By 2017, Deciem was becoming a victim of its own success. When The Ordinary launched their £5.90 foundations, the waiting list was 70,000 strong. Instagram posts were littered with comments from disgruntled customers waiting weeks for delivery, and Deciem had to post several apologies and updates on the state of play to try and placate fans. I know from trying to order from their website that things were often long-term out of stock or took frustratingly long to arrive. Accelerating globally at a pace of knots, it was clear that demand had outgrown what Deciem could comfortably supply. Truaxe began looking to outside investors, and surprised the entire industry when he accepted a cash injection from Estée Lauder Companies (ELC). "People keep saying, why didn’t you go with private equity? Listen, if I’d done that, it would be a disaster. Those guys want their money back in three to five years, and I don’t want to sell Deciem. Plus, it’s dirty money. It’s money that comes from buying and selling other brands that test on animals. ELC approached with respect, with patience, and with a promise not to make us stop being cruelty-free, not to inflate our prices, and with less than 30% of the shares. ELC treated us like family, and if you look at other brands they’ve acquired, like Aveda, they’ve never tampered with the brand DNA, and they’ve always encouraged the founders to stay on," Truaxe explains. While the volte face might be bewildering to die-hard fans (of which there are plenty), there was simply no way for Deciem to survive, let alone expand, without help to match their customer demand.