal care regimen each day.
Please give us an example of three weather conditions and what kind of beauty suggestions the Cast Beauty app might give based on those weather conditions.
Part of the “secret sauce” of the app is that it doesn’t just give suggestions based on the weather conditions, it takes into consideration how your skin or hair type will respond to those conditions as well.
1. If it is particularly humid at your current location and you have oily skin, the app will send you a push notification advising you on how to cleanse your skin.
2. If your skin is dry and its particularly cold, the app encourages you to use extra moisturizer to keep your skin hydrated during the day.
3. If your hair is coily and it’s humid out, the app will provide tips to keep your hair moisturized as well.
What are you reading?
I tend to read a few books at once, so I am currently reading Venture Deals by Brad Feld, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhig and a novel that my partner wrote.
What’s your favorite quote?
I subscribe to daily “Notes from the Universe,” and this one from last week has stayed with me:
“Nothing is left to chance, Sian. The choreography of players and circumstances in your world are plotted with mind-numbing precision. Gigantic forces of attraction are activated and engaged. The odds for your inevitable success begin skyrocketing. And every second of every day is calibrated and recalibrated … whenever you remember to visualize.”
Who’s your biggest influence?
I remain inspired by Black women like Oprah Winfrey & Michelle Obama for all that they’ve done and continue to do, but no one has influenced me like my mother and grandmother have.
The Cast Beauty app is available at the Apple app store and Google Play store. For more information, visit www.castbeauty.com. Follow Cast Beauty on Facebook and Twitter @CastBeautyApp, and on Instagram @castbeauty.
