Influencer leak turns into publicity gold for Tbh Skincare’s latest product launch

Australian brand tbh Skincare brought forward its upcoming product launch to Tuesday after TikTok influencer Indy Clinton accidentally leaked the soon-to-be-launched product on Sunday on her vlog, which has been viewed over 700,000 times.

It wasn’t what tbh Skincare and York St Brands co-founder Rachael Wilde was expecting on a Sunday morning, but the brand chose to respond with a TikTok video, which in turn has now been viewed 1.2 million times. Wilde and Clinton then appeared together in a stitch video. 

In the last 24 hours, tbh Skincare’s TikTok has notched up 1.8 million views and 81,000 profile views. 

However, when people started tagging tbh Skincare on social media, Wilde realised they had to pull forward the launch of the No Scrubs Jelly Cleanser, a hydrating cleanser that removes dirt, pollutants and makeup, from its initial launch day of Thursday, February 29. 

@tbhskincare

#stitch with @indyclinton me five minutes after I saw that our new product had been accidentally leaked this morning 🧡🍑🫶🏼

♬ original sound – tbh skincare

Tbh Skincare’s new product was launched to the general public on Tuesday morning, however, the brand’s 70,000 and VIP customer base was notified about the new product on Monday afternoon.

More than one jelly cleanser sold every minute on Monday night, with Wilde confirming the brand witnessed the most traffic it has ever had to the site for a launch. 

The founder is now predicting the product will sell out online, but customers will be able to pick up one of the products from Priceline stores from Thursday. 

Wilde says the brand had been sampling the product out over the last two weeks to a select number of people – a group that included Indy Clinton.

“On Sunday, Indy included the tbh Skincare no scrubs jelly cleanser in her morning vlog,” Wilde explains to SmartCompany. 

“It was only a brief appearance of the product, approximately only 10 seconds, however we started being tagged and DMed that people had spotted the new product leak in her video and some people were already even searching for the product on the website. 

“I was blissfully unaware of this on my Sunday morning having not been on my phone. It wasn’t until one of my employees Facetimed me to tell me to go to TikTok that I saw it all happening.

“So then we thought, okay we really need to just go ahead and reveal the product officially and try to bring the launch forward, otherwise we were going to miss our big moment.”

Launch followed 12 months of planning

Last year, SmartCompany reported that tbh Skincare was set to roll out its entire range of products into 857 Coles stores nationally from October, after securing Priceline as a stockist in March 2023.

Wilde says tbh Skincare had been ‘dropping hints’ via social media over the past week to build interest in the new oil-based cleanser. 

“So our consumer base did know something was coming and were excited for the big reveal,” she says. 

“Also, we have had people commenting telling us that their makeup-removing step in their skincare routine is the one that they feel they aren’t 100% happy with. 

“This was definitely how I felt as a customer so I am so proud that we have been able to perfect this formula in the way that we now have.”

It took tbh Skincare a full 12 months to get to the final version, with Wilde confirming the brand went through sample after sample.

“It is hard to get the consistency of a jelly right and do it in a way that still supports a really effective makeup-removing cleanse,” she explains. 

“We wanted to make sure we got the product just right … [and] in the end we couldn’t have thought of a better way to release it.”