Sunday Brush: ‘International ambitions from day one’

Mineral sunscreen powder Sunday Brush went from a Dutch startup to operating Europe-wide in only a few years. The chemical-free formula is shipped worldwide and available in over 350 beauty salons in the Benelux. Now, Sunday Brush is expanding to Spain and the United Kingdom. Founder Nicole Vermeer: “We had international ambitions from the beginning.”

‘Pivoting towards B2B within 2 months’

After Nicole Vermeer’s husband Remko was diagnosed with skin cancer around ten years ago, both of them became adamant about sun protection: “But a lot of sunscreens are greasy and use chemicals that irritate sensitive skin.” Sunday Brush, founded by Vermeer and her husband in 2017, instead offers a 100% natural mineral sunscreen powder with SPF 50.

Just 2 months after starting as an ecommerce company, skincare salons started asking for the product. “It lends itself well for use after beauty treatments, when the skin is sensitive. So we had to pivot from only a B2C to also B2B in a very short time”, Vermeer says. The company had to be flexible, also because sunscreen is a seasonal product: “Once the sun comes out in March, our sales peak and logistics have to scale up quickly.”

Custom sustainable packaging

Nicole Vermeer, owner of Sunday Brush

Since Vermeer and her husband are only a two-person team, they decided to outsource their fulfilment within a year of launching. “We travel a lot to our manufacturer in Malaysia and other markets to expand our business”, the founder explains. “Shipping parcels ourselves takes a lot of time, time we can use in a more productive way by putting it towards our marketing and expanding our business.” 

When selecting a fulfilment partner, Active Ants offered several advantages. “First of all, they can handle our seasonal peaks by scaling up and down quickly. And they can do a much better job than us: faster, more reliable and with better pricing.” 

“Active Ants integrated our custom needs in their logistics process.”

Sunday Brush developed custom sustainable packaging, Vermeer explains. “We wanted to reduce our environmental footprint, therefore we developed a 2-in-1 packaging: our product packaging is the same as our shipping packaging. This was new for Active Ants, but they integrated our custom needs in their logistics process very seamlessly.”

Entering Spain and the United Kingdom

Today, Sunday Brush is sold in over 350 salons in the Netherlands and Belgium. While the Netherlands is still their biggest market, the company also ships online orders to Switzerland and France. Next month, Spain will be added to that list. Sunday Brush’s international ambitions even reach as far as Japan, where it started selling last year and received a beauty award.

“With Active Ants’ national carriers, entering a new market is easy.”

“We had international ambitions from the beginning”, says Vermeer. There are plans to expand to the United Kingdom in the near future as well. “Entering the market is relatively easy. We can already ship parcels worldwide through Active Ants’ different national carriers, and they have a warehouse there. Plus, our online store is already available in English.” Therefore the main focus is on creating brand awareness: “We intend on cooperating with local marketeers for targeted consumer advertising.”

‘Scale up without huge budget’

“Our philosophy is to educate on the importance of daily sun protection”, the owner says. In the Netherlands alone, the number of skin cancer cases is set to rise with 35 percent by 2027, the Integral Cancer Center Netherlands reports. Aside from sun protection, SPF is also used for anti-aging in skincare. Add to this a trend of organic beauty products for those with sensitive skin or environmental concerns. Worldwide, the market for mineral sunscreens is estimated to be worth 1.8 billion dollars by 2030. 

Vermeer aims to expand Sunday Brush throughout Europe, from the Nordics to the South of Europe. “We are not a big corporation with a huge budget”, Vermeer says. “But with ecommerce and a global shipping partner, we have the opportunity to scale up quickly.”