When hormonal health is the new wellness with Valerie

Valerie - not your neighbour’s name - but, a new beauty supplement brand, will launch in the UK, in July 2024, aiming at women in perimenopause. Co-founded in December 2023, with R&D spanning back over two years, by beauty retail expert Wizz Selvey and wellness guru Olly Johnson, Valerie aims to answer a gap in the market by the introduction of Liposomal Shot format for hyper efficacy.

Strong & Healthy

Valerie, meaning healthy and strong in Latin, aims to change the market by bringing a new more effective format of health supplement. “Most supplements on the market are in powder format (loose inside capsules or compressed in tablets) and don’t get absorbed so easily into the bloodstream and tend to be “evacuated” within the digestion process. With supplements using the Liposomal technology nutrition is delivered straight into the bloodstream for effectiveness”, explained Wizz Selvey, co-founder.

The single product range is designed to target as many common Perimenopausal symptoms as possible including anxiety, bloating, brain fog, changes in sex drive, fatigue, changes in temperature, mood swings etc. Perimenopausal symptoms are often misinterpreted by anxiety or depression, and patients are often offered anti-anxiolytic instead of hormonal support. With this brand founders hope to give women alternative solutions in the market when they feel unheard by the medical community. 

It uses a truly new and innovative formula to encapsulate 11 active ingredients into a highly bioavailable liquid Liposomal Shot format - the first of its kind.

Typically brands will include just 1 active ingredient in a Liposomal, whereas Valerie’s formulation has managed to incorporate 11, showing huge advances in development and innovation. This can be used as a standalone supplement, or in conjunction with HRT (Hormonal Replacement Therapy).

The company will continue working on New Product Development after the launch to expand the range by the end of 2024, and throughout 2025, into natural Perimenopausal support systems. 

Answering a need in the market

After a trial test with Valerie’s 200+ strong community came with a useful feedback (Data May 2024):

• 85% of perimenopausal women within Valerie’s Community are already taking health supplements.
• 79% of Valerie’s Community have said they need a closed forum/group to bring women together and share knowledge, and that they would join Valerie’s first product has been announced as a highly bioavailable Liposomal Shot with 11-active nutrient (the first of its kind in the UK market), but it’s interesting to see how well this is understood by consumers:
• 71% of the Community have heard of Liposomal
• Only 38% understand why this makes the ingredients more bioavailable than other supplements and delivery systems
• Only 29% have tried a Liposomal supplement before Women’s Health as a retail category continues to be underestimated, and misunderstood by many. Valerie’s new Liposomal Shot is the first of its kind to be made widely available in the UK; targeting the top 10 perimenopause symptoms of 48 raised by Valerie’s Community with vegan-friendly ingredients.

In short, this gives women the chance to improve: anxiety levels, bloating, brain fog, changes in sex drive, fatigue, feeling cold, irritability, loss of confidence, difficulty concentrating and short term memory issues while their hormone levels are running wild throughout the perimenopause.

Raising funds to support innovations

Co-founder Wizz & Olly are currently seeking £500k in pre-seed round to further help market release and fuel growth.

“Valerie is your revolutionary wellness brand, building the next generation of female healthcare for women navigating hormonal change during the challenging life phase of perimenopause.
Valerie’s mission is to enable women to take back control of their health with a holistic and fully integrated approach to healthcare. Their pioneering supplement innovation and personalised active support targets the symptoms personal to you.”
expresses the brand in its mission statement.

Who is behind Valerie?

Co-Founder bio: Wizz Selvey
Wizz Selvey is passionate about female health and wellness. She entered her 40s feeling frustrated by low energy and sought natural ways to rediscover her vitality, which changed the game for her. Her mission is to empower more women to feel incredible with Valerie. More attainable women's health solutions need to be shared. It can be a challenging transition but there is no reason we can't have some fun on the journey, which is why community is at the heart of the brand.
Wizz has 20 years experience in retail, leading the way on consumer trends and helping build global beauty and wellness brands. As well as being former Selfridges Head of Buying, Retail Director at Soho House and strategy advisor to Unilever, Ocado, Next and 70+ brand founders, Wizz was voted Top Retail Expert in 2023 and 2024, and is regularly featured in US and UK national media commenting on health, retail and consumer news and trends. 

Co-Founder bio: Olly Johnson
Olly Johnson's passion for improving physical and mental wellness stems from a degree specialising in exercise physiology and nutrition. Valerie sprung from Olly’s close relationship with his Mum. Seeing her struggle to navigate her way through the stages of menopause brought this glaring problem in the female health space directly to his attention. Research made it clear that it wasn't just his Mum that was left frustrated with the lack of relevant brands and quality products in the category; and so it became Olly's mission to help midlife women like his Mum to thrive. Valerie began with the application of his knowledge in nutrition, science and innovation, combined with the commercial experience gained in his professional career.
Olly’s career has led him to become an experienced growth marketer with DTC health and wellness brands like Myprotein, including recent senior leadership roles with Lucky Saint and Spacegoods, and achieved a successful exit with Jungle Creations as Managing Director of Commerce, to private equity firm Livingbridge for £30m.