/ Works

Self Glow by James Read

From pre-investment concept to Liberty, Selfridges and Space NK, three years as the brand's embedded creative and strategic partner across branding, packaging and Shopify.

/ Overview:

Client

James Read

Year

2022 - Present

Role

Brand Strategy
Packaging Design
Shopify Website
Retail Activations

Self Glow is a skincare-first sunless tanning brand founded by James Read, the world's leading authority in sunless tanning. Built on biotech ingredients and plant-based DHA, the brand was designed from day one to sit beside premium skincare, not tanning products.

Saltco has been Self Glow's embedded strategic and creative partner since before investment was in place, working directly with James across brand positioning, naming, packaging design, Shopify ecommerce, campaign creative direction, retail activations, investor storytelling and spatial design. Over three years, the relationship has grown to cover virtually every creative and commercial decision the brand makes.

The packaging and campaign work we created for Self Glow's launch won Best New Brand Launch at the Marie Claire Skin Awards 2024. The brand is now stocked at Liberty London, Selfridges, Space NK, Harvey Nichols and Credo Beauty US, and its products have been used by Victoria Beckham, Nicole Kidman and Lady Gaga.

Packaging built to sit alongside the world’s best skincare.

The brief was clear: it needed to look like skincare, not tanning. Saltco worked through multiple rounds of structural and graphic design, exploring material choices, sustainability credentials (plant-based inks, recycled card, B-Corp-approved production partners), carton construction and shelf presence, developing a system built to scale across a growing range of SKUs without losing its distinctiveness.

Each Self Glow carton features a bespoke arch design inspired by Italian architecture, with original illustrations printed in gold plant-based ink, framing a different summer moment on every product. The packaging holds its own next to the premium skincare brands it sits beside at Liberty, Selfridges and Space NK, and was singled out by Marie Claire judges as a standout reason the brand won Best New Brand Launch.

Brand world that secured £2 million

Before any investment was confirmed, Saltco built a complete visual world for Self Glow, product renders, retail concepts and campaign imagery for a brand that did not yet physically exist. These assets became the backbone of the pitch, showing partners not just how the brand looked but how it would behave across retail, digital and experiential spaces. The work directly contributed to a £2 million joint venture investment, the funding that launched the brand.

Retail and investor decks by Saltco then opened doors at Space NK, Harvey Nichols, Liberty and Selfridges, with Liberty the first major retailer to stock a sunless tanning brand in its skincare section. We also designed and built the Shopify site from the ground up, with SEO research shaping product naming, page structure and content hierarchy. More recently, a global retail deck drew an immediate response from the CEO of MECCA, who passed it to their global buyer and requested a meeting the following week.

Retail theatre and three years of results

Saltco provides ongoing creative direction for every Self Glow campaign, from concept and shoot planning through to direction on set and post-production, producing imagery used across digital, retail, press and Selfridges windows. Retail activations, POS design, L-board graphics and in-store signage have been designed across all major stockists, including a full window takeover of Space NK's Regent Street flagship. The First Light TT Serum sold 15,006 units on QVC UK with +125% sell-through. The Sunblush Selfridges exclusive sold out four times in a single month.

Six industry awards, coverage in Vogue, Forbes, Glamour, WWD and The Guardian, and products in the hands of Victoria Beckham, Nicole Kidman and Lady Gaga, all built on work created by a studio working as an embedded partner.