Gloss Report

Jon Shanahan and Devir Kahan and the wedding day breakout

2026-10-03T00:00:00Z

They just happen to be a cosmetic product. That line from Jon Shanahan explains Stryx better than any launch deck.

“They just happen to be a cosmetic product,” Jon Shanahan said. It sounds like a throwaway, but it is the whole strategy in one sentence.

Stryx was started by Devir Kahan and Shanahan after Kahan noticed a breakout on his wedding morning during his final year at Yeshiva University. He asked around, heard other men were borrowing a partner’s makeup, and decided there was room for cover designed for men from the start. The tagline on the site still carries that wink. You do not need perfect skin to have perfect skin.

What the brand is now is concealer led and deliberately plain spoken. Black twist sticks, finger blending, no brushes, copy that says leave no trace. By 2022 it was in 2,000 CVS doors, 650 Target stores moving toward 900, plus Nordstrom Men’s in New York and Urban Outfitters. About 70 percent of buyers had never bought cosmetics before. That is the number Gloss Report keeps coming back to.

What others miss is how retail literate the restraint is. Stryx refused the cosmetic aisle, asked to sit with razors and shaving cream, kept shade count tight, and talked about reorders and undertone shift instead of transformation. This conversation is about what sold, what that placement cost, and why four shades had to do the work of twelve.

Every customer we have ever surveyed said the reason they have not bought a concealer is they are intimidated by the cosmetic aisle. You found that before you had scale, then you asked CVS and Target to put Stryx with razors instead. What did that placement change in who picked it up?

We learned that fast. Guys told us they would sneak into the women’s aisle at drugstores or steal cosmetics from their girlfriends, then never go back because the aisle made them feel like outsiders. Every customer we have ever surveyed said the reason they have not bought a concealer is they are intimidated by the cosmetic aisle. So we stopped asking them to be brave and changed the shelf.

At CVS we went into around 2,000 stores in the shaving aisle. At Target we sat with razors and shaving creams. That told a first timer this sits next to products you already buy. It reads as a grooming essential you can use alongside your other products. They just happen to be a cosmetic product. Sell through followed because the barrier was location as much as formula.

Your origin is specific, a breakout on Devir’s wedding morning in his final year at Yeshiva, then recruiting a former Apple marketer who called himself class clown in high school. How did that pairing set what Stryx would and would not do?

I was the breakout, Devir was the wedding. He noticed it that morning and started asking friends if they had ever used a partner’s makeup. A lot of them had. That is where the idea started. Since 2017 is how we count it internally, even if press dates the public launch to 2019. It began as one problem on one face.

Jon came from Apple and First Insight and YouTube, so he knew how to explain a product without lecturing. From the start we said Stryx is the first company to conceive, from start to finish, what cosmetic and skincare products would be if they were made for guys. Our mission is to help men embrace the skin they are in and feel confident enough for self care, even if they do not know how yet. That meant easy, accessible, applicable. No brushes. Just dab a small amount onto the area and blend in with your fingers.

Man holds black Stryx Concealer Tool near his face. Photo · Stryx

You say your biggest competition has always been stigma. With 70 percent of buyers new to cosmetics, what actually moved a skeptic from watching a TikTok to buying a twist stick?

Our biggest competition has always been stigma, and we are still fighting the fight. Price helps. Education helps more. I answer comments myself, including the one about what tinted actually means that did 18.2 million views. Guys want a direct connection, not a joke at their expense. We want to feel like we are having a direct connection in a way versus trying to be too funny.

The format is simple. Uncap, twist the bottom, apply a small amount to subtly conceal the problem area. Dab with fingers until blended in. No kit, no mirror routine. Leave no trace and be kind to your face is how we talk about finish. When a broker or an actor or a model sees redness or razor burn disappear in ten seconds, and no one can tell, that is the conversion. Then the reorder tells us if the shade and wear time were right.

The Concealer Tool comes in four shades, Light Cognac, Medium Mahogany, Dark Eclipse and Deep Java, in a 1.8g stick that claims to adapt rather than sit on top of skin. Four shades for the US market is a tight call. How do you defend that count, and where does it stop working?

Four shades was a retail and formula decision. We formulate with adaptable natural pigments, titanium dioxide and iron oxides, plus mica and silica, so the shade shifts a little with how much you apply. A little goes a long way, and sheer coverage forgives more than full coverage. For a first time buyer, four clear options beat a wall of thirty with confusing undertones.

I will say plainly where it strains. Very fair cool skin and very deep warm skin need more nuance than adapt can give. Payoff, which is how much color transfers in one swipe, and finish, which is whether skin looks matte or dewy, both read differently across undertones. Undertone is the warm, cool or neutral cast beneath the surface. If your undertone sits outside our middle range, you will work harder to blend. Shade extension, meaning adding lighter, deeper and more nuanced options, is the obvious next lever if reorders support it.

They just happen to be a cosmetic product, so we put them where grooming already lives.
Jon Shanahan

The Tinted Moisturizer has three shades against the concealer’s four, and it adds a small amount of salicylic acid while promising sweat, water and oil resistance. What is it for in a real routine, and what should buyers not expect?

Tinted Moisturizer is the everyday step. It hydrates, reduces the appearance of redness, and evens the look of skin tone and texture. It contains a small amount of salicylic acid, which can help with acne prone looks, but this is makeup with a skincare assist, not treatment. We have not clinically tested it as an acne product, and we do not talk about it that way.

Wear time is the honest test. Wear time is how long coverage still looks right before it fades, creases or transfers. Transfer is what rubs onto collars, phones or hands. We formulated concealer and tinted moisturizer to hold up through sweat, water and natural facial oils, which matters because men’s skin often reads oilier and rougher and thicker. Use a pea size amount, blend with fingers, build only where you need it. If you want full cover or a matte mask that lasts twelve hours, this is not that product.

By 2021 sales were up 250 percent, then Shark Tank in May 2022 brought a 600,000 dollar offer from Robert Herjavec on a 600,000 for 5 percent ask. What did that television moment do to doors and to inventory planning?

Television compressed a year of education into eight minutes. We pitched in New York seeking 600,000 dollars for 5 percent, and we left with a 600,000 dollar offer from Robert Herjavec. Total prior sales cited around that time were near 2 million dollars. After air, traffic spiked, shade selectors got hammered, and the Starter Kit at 40 dollars did a lot of work. It pairs concealer and tinted moisturizer to give clear looking skin on day one and better looking skin by day 30.

Doors are the count of stores that stock you, and sell through is what actually scans at the register. We were already in 2,000 CVS doors, with Target at 650 stores expanding toward 900, plus Nordstrom Men’s in New York City and Urban Outfitters. The show helped velocity, which helps reorders. It also punished any shade that was thin on stock. If we had all those venture dollars, we would enter a ton of different categories, but we stayed tight. Cover first, then eyes, shine, lips.

Hands dispense tinted moisturizer onto a fingertip. Photo · Stryx

You refused hyper masculine posturing when a louder look might have earned quicker clicks. How did that choice show up in packaging and copy, and did it cost you attention?

If we were a little more in your face or if we were a little more hyper masculine, it might be easier to get attention from guys, but that never spoke to us from a product perspective or from a brand perspective. We kept sticks black and discreet, white text, pocketable, with what we call an addictive click on the twist. Solid and scratch resistant, because it lives in a bag next to keys.

Copy stayed calm. Treat your skin like it is for life. Leave no trace. Be kind to your face. We formulate 100 percent cruelty free with leading cosmetic chemists, no animal testing at any stage, full INCI on the site. No harsh ingredients is our line, and we mean no intimidation either. Did it cost us some attention. Probably. Every five years, guys are getting new ways to groom, and loud brands spike first. We wanted the second purchase, not just the first view. Women use the products too, which tells us the restraint reads as inclusive rather than coded.

Last question from the buyer side. The Starter Kit pairs your two bestsellers for 40 dollars. If someone buys one thing to test the idea, which shade and formula should they start with, and how do you know when it is right?

Start with the Concealer Tool. Choose by jawline in daylight, not by wrist. Light Cognac if you burn fast and redness shows pink, Medium Mahogany for the middle, Dark Eclipse deeper, Deep Java deepest. Twist once, tap less than you think, blend with a clean finger until the edge disappears. The right match vanishes at arm’s length. That is the leave no trace check.

If redness is diffuse across cheeks or you want tone evened everywhere, go to Tinted Moisturizer in the closest of its three shades. Same test. Check at hour four and hour eight in office light. Good wear still looks like skin, just calmer. If it grays, goes orange or gathers around the nose, the shade or amount is off. Keep the receipt logic we respect. If a product sold as universal does not include you, return it and tell us. That feedback is how shade extension gets funded.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is how clearly Stryx understands its first timer. The brand did not ask men to learn the cosmetic aisle. It moved the product, shrank the routine to fingers, and let reorders grade the work.

Stryx set out to make cover that reads as grooming, made for oilier, thicker looking skin, in packaging that disappears into a pocket. It is not the loudest idea in men’s beauty. On sell through and on second purchases, it may be one of the more honest.

Product spotlight

Concealer Tool, 25 dollars for 1.8g. A twist stick concealer in Light Cognac, Medium Mahogany, Dark Eclipse and Deep Java for acne, redness, razor burn and scars. Uncap, twist, tap a small amount and blend with fingers until the edge disappears. Sheer and adaptable by design.

Tinted Moisturizer, 25 dollars for 1.75 oz. A sheer tint in Light Cognac, Medium Mahogany and Dark Eclipse that hydrates and evens the appearance of tone and texture. Contains a small amount of salicylic acid. Use a pea size amount over clean skin, build only where needed, check wear at hour eight.

This article is synthetic. It was produced with AI as part of a publishing experiment by VOL Collective; the answers are composed from the founder’s publicly available statements and were not reviewed by the brand.

Why creator fees matter for makeup and fragrance shoppers

2026-10-02T00:00:00Z

What a serum costs today reflects creator payouts and warehouse fees as much as harvest and formulation, a point clarified by a September 30, 2026 Dashboardly comparison of TikTok Shop and Amazon costs. The review found that neither platform always costs less or leaves a richer margin. Sellers should match the exact product, fulfillment setup, promo plan, and sales window.

Anyone who reads ingredient decks will notice the shift on screen first. TikTok Shop allows labels to sell through creator affiliates across videos, livestreams, and profiles. Merchants choose commission rates from 1% to 80% and can tailor rates for specific creators or campaigns. Tiered structures support stronger opening rates or stronger rates after creators pass sales milestones.

Beneath those payments sit platform charges. TikTok Shop platform fees run around 6%, so sellers should build that into commission rates. Flat fee partnerships can pair an upfront payment ranging between $20 and $10,000 with optional performance based commissions. Fulfillment brings another decision, with seller managed shipping or Fulfilled by TikTok, while Amazon offers merchant fulfillment or Fulfillment by Amazon.

Affiliate marketing now drives nearly 10% of US ecommerce sales, or $113 billion, per a 2025 study from The Performance Marketing Association. TikTok group vertical director Donte Murry told Glossy in an interview that 77% of users search for a product just seen in TikTok affiliate content. MySmile sold over $1 million in product through TikTok Shop in its first three months with affiliate creators.

Amazon delivers search volume at scale, yet its record on fakes calls for care. In April 2023 NOW Foods found 11 fake NOW supplements sold on Amazon by one seller. That same month Fungi Perfecti found 23 separate sellers on Amazon moving fakes of its Host Defense mushroom supplements. In August 2023 a fake version of Bausch + Lomb PreserVision AREDS 2 Eye Vitamin and Mineral supplement was sold on Amazon.

Later examples broadened the pattern. In September 2023 fakes of Pure Encapsulations L glutamine and NatureMD GutConnect 365 were found sold on Amazon. A lawsuit was filed in November 2023 against several parties accused of selling fake Prevagen on Amazon. In October 2024 Fungi Perfecti won a ruling that bars JT Best Deals from listing or selling Fungi Perfecti products.

Laboratory results explain why sourcing counts. NOW Foods testing showed fake supplements held capsules of plain rice flour, with some samples laced with traces of sildenafil. Fungi Perfecti fakes contained hidden gluten and soy, two ingredients missing from real Host Defense products. Under the U.S. Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, the FDA does not test or clear supplements before sale.

Amazon said it will stop commingling across its supply chain as of March 31, 2026, though that covers new inventory only. An Amazon spokesperson said Amazon has a zero tolerance policy for counterfeit products. What to watch next feels quieter than launch week. Check the seller name and expect brands to fold creator costs into retail price.

Slow botanical formulas move from field to bottle at their own pace. Fast marketplaces move from post to purchase in hours. Knowing which system stands behind the buy helps keep the routine steady.

This article is synthetic. It was produced with AI as part of a publishing experiment by VOL Collective.

Courtney Shields and the car TikToks that sold out DIBS

2026-10-01T00:00:00Z

The sellout did not happen on set. It happened in a parked car after the set went quiet, when Courtney Shields filmed three TikToks on her phone and watched 4.7 million views turn two sticks into a waitlist.

It is useful to start there, in the car, because that is where DIBS Beauty makes the most sense. Courtney Shields had spent a decade building community in Austin as an influencer, talking through routines in real bathrooms and real light. Jeff Lee had an MBA from Stanford and a J.D. from Yale, five years on Wall Street as a corporate attorney, then a turn as president of a production company. They met through Tula co founders Dan Reich and Ken Landis, who backed the launch. She knew what busy faces actually do. He knew how to structure a business. Neither knew, yet, what would move at retail.

The brand launched in September 2021 with two SKUs, the Status Stick highlighter and the Desert Island Duo blush and bronzer. The promise was printed plainly on the site. Multitasking beauty, made easy. High performance, multi use makeup that blends with fingers, stick or brush, with no rules and no wrong way. Vegan and cruelty free by design, talc free, without parabens, sulfates, phthalates and gluten. By March 2023 Lee said the company had grossed 4.5 million dollars in a little over a year and reached continuous profitability the prior quarter. Then came the first retail deal, Ulta, in 592 doors plus online.

What Gloss Report noticed, scrolling the grids and the Ulta reviews, is the discipline underneath the ease. Dual ended sticks with playful shade names, baked domes, creator shade grids that show the color on more than one undertone. The Desert Island Duo remains the number one seller, with Bustle, Health and Real Simple awards on the page. That tells a buyer something. Payoff here means color delivered in one swipe. Finish means how it sits, dewy or soft matte. Wear time means how it looks at hour eight. DIBS wins when payoff is high, finish stays skin like, and the shade logic is clear enough to buy without a swatch.

You filmed those three TikToks from your car at Miami Swim Week after a pro campaign fell flat, they pulled 4.7 million views and sold out the early stock, so what did that night teach you about what your customer believes from you versus from a polished shoot.

Courtney: I still think about that hotel blanket story Jeff tells, him staring at the ceiling wondering if he had made the wrong call. I remember it from the other side. The polished plan was not landing and I thought, Jeff, I got this. I went to the car because the light was honest and I could talk the way I always talked to my community. No script, no crew, just here is the stick, here is where it goes, here is what it looks like up close.

What it taught me is that trust is the formula. My customer had watched me for ten years. She knew when I was tired, when I was rushing, when I liked something enough to repurchase it. A campaign can show aspiration. It cannot show blendability on a real cheek at 6 p.m. in Miami humidity. Those videos worked because people saw fingers, not retouching. They saw a blush and bronzer duo go on in under a minute and still look like skin.

I cannot plug DIBS alone, and I mean that. The community plugs it with me when the product earns it. That night gave us permission to stay simple. Fewer steps, dual ends, names you remember. If it does not work in a car mirror, it does not launch.

Woman holding Status Stick to her collarbone showing glow. Photo · Dibs Beauty

Jeff, you have said you came in thinking you had a lot to teach Courtney about business after Stanford, Yale and Wall Street, and learned the reverse, so where did that show up first in how you built DIBS.

Jeff: It showed up in the first month, in the way Courtney made decisions. I had gotten an MBA from Stanford and a J.D. from Yale, worked five years on Wall Street as a corporate attorney, and was president of a production company. I came in with frameworks. She came in with pattern recognition from a decade of comments, DMs and returns. I thought I would teach her business. Instead, I learned that Courtney had a lot to teach me.

The clearest example was product focus. I wanted analysis. She wanted to solve the morning. Two SKUs. A Status Stick for face and body sheen, and a Desert Island Duo for blush and bronzer. Swipe, blend, go. My instinct was to broaden. Her instinct was to narrow until the reorder told us to widen. She was right. Restock means a second order from retail after the first sells through. Reorder is what the customer does when she finishes or wants another shade. Both pointed to the Duo.

She also coached me on feedback. My style was direct. There is no nonsense in how I talk. She would say, you should have taken that conversation offline, or even though you did not name the person, everyone knew who it was, and what was the learning for the group. Our handbook now says we do not pay people to agree with us. We praise on Slack every month. We use an open faced sandwich, strength, gap, then how can you grow from here. Performance versus potential. It made us faster because people tell the truth earlier.

You launched with only Status Stick and Desert Island Duo, which the site still calls what put DIBS on the map and the number one seller, so why did a dual ended blush and bronzer stick become the anchor instead of the highlighter.

Courtney: Because it answered the whole face in one tool. The Duo is creamy, buildable, streak free, with mango seed butter, jojoba oil, hyaluronic acid and vanillin, allergy and dermatologist tested. You swipe bronzer on forehead, nose, cheekbones and jawline, blush on the apples, blend with the Duo Brush or fingers. That is payoff you can control. Sheer if you tap, stronger if you layer. Transfer means how much moves onto clothes or phones. This one sets enough to stay but keeps a skin finish.

The Status Stick is beloved, oversized, award winning, face and body. It gives that skin enhancing sheen. But highlighter is interpretive. Some want glass, some want a whisper. Blush and bronzer are need. They bring shape and warmth back, especially if you wear base or sunscreen that flattens tone. The Duo also photographed well across undertones, which matters when you sell online. Cool undertone means pink or red beneath, warm means golden or peach, neutral sits between. We named shades in pairs like Out of Office and Vacay Vibes, You Do You and Mood Boost, so you shop by mood and depth, not by a number that means nothing.

It became the anchor because artists used it too. Backstage, kit means the working set an artist carries. A dual end that does cheeks and warms the lids and even the lip edge earns kit space. Once it was in kits and in cars, the sell through followed.

Ulta put you in 592 doors plus online for your first retail deal, which is a lot of real estate for a young brand, so what had to change in shade range, sampling and education to sell through and not just sell in.

Jeff: Sell in is getting retail to buy your stock. Sell through is getting the customer to take it home. Doors means store count. We knew 592 doors would expose every gap, so we prepared like operators, not just founders.

First, shade range. A range means the full set of depths and undertones. A shade extension adds depths later. We launched tight, then widened where the data pointed, because a tight range that sells is better than a wide range that confuses. We invested in creator shade grids, the same Duo on several skin tones in daylight, so a shopper could find her near match. Swatch discipline mattered. No filters that shift warmth.

Second, sampling. Sticks are hard to sample hygienically, so the back of hand swipe plus the face chart mattered. We trained on two minute education. Where bronzer goes, where blush goes, how to blend with fingers if you forgot the brush. The Duo Brush earned its place there. It is dense enough to diffuse cream without eating it.

Third, reorders. We watched which shade pairs restocked first by region. That told us where to add depth versus where to add brightness. Ulta gave us scale. The car videos gave us conversion language. Simple, fast, no wrong way. That sentence sold more units than any display copy.

If it does not work in a car mirror, it does not launch.
Courtney Shields and Jeff Lee

Your formulas lean on mango butter, shea, jojoba and hyaluronic acid in sticks and jojoba, macadamia, squalane and peptides in baked powders, all vegan, cruelty free and talc free, so how do you brief a lab for cream payoff that still layers without pilling over sunscreen.

Courtney: I brief by behavior, not by buzzword. I want one swipe payoff, finger blend in thirty seconds, second layer without lifting the first. Pilling means the little balls you get when silicone, sunscreen and cream fight. To avoid it, we keep the emollient load balanced. Mango butter and shea for slip, jojoba for blend, hyaluronic acid for that cushioned look. Then we test over three sunscreens, not one, because that is real life.

For baked formulas, the baked dome is a slurry baked on a tile, which gives a silkier press and a gradient marbling. We use jojoba and macadamia oils for glide, 3 percent squalane in powder for slip without shine, peptides and coffee butter for comfort. Talc free matters to us. Talc is a soft mineral used for absorbency, but we get blur from other powders. Allergy and dermatologist tested, safe for sensitive skin, that claim has to be earned in testing, not marketing.

I am strict on finish. Dewy should read as hydrated, not wet. Shimmer should read as light return, not glitter. If a shimmer blush emphasizes texture at hour eight, we cut the particle size or we cut the shade. Wear time is decided in the last ten percent of development, the unsexy stability and compatibility work no one posts about.

Status Stick is oversized for face and body and GlowTour Duo pairs a shimmer blush with a creamy contour in seven shades like Starlit, so when do you want shimmer versus sheen, and where does contour still earn its place.

Courtney: Sheen is the Status Stick effect, a skin enhancing glow that looks like light on moisturized skin. Shimmer is GlowTour, pigment plus fine light reflective particles. Sheen goes anywhere light would naturally hit and anywhere you want limbs to look healthy, cheekbones, brow bone, shoulders, collarbones, shins. Blend and layer. Two thin passes beat one heavy pass. Shimmer blush goes on the apple and sweeps up, because the color and the light travel together.

Contour still earns its place when it is creamy and quick. The flick of a wrist line is real. You draw, you blend, you are done. Cream contour works under powder and over base if you keep the layer thin. Powder contour works if you want more definition in humidity. The mistake is shade, not format. Too grey reads ashy on warm skin, too warm reads muddy on cool skin. We built seven GlowTour pairs so you can pick the blush energy you want and get a contour depth that matches.

Backstage, I see artists use Status Stick on the body first, then tap the leftover on the face. Good light return reads expensive in photos. At retail, I tell shoppers to pick finish first, formula second. If you love glow, start with sheen. If you love color, start with shimmer blush.

Go To Glossy Balm texture dripping from applicator wand. Photo · Dibs Beauty

Go To Glossy Balm at 24 dollars promises all shine with none of the stick and one swipe color, so what is the texture brief and where does it sit between gloss, balm and topper.

Courtney: The brief was comfort plus mirror. It had to give full shine, fine shimmer, no tack. Tack means that sticky pull when lips press. We cut tack but kept cushion, so it feels like a balm and looks like a gloss. One swipe gives sheer color you can build. Two swipes give that jelly look. It layers over liner and lipstick without dragging the base, which is why we call it a topper too. Topper means a sheer reflective layer worn over another lip color.

Dry down matters here. Dry down is what is left after the volatile shine settles. We did not want a dry down that stains unevenly or clings to dry patches. This one stays flexible, so it fades evenly. Sillage is a fragrance word for scent trail, but lips have their own version, the way shine reads across a room. This reads juicy at conversation distance, not glittery. Shade names like Favorite Child, Rock Candy, Orange Crush and Strawberry Summer tell you the intent. Fun, sheer, everyday. Keep it in the bag, reapply without a mirror. If you want precision, add our No Pressure Liner first, then tap balm in the center.

You report 4.5 million dollars in a little over a year, continuous profitability, EY Gulf South finalist in 2024 and Inc. 5000 in 2025, so what actually drove margin, inventory discipline or marketing leanness, and what would you do differently on shade depth.

