Dragons swoop over ‘flawless' men’s makeup biz

Hi, Dragons.

want to start my pitch today by letting you know that I suffer from a mental illness.

suffer really badly with body dysmorphia.

I'm telling you this because this is the reason that I founded my brand.

My name's Daniel Gray and I'm the founder of War Paint for men, and today I'm asking for 7% equity for £70, 000 investment.

20 years ago I got bullied in middle school due to appearance.

It's affected me massively every day ever since.

started using my sister's make-up growing up, to help me build back up that confidence and it did just that.

One thing I couldn't find, though, was a brand that I felt related to me as a man, so what I decided to do was create my own brand.

We've been selling online for the last six months and we sell 13, 000 products across the world.

Turnover so far is just under 200, 000.

and we've had massive press coverage as well.

Before I open up to any questions, I'd just love to invite one of the gentlemen up so I can give you a quick demo on the product.

Go on, Theo.

You can't improve on perfection.

A candid pitch from Daniel Gray.

All I'll do is put on a tiny bit of concealer, so if you could just remove your glasses for me.

Can I see you before you've done the.

? Oh.

So, all I'm going to do is apply tiny bit under the eyes.

He's offering a 7% stake in his brand of make-up for men.

Your right eye probably looks better than your left at the moment.

Why not do the other side, then? .

and he's asking for an investment of £70, 000.

Perfect.

With the range flawlessly modelled by Theo Paphitis.

There you go.

Ten years younger in ten minutes.

Tej Lalvani wants to find out more about the challenges that inspired Daniel to create the business.

Daniel, well done, I mean, you know, it takes a lot of courage to turn around and to face it all.

How do you feel now after all that journey? Compared to where I was at 13 feel a lot better in myself.

When I was in my early 20s it was seriously bad.

I'll go out to meet my mates and normally I'm the life and soul of a party, but if I'm not right in my mind wouldn't say a word for an hour and then I'd just go home.

I'm very impressed what you've done.

The point about the awareness is important because a lot of men may not understand how to put make-up on or what is a concealer, what is the foundation? So, you've got video tutorials, do you explain all that? Yeah, we do a lot.

Who does the tutorials? We do them all in-house, so we'll have models that we'll use.

We'll shoot all the tutorials.

think you've done cracking job so far.

Thank you.

Because you're right, there's lot of men who still feel really uncomfortable about it all, you know, that sort of girls' stuff.

What you've done here is you've presented it in a really accessible way.

And it's vegan.

Yeah, and cruelty free.

Yeah.

We're looking to go 100% natural currently, as well, so we're just waiting for our test samples to come out for our whole product range to change to 100% natural.

And I will also tell you, and I've just tried both of these products, that is lovely.

PETER: But it's not for you! It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.

can wear that, too.

Deborah Meaden gives her seal of approval to the quality of the product and the ethos behind the brand.

but a perfectly preened Theo Paphitis wants to know if the hype around the business looks as good as he does since his recent makeover.

Daniel, when did you launch? 2018.

And you said you had loads of fanfare of publicity at the launch.

What did that consist of? We've had press articles recently, we're on ABC News, we've been on Fox News, Good Morning America.

GQ Magazine did big article about us.

OK.

I'm fully aware that the male personal care market is huge and growing.

Yeah.

How many male make-up brands are out there? There's probably five.

You have some bigger brands like Tom Ford For men.

You have Chanel Boy.

But how we've approached it compared to them, we're trying to make it.

like the everyday man brands, something a bit more masculine.

Thank you.

Dan, what I don't understand is the scale of the opportunity.

So, the men's grooming market, we know, is absolutely massive, 60 billion.

It's going to grow by 50% in the next five years.

I'm guessing the scale is in a big way, it's about putting it into retail somewhere, and as soon as you do that, is there not the worry that one of the other really well established brands decides they're going to have an offshoot for make-up? What I've seen, if you say to a man, “Go in and buy a Chanel product” it's make-up.

Chanel have been known for that for years.

think if you said, “Go in and buy a Mac product”, they've got a men's version out, it's still Mac.

It's very difficult for them to get into this market and create cool, edgy brand.

think we've just got 18 months to scale this, get it out there, everywhere, and be the make-up brand for men.

Daniel brushes away Sara Davies' concerns over the company's competition by proving that he has a thorough grasp of the marketplace.

Now, Peter Jones wants to know if he's taken any steps to protect the brand in this rapidly growing sector.

Daniel, I want to get a little detail about the business.

Yep.

Have you registered the trademark against the brand? Yeah.

We went for the trademark for War Paint.

They came back and said, “You can't, cos it's too much of a slang for make-up.

