Ava O’Dowd, a senior accounting major, is the founder of Hydraglow, a business focused on creating high-quality skincare tools that promote confidence and genuine skin health. Through Hydraglow, customers can explore authentic, educational skincare products that promote healthy skin and empower women to embrace their natural beauty.
What is the story of your business? How did it start?
Hydraglow started with a gap I noticed while working at a medical spa in high school. Our estheticians recommended facial ice globes constantly, for inflammation, redness, and breakouts, and every time they had to send the client to Amazon. The spa lost the retail sale, and the client ended up with something cheap that didn't match the experience she had just paid for. After a lot of contemplation, the idea of HydraGlow was born and the brand created. We designed and manufactured ice globes that are actually high quality and beautiful, since no one was making tools that were both.
What has been the most challenging part of launching your business? How did you overcome this?
The hardest part has been finding the purpose in it. I love the globes I designed, but they never felt like they solved a real problem or served my customers in a meaningful way. Direct to consumer was also harder than I expected. The margins looked good on paper, but there was a lot of underlying expenses and requirements that I did not consider. After a lot of prayer and contemplation, I decided to shift the business toward estheticians. Instead of selling tools strictly to consumers, I want to make supplies estheticians use every day, starting with dermaplaning blades, and eventually build a course that helps new estheticians launch their careers and give their clients real results. It is the first time the business has felt like it serves people in a real way.
What is the goal behind your entrepreneurial pursuits? What do you envision for your business?
I envision Hydraglow becoming a name recognized across the esthetic community. I want it to be the place estheticians go for community, guidance in their skills, quality tools they can trust and unbiased, real information.
Does your business have a social mission or purpose? If so, explain how your business is redemptive in a Christlike manner?
Community, true education and real results are the mission. Skin is not a small thing to people. When you are not comfortable in your own skin, it is hard to feel confident in anything else, and I have watched clients walk into a treatment room carrying far more than a skin concern. Each client is a soul with their own struggles and a real desire to be heard. Jesus met people in their physical needs and treated the whole person, and that is the posture I want this business to have. I want to take care of and teach estheticians so they can do the same for their clients.
How do you see your company having an impact on the Samford and/or Birmingham communities?
Birmingham has a good medical spa scene and several esthetics programs, and the estheticians coming out of them face exactly the problem I'm building for. While I'm here, I want to get our tools into a few Birmingham treatment rooms and hear what local estheticians actually need. I'll move back to Nashville after graduation, but what I build will be shaped by being formed at Samford.
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