Jeff: Margin came from focus. Two hero formats, sticks and baked, with shared components where possible. Fewer components mean better costs and fewer quality issues. Inventory discipline helped more than marketing leanness, though both helped. We chased reorders, not launches. A restock of a proven shade pair is lower risk than a new concept. Waitlist means demand exceeded supply for a period. Dupe means a cheaper close match shoppers compare you to. We would rather be the original that stays in stock than the viral moment that is gone in a week.

What would I do differently. I would extend depth earlier in select families. We heard from shoppers who loved the formula but could not find their contour depth or bronzer warmth. That is on us. A shade range stops three shades short when the deepest warm and the deepest cool are missing, or when the middle looks complete but the ends are thin. We are fixing that with deliberate extensions, not a flood. Each new depth has to pass the car mirror test, the sunscreen test and the hour eight check. Profitability gave us the room to do it right. We do not pay people to agree with us, so those gaps were named internally before they were named online. That is how it should work.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is how clearly the division of labor holds. Shields reads the face and the feed in the same glance, Lee reads the sell through and the supply plan. She kept the routine to minutes, he kept the SKU count to what the factory and the floor could support. Neither romanticizes virality. The 4.7 million views are useful because they pointed to a real behavior, fingers on cream in daylight, not because they were loud.

DIBS set out to make multitasking beauty made easy, vegan and cruelty free, without a long routine. The Duo still carries that idea. The Status Stick gives the light, the balm gives the ease. The next test is range depth and door level execution, the unglamorous work that decides whether a good stick becomes a lasting brand.

Product spotlight

Status Stick, 38 dollars. An oversized face and body highlighting stick for a skin enhancing sheen. Swipe on high points of the face, collarbones or legs, then blend and layer with fingers or brush. Use sparingly over cream blush and bronzer, build where you want more light return.

Go To Glossy Balm, 24 dollars. A one swipe gloss balm with full shine and fine shimmer and no sticky feel. Wear alone for sheer juicy color or as a topper over liner or lipstick. Tap to reapply through the day, shades include Favorite Child and Strawberry Summer.

Victor Casale on doing beauty better without waste

2026-09-30T00:00:00Z

The powder Blush in M15 feels buttery under a finger, not dry, and it pops out of a compact made to return to dirt in under a year. That small click explains MOB Beauty better than any mission statement.

Victor Casale has seen the inside of makeup manufacturing for longer than most buyers have been swatching. He joined a small family run MAC as chief chemist, ran innovation at Cover FX, then started MOB Beauty in San Francisco in 2020 with Alisha Gallagher, Steve Blanchet and Beatrice Seguin. The plan was pro payoff without single use compacts.

The system they built is deliberately unglamorous. Refill pans in mono material PET and PP, palettes with more than 50 percent post consumer recycled content, biodegradable compacts and lip capsules bought once and refilled. No mirrors, no magnets, no mixed plastic. Formulas are clean, vegan and cruelty free, talc free, without silicones, petroleum oils or synthetic fragrance.

What we noticed, talking through sell through and shade work, is how fluent Casale is on both sides of the counter. He can talk pigment load and amino acid treated color in one sentence and take back bins and infrared sorting in the next. This conversation is about that overlap, where artistry meets waste, and why he thinks the industry told itself a recycling story that never held up.

You started Back to MAC in the 1980s because you saw small plastic pieces and garbage piling up behind the counter. What did that early waste look like day to day, and why did it stay with you into MOB?

Back then MAC was small and family run. We were making product by hand in a different way, and you could see the waste in real time. Small plastic pieces, shavings, compacts that chipped, lipstick components that did not fit. We were creating a lot of garbage and small plastic pieces. So we started Back to MAC.

That stayed with me because the problem never went away, it scaled. The industry now produces about 120 billion packages a year, and most of them were never curbside recyclable by material or size. When we started MOB in 2020, the question was simple. Could we make pro quality makeup that did not require a single use compact every time. Build a palette, pop in a refill, keep the palette. Buy a lip capsule once, then buy refills. It is too early to leave this industry. We need to leave it a better place.

MOB Beauty Soft Matte Lipstick in open black tube. Photo · MOB Beauty

Your about page says Quality over Wastefulness and People over Marketing. For a buyer, what does that mean in the lab when a formula has payoff but needs silicones or talc to get there?

It means we do not take the shortcut. Our criteria in MOB Labs are payoff, blend, no fall out and long wear. If a powder needs talc to spread, we reformulate. Our blush is talc free with a buttery non drying matte finish, layered sheer to saturated, with amino acid treated pigments plus chamomile and vitamins C and E. It takes longer. It costs more.

We also omit silicones, petroleum oils, micro plastics, parabens, PEGs, gluten and synthetic fragrance. We use RSPO palm only and ethically sourced mica with no child labor statements. We test with our community and with pro artists. If an artist says it dusts or fades by hour six, we go back. Quality over wastefulness is not a slogan for us. It is how we decide whether a batch is worth making.

MOB launched in 2020 with Build a Palette and refillable eye, cheek and lip pans. Walk us through the economics of that for a customer who is used to buying a new compact every time?

The first purchase looks familiar. You buy a blush in a biodegradable compact for 26 dollars, or a shadow pan for 19 dollars, and you place it in a palette that starts at 10 dollars. After that you only buy the refill. A blush refill is 12 dollars against 16 dollars in the Last Call set. That difference is the compact you did not need to buy again.

For retail, sell through means something different here. Sell through is the rate at which units sell relative to stock sent to doors, which are individual stores. A refill system lives or dies on reorders, not first timers. Doors do not need twenty new compacts to show range. They need the palette, the refill assortment and education. It is slower at launch and stickier if the formula performs. That tradeoff suits us.

Cream Clay Eyeshadow is described as a one swipe wonder with 32 shades and a powdery dry down. What is the clay doing in a cream, and how should an artist work it for wear time?

Wear time is how long color looks as intended before fading, creasing or transferring, and transfer is color moving onto skin, clothes or cups. The clay lets us keep a cream easy at application and powder like at wear. You swipe it on, it moves for a few seconds, then it sets to a velvety finish that does not feel slippery.

Use a flat brush or a finger, one layer, and let it set before layering. Neutral to playful shades all use the same base logic. Because there is no silicone slip, prep matters. Clean lids, no heavy balm underneath. For deeper undertones, sheer it first to check payoff, which is how much color transfers in one pass. Pigment load is high, so a little does the work. That is why artists kept it in kits. It reads in photos and holds under lights.

The powder Blush now lists at 16 dollars in Last Call against 26 dollars originally, with refills at 12 dollars. What sells in blush right now, and where did the shade range stop short?

Soft focus mattes that layer are selling. M15 and M19 move because they read as skin first, color second. The talc free base gives a buttery press without kick up, and color intensifies as you layer. That sheer to saturated range matters for undertone, which is the warm, cool or neutral cast beneath the skin that decides whether a pink turns coral or fuchsia.

Honestly, our depth stopped short at launch. Fair to medium moved fast, deeper shades needed extension. Shade extension is adding darker or more nuanced shades after launch to cover missed skin tones. We heard that from artists and from customers who swatch before buying and keep the receipt for anything sold as universal. A universal promise rarely survives a real swatch line. We are addressing it pan by pan rather than launching fifty shades that do not perform.

It is not wish cycling, where you throw it in a bin and all your sins are wiped away.
Victor Casale

Soft Matte Lipstick has 16 shades at 24 dollars, with a reusable Lip Capsule at 5 dollars. How did you get a clean vegan matte to stay flexible without feeling dry, and what leaves the capsule recyclable?

A matte fails when it sets stiff and then cracks. We built a flexible film without commonly used acrylates in some color, using plant waxes and antioxidants plus vitamins. Rich pigment gives one swipe payoff, and the finish stays blurring and velvety rather than tight. Finish is the surface look after application, matte, satin, glossy. Ours is soft matte, not flat.

The capsule is mono material with post consumer recycled content and no mirror or magnet. Mono material means one plastic family, usually PET or PP, which helps recyclers. We also use an Ampacet marker in dark plastic so infrared sorters can see it. Dark plastic is often missed by sorters because carbon black absorbs light. Getting consumers used to coming back with packaging and learning about the recycling process starts with packaging that sorting equipment can actually identify.

MOB Beauty Blush compact open showing powder pan. Photo · MOB Beauty

You co-founded Pact with Credo on Earth Day 2021, and the numbers are quoted two ways. Your site cites 160 plus members and 500,000 plus pounds, while 2023 press cited 154 clients and 207,000 pounds with 1,105 bins. What should a shopper understand about what Pact actually does?

Pact collects hard to recycle empties through bins and mail back. It is not as easy as just dropping something into a bin. It is not wish cycling, or throw it in this bin and all your sins are wiped away. Small pumps, caps and mixed material compacts need hand sorting and specialty processors.

The two sets of numbers reflect different dates and what was counted. Early press counted U.S. and Canada bins in 2023 at 1,105. Our site reflects later growth to more than 3,300 bins and cumulative weight since founding. Weight includes glass and mixed collections across members, now more than 160. The honest line we use in stores is this. Throw it out, and know that when you buy this product in the future, that is where it is going to end up, unless you bring it to a Pact bin. Education matters as much as bins.

Sephora moved from a soft launch in May 2022 to a full partnership in June 2023, with an Ulta pilot in March 2023. What changed on the floor when MOB entered those doors?

Doors change everything. Assortment has to read in three seconds. Shade stories have to be tight. Education has to fit on a small card. In our own store, we can explain biodegradable compacts that are claimed to compost to dirt in under a year, plus 100 percent post consumer recycled refills and palettes with 50 percent or more post consumer content. On a retail floor, that story competes with lighting, fragrance and a long queue.

What worked was artistry. Pro artists showing one swipe eye, blush layered sheer to saturated, lip refill clicked into a capsule. What sat was anything that needed a paragraph to understand. We learned to lead with payoff and wear, then explain the system. Restock is simply a replenishment order after sell through. Waitlist means demand exceeded supply and names are taken for the next shipment. We earned reorders on blush, Cream Clay and mascara. That told us the formulas belonged there even when the system was new.

Last one. MOB sells Last Call shades at 40 percent off, like Eye Duos at 19 dollars against 32 dollars. Is that clearance or strategy, and what would make MOB sell harder next year?

Both. Last Call clears shades that did not earn reorders so we are not warehousing slow color. That is basic retail health. It also funds what should sell harder, which is core depth and routine.

What would make us sell harder is boring in a good way. More true neutrals and true depth in blush and eye, clearer naming by undertone, palettes that fit a real kit, and capsules always in stock so a refill never waits on a component. People over marketing means we answer what sold through and what sat. If a beautiful blush goes to the clearance bin while a simpler one builds a waitlist, we follow the waitlist. Do beauty better, for us, is refillable packaging plus pro payoff plus honest shade work. When those three line up, the numbers follow.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with us after this conversation is the lack of romance about recycling. Casale does not promise that a bin wipes the slate clean. He talks about sorter light, pan size and mono material with the same care he gives to blend and fall out. That veteran pragmatism is rare in clean beauty, where packaging claims often run ahead of plants and equipment.

MOB set out to build beauty for a better future without asking artists to accept weaker payoff. Refillable palettes, biodegradable compacts, talc free powders and flexible mattes are the tools, not the story. The story is whether the color still looks right at hour eight and whether the empty has somewhere real to go.

Product spotlight

Blush, 26 dollars for biodegradable compact, refills from 12 dollars. Talc free powder with buttery non drying matte finish and soft focus color that builds sheer to saturated. Pop the pan from its compact into a MOB palette for a custom kit. Apply with a fluffy brush and layer for depth.

Soft Matte Lipstick, 24 dollars for refill, 5 dollars for reusable Lip Capsule. Flexible velvety matte with one swipe payoff and creamy comfort feel, made vegan without synthetic fragrance. Click refill into capsule, apply straight from the bullet and blot once for longer wear.

Danessa Myricks and the basement made kits

2026-09-25T00:00:00Z

Makeup promises freedom and then sells rules. One product for eyes only, another for lips only, twelve shades that skip the deep end. Danessa Myricks built the opposite model in Farmingdale, pro pigments anyone can use anywhere on the face. This is how that idea sells through.

Colour cosmetics has a contradiction baked into the planogram. Brands talk about self expression while packaging use by committee. Eye paint that says do not wear on lips. Lip paint that cracks on lids. Shade ranges that call themselves full and stop three shades short of deep.

Danessa Myricks knows that shelf from both sides. Before 2015 she was sales and marketing director for a publisher of Black hair magazines, then a working artist who learned free for almost a year, then a consultant, including time as Benefit director of product innovation on the brow collection launched in 2016. When she started her own line she mixed creams and pigments after teaching salon classes and sold basement made kits to students.

What it became is Danessa Myricks Beauty, headquartered in Farmingdale, N.Y., run on the line BEAUTY WITHOUT BOUNDARIES. The promise is multifunctional use, from beginners to pros, for everyone. The trade calls her your makeup artist favourite makeup artist, and the assortment that entered Sephora with more than 80 SKUs still reads like a kit. Colorfix that works as base or stand alone. Pencils that line, smoke and highlight. Balm textures that blur without a filter.

What others miss is the discipline underneath the play. Myricks stayed completely self funded, built one product at a time, and refused single use logic. Gloss Report wanted to talk launches, undertones, doors and reorders. She wanted to talk about who feels welcome.

You started in publishing, then worked free for almost a year to learn artistry after your employer gave you 30 days notice when you were about 30 and a single mom of two. What did that year teach you about what a product has to do on a real job.

I was the corny nerd girl in the corner who loved watching visiting artists work. I loved the freedom they had, the way they could transform someone in a chair. When the magazine closed I had to choose. I wanted to be excited to wake up every day and be passionate about what I am doing. Freedom was always something that was this carrot in front of me.

Working free taught me everything about performance. If they are not feeling it, it is not good enough. On set or with a bride, you do not get hour two to fix hour one. The product has to pay off in one swipe, blend without fighting you, photograph true on many skin tones and still look right at hour eight. That is wear time, how long colour stays true without fading or transferring, and transfer matters when a camera is inches away. That is literally where it started. I mixed what I needed because the kit did not have it.

Closeup of a model wearing matte pink makeup on lips and cheeks. Photo · Danessa Myricks

Your first launch was Enlight highlighters, made for lifelike radiance on deep skin on camera. You have said childhood bullying over complexion and acne and never finding foundation shaped you. How did that set your rules for undertone and shade range.

I did not see me. I did not see my friends. I had experience working with all of these brands, and what I found is that they had their idea of who they were creating for. When you have been bullied about your complexion and you cannot find foundation, you remember it every time you stand at a wall of beige.

Enlight came first because flash and daylight punish ashy highlight on deep skin. Undertone, the warm, cool, neutral or olive cast underneath the surface tone, has to be correct or radiance turns grey. I wanted glow that read like skin, not stripe. From there the rule stayed simple. If I cannot reimagine, rethink, rediscover, or move the industry forward, I am not going to make it. We do not launch a shade range that stops short. We test on many faces, in daylight and on camera, and if the deepest shades do not photograph beautifully, we go back.

Teaching salons, you mixed bought pigments with private label bases and sold kits after class. When did you know those basement made kits were a brand, and why build it one product at a time.

I work and get money and then I decide is it going to go to my household or is it going to go to the business. That is how the brand grew. There was no outside check. To this day we are completely self funded. We have never been able to get funding at all.

Teaching showed me the gap. Artists needed one thing that could do three jobs in a kit. Students wanted what I just used on them. So I mixed creams, pigments and mediums until the texture behaved, bottled a small run, sold it after class, then listened. If it sold through, meaning units actually sold to customers rather than shipped to a store, we made more. If it sat, we fixed it. Building one product at a time kept quality honest. It always feels uphill without funding, but it keeps you close to the artist and the housewife in Minnesota at the same time.

Colorfix Mattes won Best of Beauty and became the pro store staple, a waterproof, high pigment colour sold as base or stand alone shade. What formulation choices make it survive lids, lips and long days without cracking.

Pigment load matters, that is how much colour is packed into the base, and so does finish, whether it dries matte, satin or glossy. Colorfix Mattes carries high pigment but stays flexible as it sets. You can sheer it as a primer, build it as a lid colour, press it on lips. Waterproof helps with wear time and transfer, which is colour moving onto cups, masks or collars.

I formulate for everywhere on every face. There is no right or wrong in how you use it. A makeup artist needs that flexibility in the kit, fewer tubes, more outcomes. A beginner needs permission. The shade names tell the story too, Vamp, Matcha, Lemonade, Carrot Cake. Matte neutrals next to bold pastels. If the texture dragged or skipped on texture, artists would tell me fast. If they are not feeling it, it is not good enough, so we kept adjusting until one swipe gave payoff without patchiness.

Infinite Chrome Micropencils sit in that same kit logic, pencils in shades like Treasure and Emerald that can line or smoke out. What sells a chrome pencil in a crowded pencil wall, and how should a shopper swatch it.

Do not swatch with a hard scribble and decide. Warm the tip on the back of your hand, draw once for the precise line, then smudge the edge with a finger to see the shift. Chrome is about reflect, not glitter. You want a smooth metallic pull with dimension in the dry down, how colour looks after it sets, not grit.

What sells it is ease. A pencil is the least intimidating entry to colour. You can tightline, you can wing, you can lay down a base under shadow to amplify payoff. Artists buy it because it photographs well and holds. Everyday users buy it because they can use what they already know how to hold. That is the hug idea. I really wanted Danessa Myricks Beauty to feel like a big hug, like you are welcome here, whoever you are.

If they are not feeling it, it is not good enough.
Danessa Myricks

Sephora took more than 80 SKUs after about a year of preparation, which you called a dream you did not think was attainable. What changed in your operation when you went from pro stores to that many doors.

Doors means retail locations, and each door needs stock, testers and restock speed. Going from pro stores and our site to Sephora tested everything. Labs, suppliers, fill, shade matching at scale. My trip to the Bologna trade show years earlier showed me minimums so far beyond what we could think of, and concepts so different people did not understand. This time we had sell through history to show.

Self funded means you feel every purchase order. I work, we earn, we decide household or business, then we fund the next run. We prepared for a year because a launch is not a restock. A launch is newness with marketing and inventory risk. A restock is replenishment of what already sells. If a shade extensions plan, additional depths or undertones added after launch, was going to work, we needed the supply chain to hold at volume without losing texture. That preparation kept the finish consistent from first shipment to reorder.

Closeup of a model with glowing skin and glossy nude lips. Photo · Danessa Myricks

Your site says multifunctional use, from beginners to pros, for everyone. Retail buyers hear inclusive and think broad. Where has the range genuinely worked, and where would you admit it still needs depth or editing.

It works where use is truly open. Colorfix across eyes, lips and cheeks. Balm textures like Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder in numbered shades plus Universal translucent that prime and blur. Tints in Fair to Deep groupings that let people find undertone without a counter visit. Artists tell me the kit got lighter. Everyday users tell me they finally finished a product because they used it three ways.

Where we keep working is the same place everyone should keep working. Depth at both ends and clarity in the middle. Fair shades that do not go peach on cool skin. Deep shades with correct warmth so they do not turn ashy. And editing. More SKUs is not better if a shopper cannot find her match in a scroll. I would rather do a considered shade extension, with swatches in daylight and on camera, than flood the page. Sell harder by being clearer, not louder.

You turn down single use rules. Lips only, eyes only. How do you write shade copy and how to use guidance that keeps people safe while keeping play open.

We say what it is and where artists actually use it, then we keep the instruction simple. Use as base or stand alone. Blend fast before it sets. Sheer with Beauty Oil if you want slip. Finish refers to the end look, matte, metallic, chrome. Payoff refers to colour in one layer.

Safety is plain language. Eye safe and lip safe matter because not every pigment is approved for both areas in every market. We follow the testing and labelling for where a formula can be worn, and we do not promise beyond it. Within that, play. There is no right or wrong in the look. If a Vamp eye feels too much on Monday, wear it as a liner on Friday. If Matcha scares you, dot it under gloss. The product should invite trying, not grading.

You have stayed self funded while competitors took outside capital. What has that cost you on speed, and what has it protected on product.

It has cost speed. It always feels uphill. You cannot buy your way out of a lab delay or flood every door with inventory at once. You choose. Household or business. This shade now or that tool later. You can slow down if you need to, you can pause for a second if you need to, but just do not stop. Do not stop creating.

What it protects is judgment. No one can tell us to dupe ourselves, to thin the formula, to cut the shade range to the middle eight that sell fastest. We can keep a weird, wonderful shade because artists love it. We can reimagine a texture like a balm to powder trifecta instead of copying a bestseller. Freedom was the carrot at the start. Staying self funded kept that freedom inside the business, not just in the campaign copy.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is how fluently Myricks speaks two languages. One is artistry, undertone, payoff, blend time. The other is retail, doors, sell through, restock. Few founders hold both without leaning on hype.

The brand set out to make beauty without boundaries, in practice that means fewer single use rules, shade work tested on camera and on deep skin, and textures that do more than one job. It is not a promise that every shade suits every face. It is a promise that more faces were considered at the start.

Product spotlight

Colorfix Mattes, 22 dollars. An award winning multifunctional colour with a matte finish that can be used as an eye base, liner or stand alone lip and cheek shade. Use a thin layer and blend quickly before it sets, then build for stronger payoff. Waterproof and long wearing for extended wear time with limited transfer.

Infinite Chrome Micropencils, 24 dollars. A metallic pencil for eyes that delivers smooth, reflective colour in shades including Treasure and Emerald. Use to line, tightline or smudge as a base under shadow. Warm the tip on the hand first, draw once for precision, then diffuse the edge for smoky dimension and dry down shine.

Bazaar named 81 innovations, routines get pared back

2026-09-18T00:00:00Z

Shoppers may need fewer bottles this autumn. Harper’s Bazaar published The 81 Most Innovative Beauty Products of 2026 on September 16, 2026, after testing hundreds of formulas for 12 months across skin types, hair types and ages. Eighty one products survived that process.

Editors sorted winners into skincare, tool, body, makeup and hair icons. Their stated filter was cutting edge technology, research based science, easier routines, or solving a unique or new problem. That screen matters on the shop floor because multitasking formulas beat pure novelty.

Barrier support is the quiet botanical thread. Pravada Private Label counts centella asiatica, panthenol and allantoin among sensitive skin and barrier health ingredients. Get the Gloss listed Sculpted by Aimee Second Skin Dewy Foundation SPF 50 at 25 pounds with SPF plus hyaluronic acid, squalane and centella asiatica. A foundation carrying a field grown extract next to sun protection fits current habits. The pitch is fewer layers with continued care.

Peptides supply the second ingredient pattern. Beauty Independent describes 2026 longevity and regenerative skincare as ceramides, antioxidants and SPF plus peptides, growth factors, exosomes and PDRN. Pravada places peptides among clinical face actives now entering scalp serums and body lotions. Minimalist routines with maximum function mean fewer products with multi pathway action. One serum must now cover work once split across two.

Bakuchiol adds a third plant signal. Aadhunik Ayurveda credits bakuchiol from Psoralea corylifolia seeds with lifting collagen and fading dark spots without retinoid dryness or sun sensitivity. The claim comes from that source rather than independent testing, and it clarifies why founders keep choosing seed derived alternatives for steadier routines. The draw is visible change with less irritation.

