Frank Body

Frank Body is an Australian body-care brand founded in Melbourne in 2013 [1][4]. It built its name on a single product, the Original Coffee Scrub, and a personified first-person brand voice named "Frank" that addresses customers as "babes." The company positions itself as ingredient-led, skincare-grade body care, summed up in its own line "No fluff. Just damn good skin." The brand remains active, selling directly to consumers across several regions including Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and Canada.

What began as a coffee scrub mixed in a founder's kitchen grew, through heavy use of Instagram and customer-generated content, into a multi-million-dollar business within a few years.

Frank Body traces its start to a Melbourne coffee shop, where, in the brand's telling, "five friends had a drink and an idea." The trigger, according to editorial accounts, was café owner Steve Rowley noticing that customers kept asking for leftover coffee grounds to use as a body exfoliator [5]. Two of the founders, Bree Johnson and Jess Hatzis, were running a digital communications agency called Willow & Blake at the time. They began experimenting in Bree and Steve's kitchen, refining the grind size of the coffee for better exfoliation.

Sources differ slightly on who counts as a founder. The brand's own about page refers simply to "five friends," while editorial coverage in Miss FQ names four people: Bree Johnson, Jess Hatzis, Alex Boffa and Steve Rowley [1][4]. The launch year is likewise recorded as 2013 by the company and by Miss FQ, though one later case study states the date ambiguously; 2013 is the well-supported figure. Accounts also place the initial outlay as minimal, described as less than $10,000 by one source and around $5,000 by another [4][5].

The brand grew quickly after launch. Miss FQ reported revenue of roughly $3 million in the first year, rising to about $20 million by 2016 [4]. A separate ecommerce case study credited much of that growth to social media, citing more than two million scrubs sold across 149 countries and a large base of user-submitted images [5].

Marketing leaned heavily on customer participation. The company ran hashtag campaigns built around the lines "the frank effect" (#thefrankeffect) and #letsbefrank, encouraging buyers to post their own photos. The approach was not without friction: an early Instagram account was deleted over what the platform considered inappropriate imagery, which the founders said cost them several thousand followers [4].

Frank Body frames its mission as stripping the hyperbole out of skincare. "Skincare should be effective, honest and fun to use," the company states, presenting itself as a high-performance but unpretentious alternative in body care. The "Frank" persona runs through its copy in a deliberately cheeky, conversational register, with product descriptions written in the first person and taglines such as "Results worth getting naked for."

The brand sits at an accessible price point and describes its formulas as "skincare-grade," built around active ingredients more often associated with facial skincare. Its hero ingredients include coffee, glycolic acid, niacinamide, retinol and other alpha hydroxy acids.

The Original Coffee Scrub remains the brand's signature product and the basis of its early popularity. The range has since expanded well beyond it, into body scrubs, moisturisers and treatments, body washes, deodorants, lip products and face care. Listed products include the Glycolic Body Scrub, the Original Lip Treatment, an AHA Deodorant and a Firming Body Cream.

On ethics, the company states that it does not test on animals — "I only test on babes. The willing human kind" — and notes that some, but not all, of its products are vegan, directing customers to individual product pages for details [3].

In early 2017, co-founders Bree Johnson and Jess Hatzis received the Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award, which recognises female entrepreneurs under the age of 35 [4]. The brand has also been the subject of trade and editorial coverage examining its social-media-driven growth.

Frank Body is an active, ongoing brand. It operates a direct-to-consumer ecommerce site selling internationally, runs current promotions and a loyalty program ("Hotel Pink"), and continues to add products beyond the original scrub, such as a Barrier Body Creme and Firming Body Cream. The company states it has sold more than 35 million products worldwide since 2013 [1].