INTERVIEW WITH BULBUL HOODA OF VELLA WOMEN’S PLEASURE SERUM

You have such an impressive 15-year experience building and growing award-winning brands for the likes of L’Oreal. What attracted you to Vella? 

After spending all this time at big beauty and CPG conglomerates, I was ready to take the next step in my career. Something that can keep me up at night. Vella was exactly that.

We are witnessing a sexual wellness boom, stemming from the convergence of beauty and wellness. Today, self-care has naturally extended beyond beauty and found an anchor in health, fitness and sexual wellness. It was intuitive for Vella to be positioned at the intersection of science and prestige beauty as a women-first, digitally native prestige beauty brand. What differentiates Vella from the other players is that we have a scientific breakthrough powering our product. That is every marketer’s dream come true.

What makes Vella different from the other female sexual wellness and arousal products on the market?

My top three would be:

1) Our research-based, clinical test backed discipline resulting in our proprietary nano-encapsulated CBD technology.

2) The target audience panning the entire spectrum of women at any age or life stage.

3)  Vella’s sophisticated branding that differentiates and elevates our proposition.

Please tell me your inspiration behind the choice of packaging and branding.

We spent a lot of time articulating the visual and verbal identity for Vella. It was critical to have provocative, straightforward imagery in order to normalize the conversation around female pleasure. We wanted to call it what it is. The balance between sophisticated beauty codes and finding the right packaging for precise dosing was most interesting. Likewise, we took our time to find our voice – relatable, informative but also always fun. Ultimately, it is pleasure that is our main proposition, and we aim to please in all aspects 🙂 

Which retailers will be stocking Vella in the UK and the USA?

We have already launched at Shen Beauty, Nordstrom, Cos Bar and Lemon Laine in the US, and some big news is around the corner on strategic retail partnerships during the summer. We are in talks with a few partners in the UK as well, stay tuned until we finalize those. 

What does your average work day at Vella looks like?

We are a lean and agile team, and we work remotely, which makes communicating at all times crucial. From setting up a company and bringing a brand to life in under 12 months was no easy feat. And we were also in parallel in the midst of our Seed II funding round (We have since raised $7MM). Let’s say, things tend to get a bit busy. 

Do you have any career advice for anyone looking to follow in your steps?

This is easier said than done but try to prepare a roadmap and set your career milestones. And of course, be flexible as sometimes things don’t stay on plan, but if you don’t know where you are going, you are sure to get lost.