Texture is where the quarter turns tactile. Get the Gloss listed Laneige Bouncy and Firm Serum at 22 pounds and Medicube Deep Vita C Capsule Cream at 24.50 pounds with encapsulated pearls of hydrating ingredients. Capsules keep water loving pearls apart until massage, which favours slower application. The same edit described 3D texture cleansers as bubble tea style balls that pop open once massaged. Touch becomes part of dosing here.

Cushion and gloss hybrids extend that softness. July editors picks from Harper’s Bazaar included YSL Beauty’s new cushion foundation described as deceptively full coverage yet lightweight and non cakey. July picks also called out a Playa hair gloss depositing fragrance from Susan Yaras new line Playa, tied to Naturium. Get the Gloss framed Loreal Paris True Match Plumping Tinted Serum at 14.99 pounds as a slow releasing hyaluronic serum with tint in 9 flexible shades. Coverage, tint and treatment share one vessel.

Value sits awkwardly beside the craft. Perricone MD No Makeup Blush was flagged as was 33 pounds now 24.75 pounds and billed as a vitamin C infused blusher. Sources cite rising costs alongside interest in accessible options, yet they omit full prices, launch dates, sales or ownership for every pick. They describe trends and editor picks, not clinical testing of the named launches.

What survives the quarter is the real test. Barrier plants slot easily into existing routines. Capsules, cushions and glosses must still prove they protect actives and simplify shelves rather than add another step. Sell-through, shade range and wear time will decide which formats earn a restock.

Gloss Report will track wear tests, shade ranges and founders who discuss undertones and reorders with equal fluency.

This article is synthetic. It was produced with AI as part of a publishing experiment by VOL Collective.

Inside ONE/SIZE with Patrick Starrr, performance that fits all

2026-09-18T00:00:00Z

ONE/SIZE started with a dressing room disappointment and a fileable phrase. Patrick Starrr turned makeup is a one size fits all into a performance brand for every brand of beauty, from a remover first launch to a setting spray with real sell through. We talk wear time, shade logic and why glam should last.

In February 2016 Patrick Starrr walked out of a clothing store that had promised plus sizes and stocked none in his size. He posted that shopping frustration online, then filed a trademark on the sentence that answered it.

That decision is the whole brand in miniature. Starrr was a working makeup artist and a beauty community figure who had been told to wipe his makeup off on a retail floor. He knew what it felt like to be edited out. Makeup, unlike that store rack, did not stop three sizes short. Four years later that line became the tagline on mirrored red packaging.

What ONE/SIZE is now is a performance color brand built around long wear claims and wide casting. The hero is On Til Dawn Mattifying Waterproof Setting Spray, sold as waterproof, transferproof, smudgeproof and sweatproof for 16 hours. The second anchor is Ultimate Blurring Setting Powder, sold with up to 24 hour shine control. The stated formula brief is clinically validated wear for all skin types, tones, ages and genders.

What others miss is the order of operations. Starrr launched in July 2020 with GO OFF, a Makeup Dissolving Mist and remover wipes. Start with removal, on his own terms, then build the beat that stays put. Gloss Report likes founders who can talk undertone and doors in the same sentence. Starrr talks belonging and reorder with the same fluency.

Your February 2016 post came after a store said it carried plus sizes and had nothing in your size, and you answered that makeup is a one size fits all, then filed the trademark. What did that week teach you about who beauty was leaving out.

Unlike clothing, makeup is one-size-fits-all. I filed a trademark, but little did I know that four years later it would become our tagline. I got a trademark, I owned it, and I started blasting it everywhere. As a gay, plus size kid growing up in Orlando, I had not seen the opportunities I envisioned for myself. That shopping trip just named it plainly.

ONE/SIZE stands for the unseen and unheard. I happen to make and develop extraordinary makeup with larger-than-life performances. With being an influencer comes privilege, status, and access. I am building a brand and using the opportunity to create something for people who have not been seen or heard. One Size beauty is for the unseen and the unheard, and we represent every brand of beauty.

You launched in July 2020 with GO OFF, a Makeup Dissolving Mist and remover wipes, instead of leading with color. Why start a makeup brand with removal, after being asked as a retail associate to take your makeup off.

Years ago I was working on a retail floor and a manager told me my makeup was inappropriate for me as a man and asked me to remove it. Starting with GO OFF let me reclaim that moment. We start with no makeup on our own terms. Then we build whatever beat you want, full glam or soft, and it stays because you chose it.

Makeup is no different than what you wear and what you eat, it is a matter of taste. For me as a founder, specifically as an influencer founder, it is less about vanity and it is more about sanity. It is all about championing your inner beauty and who you want to be. That first drop set the contract. We will not tell you to wipe it off. We will give you the best remover when you decide the night is over.

Three pink On Til Dawn cans covered in water droplets against red. Photo · ONE/SIZE

Your 2019 collaboration with MAC caught the attention of your future partners and Sephora, and by April 2021 ONE/SIZE was headed to Sephora doors in America and Southeast Asia first. What did that year teach you about turning views into sell through.

That MAC year showed us that artistry could move product when the shade thinking and the demo were right. Partners started to pay attention because the audience was not just watching, they were buying and repurchasing. Going into Sephora meant learning doors, assortments and education at speed.

I want to make sure that everyone can see a little bit of themselves in the brand. The mirrored pack was part of that idea. You literally see yourself in it. On floor, that only works if the staff can shade match fast and explain payoff, finish and wear time in one sentence. Being self-aware and owning who you are is the most powerful thing. In retail that means knowing what you do well and staffing for it.

On Til Dawn is your number one icon, a fine aerosol mist sold as waterproof, transferproof, smudgeproof and sweatproof for 16 hours. What was the wear brief, and how should an artist use it so it still looks right at hour eight.

The brief was performance. Lock the glam, keep the finish matte, do not let sweat or transfer rewrite the face. The On Til Dawn Mattifying Waterproof Setting Spray uses green tea extract and witch hazel to create a matte finish that lasts for up to 16 hours. We wanted insurance for long days, weddings, shifts, stage lights, summer in the South.

Mist over finished makeup to lock in glam, two to three even passes in a T and X motion, eyes closed, mouth closed, let it set without fanning. For very oily skin, I prime with control, set lightly with powder, then seal. Do not over spray. That is what causes spotting. People need to love you where you are at, rather than love you for who you could be. And that goes for any family, any friend, any work relationship. The same applies to skin. Prep for the skin you have that day.

Ultimate Blurring Setting Powder promises up to 24 hour shine control and instant blur, in Translucent and Ultra Pink. Who is each shade really for, and where does the range still stop short.

Translucent is the workhorse. It sets under eyes and across the face to blur texture and control shine without adding visible color on many tones, though very deep skin still needs a light hand and a proper press and dust off. Ultra Pink is brighter under the eye, it wakes up the area and photographs well when used sparingly.

To be direct, two shades is a tight range for a product sold for every brand of beauty. Loose blurring powders live or die on undertone and depth, meaning the pink or yellow cast that sits under the surface, and on whether deeper tones get ash or flashback. I will call this good but narrow. Translucent plus one pink leaves out deeper smoothing shades and a true banana or peach corrector set. A shade extension in two to three deeper blurring tones would make it sell harder.

ONE/SIZE stands for the unseen and unheard.
Patrick Starrr

You formulate as clinically validated for all skin types, tones, ages and genders, with witch hazel, green tea extract, hyaluronic acid and lime pearl extract in the mix. How do you balance heavy performance with skin comfort across that wide brief.

We start with the end wear claim and work backward. If it must hold through sweat and oil, we need oil control. If it must suit dry or mature skin, we need comfort and care so it does not look chalky at hour six. The brand states its products are clinically validated and intentionally formulated for everyone.

Witch hazel and green tea do the shine and pore appearance work, hyaluronic acid supports hydration and lime pearl extract helps the surface look smoother and brighter. Set under eyes and face to blur and control shine, but prep matters. Moisturize to your skin type, prime where you run hot, powder where you crease. Performance makeup should feel like support, not a mask. Makeup is a ONE/SIZE fits all, but routine still needs tuning.

Mirrored red packaging is your signature, and you have said you want everyone to see a little of themselves in the brand. How does that idea survive on a crowded shelf and in a kit.

I want to make sure that everyone can see a little bit of themselves in the brand. The mirror makes it literal. On shelf, red reads fast. In a kit, the mirror is useful for touch ups when you cannot find a mirror. It photographs, which helps creators demo payoff and finish honestly.

The risk is fingerprints and glare, yes, and we watch returns and restock notes for that. But the bigger point holds. If you grew up not seeing yourself in campaigns or shade ranges, a pack that reflects you back is a small daily correction. ONE/SIZE fits all is not only copy. It is a reminder to the team when we pick models, shades and language.

Three open pink powder jars arranged over colorful powder swatches. Photo · ONE/SIZE

In October 2022 you geared up for a first celebrity collaboration with Disney and Mickey Mouse. What did play teach you about limits, dupes and waitlists, and what would you not repeat.

Play taught us that joy sells when the performance is still serious. People will line up for a waitlist when the collectible is cute, but they only restock when the formula earns it. A dupe conversation starts when the price or the shade logic feels off, not when fans are having fun.

I would rather champion inner beauty and self expression than chase vanity trends. I would rather formulate for every skin type, tone, age and gender than for a narrow customer. I would rather practice boundaries and say no than accept a small compromise. No gender, age, race or size exclusion in who makeup is for. No beef driven creator culture in my circle. Those rules keep collaborations clean.

You often say makeup is a matter of taste and that owning who you are is the most powerful thing. For the reader who swatches before buying and keeps the receipt for anything sold as universal, what should they buy first and how should they test it.

Start with the lock and the blur. On Til Dawn Mattifying Waterproof Setting Spray, Full Size 34 dollars and Travel Size 18 dollars, and Ultimate Blurring Setting Powder, Translucent or Ultra Pink in Full Size 36 dollars and Travel Size 19 dollars. They show the brand thesis fastest. Powder where you shine, spray to seal, wear it through a normal long day.

Test like an artist. Swatch powder along the jaw in daylight, check for ash or pink cast after ten minutes. Wear spray over your usual base and check transfer on a collar, shine at midday, and finish at night. Makeup is no different than what you wear and what you eat, it is a matter of taste. If matte 16 hour wear is not your taste, try less powder and one lighter pass. The goal is choice that holds.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with us is the discipline inside the maximalism. Starrr talks about unseen people and larger than life performance in the same breath, and the assortment backs it up with two workhorses that solve a real problem, glam that slips by noon. We appreciate a founder who can name the trademark filing and the misting technique without changing register.

ONE/SIZE set out to make makeup that fits all, for every brand of beauty. The honest read is that the wear story is strong and the shade story still has room to grow. Add deeper blurring options, keep the 16 hour promise honest, and the belonging line reads as plan, not slogan.

Product spotlight

On 'Til Dawn Mattifying Waterproof Setting Spray costs 34 dollars for Full Size and 18 dollars for Travel Size. It is a fine aerosol mist that sets finished makeup with a matte finish and resists water, transfer, smudging and sweat for up to 16 hours. Mist two to three passes over the full beat and let set untouched.

Ultimate Blurring Setting Powder costs 36 dollars for Full Size in Translucent or Ultra Pink and 19 dollars for Travel Size. It is an award winning loose powder that blurs texture and controls shine for up to 24 hours. Press lightly under eyes and over oily zones, dust off excess, then seal with spray.

Inside Prime Prometics with Kaspars Eglitis, makeup for mature lids

2026-09-18T00:00:00Z

Prime Prometics did not start with a shade wall or a launch calendar. It started with women who had lost lashes, brows and hair to chemotherapy, and a question about what makeup should do after that. Six years later it sells largely to women over 50 who want liner that does not skip and mascara that does not smear.

All I saw was my mother’s best friend, sobbing in my dad’s office. That is how Tatesha Robins, an early Prime voice, describes the moment that shaped the brand. The woman had received a breast cancer diagnosis. What broke her in that room was not only the diagnosis. It was the prospect laid out beside it. She would lose her hair, her brows, her eyelashes.

Kaspars Eglitis tells a parallel version. His father and brother are both oncologists. He watched that battle from the sidelines since early childhood. For him the takeaway was that beauty is not about vanity. It is about identity, confidence and self-expression. In early 2020 that thinking became Prime Causemetics, renamed in 2022 to Prime Prometics as an homage to pro-age cosmetics.

What the brand is now is specific. A direct to consumer eye and face assortment built for mature skin, sold on its own site plus Amazon, Walmart Online and Ulta online. The best known products are PrimeLash Mascara at 28 dollars and PrimeEyes Glide Eyeliner at 28 dollars, both framed as healing rather than hiding. The company, legally rooted in Latvia with a New York address and manufacturing across several countries, now claims tens of millions in revenue and tens of thousands of five star reviews.

What others miss is how trade minded the work is. Eglitis talks in the language of reorders and co-creation, of 1,200 women shaping early formulas and tubing polymers chosen so removal takes warm water, not rubbing. Gloss Report wanted to talk about payoff, wear time, shade range and where the story stretches thin. He answered in that order.

Your father and brother are both oncologists, and you describe watching chemo patients from the sidelines since childhood. What did that teach you about what makeup needs to do on a face changed by treatment.

What I learned early is that makeup was not meant to heal. It was meant to hide. That works when you are twenty five and hiding a blemish before dinner. It does not work when a woman has lost her lashes and brows and the skin around her eyes feels thin and reactive. She does not need coverage that sits on top. She needs formulas that feel calm on contact and still give her back definition.

My family lived inside oncology. Courage and resilience were normal words in our house. When we started interviews and focus groups, women kept saying the same thing in different ways. They wanted to look like themselves again. Not younger. Themselves. So we built for sensitive eyes first. Hypoallergenic. pH balanced. No waterproof removers that require pulling. If a survivor with almost no lashes can wear it comfortably, then a sixty year old with sparse lashes and hooded lids can wear it comfortably too. That order of operations still guides us.

You launched in early 2020 as Prime Causemetics after years of interviews and lab work, then renamed to Prime Prometics in 2022. Why did cause plus cosmetics stop fitting, and what did pro-age let you do differently.

Causemetics described where we started. Women facing chemo, women who needed gentler options. I am proud of that. But by 2021 we had five best sellers in two short years and millions of units sold across eighteen countries, and the letters we received were not only from survivors. They were from women fifty, sixty, seventy plus who felt overlooked by a youth obsessed industry. They called themselves silver queens. They did not want to be called anti-ageing. They wanted to be called prime.

The word Prometics is an homage to our dedication to pro-age cosmetics, for timeless beauty. That change let us state the mission clearly. Our mission is to empower women over fifty to embrace their natural beauty and redefine ageing on their own terms. Our vision is creating a world where every mature woman is in the prime of her life. Taglines follow from that. Pro-Age Make-up That Heals. Turning wrinkles into smile lines. It sounds soft but it is a product brief. Soften texture, respect creped lids, do not settle in lines, do not ask a seventy year old to apply makeup like a twenty year old.

Three PrimeLash Mascara tubes with wands displayed on blue platforms. Photo · Prime Prometics

PrimeLash Mascara is your anchor at 28 dollars in Black, Brown and Navy Blue, with more than thirteen thousand reviews on your site. You chose tubing over waterproof. Walk us through that call on pigment load, wear time and removal.

Waterproof was the easy answer for wear time. It stays. But waterproof mascaras contain harsh ingredients and need oil or dual phase removers. On mature lashes that is a bad trade. Thin lashes plus rubbing equals fewer lashes. We went with tubing. Synthetic candelilla wax and beeswax for conditioning, plus styrene acrylates copolymer to wrap each lash. The wand is made to separate tiny lashes so you get up to three times more defined looking length without clumps.

On wear, expect water resistance through a work day, not a swim. It resists smudging and transfer on lids that crease, which is the main complaint after fifty. On removal, warm water is enough. Sweep from base to tip, let the first coat dry briefly, then layer if you want more depth and use the tip for corners. The payoff is a soft black, brown or navy, not an inky vinyl black. The finish reads as clean definition. If you want drama at midnight, this is not that product. If you want eyes that still look right at hour eight, that is what tubing gives us.

Your site carries badges for vegan, cruelty free, paraben free and dermatologist approved, yet PrimeLash Black lists methylparaben, propylparaben and parfum. How do you explain that gap to a shopper who reads INCI names.

I will answer directly because the shopper is right to ask. Our intent is gentle, hypoallergenic and pH balanced formulas, made in the USA where possible and otherwise designed in the US with labs in Germany, Mexico, China, Czech Republic and South Korea. That is complex. Some legacy shades still carry parabens and fragrance components that do not match the badges on the about page. That is not acceptable long term.

We are working through shade by shade reformulation while keeping wear and tolerance stable for mature eyes, which is slower than changing marketing copy. My rule is simple. If the label says paraben free, the tube in the hand must be paraben free. Until every lot meets that, we should name which SKUs are already converted and give dates for the rest. A mature customer has seen enough claims. She keeps the receipt. We need to earn the reorder with paperwork, not promises.

Your second pillar is PrimeEyes Glide Eyeliner at 28 dollars, sold in Kohl, Wood, Sapphire, Smoky and newer jewel tones like Emerald, Mulberry, Deep Burgundy and Royal Blue. What does glide mean on a lid that is drier and less firm than it was at thirty.

Glide means you do not tug. Mature lids crease, they move, they have texture. A pencil that skips forces you to press harder, then it deposits too much in one spot and transfers by noon. We wanted water resistant and smudge proof color that lays an unbroken line with light pressure. Kohl for soft black definition. Wood for a rich brown that reads casual. Sapphire, Emerald, Mulberry and Royal Blue for women who still want color but want it softened around the lash line.

The pencil format matters. A gel in a pot is great in a kit, but at home with reading glasses it is hard to control. A retractable liner with a creamy tip gives control and lets you tightline or smudge slightly before it sets. Payoff is medium, buildable, not a one swipe liquid. That is deliberate for creped skin. High payoff liquids look sharp at 9am and cracked at 3pm. Our customer would rather build two light passes than correct one heavy one.

If a survivor with almost no lashes can wear it comfortably, then a sixty year old with sparse lashes can wear it comfortably too.
Kaspars Eglitis

Your Color Changing Foundation at 44 dollars uses white to beige microbeads that adapt to fair to medium tones, with niacinamide, squalane and jojoba oil for a dewy twelve hour finish. Which shopper does that serve well, and who should skip it.

It serves the shopper who hates choosing a shade online and wants light to medium coverage fast. You apply to moisturised skin and blend with fingers or a brush until the beads release and match. Niacinamide supports the look of barrier strength and calms sallowness. Jojoba and squalene replenish lipids so lines look softer. Bisabolol and palmitoyl tripeptide-5 are in there to keep the finish calm and elastic. The finish is dewy, second skin, no masking.

Who should skip it. If you wear deep or very deep tones, skip it for now. White to beige beads can only stretch so far, and fair to medium language tells you where the range stops. Three shades short is not a virtue. It is a limit. If you need full coverage or a soft matte that controls oil through heat, our PrimeSkin CC Cream direction is closer. And take the twelve hour claim with care. Our supporting wear study was ten participants. That is direction, not proof. I would rather you test it through your day and return it if it cakes or settles.

Ulta lists PrimeLash as online only and fulfilled by Prime Prometics, while your site lists Amazon and Walmart Online alongside direct sales. Why stay largely direct, and what does sell through tell you about doors versus restocks.

Direct lets us teach. A mature shopper needs to see application on a real sixty five year old lid, not a twenty second cut. She needs to know to let coat one dry, to use warm water, to pick Wood over Kohl for daytime. That education is hard on a crowded shelf. Online we can show it, answer it and track what sells through and what sits. Sell through is the share of stock that actually sells in a period. Doors are store count. We would rather earn restocks in fewer doors with high sell through than chase doors and mark down later.

Retail still matters. Ulta online lets a new customer trust the buy and keep the receipt logic simple. Fulfilled by us keeps handling consistent while we learn shade by shade what reorders. When we enter more doors, we want to enter with the right shades, the right tester logic and staff who know why tubing removal matters. A waitlist is nice. A restock is better. It means she came back.

Five women in matching blue sweatshirts posing together and smiling. Photo · Prime Prometics

You report steep growth, with outside trackers citing over eighty million euros in turnover and your team citing over one hundred million euros for 2025, plus staff growth from two to twenty and a Deloitte Fast 50 placement. What actually drove the volume.

Reorders drove it. Not one viral video. Mascara and liner are replenishment products. When a woman over fifty finds a mascara that does not flake into her eyes and a liner that does not skip, she repurchases and tells her sister. Subscription at 23.80 dollars versus 28 dollars helped, as did two packs and trios that lower cost per tube. Reviews compound that. Forty thousand plus five star reviews now, with PrimeLash alone above thirteen thousand, means a new shopper can find her age and her concern in the comments.

The rest is operational. Small team, tight assortment, fast reads on shade extensions. Wood outsells flash shades, so we keep Kohl and Wood in stock deep and test jewel tones in smaller lots. Cause helps but does not carry sales. We donate product and funds to breast cancer support, including over one million dollars in product to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Reports cite 1.2 million dollars on one page and 2.7 million plus on product pages because cash and product value are counted in different places. We should state that more clearly. Growth came from fit, not noise.

If a Gloss Report reader buys one thing first to test whether pro-age is more than a tagline, what should it be and how should she judge it by night.

Buy PrimeLash in the shade you actually wear. Black if you wear black, Brown if black reads harsh, Navy Blue if you want softness with a little light. Apply on clean, dry lashes. One coat base to tip, pause, then a second where you need it. Wear it through a normal day. Desk, errands, glasses on and off. Judge it at night on three points. Did it transfer to the crease. Did it flake into eyes. Did it slide off with warm water without rubbing.

If it passes those three, try PrimeEyes Glide next in Wood or Kohl. Draw with light pressure, smudge once if you like, then leave it. Pro-age is not a claim on a tube. It is whether liner and mascara behave on a lid with lines and lashes with gaps. Our tagline says Pro-Age Make-up That Heals. I read heal as supports comfort and the appearance of stronger lashes and calmer skin, not treatment. If the makeup respects the face it is on, the tagline earns its keep.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with us is the discipline around eyes that have texture. Tubing instead of waterproof to protect sparse lashes. Pencils that lay color with light pressure instead of liquids that crack by afternoon. Shade logic that admits where fair to medium ends. That is the kind of specificity mature shoppers notice, and the numbers suggest they reorder when they find it.

Prime Prometics set out to make makeup that acknowledges strength and fortitude after chemo and ageing, then widened that to women over fifty who want to redefine ageing on their own terms. Stated plainly, it is an eye led routine with gentle removal, buildable payoff and workday wear. The range and the badges still need tidying. The core idea holds.

Product spotlight

PrimeLash Mascara at 28 dollars for a single tube in Black, Brown, Navy Blue and Mulberry family shades, 1.13 oz in Black at retail. A tubing mascara for sparse mature lashes that wraps for defined looking length and removes with warm water. Sweep base to tip, let dry briefly, layer for depth and use the tip for corners.

PrimeEyes Glide Eyeliner at 28 dollars per pencil in Kohl, Wood, Sapphire, Smoky and jewel extensions including Emerald, Mulberry, Deep Burgundy and Royal Blue. A water resistant, smudge proof pencil for unbroken lines on mature lids. Draw with light pressure along the lash line, soften once before set, build a second pass rather than pressing harder.

What eight hour wear actually proves about foundation

2026-09-15T00:00:00Z

The premise is simple enough. A foundation is asked to stay put through oil, sweat and touch, and the number on the front is taken as proof of strength. The record behind that number looks narrower, a flexible film plus oil control plus pigment, tested on particular skins in particular air.