” We had lawyers get involved.

We went, because we were very adamant that this was the name wanted.

Went back.

and they overturned it.

We're going through the US currently and they don't think there's anyone else in front of us in terms of that challenge, so we've got that, as well.

So.

I've got to say, I'm quite blown away by the.

positioning and the quality of the product.

Thank you very much.

and I think you've really worked hard to put that together.

I'm ready to put my war paint on.

and go into battle with these guys.

Yes.

I love that.

And that's because I like you, like the brand, like the business opportunity.

think you've created something that has real potential.

and I'm going to make you an offer.

I'm going to offer you all of the money for 20% of the business.

OK.

Thank you, Peter.

Peter Jones is the first Dragon to make up his mind, offering all the money for 20% of the business, 13% more than the seven on offer.

Will Sara Davies also see potential in Daniel's brand? came into the Den to look for other young entrepreneurs who were trailblazing and were about to go on an exciting journey and one that I'd been on and was eager to go on again, and that's what see in front of me.

Thank you.

So, I would love to work with you.

My offer is also all of the money for 20% stake in the business.

Thank you very much.

Really appreciate that.

Daniel, I'm very impressed what you've done.

You've created a fantastic brand.

Thank you very much.

So, I'm going to offer you all of the money for 20%.

OK, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Daniel has three bids for the business but all at 20%.

Is Deborah Meaden also primed to make a play for the cosmetics company? You've done a flawless job on this so far.

I'd really love to sit here and say this bit's wrong.

Really annoyingly.

I can't! Thank you so much.

So, you won't be surprised to hear that I'm going to make you an offer.

Thank you.

but I'm going to make you better offer.

So, I'm going to offer you all of the money.

Yep.

and I want.

15% of the business.

OK, Deborah, thank you very much.

appreciate that.

Well, there we are.

Do you know, I've been using moisturiser for about 20 years, every day? You can tell, as well.

You're such a smoothie! He's totally out for that fifth offer.

Listen, for me, the key thing is the business is promoted.

Yeah.

You're promoted because you've put your back story into this.

Yeah.

So, I'm going to make you an offer.

and because Deborah.

has gone to 15%.

will give you all the money.

for 15%.

Thank you very much.

really appreciate that.

Theo Paphitis follows Deborah Meaden's lead and swoops in with a 15% rival bid.

This is a classic, is it, where I just.

? Talk to the wall! Yeah, talk to yourself for two minutes! They're both up against Peter Jones, Sara Davies and Tej Lalvani who are all demanding 20% stakes.

Daniel's achieved the Holy Grail for entrepreneurs – offers from all five Dragons.

But he came into the Den with just 7% of his business on the table.

Is he prepared to lock horns with the Dragons? Thank you very much for your offers.

really appreciate it.

Just got a couple questions, if that's all right.

First of all, Peter.

Can you just give me a bit more about what you think you can do with the brand in terms of where you think you can push it? Taking this brand and going global would need serious e-commerce assistance.

Yep.

and I own a company that takes brands into multiple territories all over the world from an e-commerce perspective.

The next thing I was going to say is, Tej has got a very good contact in Boots, so I would be willing to share with Tej, and you get two Dragons for the price of one.

think I'm happy to do that – 10% each for a total of £70, 000.

I'll do the deal.

And also, we're going to war here.

This is a brand for men.

run by men.

Ooh ooh ooh ooh! Deborah! You felt that, didn't you? Even you felt that! I think that was an absolutely outrageous comment by the tall fella at the end and he should apologise for that because the ladies here are far more capable in a lot of the areas that the guys at the end claim they could do.

agree with that.

Obviously correct.

Thanks, everyone, really appreciate it.

20%, for me, is a very, very big chunk.

know we've mentioned 15% which is still very high for what I'm willing to do.

So, has anyone got any thoughts where they can maybe just come down? OK, look, I really want to make it happen so I'm happy to drop down to 15%.

I'd be happy to drop down to 15%.

5% each.

Could we come down ever so slightly more cos that's over double what I was willing to give away? know we're talking about the value you'll bring but I think this company could be worth serious amount money in three years' time.

I'm not disowning you.

It's just, I had an idea when I came in here, of the Dragons I was keen on, and it was both of these two.

Daniel.

What about 7% each? was thinking about 6% each.

12%.

I can't go higher than that.

What about 7% each, and if we get our money back, we'll drop to 6% each? Er, 6% each, can we do a deal now? Cos I genuinely feel that's fair.

Got a massive track record, got revenue, we're good to go.

So I would have to stick at 12%.

Let's do it.

Let's do it, 6%.

12%, 6% each.