Alabama native's skincare line now in Ulta Beauty stores nationwide

When beauty industry veteran Murphy Bishop II met Natalya Rachkova, who brought the recipe for a miraculous beauty cream from her native Uzbekistan, the two created Mirakle Cream and co-founded The Better Skin Co. (Courtesy The Better Skin Co.)

For almost as long as The Better Skin Co. has been in business - two-and-a-half years now - selling merchandise at Ulta Beauty has been an ultimate goal, at the top of the company's vision board, says founder Murphy Bishop II. Last week, Bishop visited an Ulta Beauty in West Hollywood and was thrilled to see three of his products on their shelves, touted as "New and Loved."

"I can't even describe how exciting it is," he says.

Three products from The Better Skin Co. are now on the shelves at some 1,100 Ulta Beauty stores nationwide. (Facebook photo)

Bishop, who grew up in Grand Bay, Ala., just west of Mobile, and graduated from Birmingham-Southern College, worked for years in the beauty industry, including stints at Estee Lauder, Bobbi Brown and others. In 2015, he went out on his own after meeting Natalya Rachkova in Seattle.

Rachkova, an aesthetician who had moved from her native Uzbekistan, was selling jars of a secret-formula skin cream she made in her kitchen. After some persuading, Rachkova let Bishop take it to a lab, where Mirakle Cream was born, featuring a colorful Uzbek fabric pattern that now adorns all of the company's products.

Mirakle Cream was sold online and through the home-shopping network Evine, as well as at boutiques around the country.

From there, the pair have gradually expanded their line to include two other items sold at Ulta: Lava Magik, a three-in-one cleanser, scrub and face mask; and Zit No More, an acne treatment that is already Bishop's number-one seller at Ulta. Another offering, Epik C Serum, is sold exclusively online.

The Ulta Beauty launch, effective March 18, came just as The Better Skin Co. plans to offer several new items later in the year, including gel and lotion cleansers; Amaze Balm, an ultra-rich moisturizer; and a line of products in the popular Zit No More family, including a cleanser and a moisturizer for acne-prone skin.

Bishop says it's rare for a small company to be in all stores at once. "This is a total game-changer for us," he says. "The Ulta order is more than we sold the year before. We used to buy 5,000 jars at a time to fill. Now it's 50,000."

In addition to Ulta, the company recently launched in Canada and soon will be available in the United Kingdom.

The marketing-savvy Bishop is working with a popular Instagram a makeup artist, on a new beauty oil as part of a social media influencer campaign. In May, he'll be on KCRW's podcast, "Press Play with Madeleine Brand." He plans to have a booth at Beautycon Festival, held in L.A. in July, where he has the potential to introduce The Better Skin Co. to 25,000 young people.

"We want to get customers when they're young," he says.

For now, the next item on his agenda is to find warehouse space - and an office. The company is still run out of his Century City home.

With thousands of other brands in a store like Ulta, he says, it's important to find a way to stand out. Being a small company means he can stay nimble and "go around" the competition by doing things differently and faster.

"The trick to this," he says," is you have to have good products, but you also have to keep customers interested so they keep coming back. I did this for years for other people. It's much more exciting to do this for myself."

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