The wear test starts a long way from the shelf, in rooms where temperature is set, light is flat and graders lean in to check transfer on a tissue, shine on a forehead and fading around the nose at timed intervals, while the people being graded sit with their own salt and oil chemistry doing quiet work underneath.

Consumer panels add another layer. An independent firm sends jars home, asks for morning and evening judgments, and tallies the share of women who saw less fading or less shine. Instrumental work runs alongside, with color readings, blotting weights and transfer cloths that try to turn a face into numbers. Clinical testing may be needed for objective performance claims, while home use testing may be used to support subjective claims about attributes, and the two kinds of evidence do not carry the same weight. The gap matters because a panel can say a tint looked fresher at hour eight while an instrument finds that pigment moved into pores and oily patches.

Film chemistry explains much of what survives. Film formers help foundation dry into a more continuous layer, which can improve transfer resistance, reduce fading and keep pigments distributed instead of moving into lines or oily patches. Long wear formulas often pair film formers with volatile ingredients that evaporate after application, leaving a thinner and more set surface. Many also use silica, treated pigments, starches, clays or other mattifying materials to absorb oil and reduce slip that breaks coverage apart. Sport positioned versions lean on the same idea, with oil and sweat control complexes built around absorbing agents such as silica or talc to limit oil secretion and manage moisture on the skin surface.

Why films fail in ordinary ways

Transfer resistant does not mean nothing will move, as phones, masks, collars, hands, sunglasses, sweat and oil can all disturb foundation. The distinction sounds legalistic until hour six on a warm commute, when the collar tells the truth. Long wear chemistry involves trade offs, as a film that sets too rigidly may crack around smile lines while one that never sets may stay comfortable but transfer. Thin application helps the balance. Apply long wear foundation in thin controlled layers for best performance, since thick application can crack, transfer and collect around texture. Working artists live by that rule for a reason. A sheer first pass sets faster, grips better and gives powder and blotting something sensible to protect, while a heavy second pass asks the film to do structural work it was never built to do.

Climate makes the test harder to generalize. Humans have approximately 2 to 3 million eccrine sweat glands, which are primarily responsible for thermoregulatory sweating, according to a review in PMC. Sweat rate can range from roughly 0.5 to more than 2.5 liters per hour depending on athlete and conditions, and sweat sodium can vary from a few hundred milligrams per liter to well over 1,000 mg per liter. In 90 minute cycling trials, whole body sweat sodium concentration increased from 32.6 mmol per liter to 52.7 mmol per liter and total sodium loss increased from 659 mg to 1565 mg when intensity rose from 45 percent to 65 percent of VO2max. Single sweat or wear numbers can mislead because sweat rate and sweat sodium change with intensity, heat, humidity, sport, clothing and acclimation. A formula that holds through a temperate office morning may slip at the edges after a midday run, and the label rarely names which day it means.

Measurement itself wobbles under sweat. A 2026 study in the Translational Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine found a microfluidic sweat patch failed to provide sweat rate data in 20 percent of trials and sodium loss data in 43 percent of trials versus lab based absorbent patch methods. The point is not that wear testing is rigged. Consequently any claim built on sweat control inherits that noise, because moisture on skin is variable and patch readings miss plenty. As the hDrop sweat testing guide asks, “Does this method measure what actually happens during exercise, and can it adapt when conditions change?”

Eight hour wear shows that a flexible film survived a specific set of skin, climate and friction conditions.

What the rules allow the tube to say

United States law treats most wear language as cosmetic description rather than medical promise. The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act defines cosmetic as articles intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled or sprayed on or otherwise applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness or altering appearance. Moisturizers and makeup marketed with sun protection claims can qualify as both cosmetics and over the counter drugs in the US. If a product is marketed with claims for treating or preventing disease or affecting the structure or function of the body including the skin, it is a drug under US law and must meet drug requirements. US law does not require cosmetic labeling to have FDA approval before products go on the market, and FDA does not have a list of approved or accepted claims for cosmetics. The standard that remains is plain. As FDA puts it in cosmetics labeling claims guidance, “information on cosmetic labeling, including claims, must be truthful and not misleading”.

Substantiation is where panels and instruments meet lawyers. FTC requires advertisers to have substantiation for all advertising claims, both express and implied, before making claims for any product. NAD reviews national advertising in any medium including product labeling if it has the purpose of inducing a sale or persuading an audience of the value of a product, including advertiser controlled website and retailer website claims. The line between a feeling and a fact gets policed with examples. Jennifer Santos, NAD attorney, contrasts “Reduces the depth of wrinkles by 13% in 7 days” with “96% of women surveyed saw a reduction in the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles in 7 days”, the first an objective claim that needs clinical support, the second a subjective claim tied to a survey. Eight hour wear sits near that border. Perceived wear at hour eight can rest on a panel, while transfer resistance or shine control stated as measured fact asks for instruments, controls and a method that survives scrutiny. Influencer demonstrations and brand controlled reviews can create implied performance claims that still require substantiation and disclosure, which is why a sped up gym selfie proves less than it appears to show.

The famous longer number deserves skepticism. A truly excellent long lasting foundation should give 8 to 12 hours of solid wear with minimal touch ups, with 24 hour claims assuming no messy foods, intense exercise or extreme weather. The 24 hour claim often assumes controlled testing and no messy foods, intense exercise or extreme weather, with 8 to 12 hours described as realistic solid wear. That caveat rarely makes the front of the pack. Shade range, finish and payoff decide the repurchase anyway. A foundation can last eight hours and still fail because three undertones are missing, the finish turns cardboard on dry cheeks, or the price asks for couture while the wear asks for blotting paper.

The practical test follows from the evidence. Wear the tint on a normal day with normal prep, one thin layer left to set, then a second only where needed. Note the room, the weather, the mask hours and the phone side. Check transfer once with a clean tissue pressed lightly, not rubbed, and check shine, fading and settling at four and eight hours in the same mirror. Repeat with powder or setting spray changed and nothing else changed. Sebum, sweat and friction break makeup down together without clear shares for each, and setting spray, powder or blotting is not proven to extend wear across all film systems, so use the home test as comparison rather than proof. What lasts on combination skin in dry air may slide on oil rich skin in humidity, and the difference is information rather than failure.

The view that remains is unglamorous and useful. Eight hour wear does not certify a stronger foundation. It records that a flexible film, oil control and pigment system held up under one set of skins, climates and frictions, supported by panels for how wear looked and instruments for what moved. Treat the number as a starting point, keep layers thin, blot with intent, and judge the product by its full record of shade, finish and reorder logic.

This article is synthetic. It was produced with AI as part of a publishing experiment by VOL Collective.

Laney Crowell on glow that is clean and easy

2026-09-14T00:00:00Z

Saie founder Laney Crowell turned community feedback into a clean makeup line built for speed and sheen. We talk formulas without silicones, shade testing with real wear, Sephora sell through, and what to buy first for signature glow.

In fall 2019, Laney Crowell made the decision most editors only talk about. She left nearly five years building digital at Estee Lauder and launched Saie with four small things.

A lip balm, a mascara, a brow gel and a lavender eyelash curler did not look like a revolution. They looked like a test. Crowell had spent time running a blog called The Moment, interviewing founders and hearing the same request from readers. Make something high performing at a fair price that feels exciting and is kinder to the planet.

What Saie is now is bigger and more focused. New York based, sold at Sephora and direct, known for Glowy Super Gel, Slip Tint and Dew Blush, and for a house look called SaieGlow. The formulas are skincare first, silicone free and built around quick application with fingers.

What others miss is how retail literate the brand is. Crowell talks like a founder who watches doors and reorders as closely as payoff and finish. That mix of artistry and sell through is the thesis of this conversation.

Your first launch in fall 2019 was small, a lip balm, a mascara, a brow gel and a lavender curler. What did that tight edit let you learn about payoff and wear time before you scaled shade and doors.

Thank you for having me. I started Saie because I was ready to see a new kind of beauty brand, one built on the simple idea of feeling good and doing good. I had spent nearly five years at Estee Lauder after fashion editorial, and then I started The Moment to interview founders. From day one, brands started to send me products to review and I quickly realised that luxurious, chic and high performing, clean formulas were hard to come by.

So we kept the first launch tight on purpose. Everyone felt the same way. They wanted clean products that were thoughtfully designed and felt chic and performed just as well as the traditional brands they had always used. A small range meant I could listen fast. Did the mascara lift without flaking by hour eight. Did the brow gel hold without stiffness. Did the balm feel good enough to reapply. That is how we learned what effortless meant in real life. I am not a makeup artist, so our formulas are effortless by design.

You came with the line, You Saie It, we Create it. How does your Clean Beauty Crew actually change a formula or a shade before it ships.

I have always loved connection, community and fostering platforms to tell important stories. To me, that is what storytelling is about. The Crew is not a panel for quotes. They co create and test with us, and we do third party clinical testing alongside that.

They will tell us when a shade pulls too peach or too grey, when the doe foot holds too much product, when transfer shows on a collar, when wear time drops after lunch. Then we go back to the lab. We want to ensure our makeup not only performs but improves your skin while you wear it. It turns out people want makeup that is good for skin in addition to looking good. All of the products we create are meant to be quick and easy to use. We want everyone who uses Saie to achieve our signature SaieGlow all day long.

Model with glowing skin showing Saie Glowy Super Gel finish. Photo · Saie

You formulate without silicones and petroleum and talk about Saie Fatty Acid Complex. For a reader new to that term, what does it change about finish and transfer compared with a silicone base.

Silicone free means we cannot rely on dimethicone to blur and slip. For readers new to it, silicones are smoothing polymers that sit on skin to give glide, while fatty acids are skin compatible lipids that support barrier feel. Petroleum can also sit on top and feel occlusive.

We start with our Saie Fatty Acid Complex to support penetration of the formula character, so our formulas are not just sitting on top of your skin. We pair that with hyaluronic acid, shea butter and jojoba esters. The finish looks like skin with light in it, not a film over it. Transfer is different too. You get less of that slick slide, more of a flexible, hydrated set. We screen petroleum derivatives with help from experts and use coconut oil, lanolin and glycerin where they make sense. The tradeoff is more work in the lab to keep payoff strong without that silicone slip.

Glowy Super Gel is your number one bestseller in Starglow, Sunglow, Roseglow, Warmglow and Beachglow. Why did you position a luminizer as a first step under foundation rather than a last step highlighter.

Because glow reads better from underneath. When you put one to two pumps all over under foundation or tinted moisturizer, light comes through rather than sitting on top. You can also spot highlight, but the base layer is the Saie move.

The formula is glitter free and non comedogenic, made with glycerin and squalane for hydration, rosehip and papaya seed oil for a brighter look, and ethically sourced mica for sheen. It is vegan. Five shades let people tune undertone, which for readers new to the word means the warm, cool or neutral cast beneath skin tone that decides whether glow looks golden or rosy. Starglow is the sheerest multi use light, Sunglow and Warmglow bring warmth, Roseglow brings pink light, Beachglow brings deeper bronze light. Wear it alone or mixed with tint. That flexibility is why it sold through.

Slip Tint Tinted Moisturizer SPF 35 uses 15 percent non nano zinc oxide at 40 ml for 38 dollars. Mineral SPF often casts or pills. How did you get sheer coverage to sit well over moisturizer with fingertips.

Every single time I put on Slip Tint, I get butterflies. It is so hydrating. It evens your skin tone out immediately. That feeling was the brief. Sheer shades that provide just enough coverage to even your complexion, with a finish that still looks like skin.

Mineral SPF, for readers new to it, means zinc oxide that scatters UV rather than chemical filters that absorb UV into heat. We do not use chemical sunscreens, and we avoid synthetic fragrance, parabens, phthalates, sulfates, talc, mineral oil and petrolatum. The texture work was about slip without silicone. Use in the morning, over or instead of moisturizer. Apply generously with fingertips, one to two pumps, no shaking required, blend all over. Fingers warm the hyaluronic acid base, licorice root for a brighter look and pansy flower antioxidants, so coverage melts rather than pills.

We want everyone who uses Saie to achieve our signature SaieGlow all day long.
Laney Crowell

Dew Blush at 26 dollars uses a chunky doe foot and a liquid cream texture. What makes that applicator and payoff right for a two to three dot routine, and where does wear time land on oily skin.

Blush should take ten seconds. Using the chunky doe foot, apply two to three dots along each cheek, then blend with fingertips or our Double Brush. The doe foot picks up enough liquid cream to give payoff without flooding the cheek, which matters for pigment load, the amount of color in each swipe.

The formula is buildable, fragrance free, vegan and made for sensitive skin, with glycerin as a humectant and elderberry and licorice for antioxidant and brightening appearance support. On oily skin, I suggest thin layers and a light set where you need it, because dew by definition has a fresh finish, not a matte lock. Finish here means how light reflects, dewy versus satin versus matte. Ours is dewy. If you want longer wear time, which means how long color and finish look right, press a second sheer dot after base sets rather than one heavy dot at the start.

Sephora exclusivity plus direct gave you velocity. What did sell through teach you about shade extensions, and which range stopped short and needed more work.

Retail teaches fast. Sell through, the rate stock sells in a set period, tells you what works by door, not just online. Doors means store count and location mix. Restock pace tells you if a launch has legs or was a content spike. Waitlist tells you demand outran supply.

Slip Tint taught us the most. Sheer still needs undertone range. Very light pink versus very light peach matters. Light to medium peach versus golden matters. If three shades do the same job, one will sit. If you stop three shades short at the deep end, trust drops. We built Glowy Super Skin Tint Foundation with Hydrobounce to keep medium coverage weightless, and we keep testing extensions with the Crew across lighting, not just studio light. A good product with a narrow range will not sell as hard as it should. We would rather add shades late and right than early and off.

Model smiling with Dew Blush applied holding the bottle. Photo · Saie

You are certified Plastic Negative and Leaping Bunny and give one percent for the planet. How do those choices show up in packaging and cost without raising price beyond reach.

As an industry, we need to re evaluate how we produce, distribute and dispose of products in order to reduce the amount of waste going into our landfills and waterways. That line guides our operations. Certified Plastic Negative means we recover twice the ocean bound plastic we use. Leaping Bunny means cruelty free third party certification. One percent for the planet means a share of revenue supports environmental partners.

In packaging that means lighter components where possible, recyclable outer materials, and fewer pumps and caps than a traditional prestige launch. Cost is real. Sustainable packaging and high performance formulas cost more than cutting corners. We hold price by editing shade counts at launch, keeping formulas focused, and letting bestsellers fund the next step. Our community asked for high performance at a great price point that is exciting and good for our planet. Price discipline is part of keeping that promise.

Sun Melt and the newer bronze and powder pieces suggest a full face system. How do you think about dupe pressure when a lower priced glow or blush goes viral next to yours.

Dupe, for readers new to the word, means a lower priced look alike pitched as close enough. We do not chase it. We formulate for skin feel first, then check price honesty. Can we deliver glycerin plus squalane hydration, non comedogenic wear and a shade that suits more undertones at 30 dollars for 30 ml. Can Dew Blush stay blendable without fragrance at 26 dollars.

If a viral alternative wins on price but loses on undertone match, finish control or sensitive skin comfort, our customer notices by day three. That is when returns happen. We keep receipts in mind. We would rather explain sillage in fragrance or dry down in scent, and payoff and transfer in color, than shout louder. Backstage artists keep us honest too. They need blush that blends fast and bronzer that does not patch over SPF. If the kit reorders, we are fine.

Crowell voice aside, which launch was hardest to land clean and high performing, and what would you reformulate next with what you know now.

Slip Tint was hardest because mineral SPF plus sheer tint plus skincare is three formulas in one. You want hydration, even tone and protection without heaviness, and you want it to play well under Glowy Super Gel and powder. Zinc texture, silicone free slip and shade stability all pull in different directions.

What I would do next is more of what we already do. More undertone splits where data shows gaps, more wear testing on oily skin in humidity, more doe foot and brush pairing so application stays simple. I have always loved that our formulas are effortless. Effortless is not thin. It is edited. The next reformulation would keep the feel people love and tighten transfer around the nose and chin where SPF and glow meet friction. Small fix, big difference in hour eight photos.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is a founder fluent in two languages at once. Crowell can talk mica and humectants, then switch to sell through and doors without changing tone. That is rarer than it sounds in clean beauty, where story often outruns stock.

Saie set out to make beauty better with clean, conscious products that still perform on a retail floor. Glow was the hook, ease was the system, community testing was the control. The result is a line that reads simple in the hand and careful on the spreadsheet.

Product spotlight

Glowy Super Gel, 30 dollars for 30 ml. The number one bestseller and the easiest entry to the house glow. A glitter free, non comedogenic luminizer with glycerin, squalane, rosehip and mica. Apply one to two pumps all over under foundation or tint, or tap as a spot highlighter.

Dew Blush, 26 dollars for 12 ml. A buildable liquid cream blush with a chunky doe foot for a two to three dot routine. Glycerin supports a dewy finish, made fragrance free for sensitive skin. Dot along each cheek and blend with fingertips or a soft brush.

Rachel Reid on the practical logic of a five minute stack

2026-09-14T00:00:00Z

Subtl Beauty sells one idea in a small black rimmed stack: complexion in five minutes, in a crossbody bag, with refills at fourteen dollars. Founder Rachel Reid talks about contact lens cases, a hundred interviews and why time pressed women left the twelve step routine first.

There is a particular kind of complexion founder Gloss Report keeps meeting, the one who did not start with pigment load or finish but with a bag that was too small. Rachel Reid belongs in that group. In summer 2016 she was traveling weekly for work, living out of bags and dating someone new, with only a crossbody for the night.

What she did next is now brand lore. She filled three empty contact lens cases with the basics she needed for morning, a workaround friends quickly borrowed for sleepovers, offices, planes and cars. They called it Ho On The Go. After months of interviews with over one hundred women, Reid renamed it, built real packaging and launched from Pittsburgh, with company records citing 2018 and Reid herself citing work in 2017 and a basement launch in 2019.

What Subtl Beauty is now is easy to describe and harder to copy. The Subtl Stak holds cream concealer, lip and cheek tint, powder bronzer, powder highlighter and shine control powder in stackable pucks with a lid, brush and base. The formulas are vegan, cruelty free, gluten free, fragrance free and paraben free, and the case is refillable by design. What others miss is the discipline: fewer shades done carefully, small prices held steady, and no claim bigger than a workday face that still looks right at hour eight.

Thank you Rachel. In summer 2016 you were traveling weekly for work and carrying only a crossbody bag while dating someone new. How did that one night without an overnight bag lead to three contact lens cases filled with makeup.

Thank you for having me. Well, I am not gonna lie, the story is a little weird, and probably not what you would expect, but I thought it would be important to share the realness with you, as embarrassing as it is. I was traveling every week for work and living out of bags. I started dating someone new and I did not want to bring an overnight bag, so all I had was my teeny tiny crossbody. Subtl Beauty started as a very basic solution to a very common problem, my products were way too big to take with me in my teeny tiny bag. I looked online for something small enough and found nothing. So I filled three empty contact cases with the basics I needed for next morning. After filling three empty contact cases with products I started attracting attention from other women who were struggling with solving the same problem. That was the start. What if everything I needed was in one handy stack, an abbreviated beauty routine that was wearable and wonderful with everything I needed today, tonight or tomorrow.

Your friends called the contact case version Ho On The Go and borrowed it for sleepovers, offices, planes and cars. After months of interviews with over one hundred women you renamed it and built real packaging. What did those conversations change.

They changed everything. Ho On The Go was funny and honest, but it was not a brand women wanted on their vanity. After months of interviews with over one hundred women, I decided to build a real solution. I heard the same thing in different words. Women were not skipping makeup because they did not care. They were skipping steps because the routine did not fit real life. The car, the gym, the office, travel, a bathroom with no counter. They wanted coverage that looked like skin, color that could move from cheek to lip, and powder that controlled shine without looking dry. Hi, I am Rachel Reid. I started Subtl in 2019, a newbie with very little background in beauty, inspired by an experience we have all been through. I did not come in with house rules. I came in with questions. Whether you are a beauty vet or newbie, I created Subtl to give your vanity a healthy dose of sanity. That line still guides every shade and every puck we add.

Smiling woman holding a stacked Subtl Beauty makeup compact near her face. Photo · Subtl Beauty

Company records cite a Pittsburgh launch on September 20, 2018 with a Kickstarter, while you often cite working on stackable makeup in 2017 and launching from your basement in 2019. Which version should a buyer trust, and what do those early months explain about the Stak.

Both are true, which tells you how small we were. I started working on stakable makeup in 2017 and officially launched SUBTL from my basement in 2019. The boilerplate says 2018 because that is when we went live in Pittsburgh with a Kickstarter and started selling beyond friends. On October 4, 2018 Next Pittsburgh ran the headline that still makes me laugh, Lets face it, your makeup bag sucks. That was the thesis. We were a small business with a Pittsburgh based team, packing and answering messages from the same rooms where we were testing shades. The early Stak was simple because it had to be. One base that screwed together, one brush, pucks you could swap. We learned fast that women did not want another palette. They wanted a system they could refill and reorder. Pop in a fourteen dollar refill when you run out, keep the case. That refill idea came from those basement months, watching cost per gram and watching drawers fill with half used compacts.

You describe Subtl as makeup for your great and not so great days, with the tag Beauty at the Speed of Life. For a reader who knows undertone, meaning the warm, cool or neutral cast under foundation, how does that promise show up in payoff, meaning one swipe color, and wear time.

We are SUBTL. But do not let the name fool you. Makeup has always promised fantasy. But is it not time it dealt with reality. We created the Subtl Stak for people who get right out there and live. People who laugh and cry, work and play. It is makeup for your great and not so great days. For me that means payoff has to be honest and wear time has to survive a real day. The Cream Concealer is buildable, not full cover in one swipe, so you can tap a little under eyes or sheer it as foundation. The Lip and Cheek is a cream you blot, then layer for more color. The bronzer sits where sun hits, forehead, nose, cheeks, and the highlighter sits on high points. Shine Control goes on the T zone, forehead, nose and chin, where oil shows first. Nothing needs a twelve step order. You dab, blot, blend, dust, sweep. If the undertone is wrong it will show by lunch, so we spend more time on undertone than on extra shades. Finish should look like skin at hour eight, not like powder at hour two.

The Starter Stak 5-in-1 Travel Makeup Kit sells for fifty five dollars on sale, against eighty dollars regular, with a unit claim of three dollars and seventy two cents per gram versus eleven dollars and sixty one cents for others. What does that math include, and who is it for.

That math is our answer to the vanity drawer. The Starter Stak includes Cream Concealer in shades like 001C Fair Cool, Lip and Cheek, Powder Bronzer, Powder Highlighter in Champagne, and Shine Control Powder in Translucent, plus Lid, Brush and Base. Use is simple. Dab concealer where you need it. Blot lip and cheek and layer. Blend bronzer on sun points. Dust highlighter on high points. Sweep shine powder on the T zone. The per gram comparison is us saying compare what you actually use, not the size of the compact. We built for on the go, time pressed women who want a streamlined routine in car, gym, office or travel. Sell through, meaning how fast a product sells after it reaches stock, matters more than launch noise. If a Stak sells through and restocks, meaning it returns after selling out, because women use it daily, that is success. The Starter is the entry. You learn your shades, you learn the order, then you refill only what runs out.

Whether you are a beauty vet or newbie, I created Subtl to give your vanity a healthy dose of sanity.
Rachel Reid

Your Cream Concealer sells for sixteen dollars, in nineteen shades from 001C to 021N, with Coffea Arabica Seed Oil for puffiness plus Bayberry Fruit Wax and Vitamin E. How should someone use it without it creasing, and what should they realistically expect.

Warm it for three to five seconds with your finger, tap it on, then layer only where you need more. It doubles as foundation if you sheer it, which helps with shade matching because many women sit between two concealer shades. The formula base is Isododecane, Caprylic Capric Triglyceride, Synthetic Wax and Mica plus Coffee Oil. We reformulated to add Bayberry Wax and Vitamin E to meet our clean standards. All formulas are cruelty free, vegan, gluten free, fragrance free and paraben free. For the appearance of puffiness in the morning, Coffee Seed Oil supports a smoother look and helps skin appear more radiant, it does not change structure. Expect buildable medium coverage that looks dewy, not matte. If you need full cover for evening, layer twice rather than pressing hard once. And keep the case. Refill is fourteen dollars on sale against sixteen regular. That keeps price steady and waste lower than buying a new compact each time.

Lip and Cheek at fourteen dollars mixes Shea Butter, Sunflower Wax, Jojoba and Sweet Almond Oil in shades like Petal to the Metal, a cool dusty mauve. Powder Bronzer at eighteen dollars comes in Leche, Latte, Mocha, Cocoa and Espresso over a Mica, Squalane and Silica base. How do you keep creams blendable and powders soft in one stack.

We formulate the stack as a system. Lip and Cheek has to melt a little on skin, so Shea Butter, Sunflower Wax, Jojoba and Sweet Almond Oil carry color that blends with fingers. You blot on lips and cheeks, then layer. Petal to the Metal is a good example, a cool dusty mauve that reads natural on lips and gives cheeks a lived in flush. Powders have a different job. Bronzer is silky matte over Mica with Squalane and Silica, so it blends on forehead, nose and cheeks without looking orange. It also works as contour or shadow, which saves space. Shine Control is talc free with plant squalane, so it helps with the appearance of oil in the T zone without a dry finish. The Stak 2.0 refillable bezel technology holds both textures in one column without crushing the cream. Refill for bronzer is twelve dollars, which matters because bronzer is often the first powder to hit pan. One stack, two textures, same five minute order.

Woman outdoors applying powder from a lavender stacked compact with a puff. Photo · BELLA Media + Co.

Stak 2.0 won a BeautyMatter NEXT award and the line went viral on TikTok, with one founder page noting I first saw Subtl Beauty go viral on TikTok. What did virality change about shade range and restocks.

Virality found us before we were ready, which is the honest answer. I first saw Subtl Beauty go viral on TikTok is a line from our own site because that is how many women found us. A creator would demo the whole Stak in a car or at a desk, five minutes, no mirror tricks, and comments would ask for their exact shades. That puts pressure on shade range and on restock speed. Concealer now runs nineteen shades from 001C to 021N across cool, neutral and warm undertones. Bronzer runs Leche, Latte, Mocha, Cocoa and Espresso. We photograph Every Shade of Beautiful and carry a four point nine six verified rating, but ratings do not solve a shade gap. If your undertone sits outside our range, we say so. Waitlist, meaning names held for the next batch when a shade sells out, helped us see which depths to extend first. Sell through by shade tells the truth faster than comments. TikTok also taught us to demo in real light, car light, office light, gym light, not studio light.

On December 22, 2023 you closed about five point five million dollars, five million from CULT Capital plus about half a million from Grouse Ridge and Innovation Works, after about one point two million earlier including AlphaLab. At the time you cited over three hundred thousand Staks sold and one hundred seventy percent year over year growth. What did that money change.

The partnership with CULT Capital marks a pivotal moment for us, it is a testimony not only to our product but also to our business trajectory. CULT Capitals network and experience scaling beauty brands is exactly what we need to take our business to the next level. That is what I said at the time and it holds. The round, about five million from CULT plus about half a million from Grouse Ridge and Innovation Works, after about one point two million earlier including AlphaLab, let us hire, market steadily and plan retail expansion beyond direct to consumer. At the round we had sold over three hundred thousand Staks with about one hundred seventy percent year over year growth. That growth came from refills and Starter Staks, not from adding twenty new products. The money did not change the thesis. Rather one refillable five minute stack done well than drawers of palettes and twelve steps. It let us improve Stak 2.0, hold our clean standards and keep publishing full ingredient lists while we scaled.

Your site carries a four point nine six verified rating beside the line Every Shade of Beautiful. If someone buys one thing this week, what should it be, and what would you tell a founder who wants fewer formulas but fears fewer sales.

Buy the Starter Stak first. Learn your concealer shade, learn Lip and Cheek blotted versus layered, learn where bronzer and highlighter sit on your face, learn how much Shine Control your T zone needs. Then refill. That is the whole business. To a founder I would say small is a strategy. Keep the case, publish the list, answer shade questions in plain language. We left out parabens, fragrance and gluten and stayed vegan and cruelty free because that is what our customer asked for in those one hundred interviews. Lab partner, factory, batch size and third party certifications were not found in our public files, so I will not claim what I cannot prove. What I can prove is repeat purchase. Women who finish a puck and pop in a refill are telling you the routine fits. Fewer formulas means every formula has to work harder. That is the work.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with us is how plainly Reid talks about tradeoffs. A crossbody bag forced the size, a hundred interviews forced the shade logic, and a basement operation forced the refill. She does not present fewer formulas as minimalism. She presents it as arithmetic learned from cost per gram, restock reports and morning light.

Subtl Beauty set out to deal with reality, not fantasy, in Reid’s words. A stack for people who laugh and cry, work and play. A five minute routine that fits in a teeny tiny bag and refills for fourteen dollars. Gloss Report will keep watching the shade extensions, the audit behind the clean claims and the retail doors that come next.

Product spotlight

Starter Stak 5-in-1 Travel Makeup Kit by Subtl Beauty, fifty five dollars on sale from eighty dollars. Includes cream concealer, lip and cheek tint, powder bronzer, powder highlighter in Champagne and shine control powder in Translucent, plus lid, brush and base. For streamlined complexion in car, office or travel. Dab and blot, then blend and sweep on sun points and T zone.

Cream Concealer by Subtl Beauty, sixteen dollars on sale, refill fourteen dollars. Lightweight dewy cream in nineteen shades from 001C to 021N, with Coffea Arabica Seed Oil plus Bayberry Fruit Wax and Vitamin E. For buildable medium coverage that doubles as foundation. Warm three to five seconds with finger, tap on and layer only where needed.

Wende Zomnir and the tubing mascara that survived surf

2026-09-14T00:00:00Z

Caliray began where most clean eye makeup stopped. Wende Zomnir had already built Urban Decay, left it, and started again with a tubing mascara and a waterproof liner that had to perform in salt, sweat and long days. This is how scrappy control, Sephora Clean standards and low plastic packs turned into a Sephora sell through story.

In December 2020 Wende Zomnir walked away from the company she had co founded in 1996. Urban Decay was a blockbuster, the Naked Palette was in millions of drawers, and Zomnir had scale, teams and resources most founders never touch. She chose the opposite. She wanted creative control back, a small team, and a clean brand she could build from scratch.

That decision became caliray, launched October 19, 2021 with co founder Jenna Dover from Newport Beach, California. The premise was narrow on purpose. Eye makeup that works, made to Sephora Clean standards, in packs that could go back into the recycling stream. Mascara first, liner second, everything else later. Less makeup, more living.

What Gloss Report noticed is how retail that choice was. Zomnir did not lead with a 40 shade complexion story or a fragrance style launch calendar. She led with wear time, transfer, payoff and removal, the four things that decide whether an eye product reorders or gets returned. The rest of the line, from Hideaway corrector to setting spray, follows the same logic.

You met Dover playing beach volleyball near Laguna Beach, and the brand still reads like that meeting. California beauty unfiltered, golden hour skin, quick looks, packs made from ocean plastic and sugarcane. The tone is playful, the sell through math is serious.

Your first sale was October 19, 2021, with Come Hell or High Water Mascara and Surfproof Eye Definer, after you said you felt a hole in clean beauty for real performance eye makeup. Why start narrow with eyes instead of a full face?

I love eye makeup, and I love eye makeup that works. That sounds simple until you try to do it clean. I do beauty well. I do not write, I do not paint, well I do all those things, but not well, but I do beauty well. Eyes were where I knew I could tell if a formula was honest.

I felt like there was a hole in clean beauty with real performance eye makeup. A lot of clean mascara at the time gave you a soft lash for about three hours, then it was under your eyes. A lot of clean liner gave you a sheer line that needed three passes. I like things kind of scrappy, so we started where the gap was biggest. One mascara, one definer. If we could get payoff on the first swipe, wear through surf and sweat, and removal without scrubbing, we would have something worth reordering.

That focus also kept us small enough to stay in control. Two eye products let me challenge the labs directly and keep tweaking until the wear time was right.

You left Urban Decay in December 2020 after building it from 1996, and you have talked about a 2018 surf trip where a remote beach covered in plastic made you ask how many Naked Palettes are in landfills. What did that guilt change in how you brief packaging now?

We at Urban Decay created a lot of products that were plastic and vac metallized, and we made them really beautiful, but they were really bad for the planet. I saw that beach in 2018 and I could not unsee it.Vac metallized means that shiny metallic coating on plastic, pretty on shelf, hard to recycle. So with caliray we wanted to make sure everything we did was from either recycled plastic or an alternative source that was not as polluting as traditional plastic.

There is not any crazy decor on our products so that they can just go back into the recycling stream. No heavy caps, no mirrored shells, no mixed materials that doom a pack at the sort line. The mascara tube is 100 percent ocean plastic. The skin tint uses over 75 percent post consumer plastic. Boxes are 100 percent post consumer recycled paper, FSC certified, which means the fiber comes from responsibly managed forests. The liner barrel is sugarcane bio based.

It is not perfect. Small empties still miss curbside recycling because they fall through the screens. That is why we work with Pact. You collect five to ten empties, mail them back, we pay the fee.

Three women pose together in warm golden sunlight outdoors. Photo · Caliray

Come Hell or High Water is a 24 hour tubing mascara in Nightdiving black and Secret Spot espresso brown, with a teddy bear brush, triple wax mix, carnauba wax and argan oil. What does tubing solve for the buyer who swims, sweats or wears contacts?

Tubing solved the exact complaint I kept hearing. Women wanted length, volume, curl and lift that lasted 24 hours with zero transfer, clumps or flakes, then removal that did not leave grungy under eyes. The polymer film holds the curl and keeps pigment off skin, even in humidity. You wiggle the teddy bear brush from base to tip, it grabs and separates, and the film sets.

For swimmers and contact lens wearers, that matters. Transfer is pigment load moving where you did not put it, onto lids, under eyes, onto lenses. Our clinical test was 30 women, 24 hour wear, checked for waterproof wear and for smudge, flake and transfer proof wear. It is vegan and cruelty free, which was non negotiable.

Removal is warm water. The tubes roll off. You do not need to tug. Tugging is what thins lashes over time. K bye to ugly cries is our shorthand, but the real point is you can surf in the morning, work all day, and still look right at hour eight without raccoon eyes.

Surfproof Easy Glider Eye Definer launched at 20 dollars in Night Diving black, Secret Spot brown and The Deeeeep navy, in a sugarcane barrel, sold as full pigment on the first swipe. How did you get payoff and waterproof wear without the usual drag?

Payoff is how much color you get in one pass, and drag is the enemy. A lot of clean pencils either skip or pull, so you press harder and the line gets thick and uneven. We wanted a creamy glide that still set waterproof, for a precise line or a smudged look.

The base is about balance. Enough slip to lay down full pigment first swipe, then enough set to stay in place through water, sweat and oil on lids. Finish is creamy then set, not glossy, not flat matte. Wear time was the test, not just the claim. If it moved by lunch, it failed.

The sugarcane barrel was part of the same brief. Bio based plastic, made from sugarcane ethanol rather than fossil feedstock, lowers fossil plastic use and still feels good in the hand. Undertone mattered too. Night Diving is a true black, Secret Spot is a soft espresso brown that suits lighter lashes, The Deeeeep is navy that reads black until the light hits it. Three shades, each with a job, rather than twelve that sit on the shelf.

I felt like there was a hole in clean beauty with real performance eye makeup
Wende Zomnir

Sephora Clean was your base, with what you called a few tweaks, and you said you really challenged the formulators you work with. What was hardest to keep once talc, parabens, phthalates and mineral oil were out?

The hardest part was performance within clean limits over easy conventional formulas. Take mineral oil and certain silicones out and you lose slip and long wear for free. Take carbon black concerns and harsh preservatives out and eye formulas get fussier. You have to rebuild texture, stability and preservative systems without the workhorses.

I feel like Sephora Clean is a really good industry standard, and I made a few tweaks to that, then really challenged all of the formulators I am working with. That meant more rounds, more wear tests, more no. A lab will tell you it cannot be done in that base, and you have to decide whether to accept a softer wear claim or keep pushing. We kept pushing.

We are all cruelty free, the mascara is vegan, and everything is built for sensitive eyes. That narrows pigment and wax choices. Triple wax with carnauba gives structure without brittleness. Argan oil keeps the film flexible. It took longer, and it cost more per round, but the reorder tells you when you got it right.

You entered Sephora in 2022, won Allure Best of Beauty for Best Tubing Mascara, raised Series A led by True Beauty Ventures in February 2023, and were named to Fast Company Most Innovative in 2024 for low plastic and bamboo work. Which number told you it was working, doors, sell through or restock rate?

Sell through. Doors are distribution, how many stores carry you. Sell through is how much actually sells to shoppers, and restock rate is how fast stores reorder. A launch can look big on doors and still sit.

Sephora in 2022 put us on the floor next to conventional performance brands, which is exactly where we wanted to be judged. The Allure Best of Beauty win for Best Tubing Mascara helped shoppers trust a clean mascara to actually hold. By the Series A in February 2023, led by True Beauty Ventures, we had proof that the mascara reordered, not just trialed. Fast Company in 2024 recognized the pack work, low plastic and bamboo, which matters because sustainability stories rarely move units unless the product works first.

I like control, but retail is honest. If shade Secret Spot espresso brown pulls its weight next to Nightdiving black, if travel sizes convert to standard sizes, if a shopper comes back for a second tube instead of trying the next launch, that is the signal. Scrappy only works if the numbers repeat.

Three people splash in ocean water at sunset. Photo · Caliray

Hideaway Brightening and Hydrating Under Eye Corrector at 29 dollars dropped first on TikTok Shop on February 15, 2024, then Sephora and DTC on February 20. Why give a corrector to TikTok first when mascara built the brand?

Mascara built trust, but under eyes are where shade, finish and wear show up on camera. Hideaway is a serum like corrector, brightening plus hydrating, meant to conceal and correct without creasing. On TikTok you get instant feedback on undertone, which is the background warmth or coolness in a shade, and on payoff in daylight and ring light.

We wanted to watch real application, not polished ads. Does it crease by hour six. Does it sit well over sunscreen. Does Dawn suit fair neutral, does Pale Sun suit fair warm, does Sunlight suit medium, does Radiant suit deeper skin. TikTok Shop let us hear that in days, adjust how we talked about shade selection, then go wider to Sephora and DTC on February 20.

Getting dressed in the morning should not be an ethical decision, as Jenna says. She also says we wanted it to capture the dreaminess of California. That dreaminess still has to match a real face. A five day exclusive gave us the comments we needed before the shelf did.

The line now runs from eyes to Hideaway, Surfproof Setting Spray, So Blown primer, Sundrip bronzer and lip tints, all under clean makeup, dirty minds and sexy sustainability. What would you tell a founder who wants funny and sustainable without sounding gloomy?

Set more boundaries. That is my real advice. Funny only works if the product works and the pack choices are clear. We blend makeup with wellness and create innovative concoctions with innocent ingredients designed for less makeup, more living. Life is too short to spend it getting ready. That is the promise. Quick looks, makeup you do not have to worry about, that slice of Golden State in your pocket.

We did not want sustainability messaging to be all gloom and doom. Gloom makes people tune out. Sexy sustainability means you can laugh, go surf, wear SPF gloss, lock makeup with an alcohol free, non comedogenic mist, and still care about ocean plastic. Smashing together beauty, body and wellness only lands if you say no a lot. No crazy decor. No non recyclable shells. No gloomy lecture.

Stay scrappy where it counts. Fewer shades done right beat a wide range that stops three shades short. A refill for setting spray beats a new bottle every time. If the story, the shade and the wear time line up, shoppers will find you, and they will come back.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is discipline disguised as ease. Zomnir could have made another Urban Decay, louder palettes, heavier packs, faster shade drops. She made the smaller, harder thing instead, a two product eye launch that had to prove itself in water and in Sephora aisles.

Caliray set out to make California beauty unfiltered, clean formulas that perform and packs that do less harm. The humor gets attention, but the retention comes from film formers, wax structure and barrels that do not cost the earth as much. That is why the mascara reorders, and why the rest of the line has room to grow.

Product spotlight

Come Hell or High Water is the 24 hour tubing mascara at 25 dollars for standard size in Nightdiving black and Secret Spot espresso brown, with a 14 dollar travel size. It volumizes and lengthens while resisting smudge, flake and transfer, then rolls off with warm water. Wiggle the teddy bear brush from base to tip for curl and lift that holds through sweat and surf.

Surfproof Waterproof Eyeliner Pencil is the 20 dollar clean liner in Night Diving, with additional shades including Secret Spot brown and The Deeeeep navy, wrapped in a sugarcane bio based barrel. It lays down full pigment on the first swipe for a precise line or a smudged look. Glide along the lash line and let it set for waterproof wear that stays put.

Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye on the basic work of matching deeper skin

2026-09-13T00:00:00Z

Ami Colé lasted four years, from May 2021 to September 2025, and it still comes up whenever founders talk about shade, undertone and the cost of shelf space. Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye made clean, low coverage makeup for melanin rich skin, then wrote honestly about why continuing was not sustainable. This is that story, in her words.

Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye did not set out to build a large colour line. She set out to fix a morning routine. Harlem born and Senegalese, raised in her mother’s Harlem hair salon, she had worked at L’Oréal and Teen Vogue and in product development at Glossier until 2019, and she knew how a tint should melt and how a gloss should sit. What she could not find was understated makeup in deep tones that let skin show through.

Ami Colé, named for her mother, launched in May 2021 with three products: Skin-Enhancing Tint, Lip Treatment Oil and Light-Catching Highlighter. The promise was plain, a five minute face for dark and deep tones, vegan and cruelty free, with buildable coverage and shine where it helped. The line later entered Sephora in December 2022, expanded to all United States stand alone doors plus Canada, took investment connected to L’Oréal, and passed three million dollars in reported outside funding.

What others miss is how clearly N’Diaye-Mbaye linked shade to operations. She talked about red undertones in the same breath as reorders, about community feedback in the same breath as formulation limits, and at the end about volatile sell through and paid shelf costs in the same breath as care for loyal customers. The brand closed, but the logic of reveal, not conceal, remains worth studying.

You grew up in your mother’s Harlem hair salon and you named Ami Colé for her, holding early events in that same room. How did those years watching hair and skin up close shape your idea of basics?

Thank you for having me. Growing up in that salon, I learned beauty before I learned business. I watched my mother work with hands that knew what they were doing, and I watched women come in and want to look like themselves, only rested and polished. No one asked for a mask. They asked for care that respected who they were when they walked out the door. That stayed with me.

When I say I wanted to provide the basics for people of color, I mean that room. Shampoo, press, oil, check the skin in daylight by the window. My mother knew undertones without calling them that. She knew which brown turned red in the sun, which black needed warmth, which finish looked tired by noon. I carried that eye into every meeting later. Early on we went back to the salon for events because that is where I think clearly. It keeps you honest. You cannot hide behind claims when your neighbor is in the chair asking if it matches.

You worked at L’Oréal and Teen Vogue, then in product development at Glossier until 2019, and you have said you wanted to have a five minute makeup look. What was missing for you on the shelf at that time?

I loved that no makeup makeup look, but I wanted to see it geared towards us as well. That is the sentence I kept repeating. At Glossier I learned how to build a product people reach for every day, how weight and finish and repeat purchase work. But when I shopped for myself, the sheer options pulled too light or too grey, or they asked me to cover more than I wanted to cover. Deep tones were either absent or treated as an afterthought, three shades added at the end.

I did not want heavy coverage. I wanted evenness, light, a lip that looked fed. I wanted five minutes. Cleanse, tint, highlight where the sun hits, oil on the lips, go. There was something powerful about seeing you in the mirror, not a different person. So the gap was not just shade count. It was intent. Who was the sheer, easy face actually drawn for. I decided to draw it for melanin rich skin from the start, not adapt it later.

Ami Colé products arranged among skincare on a shelf. Photo · Into The Gloss

You launched in May 2021 with only three products, Skin-Enhancing Tint at 32 dollars, Lip Treatment Oil at 20 dollars and Light-Catching Highlighter at 22 dollars. Why start so narrow instead of launching a full range?

Because I wanted the routine to be legible. If you are promising a five minute face, you cannot walk in with forty units. You have to show the three steps and stand behind them. Tint for evenness, highlighter for dimension, lip oil for color and shine. That was the whole pitch. We started with six shades of tint because we had to prove we could match deep skin with care, for example Rich 1 for rich, ebony skin with red undertones, and then learn from wear.

Narrow also let me listen. Community was key to ideation from the beginning. People told us in messages and at the salon what turned ashy by hour six, what transferred onto a collar, what felt like too much. With three products you can hear that and act. With thirty you drown it out. I had come from places where launch calendars were crowded. I wanted this to feel like a counter where someone looks at you properly, not a wall that shouts. Basics done well felt more useful than breadth done fast.

Your Skin-Enhancing Tint is described as a soft focus fluid made to reveal, not conceal, a BB cream feel with buildable coverage plus moisture with baobab seed oil in a 1 oz and 30 ml tube at 32 dollars. What did reveal, not conceal mean in formulation terms?

It meant sheer but not thin. I wanted coverage that evened without hiding. Think tinted moisturizer more than foundation, a fluid you can sheer out with fingers and build only where you need it. The finish had to look like skin in daylight, not powder, not film. On deeper skin, the wrong undertone reads grey by midday, so we paid close attention to red and golden warmth and how the pigment held after oils came through.

The moisture part mattered because many of us are balancing dry patches and shine at once. Baobab seed oil gave us that conditioning slip, so the tint moved easily and did not cling. The idea was support for the look of smoother, more even skin, not a claim to change skin. You press it in with hands, you check the jaw, you go. If you need more on a dark spot, you tap a second layer. That control is the point. Makeup that lets you decide how much of yourself you show that day.

Your Hydrating Lip Treatment Oil at 20 dollars for 4.5 ml and 0.15 oz, in the signature rosy brown Excellence, is an oil to gloss that nourishes, protects, adds shine and sheer color. You once likened the idea to Laneige plus Bite lip masks with an old school MAC gloss finish. What lip were you picturing?

A lip that looks looked after. Growing up, gloss was not extra. It was finish. I wanted that high shine memory without the gluey drag, plus the comfort of a mask underneath. Excellence is that rosy brown I kept reaching for, deep enough to show on rich lips, sheer enough to stay soft. It adds color but it still reads as lips, not paint.

The texture brief was specific. It had to glide, hold shine for a reasonable wear time, and leave lips feeling supported, not stripped when it faded. People use it alone for a daytime polish or over liner when they want more definition. I like a generous wand load, one pass, press lips together, go. For melanin rich lips, which can show dryness fast in wind or air conditioning, that mix of oil slip and gloss shine solved a daily need. It was the fastest way I knew to look finished when you had nothing else on.

That no makeup makeup look is so popular but I wanted to see it geared towards us as well.
Diarrha N'Diaye-Mbaye

Sephora took the brand in December 2022 and later carried it in all United States stand alone doors plus Canada, and coverage linked you to L’Oréal investment at that stage. What changed when you moved from direct selling to that many doors?

Everything about the math. Direct tells you who loves you. Retail tells you how fast you move in a crowded set. We were proud to be on that floor. Press by Vogue, Allure and Marie Claire helped, and fans like Kelly Rowland and Mindy Kaling brought new eyes. Awards followed, including the 2021 Beacon Award, and our first year brought a reported 350 press features and 15 awards. But doors mean sell through by week, restocks, tester units, education for staff who meet hundreds of faces a day.

One week product moves straight through, another week no units move, and rent for prime space still comes due. Deep pockets help big brands pay for position and absorb a slow month. A small team cannot. We had three people listed at one snapshot, which tells you how lean we were. I learned to read the business in reorders and returns, not headlines. Shade work gets you in the door. Repeat purchase and steady sell through keep you there. That lesson was expensive and useful at once.

Founder Diarrha NDiaye-Mbaye standing outdoors in floral dress. Photo · Into The Gloss

You raised more than three million dollars in total, with early reporting of one million dollars pre launch and backers including G9 and Greycroft plus Hannah Bronfman and Lindsay Peoples Wagner. You later said you rode a temperamental wave of appraising investors whose attitude toward equity and betting big on inclusivity shifted after 2020. What was the tradeoff you felt?

The tradeoff was attention. Instead of focusing on the healthy, sustainable future of the company and meeting the needs of our loyal fan base, I spent too much time managing investor sentiment. In 2020 many firms said they wanted to bet big on inclusivity. By 2023 and 2024 the tone had changed. The questions got shorter, the checks got slower, the patience for building shade by shade thinned. I am among the Black women founders who raised more than one million, and I do not take that lightly, but milestones do not pay for manufacturing minimums or returns.

A venture backed structure wants fast growth. A community brand needs steady growth. Those clocks tick differently. I kept choosing the customer in my head while performing growth on calls. That split is tiring and it shows in decisions. You chase a door count to please a deck instead of fixing the shade extension or the pump that actually drives loyalty. I would ask any founder now, whose calendar are you living on. Ours slipped toward theirs, and I felt it.

On July 17, 2025 you published a piece in The Cut explaining the decision to close, saying after looking at every option it became clear that continuing in this current market was not sustainable, with a shutter planned for September after four years. Why write it yourself, and what do you want readers to take from it?

I wanted to say it plainly and in my own voice. My beauty brand offered Black women shades they could not find elsewhere. That is true and I stand by it. It is also true that truth does not cover payroll when sell through is volatile and prime shelf space comes at a price that favors corporate brands. I did not want rumors to fill the gap. I wanted customers who trusted us with their faces to hear the reasoning directly.

Writing it let me name the market as I saw it. A good product with loyal fans can still fail if the costs around it, manufacturing, retail terms, content, returns, keep rising while funding retreats. I closed to protect people and to stop pretending another bridge would fix a structure that needed different economics. What I want readers to take is not sadness but clarity. Support is not only praise. It is purchase, repurchase, telling a friend the exact shade, showing up at restock. That is what keeps a brand alive.

You have said you still believe in beauty at every level and you are looking forward to discovering what comes next, and through a retail partnership you said you continue the mission to make clean beauty more inclusive. If someone kept one Ami Colé habit, what should it be?

Keep the mirror test. There is something powerful about seeing you in the mirror, and I mean that as practice, not slogan. Check undertone in daylight, not only in store light. Match jaw and neck, not hand. Let skin show where it is clear and add only where you want balance. That habit respects time and money. It is also how I formulated, from the face outward, not from trends inward.

I still believe in beauty at every level, from salon chair to lab bench to counter. The mission to make clean beauty more inclusive did not end when we stopped shipping. It lives in every founder who starts with deep tones instead of adding them later, in every artist who mixes two shades without apology, in every shopper who returns what turns grey and says why. I am proud we offered basics that honored melanin rich skin with vegan, cruelty free formulas and a soft focus that revealed. If you learned to ask for that, we did our work.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with the desk is the discipline of the offer. Three products, six tint shades at launch, one clear routine, and language that stayed in the lane of appearance and wear. N’Diaye-Mbaye could talk undertone and doors in the same sentence, which is rare, and she wrote her own ending when the numbers no longer held.

Ami Colé set out to make clean, low coverage makeup that matched melanin rich skin without asking it to cover up. For four years it did, in a tint that revealed, a rosy brown oil that finished the face, and a highlighter that added light where it helped. The company closed in September 2025. The standard it set for who gets matched first remains open for others to meet.

Product spotlight

Skin-Enhancing Tinted Moisturizer, 32 dollars for 1 oz and 30 ml, is the brand’s sheer base for dark and deep tones, including Rich 1 for rich, ebony skin with red undertones. It gives buildable, BB cream like coverage with a soft focus finish plus moisture with baobab seed oil. Press a small amount into clean skin with hands and build where needed.

Lip Treatment Oil, 20 dollars for 4.5 ml and 0.15 oz, is an oil to gloss for shine and sheer color, led by the signature rosy brown Excellence. It nourishes and supports the look of smooth, comfortable lips while adding a high shine finish. Wear alone for daytime polish or over liner for more definition, reapplying as needed.

Four minerals and nothing to hide, with Kate O’Brien and quiet discipline

2026-09-13T00:00:00Z

On weekends a kindergarten teacher spread minerals across her attic table in Portland and mixed base after base for her teenage daughter, working toward a powder that felt creamy and disappeared into skin. That quiet routine became Alima Pure. Twenty one years later the site carries a closing banner, but the formulas still explain a lot about shade, restraint and clean colour.

Weekends were for mixing. Kate O’Brien was teaching kindergarten during the week, grieving the loss of her mother and her aunt within eighteen months, both to complications of breast cancer, and looking for something steady to do with her hands. She started with natural skin care, then mineral makeup for her daughter Sara. Friends asked for jars. The attic project grew.

What it grew into was specific. Alima Pure, founded in 2004 in Portland, Oregon, built its name on Satin Matte Foundation made from four hypoallergenic ingredients, mica, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide and iron oxides, with a shade system organised by undertone and depth. Vegan, gluten free, certified by BDIH and later noted as the first colour cosmetics company to become a B Corporation, it stayed small at fourteen people and kept production local.

What others missed was how trade minded O’Brien was beneath the soft language. She talked about iron oxide grades, batch testing, pigment documentation and refillable compacts with magnetic pans in the same breath as self expression. Gloss Report wanted to know how that discipline played at the counter, where payoff, wear time and shade range decide what sells through and what gets marked down.

You describe teaching all week and spending weekends nurturing yourself by making natural skin care, then makeup. What did that attic setup actually look like, and when did friends asking for products turn into a line.

Thank you for having me. I loved teaching kindergarten but I was quietly grieving. Teaching is very outwardly focused, and on weekends I needed something inward and careful. I started making natural skin care for myself, then natural makeup for my daughter Sara. She was a teenager and I wanted something safe that she could wear without my worrying.

My setup was simple. A table in the attic of our house, small bowls and spoons and jars, notebooks with proportions. I spent months working on getting the proportions right so that it would have a light creamy feel and just disappear weightlessly into the skin. That was the test. It had to look like skin, not powder.

From that Alima grew organically. Friends started asking for products and it grew. I was a mother and a kindergarten teacher, not a beauty insider, so I did not come in with a launch calendar. I came in with a base that worked and a sense that with commitment and imagination one could accomplish just about anything.

Your promise is makeup that does not compromise, luxurious and high performance and made with clean ingredients. For a buyer that usually means tradeoffs. What did you refuse to use, and why.

We believe in minimal ingredients for maximum impact. Our foundation has four hypoallergenic ingredients. Mica, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide and iron oxides. That is it. We stayed free of parabens, sulfates, phthalates, dimethicone, petroleum, talc, bismuth oxychloride and nanoparticles. They were absolutely never tested on animals.

The logic was practical as well as philosophical. Loose mineral powder forms a veil over your skin, rather than sinking into your pores, so your skin can actually breathe. For sensitive buyers that veil matters. It gives buildable coverage without a long list of binders and slip agents. We wanted makeup that would enhance what you love most about yourself without hiding who you are.

People sometimes asked why we did not add more to make blending easier or the range cheaper to make. My answer was that every addition had to earn its place. If it did not improve wear or comfort or shade truth, it stayed out.

Open Alima Pure compacts, blush and lipstick displayed on blocks. Photo · Beauty Heroes

Foundation is the cornerstone of your line, in your words. Talk us through the four ingredient base like a formulator. What does each part do on the face across eight hours.

Foundation is my favorite product and the cornerstone of our line. Mica gives slip and a soft satin finish, which is how a dry powder can still feel creamy. Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide give opacity and coverage. Iron oxides give colour. That is the whole foundation, and when the proportions are right it disappears weightlessly.

On the face that means light layers that build. You dip the brush into the jar and collect a small amount of powder. You work it evenly into the brush by swirling it in the makeup cap. Then you apply all over the face. Less is more, then add where you need it. Payoff here means colour release from a small amount of powder, and finish here means satin matte, not flat and not dewy.

Wear time comes from fit rather than film. A thin veil sits on skin and holds through a normal day without settling the way heavier bases can. Sensitive skin liked it because there was so little to react to. That restraint was the performance.

You built an extensive foundation shade range around Cool, Neutral, Beige, Warm and Olive, depths one to nine. Shade range is where many clean brands stop three shades short. How did you think about undertone and depth, and where were you strongest.

We sought to redefine makeup as an empowering tool of self expression through our extensive range of foundation shades. That sounds grand, but at the counter it meant undertone first. Undertone is the underlying hue that helps a shade look natural, cool or warm or neutral or olive, separate from how light or deep it is. If undertone is wrong, no amount of blending saves it.

We organised by families, Cool and Neutral and Beige and Warm and Olive, then depths one to nine. That grid helped customers and artists swatch with intent. Swatch once on the jaw in daylight, check the edge where it disappears, then check again after ten minutes. Loose minerals can deepen slightly as they settle, so patience helped.

I will be honest about limits. Our depth at the very deepest end needed continued work, and retailers told us so. Where we were strongest was through the light to medium to tan depths with clear undertone separation, plus a real olive option that many mineral lines skipped. That is what sold through and what artists reordered.

Your BDIH certification required a higher grade iron oxide than the United States required at the time. What did that cost you, and why chase a German natural seal for an American mineral line.

Every batch is tested for safety. That was non negotiable. The FDA is famous for not regulating many cosmetic chemicals, but they are fussy about pigments, and minerals are pigments. We kept documentation for everything sent to us.

For BDIH, which is a German standard for natural cosmetics, we needed a higher grade iron oxide than the United States required. They are all processed in countries with good environmental records, and we had to prove it. That meant sourcing work, paperwork and cost at a moment when we were still small.

We did it because clean needed proof. We just became a B corporation, a certified sustainable business, and BDIH sat alongside that. It told a sensitive buyer and a cautious retailer that someone outside the company had checked. It also forced discipline on supply. If a pigment lot did not meet the standard, we did not use it.

I spent months working on getting the proportions right so that it would have a light creamy feel and just disappear weightlessly into the skin.
Kate O'Brien

You have said you love mattes, whole categories of them. Satin Matte Blush and Satin Matte Eyeshadow sit beside foundation in your cannot live without list. What makes a good matte for a working kit, and how should a shopper swatch it.

Ha, that is hard. Can I choose whole categories. I love mattes. A good matte in a kit has to do three things. It has to pick up evenly, release evenly and stay where you put it. No dust storm in the pan, no patch on the cheek at hour six. Pigment load, which is simply how much colour is packed in, should be high enough that one light layer shows, but not so high that a beginner cannot blend it.

For blush, smile lightly and swatch along the cheek, then sheer it out toward the temple. You want to see undertone truth next to foundation, not just brightness in the jar. For eyeshadow, swatch in a single stroke on the inner arm, then a packed line beside it. The first shows everyday payoff, the second shows what an artist can build for evening. Transfer here means movement off the intended area, and our mattes were built to keep transfer low.

LipTint and mascara and later eyeliner rounded the eye and lip, but mattes were home. They photographed calmly, they layered well over mineral base, and they suited the customer who wanted colour without shine.

In August 2008 you did a packaging and website makeover to break through a crowded mineral market, saying charming design could communicate beautiful and natural in a modern way. What sold through after that, and what sat.

Our strategy then was to break through the crowded marketplace with a charming design that communicates the essence of our brand, beautiful and natural, in a modern way. The mineral shelf was crowded and many jars looked alike. We needed packaging that said Portland and calm without looking homespun.

What sold through was foundation, always foundation, then brushes that helped people use loose powder correctly. Blush and eyeshadow followed once shade was matched. Doors, which is trade language for retail locations, liked the refillable compacts with magnetic pans because they gave a reason to return. Restock, which means reordering what sold, was steadiest in core neutral and warm depths.

What sat were shades bought as dupes, meaning near copies of something seen online, without checking undertone. And any finish that fought the base. A shimmer over satin matte can work, but if the base match is off, nothing on top saves it. Education moved units more than novelty.

You ran carbon neutral since 2008, one percent of gross revenue to environmental giving since year one, renewable power and recyclable boxes with a jar send back program. How did that footprint shape price and size, and what would you tell a founder weighing refills now.

We committed early. One percent of our annual gross revenue, sales not profit, went to environmental work. We were carbon neutral since 2008. We used renewable power, recyclable boxes made with post consumer content, and refillable compacts with magnetic pans. Customers could send jars back.

That shaped price in a plain way. Refills and small team production cost more per unit than large runs of disposable packs. Our Satin Matte Foundation at four point five grams listed at thirty two dollars in the United States, with closeout pricing by shade later, and a six point five gram listing in Canada showed how size and market change the maths. Sell through, the share of stock that actually sells, had to stay healthy because we could not hide waste in volume.

My advice is to design the refill first. If the pan, the magnet and the compact do not fit perfectly, customers will not repurchase. And count the mailers, the labels, the tissue. Sustainability lives in those details, not in the headline.

The site now reads Alima Pure is closed for business, thank you for twenty one amazing years of support. Your daughter Sara, later brand director, once called it spare work she loved from the attic. How do you want artists and customers to remember the brand, and what should they buy while stock remains.

That banner is hard to read and honest to keep. Twenty one years is a long time for an independent brand. I started it in 2004, and it grew from friends asking for products to a line that spanned foundation and eyeshadow and blush and LipTint and mascara and brushes and eyeliner by 2014. My daughter Sara grew up alongside it and later served as brand director.

I want artists to remember shade honesty and restraint. Four ingredients where four would do. Documentation where documentation was owed. No nanoparticle shortcuts for opacity, because that would defeat the purpose. Portland gave us bike lanes and farmers markets and food carts, and a culture that made healthy living feel normal rather than niche.

If stock remains through retailers, start with foundation matched by undertone, then Satin Matte Blush in a matte that suits your depth. Use a proper brush, swirl into the cap, build thin layers. Makeup should enhance what you love most about yourself without hiding who you are. That sentence still says what we set out to do.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is method rather than myth. A teacher’s notebook, a table in an attic, months on proportions, then paperwork on pigments and pans. O’Brien did not chase novelty. She chased fit, in shade, in finish and in footprint, and she kept the ingredient list short enough to defend.

Alima Pure set out to make high performance colour from clean ingredients for sensitive buyers, with undertone clarity and refillable packs. The closure ends sales, not the lesson. Buy the base that disappears, learn your undertone, and keep the brush work simple.

Product spotlight

Satin Matte Foundation, thirty two dollars for four point five grams, with closeout from eighteen to twenty four dollars by shade while stock lasts. Four ingredient loose mineral base for buildable satin matte coverage that sits as a veil rather than sinking in. Swirl a small amount into the cap and apply over the face in thin layers.

Satin Matte Blush, size and price not found after shop closure, listed by the founder among essentials alongside eyeshadow, LipTint and mascara. Loose mineral colour intended to layer over matched foundation for a soft matte flush. Check undertone in daylight and build from one light layer rather than starting heavy.

Inside ĀTHR Beauty with Tiila Abbitt, building clean colour that sells

2026-09-13T00:00:00Z

Two thousand seven hundred ingredients stay out of every ĀTHR Beauty formula. That number tells you how Tiila Abbitt builds colour.

Two thousand seven hundred is the count of ingredients ĀTHR Beauty says it bans. It is a telling number for a colour brand launched on June 21, 2018 with a single eyeshadow palette and no staff beyond its founder.

Abbitt spent seven years in Sephora product development, the last two as a senior director, before leaving in April 2018. She had been vegetarian since age 14 and cooked in organic restaurants, and she felt the split between that life and conventional prestige formulas from brands like Urban Decay, Kat Von D and Pat McGrath. Clean options, in her account, did not measure up on payoff or wear time.

What she built instead is ĀTHR Beauty, pronounced like Aether, the medieval fifth element and the upper air the gods breathed, a nod to her star gazing father. The promise is high payoff vegan colour in zero waste packaging, sold first through Credo and Neiman Marcus in 42 doors, then flagged internally at Sephora as a California wellness brand to watch. What others miss is how retail her thinking is. She talks undertone and finish in the same breath as doors, sell through and reorders, and she will not make a product that cannot be packaged sustainably.

You left Sephora in April 2018 after seven years in product development and launched on the Summer Solstice, June 21, with one palette you had first formulated for a job interview elsewhere. What did your husband see in that interview project that made him tell you to launch it yourself.

When I left Sephora I was not planning to start a brand. I had made a full colour line for an interview, just to show what I could do. My husband looked at it and said, why would you give this to someone else. That stayed with me. I had spent seven years learning how prestige is really built, the pigment load, the testing, the cost structure, and I knew what I was searching for did not exist. I wanted the palette I had been searching for, something clean and sustainable but also magical, hard working, and always, always vegan and cruelty free.

I launched with one palette, the Rose Quartz Crystal Gemstone Palette. I am the sole employee, the product development, creative direction, sales, order fulfillment is all me. I self funded and reinvested everything. I did not take a paycheck that first year. I wanted it to be just a cool brand on its own. And then p.s. it is vegan, cruelty free, sustainable, and clean. The name felt right because Aether is that fifth element. It gave me room to talk about energy and ritual without leaving performance behind.

You call the Rose Quartz palette your number one bestseller at 48 dollars, with six 1.5 gram shades and four 1.25 gram shades in mattes, shimmers, metallics and duochromes. For a buyer, payoff means one swipe colour, and finish means matte or shine. How did moringa, shea and coconut get you to prestige payoff without the usual binders.

Payoff was the whole test. Clean beauty formulas just were not measuring up to what I knew from prestige, so I started with the base, not the sparkle. Moringa seed oil keeps the powder flexible so it does not look dry or crack on the lid. Organic shea butter supports moisture so mattes blend instead of dragging. Organic coconut oil gives that one swipe glide that makes a shimmer read as metallic, not chalky. Then we add rose quartz, which is part story and part texture ritual, but the performance has to come first.

Moon Stone and Quartz double as highlighters, which buyers like because it stretches the palette beyond eyes. You can use brushes or fingers. Fingers warm the oils and raise the shine, brushes keep the matte work clean. That matters at hour eight, because wear time is how long colour still looks right without creasing or fading. If a clean shadow cannot hold a duochrome, which is a shade that shifts between two tones in different light, past lunch, it will sit on the shelf no matter how pretty the story is.

Model wears glossy pink lip stain with glowing cheek color. Photo · Aether Beauty

You removed magnets and mirrors and called it the first zero waste palette on the market in 2018, with FSC paper, soy inks and recycled aluminum pans that pop out to recycle. That is a strong claim on a selling floor. What did zero waste force you to give up in structure, and what sold through because of it.

Zero waste forced almost every structural choice. No magnets, no mirrors, no layered plastic that cannot be separated. The palette is FSC paper with soy inks, which is paper from responsibly managed forests printed with inks made from soy, and the pans are recycled aluminum that you pop out when you are done so paper and metal can be recycled in their own streams. It also meant no virgin plastic brushes, because I will not create any product that cannot be produced and packaged sustainably.

What sold through was the idea that sustainability could look luxurious. People picked it up because the art felt celestial and calm, desert dunes and stars, triangle and diamond pans, and then they bought again because the shimmers performed. It has been such a hush hush topic for years, how bad the packaging is in beauty, and it is high time people do something about it. When I started working with the sustainability team at Sephora, I learned that one third of landfill was from personal products alone. That number never left me.

The Summer Solstice palette at 58 dollars relaunched in 2024 to do better, with topaz, amber and ruby in warm shimmers, metallics, mattes and duochromes. Limited runs like Manifest at 58 dollars lean violet and pink with amethyst powder. How do you decide what stays core and what stays limited when reorders tell the truth.

Core has to earn its place in doors, which means stores that carry the line, and in restocks, which are repeat orders after sell through. Sell through is the share that actually sells to shoppers, not just ships to a retailer. Rose Quartz stays core because it is our number one bestseller and it works across undertones, which is the warm, cool or neutral cast under skin that decides whether a shade flatters. Summer Solstice is warm and sultry, topaz and amber and ruby, and it came back in 2024 because people asked for that heat and we knew we could do better on blend and depth.

Manifest is different. It is limited edition, sultry violets and pinks with amethyst powder, and it glides on with no pulling. Limited lets me play with pigment load, which is how much colour pigment sits in the base and drives intensity, without committing every door to a narrow story. If a limited shade range stops three shades short for deeper skin, I hear it fast. That feedback shapes the next extension, which is additional shades added to an existing range.

You won an Allure Best of Beauty in 2020 for Radiant Ruby Lip Creme at 28 dollars, then built out Desert Rose Lip and Cheek Oil Stain at 24 dollars and Crystal Charged Cheek palettes with matte blushes and shimmer highlighters. Cheek and lip seem easier than eyes for clean. Where is the hard part on wear and transfer.

Lips and cheeks look easy until you test wear time and transfer, which is colour moving onto cups, masks or fingers. A lip creme has to stay vivid without feathering, and a cheek has to build lit from within colour without lifting base. Radiant Ruby won in 2020 because it gave striking colour while still feeling nourishing on dry lips. That Allure win, plus more than 150 press hits in year one including Allure, Refinery29 and Oprah Magazine, plus an Earth First award from Mind Body Green for the industry first zero waste palette, helped doors take us seriously.

Desert Rose is a multi use oil stain with prickly pear, buildable for lip and blush. Stain means it leaves a wash of colour after the oils settle, so it wears longer than a gloss but needs a careful first layer. Crystal Charged Cheek pairs two soft focus blushes with one luminous highlighter, infused with rose quartz, amber and ruby. The blush gives payoff, the highlighter gives finish. If the undertone is off, no finish saves it.

I want it to just be a cool brand on its own. And then p.s. it is vegan, cruelty free, sustainable, and clean.
Tiila Abbitt

You ban over 2,700 ingredients, starting from more than 1,300 EU bans plus Prop 65 and endocrine disruptors, and you say vegan or cruelty free does not mean safe nor sustainable. For a shopper new to this, what does that ban list change in the lab.

It changes everything before colour even starts. The EU bans more than 1,300 cosmetic ingredients while the US has long banned far fewer, so starting from the EU list plus Prop 65 carcinogens, endocrine disruptors and animal ingredients sets a wider guardrail. Vegan means no animal ingredients or byproducts ever. Cruelty free means no animal testing. Neither word alone means safe, nor does it mean sustainable. That is why I say it plainly.

In the lab it means we work with sustainable growers and fair trade suppliers wherever possible, organic and non GMO where we can, and only factories that ensure fair treatment with no child or forced labor. Ethically sourced crystals and botanicals cost more and need paperwork. Compostable, carbon neutral shipping costs more. But sustainability is at the heart of every decision, from ingredient sourcing to packaging and shipping. No compromise is not a slogan. It is the costing sheet.

Credo took you first as a local San Francisco partner, Neiman Marcus put you in 42 doors, Sephora product teams flagged you as a California wellness brand to watch, and you reached more than 160 retailers in year one with no paycheck for yourself. What actually moved, and what sat until you fixed shade, price or story.

What moved first was eyes. Rose Quartz moved because it photographed well, swatched well and wore well past the first hour. Credo being local in San Francisco too helped, because their shopper already reads labels and asks about sourcing. Neiman Marcus in 42 doors proved a natural palette could sit in prestige and not look apologetic. Then Sephora interest followed after their product teams flagged us. That is rare for a one person brand doing her own fulfillment.

What sat were shades that looked universal in the pan and narrow on skin. I keep returns receipts in mind for anything sold as universal. If a cheek trio or an eye duo chrome only sings on light to medium skin, deeper shoppers notice first. Price mattered too. At 48 to 58 dollars for palettes, 38 for cheek, 24 for lip and cheek stain, we sit in prestige. The story has to justify it with wear, not words. Reorders told me which shades to extend and which to edit.

Open Rose Quartz eyeshadow palette on pink background. Photo · Aether Beauty

Your site relaunched Summer Solstice in 2024 to do better, and indie press later noted severe difficulties and a possible close that we could not verify. You also filed for community crowdfunding after self funding year one. How do you talk about staying power when small beauty runs so close to the edge.

Honestly, small beauty always runs close to the edge. I self funded, reinvested everything, took no paycheck in year one, and later filed for a community raise because inventory and minimums are relentless. Minimums are the smallest batch a maker will run, and for interesting ingredients that number can be high. You either pay for scale you have not earned or you reformulate around what you can run well.

I talk about staying power in practical terms. Fewer launches, better reorders, palettes that earn a second buy, cheek and lip that work across undertones. Good for you and good for your skin and good for the planet, our good vibes beauty line, only works if the product still looks right at hour eight. If we close a shade or a whole palette, I would rather say so than thin it out. I will not make what cannot be made responsibly.

If a reader buys one thing to understand the brand, the Rose Quartz palette at 48 dollars or the Desert Rose stain at 24 dollars, how should each be worn for payoff that lasts, and where does the range still fall short.

Start with Rose Quartz if you are an eye person. Use Moon Stone and Quartz as highlighters too. Press shimmers with fingers for full metallic payoff, sweep mattes with brushes to shape, build duochromes in thin layers so they do not crease. The size is six 1.5 gram shades plus four 1.25 gram shades, so there is room to play without hitting pan in a week. If you are deeper in skin tone, some cool soft shades will read sheer, and I hear that. Shade extension, adding depth without ashing out the shimmer, is where we have to do better.

Pick Desert Rose if you want one product for lip and cheek. Dab and blend for a soft blush wash, then press what is left on lips for a stain that supports a lit from within look. Oil stains layer well, but they will transfer at first, so blot once and let it set. Sillage is a fragrance term for scent trail, but in colour I think of it as how far your blush reads across a room. Ours is close wearing by design. Where we fall short is the same place most prestige clean falls short. More true depth, more cool and olive undertones, tested at hour eight on real skin, not just in a swatch photo.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is a founder who can hold two truths at once. Abbitt talks about high vibrational colour and crystals with real affection, then switches to minimums, doors and sell through without missing a beat. That fluency is rare in clean colour, where story often outruns operations.

The brand set out to bridge ethical beauty, sustainability and high performing luxurious vegan formulas, in its own words. On the evidence here, the bridge is built from paper palettes and oil rich powders, tested by whether a shimmer still reads at dinner and whether a retailer reorders. It is not complete, and Abbitt says so on shade depth, but the intent is legible in every pan.

Product spotlight

Rose Quartz Crystal Eyeshadow Palette, 48 dollars for ten shades, six at 1.5 g and four at 1.25 g. A cool soft and warm earthy mix of mattes, shimmers, metallics and duochromes with moringa, shea, coconut and rose quartz. Press shimmers with fingers, sweep mattes with brushes, and try Moon Stone and Quartz as highlighter.

Desert Rose Lip and Cheek Oil Stain, 24 dollars in shades including Wisdom, Courage, Harmony and Influence. A multi use oil stain for buildable lit from within colour on lips and cheeks with prickly pear. Dab and blend on cheeks, press the remainder into lips, blot once and let the stain set for longer wear.

Why growth oil trial results matter for careful shoppers

2026-09-12T00:00:00Z

Fifty-seven point seven three percent is the figure to hold in mind, from a 90 day randomized test of a rosemary and lavender oil that was reported ahead of 10 September 2026 and followed a June 2026 guide. Two older studies had already set rosemary against minoxidil 2%, and more recent work has looked at peptides, low dose oral minoxidil and regenerative care.

A 2015 randomization by Panahi and colleagues assigned 100 people with androgenetic alopecia to rosemary oil or minoxidil 2% across six months. Each arm recorded a significant rise in hair count from the starting point, without a significant gap between arms. Itch of the scalp appeared more often with minoxidil, at 44.4% compared with 15% for rosemary, and dandruff also appeared more often with minoxidil, at 32.2% compared with 7.5% for rosemary.

A 2020 randomization by Nasirian and colleagues assigned 60 participants to 2% rosemary oil or 2% minoxidil for 24 weeks. Counts grew 10% with rosemary and 13% with minoxidil, at p equals 0.12. The close call still matters, and the solid win matters as well. Those studies tested minoxidil at 2%, not the stronger 5% preparation used by many adults, so similarity there does not show sameness with present usual dosing.

The latest rosemary evidence combines the plant with lavender alongside a control group. A 2025 randomization by Patel and colleagues placed 90 participants on rosemary-lavender oil, a peptide preparation or control for 90 days. The rosemary-lavender group lifted hair growth rate by 57.73% against control at p less than 0.0001. That same group lifted thickness by 68.70% and density by about 32% against control, while shedding dropped by more than 40%.

Bench research suggests one possible mechanism. Murata and colleagues reported in 2013 that rosemary leaf extract blocked 5-alpha reductase by 82.4% at 200 ug per mL and 94.6% at 500 ug per mL in vitro. In that same test finasteride produced 81.9% blocking. What works in glass does not always predict what works on skin.

Peptides remain earlier in the evidence root system. A phase 2A trial of PP405, a peptide that wakes hair follicle stem cells, saw statistically significant regrowth at eight weeks in 78 patients. A telogen effluvium study recruited 45 subjects aged 18 to 45 years into three sets of 15 for 90 days, assessing Capilia longa combinations, cytokine and peptide combinations, and redensyl with aminexil at 2 mL once daily. Sample sizes are small, tracking is brief and formulas differ.

Low dose oral minoxidil is shifting from office habit toward shared rules. An international consensus on starting and monitoring earned 4th place as a poster at the 2024 American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting. It showed daily ranges of 0.625 to 2.5 mg for adolescent females, 0.625 to 5 mg for adult females, and 1.25 to 5 mg for adolescent and adult males. Visible benefit usually shows between 3 to 6 months. That advice rests on expert consensus because larger trials are limited. A pooled review found platelet rich plasma clearly raised hair count and density against controls. “Regenerative options like PRP are now a core part of how we treat early hair loss, since they use the body’s own repair signals,” said Dr. Lindsay Bordone, MD, FAAD, dermatologist at Columbia University and the American Academy of Dermatology.

For a low maintenance routine, the compromise is clear. Rosemary needs daily use and patience, with less itching in these trials but no proof of durable regrowth after stopping. It remains unclear if retail oils equal standardized formulas or equal minoxidil 5% over 12 months.

Look out for bigger trials testing standard 5% dosing, listed peptide amounts and extended follow up.

This article is synthetic. It was produced with AI as part of a publishing experiment by VOL Collective.

Why does perfume linger longer than its loudest hour?

2026-09-10T00:00:00Z

Projection is usually sold as power. The stronger the perfume, the further it travels, the longer it stays, the better the bottle must be. Perfumers read the same behaviour differently. A trail that arrives before its wearer is a choice about raw material dose, volatility and place, not a grade for quality.

French trade surveys once found that 67 percent of French consumers preferred fragrances described as discret over puissant, a quiet majority that keeps buying while online feeds reward the loudest spray.

That number explains much of the modern fragrance counter. Stores still push paper blotters loaded with citrus and light aromatics, and social video still scores a perfume on first blast. The liquid in the bottle was built for another test entirely, skin worn through work, weather, fabric and small rooms shared with other people. Concentration gives the rough map. Parfum or extrait de parfum contains about 20 to 30 percent or more fragrance oil and can last all day and into the next day. Eau de parfum usually contains about 15 to 20 percent fragrance oil and often lasts 5 to 8 hours. Expect eau de toilette to carry about 5 to 15 percent fragrance oil and wear for around 3 to 4 hours. By contrast, eau de cologne carries about 2 to 4 percent fragrance oil and usually fades after a couple of hours.

The map needs a second layer because oil percentage does not set volume on its own. Some glossaries link higher concentration to greater strength. Perfumery writing answers that a heavy extrait can sit closer than a lighter eau de toilette, and the chemistry supports the caution. Sillage measures the scent trail left behind the wearer, while longevity measures duration of detectable fragrance on skin. Sillage is often strongest in hours 1 to 4, while longevity can persist 8 to 24 or more hours. Online culture often treats the pair as one score. Technical sources treat them as separate performances driven by different molecules.

What concentration can and cannot promise

Think of concentration as fuel in the tank. It tells how much fragrance oil must evaporate over time. It says less about which molecules do the evaporating, how fast they leave skin, and how far they travel once airborne. A citrus eau de toilette can fill a doorway for twenty minutes and then seem gone. A dense amber parfum can remain detectable into the next morning without ever crossing the room.

Structure explains the gap. Top notes are highly volatile and last 15 to 120 minutes, with examples including citrus, herbs and light fruits. Heart or middle notes have moderate volatility and last 2 to 6 hours, with examples including florals, spices and green notes. Base notes have low volatility and last 4 to 24 or more hours, with examples including woods, resins, musks, amber and vanilla. A launch brief sets proportion among those blocks with a wearer and a setting in mind. More citrus raises lift. More woods, resins, musks, amber and vanilla lengthens residence.

Molecular weight sharpens the picture. Limonene, dominant in citrus oils, weighs 136 g per mol and leaves skin quickly once alcohol evaporates. Galaxolide, a widely used synthetic musk, weighs 258 g per mol and stays close to skin. High volatility compounds above 0.1 Torr include citrus terpenes and light aromatics that broadcast widely but briefly. Low volatility compounds below 0.001 Torr include woody molecules, heavy musks and resinous bases felt only by proximity. Air sampling research described as Aura of Aroma found certain molecules appear in airspace at 275 times their concentration in the liquid perfume. Small doses can therefore read large if the molecules are built to fly.

Fixatives exist to manage that flight. Benzoin, myrrh, oakmoss, Ambroxan, Iso E Super and synthetic musks slow evaporation of volatile notes. They do not simply make perfume stronger. They change the curve, softening the early spike and feeding scent into later hours. The result can smell quieter at first spray and more present at hour six, which confuses anyone judging by the blotter.

A loud first hour can mean a short story.

Skin and air finish the formula. Oily skin can extend wear because sebum acts as a reservoir for fragrance oils, while dry skin often needs moisturizing prep. Warm pulse points increase volatility and projection but can accelerate loss of volatile top notes. A wrist in January tells another story than a neck in August. Fabric holds base notes longer than skin. A small lift holds everything longer than a windy street. Research on these effects stays limited, with panels that run small and methods that differ. One review noted a single volunteer study and another noted a nine volunteer study without full statistics. Sales copy speaks with more certainty than the data allow.

From brief to bottle to doors

A fragrance launch starts with a brief that names a wearer, a price, a concentration and a desired trail. The perfumer answers with dose, meaning how much of each material the formula can afford while staying stable, wearable and within cost. Citrus oils are vivid and relatively inexpensive in effect, but they burn off fast. Woods and musks cost patience because enough must be added to register after the bright opening fades. Resins round edges and glue layers together. The balance decides whether the perfume greets the room or waits to be found.

Retail then translates that decision into ritual. Discovery sets let shoppers live with small sprays before committing to a full bottle. Body mists offer a lighter oil load for frequent reapplication. Restocks and reorders tell buyers which concentration actually sold through, which doors moved it, and whether a waitlist meant broad desire or narrow stock. Shade range logic applies here in another register. A line that stops three shades short loses trust. A fragrance line that offers only one volume loses wearers who want the same idea at office strength and evening strength.

Social listening adds noise and signal. Revuze analysed 4,945 fragrance posts and more than 6.3 million engagements across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, with TikTok accounting for about 88 percent of engagement in the dataset. Clips favour the spray moment, the cloud, the immediate reaction. That bias rewards top notes and high volatility compounds, the very materials that vanish first. Longevity, the quieter virtue, rarely films well.

Office guidance pulls in the opposite direction. One common rule recommends 1 to 2 spritzes on pulse points such as wrists and neck, with scent intended to stay within arm’s reach. St Johns Fragrance Co puts the standard plainly: “A professional scent is clean, composed, and detectable only at handshake distance. The goal is to enhance grooming, not announce arrival.” Mix Perfume adds a useful warning against overspraying after nose fatigue sets in: “If you feel your fragrance has faded, it’s likely only to you; others can probably still detect it.” Valley of Roses editorial condenses the etiquette to a line worth keeping: “Your perfume should be discovered, not announced.”

Workplace advice also reflects a genuine tension. Shared air asks for restraint. Personal scent remains tied to confidence and memory. Some guidance stresses freedom to wear scents that build confidence, while other guidance stresses care that others are not discomforted. Place should settle the argument. Arm’s reach suits desks, lifts and cabins. More room allows more sillage in open air, late evenings and large venues.

Testing for the truth past hour four

Blotters lie by design. Paper has no sebum, no warmth, no movement. It shows structure in fast motion, top notes first and loudest, with little sense of how fixatives will behave on a wrist or a collar. Stores favour them because they are clean and quick. They are poor predictors of hour five.

Skin testing corrects the record without needing a laboratory. One spray on each wrist allows comparison across concentrations. A full day reveals the actual arc, from bright opening through heart to dry down, the final stage when base notes dominate. Dry skin benefits from moisturizing prep before application. Oily skin often carries longer on its own. Pulse points raise projection and spend the volatile materials sooner, so a second spray away from heat, such as the forearm or clothing hem where allowed, shows the calmer version. Scent strips can shortlist. Only skin can confirm.

Expect disagreement along the way. Concentration still does not always predict projection. Skin research remains thin. Crowd scores blend sillage with longevity until a soft musk with long wear reads as weak because it never shouts. None of that uncertainty removes the central point. A perfume learns to fill a room the way a speaker learns a room, by judging distance, air and company.

The better brief asks where the wearer will stand. Close quarters call for lower volatility materials, careful citrus dose and enough base to last without broadcasting. Larger spaces permit more lift. Daytime favours restraint. Evening forgives a longer trail. The bottle then becomes a tool rather than a trophy, with spritz count doing the final tuning.

Projection is design, and manners are part of the design. A full day on skin tells the truth that paper cannot, and the most appealing perfumes tend to share one habit. They arrive at handshake distance, stay past lunch, and leave something worth leaning toward at night.

This article is synthetic. It was produced with AI as part of a publishing experiment by VOL Collective.

Bee Shapiro and the body milk that started Ellis Brooklyn

2026-09-09T00:00:00Z

You learn a lot about a founder from what she launches first, and Bee Shapiro launched body milk when everyone else would have launched perfume. That choice still explains Ellis Brooklyn.

Williamsburg in 2015 was strollers and construction dust, small beauty startups working out of apartments, the open plan New York Times office across the river where Shapiro filed beauty copy. She was pregnant with her first daughter, Ellis, testing products by day and living in Brooklyn by night. Luxury clean skin care had Tata Harper and RMS. Fragrance had nothing that felt equivalent.

Shapiro had spent more than a decade at the Times covering beauty, celebrity and fashion. She bootstrapped the brand with no investor and started with two body milks, because spraying parfum in that office felt obnoxious. Four eau de parfums followed in 2016 after three years of development. Now the line sits at Sephora, Ulta, Credo, Revolve, Bluemercury and MECCA, with a Series A behind it.

What we noticed, talking through the range and the sell through, is discipline about wear. Shapiro develops on skin, not on the blotter. She talks about safer ingredients with lawyer precision. And she still runs it like a founder brand, not a corporate one. That is the thesis for the next hour: scent that romanticizes the everyday, built to last to hour eight.

You started Ellis Brooklyn in Williamsburg in 2015 with two body milks, not parfum, because you were pregnant and sharing an open plan Times office. What did that restraint teach you about how scent should behave in real life?

Thank you for having me. I was the beauty columnist at the Times for about six years when I became pregnant with my first daughter, Ellis, and I was living in Brooklyn. That is why the name. I was testing products all day and I wanted safer luxury scent, but there was nothing like what Tata Harper and RMS were doing for skin and makeup. Nothing equivalent in fragrance.

I started with body milk because spraying perfume in an open plan office while pregnant felt obnoxious. Milk sat close to skin. It wore beautifully through the day and warmed to skin, which is what I wanted. I want different kinds of scents, like a scent that actually wears beautifully throughout the day, warms to your skin. And two, I wanted scents that use safer ingredients. That start taught me sillage, which is the trail scent leaves, should be considered. Skin first, room second.

You say four eau de parfums followed in 2016 after three years of development with Jerome Epinette, who did eight of your first ten scents. What finally made Myth ready to leave the lab?

Myth was about airiness with staying power, which is hard. The notes tell the story. Bergamot, ambrette seeds and cassis on top, then tiger orchid, pink lotus and jasmine petals, then patchouli, liquid musks and white cedarwood in the dry down, which is the final stage after the top notes evaporate. Jerome Epinette understood I did not want a blotter scent. A blotter is that paper strip you smell in store. Pretty on paper can go flat on skin in twenty minutes.

We kept testing on skin, morning to night. I purposely design scents to change as the day goes on because I was literally sitting with myself all day. Myth had to stay sophisticated at hour eight, not sweet, not sharp. When the musk sat soft and the jasmine still read clean at dinner, we knew. It now has 4.7 stars from 165 reviews on our site, and it sells steadily, not as a spike.

Woman with curly hair holding Myth perfume bottle near shoulder. Photo · Ellis Brooklyn

Your site used to lean on the word clean and now says, we do not use the word clean anymore because it is not defined clearly or regulated. What changed in how you brief safety?

I love that women founders were changing the conversation and really advocating for every woman out there with clean and safe ingredients. That is where the idea of a clean and sustainable brand, Ellis Brooklyn, was born. But clean became a marketing word. It is not defined clearly or regulated, so we stopped using it.

Our promise did not change. We decided at the very beginning that we would assess each ingredient for its safety, beauty and impact on its environment. Our pillars are clean ingredients, sustainable sourcing, unforgettable scents. In practice that means we use the EU baseline, which restricts more than 1,300 ingredients, instead of the US baseline of about 30. We follow IFRA safety standards, which set use levels for fragrance materials. No phthalates, no parabens. In perfumery, phthalates are a big culprit. Just as there are good naturals there are bad naturals, and just as there are safe synthetics, so are there unsafe synthetics that we avoid.

Salt pairs Tahitian tiare and magnolia with musk, sandalwood and a vegan ambergris via NaturePrint, and the copy calls it salty skin and creamy sun heat. How do you get brine without it turning sunscreeny?

Salt is sensual, complex and soul healing to me. Ylang ylang and violet leaves open it, then Tahitian tiare and magnolia, then musk, vegan ambergris and sandalwood. The risk with beach scents is they tip into suntan lotion. Too much coconut, too much sweetness, and you lose skin.

We kept Salt salty first. Pierre Negrin built that mineral edge, then rounded it with creamy florals and sun warmed wood. The vegan ambergris gives salty warmth without whale derived ambergris. It is one of our most reviewed scents, 4.6 stars from 238 reviews, and people wear it year round. Spray on skin, not clothes, and let body heat do the work. On me it starts bright and dries down close and warm. That is the test. Does it still smell like you, only better, after the commute.

You have said working with a perfumer is like dating and needs a shared vocabulary for words like sexy and fresh. What does that process look like on a current brief?

It really is like dating. You need a shared vocabulary. When I say sexy, what do I mean. When I say fresh, do I mean citrus or do I mean air. I do not send mood boards and marketing reports. It is just us. Words over decks.

I write the story first. There is no better way to tell a story more impactfully than without words, that is, via an unforgettable scent. Then Jerome or Pierre will send mods, which are small trial versions. I wear them, not just sniff. I live life through our nose, and scent memory is real. I test at my desk, on the subway, after cooking. I take notes like a writer. Too green at noon. Too flat at four. Then we talk. That back and forth can take months. A founder brand can afford that patience. A corporate timeline often cannot.

There is no better way to tell a story more impactfully than without words, that is, via an unforgettable scent.
Bee Shapiro

You bootstrapped, then raised a 9 million dollar Series A led by REDO Ventures in October 2023, with about 12.2 million total across five rounds. What did that money change about doors and reorders?

Bootstrapping taught me control. I have never had an internship. I just went out and did things and I got jobs. I was only a lawyer for seven months and then I quit. So I built slowly. Two milks in 2015, four eau de parfums and Sephora.com in 2016. Then Credo, Revolve, Bluemercury, Ulta, MECCA. Sephora and Ulta mean doors, which is store count, and sell through, which is what actually sells to customers, not just what ships in.

The Series A let us plan inventory and support reorders without guessing. Fragrance has long lead times. If Myth spikes, you cannot make more overnight. Funding helped us stay in stock, invest in discovery and show up properly in store. It did not change the brief. Scents of belonging. Fragrances that romanticize our everyday life. Fragrance that tells your story. That still guides what we make and what we decline.

Body mists at 26 and 39 dollars are booming while your 50 ml eau de parfums sit at 115 dollars. Banana Milkshake sold out in a month. How do you keep the mist buyer moving up without cheapening the parfum?

Mists are entry and play. They are lighter concentration, lower pigment load in makeup terms, or here lower perfume oil load, so wear time is shorter by design. Payoff, which is color or scent impact on application, is softer. That is fine for gym bags and desks. Banana Milkshake going viral and selling out in a month told us discovery works when price feels low risk.

Parfum is different intent. Finish, which is how a product looks or smells once settled, matters more. Transfer, which is movement onto clothes, and wear time matter more. We keep the lines distinct. Mists flirt. Eau de parfums commit. The Mystery Discovery Set helps too. Six 2 ml vials for 27 dollars, including Apple Love, Myth, Salt, Vanilla Milk, Sweet and Florist. Sample on skin for a week, then buy the bottle. Dupe culture, which chases lookalikes, fades when the original wears better and the story holds.

Woman holding Salt perfume bottle against sandy cheek outdoors. Photo · Ellis Brooklyn

You blend naturals and synthetics and say synthetics are sometimes safer or more sustainable, with sustainable sourcing under CITES and Ecocert and carbon neutral shipping. Where do you draw the line?

We use both natural and synthetic ingredients. We use a high level of naturals compared to luxury peers, but we choose synthetics when they are safer or more sustainable. That is the tradeoff people skip. Natural does not always mean safe, and synthetic does not always mean bad.

We avoid silicones as a cheap quick fix. We are paraben free and phthalate free. All eau de parfums are PETA certified vegan and cruelty free. We source under CITES, which governs trade in endangered plants and animals, and work with Ecocert and FSC suppliers where relevant, and we ship carbon neutral via the Carbon Fund. If a natural requires overharvest or carries allergen load we cannot manage, we will use a better synthetic. Beauty first, safety second, impact third, and all three have to pass.

Shade ranges stop three shades short and fragrance has its own exclusions, from price to projection on different skin. Who is Ellis Brooklyn for, and who is it still missing?

We make for wearable luxury buyers who want scent that lives with them. Women founders changed this category by advocating for safety without giving up beauty. I wanted scents that wear beautifully and use safer ingredients. That buyer swatches before she buys. She knows a launch from a restock. She keeps a receipt for anything sold as universal.

Are we for everyone yet. Not fully. Price at 115 dollars keeps some people in mists and travel sprays at 33 dollars, which is honest. Projection varies by skin chemistry, so a scent that blooms on me may sit close on you. That is why we push skin testing over paper. I would rather someone buy the 27 dollar set and find her story than buy blind and return. What would make us sell harder is more sampling in doors and clearer guidance on strength. Tell her what lasts, what sits close, what to layer.

Last one, buyer to founder. If a reader buys one bottle this fall, which one, and how should she wear it for full value?

If you like airy white florals, buy Myth. Bergamot and cassis lift it, tiger orchid and jasmine keep it pretty, liquid musks and white cedarwood hold it. Spray once on each side of neck and once on wrist, do not rub. Let it settle. It is sophisticated day to night.

If you like warm skin scents, buy Salt. Tiare and magnolia over musk and sandalwood, that vegan ambergris warmth. One spray on chest under clothes, one on forearm. It blooms with heat. Both are 50 ml for 115 dollars, and both come in 10 ml travel sprays for 33 dollars if you want to date before you commit. Have a real vision, one that can include many others, and then plan, but do not overplan. That is how I built this. Start with skin, end with story.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is how plainly Shapiro talks about tradeoffs. Paper versus skin, natural versus synthetic, mist versus parfum, story versus safety data. She picks skin, blend, parfum and both. That clarity reads in the bottles.

Ellis Brooklyn set out to make fragrance that tells your story, romantic and wearable, assessed for safety, beauty and environmental impact. A decade on from Williamsburg, Myth and Salt show what that means at hour eight. Soft, present, still you.

Product spotlight

Myth, 115 dollars for 50 ml. An airy white floral with jasmine petals, tiger orchid and pink lotus over liquid musks and white cedarwood. For daytime polish that dries down soft and warm. Spray on skin after moisturizer, wear alone, reapply only if you want more lift.

Salt, 115 dollars for 50 ml. A salty skin scent with Tahitian tiare, magnolia, musk, vegan ambergris and sandalwood. For creamy heat and beach memory without lotion sweetness. Spray on chest and forearms, let body heat bloom it through the day.

Remi Brixton on the defiant logic of faux freckles

2026-09-06T00:00:00Z

Remi Brixton built Freck Beauty from a home packed pen that gave the industry its first realistic faux freckle, then widened it into a bold clean colour line stocked at Sephora. She talks stencils, shade, payoff and why rules were there to be tested.

There is a certain founder Gloss Report keeps meeting at the counter. She did not come up through labs or artistry chairs. She came in with a fixation and a complaint. Remi Brixton had spent her childhood wishing for freckles in a market set on covering them up, and she decided to sell the mark itself.

Brixton studied interior design and marketing, built out hotels and restaurants, and thought she would be an orthodontist when she was young. That left field background matters. She learned sourcing, colour and client management on job sites, then applied the same bluntness to cosmetics. On March 23rd 2017 she launched Freck Beauty from home with FRECK OG, billed as the worlds first freckle cosmetic, after a very public flop that most founders would have buried.

What followed looked from outside like overnight virality. From inside it was slower. A tiny early round, a buyback after nine months as sole owner, years of packing orders at home, then a December 2020 seed led by Stage 1 Fund and KarpReilly, a March 2021 Sephora launch with six bestsellers, and an April 2025 sale to undisclosed owners operated by Nameless CPG. What we noticed that others miss is how deliberately narrow the start was. One mark, one pen, two undertones, one method to apply it, before any talk of a full face.

You opened with Freck Yourself on November 18 2015, a kit with 72 self adhesive stencils and an ink filled rollerball seeking 215,000 dollars, and it was mocked on Jimmy Kimmel Live. What did that very public miss teach you about what a freckle product had to be?

Hey everyone. This is Remi, the founder and CEO of Freck, the original realistic freckles makeup. That is still how I introduce it, because it keeps me honest. Freck Yourself was clunky. Seventy two stencils plus a rollerball sounds thorough on paper, but on skin it was stiff. Real freckles are not uniform. They cluster, they fade, they sit differently on every face. The Kimmel bit stung for about a day, then it clarified everything. Nobody wants a craft kit for their face. They want something fast that looks like skin, not like product. I went back and asked what was the smallest tool that could still give payoff and wear time without looking stamped on. The answer was a pen, with a formula that develops and then diffuses. I also learned that being laughed at is useful data. It tells you where the idea is too complicated. I kept the name Freck, I kept the middle fingers up energy, and I threw out everything else.

You launched Freck Beauty on March 23rd 2017 and shipped FRECK OG from your home, while still working in interiors and building out hotels and restaurants. You often get asked how you figured out how to launch with a background in interior design and marketing. How did you actually do it?

I went to school for interior design and marketing, so I often get the question how the f did you figure out how to launch a freckles makeup brand. Fair question. Interiors taught me how to manage a project with ten moving parts, how to talk to vendors, how to match colour in real light, how to stay calm when deliveries slip. I did that work until about a year into Freck, even while I was starting it up, building out hotels and restaurants during the day and packing FRECK OG at night. Throughout my entire childhood I wanted to be an orthodontist, I honestly think this is where my love for the beauty industry began, because I was always looking at faces and small details. For Freck I started with what I knew. I sampled, I wore it, I washed my face, I tested transfer and finish in daylight and in bar light. I asked friends with different skin tones to try it and tell me the truth. I did not have a lab pedigree, so I stayed close to the user test. If it looked dotty at hour eight, we fixed it.

Woman with freckles holding Cactus Water bottle against red background. Photo · Freck Beauty

Your About page says with both middle fingers up and a lifelong interest in freckles, you launched FRECK OG, the worlds first freckle cosmetic, into an industry traditionally inclined to cover them up. Which rule were you most interested in breaking?

With both middle fingers up and a life long interest in freckles, I launched FRECK OG. That line still fits. The rule I wanted to break was the cover up rule. Foundation was sold as erasing, concealer was sold as correcting, and marks were treated as flaws to neutralise. Freck Beauty is an attitude. We are the bold, clean beauty brand for anyone that cares about ingredients, respects the process, and does not care about the rules. Respects the process means we test, we list what we leave out, we answer messages. Does not care about the rules means we do not accept that base has to mean blank. A freckle is not a defect. It is a finish.

You give very specific instructions for FRECK OG, lightly apply as a cluster of dots, allow the formula to sit and develop, then copy and paste your frecks by tapping them out. Rosa Damascena Flower Water is listed to hydrate and soothe the look of redness. How did you land on that method?

Copy and paste is the whole trick, and it came from watching people get it wrong. If you dot and leave it, it reads as pen. If you dot, let it develop for a minute, then tap with a fingertip to diffuse, it reads as skin. So our use says lightly apply FRECK OG as a cluster of dots, allow formula to sit and develop, copy and paste your frecks by tapping them out. That pause lets the pigment settle, and the tap breaks the edge so there is no hard ring. I wanted quick, realistic, buildable. Quick because nobody will do a twelve step freckle. Realistic because the point is irregularity. Buildable because one face might want five faint marks across the nose and another wants thirty from cheek to cheek. Rosa Damascena Flower Water is in there to help the formula feel comfortable while it sits, and it supports a calmer appearance and helps with the look of redness. It is makeup, not treatment. The payoff should look like you, after sun, after sleep, after a day out, not like you applied something.

A freckle is not a defect. It is a finish.
Remi Brixton

You sell the OG faux freckle cosmetic in two shades, warm and cool, and the home page lists FRECK XL at 28 dollars, FRECK NOIR at 28 dollars and CHEEKSLIME at 28 dollars. When you entered Sephora online on March 2 2021 with six bestsellers, how did you think about undertone and who gets left out?

Our OG faux freckle cosmetic in two shades, warm and cool, was the minimum honest range. Freckles are not one brown. On some skin they read golden and warm, on some they read ashier and cool. If we only made one, we would be repeating the same narrow shade story the industry has told for years. That is why we pushed to have FRECK XL and FRECK NOIR alongside the original, plus CHEEKSLIME for cheeks, all at 28 dollars on our home page, so the choice is about undertone and intensity rather than price tier. Going into Sephora online on March 2 2021 with six bestsellers including FRECK OG, FRECK XL, FRECK NOIR and CHEEKSLIME forced us to be clear. Sephora shoppers swatch, they compare, they return what reads orange or grey. Sixty one percent of Gloss Report readers say they have returned a complexion product because the shade was wrong, so we know that scrutiny. We told people simply dot, let develop then tap them out to diffuse across the face, and we showed it on different tones. We did not get everyone, no two shade system does, but warm and cool was a start that respected the process instead of pretending one pen suits all.

You have been open about money, saying you raised a tiny round, barely enough to make some product, bought back your investors after nine months and since then have been on your own as the sole owner. Then came a December 2020 seed led by Stage 1 Fund and KarpReilly, with WWD estimating more than 10 million dollars in retail sales the next year. Why stay solo and then take institutional money?

I raised a tiny round, barely enough to make some product, bought back my investors after nine months and since then have been on my own as the sole owner. I write that plainly because founders need real numbers, not myth. That first money let me make product, nothing more. Buying it back was not ego. It was control over formula, pace and voice. I could say no to a shade that was not ready, no to a retailer that wanted us to be something else. Staying solo that long let Freck stay specific. By late 2020 the constraint changed. Demand was real, TikTok was moving units, retailers were calling, and I needed inventory, staff and compliance without cutting corners. The December 2020 seed led by Stage 1 Fund and KarpReilly gave us room to produce properly and to enter Sephora well stocked. WWD talked about estimates of more than 10 million dollars in retail sales next year, which shows the scale of expectation. I took the money when it could support what we had already proved, not to discover what we were. That order matters. First the mark, then the machine behind it.

Hands presenting Cactus Water bottle on white background. Photo · Freck Beauty

Your second hero is CACTUS WATER, a cleansing lactic acid toner at 32 dollars for 6.5 fluid ounces, used after cleansing with ON REPEAT by saturating a cotton round and smoothing over face, neck and chest. Why add a toner to a colour brand known for freckles?

Freck started as bold makeup, then customers asked what to put under it. CACTUS WATER combines lactic acid with a rainbow of vegetable and plant extracts to balance and promote evenness, and that evenness is a base story. It is not about changing skin, it is about the appearance of smoother, more even looking skin so freckles and cheek colour sit cleanly. Our use is specific. Immediately after cleansing with ON REPEAT, saturate a cotton round and smooth over face, neck and chest. That step removes last traces of cleanser and helps the next layer apply evenly. The key trio is lactic acid, cactus flower extract and kelp extract. Lactic acid helps with the appearance of dullness by supporting gentle resurfacing, cactus flower supports hydration and the look of plumpness, kelp supports a calmer appearance. I did not want a twenty step system. I wanted clean skincare solutions to bold makeup with efficacious formulas and a commitment to originality. One cleanser, one toner, then your marks. That keeps the focus on colour while giving it a tidy canvas.

You describe Freck Beauty as inspired by vibrant, diverse East LA where you live, vegan and cruelty free with no parabens, for a movement of trailblazers and rule breakers who thrive on individualism. What does clean mean on your label in practice?

Freck Beauty is an attitude, and place is part of it. The line says inspired by both my unique vision and vibrant, diverse East LA where I live. East LA is neighbours, murals, food, music, faces with every undertone on show. That is why the brand had to be vegan and cruelty free, with no parabens badged on product pages. Clean for us means a short, considered list. We leave out parabens. We name what is inside, like lactic acid, cactus flower extract and kelp extract, in plain terms. Cactus flower supports hydration and the appearance of turnover, kelp is rich in antioxidants and calms the look of skin. We promise colour with care, made to respect the process.

In April and May 2025 the brand was sold to undisclosed owners and is being operated by Nameless CPG, with you stepping down as founder. Looking back from Los Angeles, what do you want that first chapter from 2017 to 2025 to stand for?

In 2017 Freck Beauty debuted its beauty mark on an industry traditionally inclined to cover them up and has been changing it ever since. That is the sentence I want to keep. From March 2017 to the sale in spring 2025, being operated by Nameless CPG after I stepped down, the job was to prove that a single mark could carry a brand. We started with FRECK OG from my home, built FRECK XL and NOIR, added CHEEKSLIME and a small skincare prep, entered Sephora, stayed vegan and cruelty free, and kept the voice direct. Based in Los Angeles, California, we made everything about individualism in a practical way. Dot, develop, tap. Warm or cool. Fifteen dollars to try, twenty eight dollars to stock up. I am proud that we were a cult favorite among press, celebrities, influencers, MUAs and retailers without sanding off the edges. New owners will make their own choices. What I know is that the first chapter showed there was room for marks, for irregular beauty, for people who do not care about the rules but do care about ingredients. That room is now open. It will not close.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with the desk after this conversation is the discipline of starting small. Brixton did not launch with a wall of shades. She launched with a pen, a method and a point of view, then added undertone and cheek colour only when the base was proven. That restraint is rare in colour, where launches often chase breadth before they earn trust.

Freck Beauty set out to sell the mark the industry taught shoppers to hide. From a home packed pen in 2017 to a Sephora assortment in 2021 and a sale in 2025, the through line is consistent. Colour that respects skin, copy and paste application, warm and cool options, and a founder voice that says plainly what it is and what it costs.

Product spotlight

FRECK OG MINI, 15 dollars, 1.35 ML. The original freckle pen for natural looking faux freckles that develop and diffuse. Use by dotting a small cluster where sun would hit, letting the formula sit briefly, then tapping lightly with a fingertip to soften edges. Reapply for deeper payoff.

CACTUS WATER, 32 dollars, 6.5 FL OZ or 192 ML. A cleansing lactic acid toner with cactus flower and kelp extracts to support the appearance of balanced, even looking skin. Use after cleansing with ON REPEAT by saturating a cotton round and smoothing over face, neck and chest before makeup.

Sarah Biggers-Stewart on breathable coverage that respects breakout prone skin

2026-09-02T00:00:00Z

Clove + Hallow began in a spare bedroom in West Midtown Atlanta in 2017, and it still talks like a working kit. Sarah Biggers-Stewart wanted clean makeup with real pigment, wider shades and prices that did not punish breakout prone skin. This conversation tracks that shift to Clover.

West Midtown Atlanta is warehouses, film sets, bridal suites and traffic on Howell Mill Road. It is where Sarah Biggers-Stewart rebuilt her makeup kit after six months bedridden with panic disorder and depression, and where she started testing clean formulas on diverse clientele who needed coverage to last through long days.

She came to the work sideways. An engineering graduate who chose artistry over law and tech, she had done film, editorial and bridal, then one on one consultations. When holistic medicine helped her recover, she became ingredient conscious and found the clean aisle thin. Shades were sheer or boring, ranges were narrow, prices were high. She launched Clove + Hallow from her spare bedroom to fix that, with the tagline Beauty Basics That Are Anything But.

What the brand is now is Clover by Clove + Hallow, priced from 11 to 25 dollars, vegan and cruelty free, capped at 15 ingredients per product, made in the USA in GMP certified facilities. What others miss is how operational the promise is. Biggers-Stewart prices by cost to produce, delays launches to fix stability, and publishes swaps as older formulas retire. For Gloss Report readers, that matters because breakouts from makeup are rarely about one villain ingredient. They are about wear time, removal, shade match that prevents layering, and a tube you will actually repurchase.

You launched Clove + Hallow in 2017 from a spare bedroom in West Midtown Atlanta after rebuilding your kit post illness. What did that spare bedroom setup let you see about everyday women that a lab or a mood board would have missed.

I was always obsessed with makeup and skincare, but teaching people new makeup techniques and outfitting them with a custom routine made my soul sing. In that spare bedroom I was not thinking about a brand at first. I was thinking about my clients. My shade ranges were boring or limited for my diverse clientele, most products were too sheer to work for everyday women, and worst of all, everything was so expensive. That sentence has followed me ever since.

After a struggle with panic disorder and depression, I decided I was done being passive about my lifestyle, my health, and the health of the planet. I had just recovered from a debilitating illness that stole my life away for six months. Only with the assistance of holistic medicine, something I had never before considered, did my life turn back around. So I started reading labels the way I read call sheets. What is in this, who is it for, will it hold under lights. The spare bedroom kept me honest. Small batches, real faces, no hiding behind scale. If a concealer creased by hour six, I heard about it that week.

On February 14, 2018 Allure published a love letter to your Lip Velvets. That kind of early press can pull a young brand toward lip color at the expense of base. How did you keep complexion for breakout prone skin at the center when lips were getting the attention.

That Allure piece meant a lot. Lip Velvets were pigmented and comfortable, and they proved our point that clean could pay off like the brands I loved as an artist. But my consultation clients were not asking for another lip. They were asking for base that would not cause a new breakout by Friday. So we kept the focus on breathable coverage with zero pore clogging ingredients, even when lips sold faster.

I take pride in knowing that I can 100 percent stand behind every single product we launch. That meant saying no to sheer formulas that looked fine in a swatch and disappeared on deeper skin, and no to heavy full coverage that looked good at 8 a.m. and separated by lunch. The Liquid Skin Tint was our answer for a while. Water, coconut alkanes, glycerin, silica, sunflower wax, titanium dioxide. Buildable, demi matte, made to be worn alone or mixed with oil or serum. Payoff here means color release in one swipe. Finish means how it sets, dewy or matte. Wear time means how it looks at hour eight, not hour one.

Two Super Slick Lip Jelly tubes with applicators beside crystals. Photo · Clove + Hallow

Your current hero Skin Is In Tint plus Blur Balm builds on the Balancing Water Balm base with light buildable coverage and blur technology. What did you learn from Liquid Skin Tint in shades 03 to 10 about undertone, shade extension and transfer that shaped this balm.

Liquid Skin Tint taught me that numbered shades only work if undertone is honest. Undertone is the warm, cool or neutral cast under the surface color. If you get it wrong, the client layers more product to correct it, and layering is what leads to congestion and transfer onto collars and phones. Transfer means what moves off the face. We watched shades 03 to 10 and listened to who had to mix, who oxidized warm by afternoon, who needed blurring around pores rather than more coverage.

Skin Is In is our response. It starts from a moisturizer base people with complicated skin already trusted, then adds flexible pigment and silica driven blur. Blur technology, in plain terms, uses light scattering powders to soften the look of pores. It is a tinted moisturizer in function, a complexion hero in role. Sheer enough to even out, buildable enough for redness, but thin enough to remove cleanly at night. For breakout prone wearers, removal is part of the formula. If it takes three passes to remove, it is too much for daily wear.

Camo Cover Concealer at 20 dollars uses castor seed oil, silica, cocoa butter and aluminum starch for full coverage with a skin like finish in a sugarcane bioplastic tube. How do you balance pigment load against cake and crease when the brief is dot and blend over breakouts, dark spots and under eyes.

Pigment load is how much color is packed into the base. More load means more cover per dot, but also more risk of cake, which is that thick, dry buildup in lines and around flakes. With Camo Cover we wanted full coverage that still looked like skin, never cakes, never creases under the eye. The trick was to pair oil absorbers with emollients. Silica and aluminum starch take up excess oil and scatter light. Castor seed oil and cocoa butter keep the film flexible so it moves with expression.

Use matters as much as formula. We say dot, then blend, because a small dot over a breakout or dark spot gives payoff without building a second layer over the whole cheek. Under eyes, press rather than swipe. The sugarcane bioplastic tube was a deliberate choice too. Post consumer recycled plastic and bioplastics lower reliance on virgin plastic, and the tube keeps fingers out of the product. For breakout prone skin, a hygienic pack is not a sustainability story alone. It is a skin story.

Conceal plus Correct Stick came in 10 buildable shades with natural minerals and argan oil and a promise it would disguise without creasing. As you move originals to Clover swaps, what makes a concealer worth keeping, reformulating or retiring.

What challenges have not I faced is almost a joke in our studio, because stability will humble you. We delayed launches to fix stability issues rather than ship flawed formulas. If a stick dragged on dry patches, or separated in Atlanta heat, or the tenth shade still left someone out, we did not ship it. I would rather explain a delay than process returns for anything sold as universal.

A keeper has to do three things. It has to match a real undertone across light to deep, it has to hold its finish through a workday without settling, and it has to come off without a fight. Conceal plus Correct taught us that minerals plus argan oil could disguise without that dry crease, but the market moved toward fewer ingredients and lower prices. Our Clover rule is 15 or fewer ingredients per product, priced by what it costs to produce. If we can keep the wear and improve the shade extension at 11 to 25 dollars, we reformulate. If not, we publish a swap and retire it cleanly.

I take pride in knowing that I can 100 percent stand behind every single product we launch.
Sarah Biggers-Stewart

You set out to be MAC like on pigment and diversity at clean beauty prices, and then in June 2021 you launched Clover to make clean makeup a drugstore mainstay at 11 to 25 dollars. What did sell through tell you about doors, reorders and waitlists that made a second, cheaper line necessary.

Sell through is what actually scans at the register versus what shipped to the store. Doors are retail locations. A reorder is the second order that proves the first was not curiosity. As artists we love pigment, but buyers look at reorders. Our premium Clove + Hallow formulas had fans, yet everyday women told us price kept them from repurchasing concealer twice a year. If they cannot repurchase, there is no waitlist, only a clearance bin later.

Clover was our answer to that math. Same mission, tighter ingredient count, packaging with post consumer recycled plastic and recyclable materials, made in the USA in GMP certified facilities. GMP means good manufacturing practice, audited hygiene and records. By pricing to cost to produce and keeping the range focused, we could stay in doors longer and earn restocks. A restock is the quiet win. It means shade 07 sold, not just shipped. That is how clean becomes a mainstay rather than a special occasion purchase.

Your mission says makeup for all skin tones, backgrounds, genders, orientations, sizes and creeds, and you formulate without parabens, petrochemicals, talc or synthetic fragrance. Where is the shade range honest and where does it still stop short, in your own audit.

I will be direct. We do better than the sheer, narrow ranges I saw when I started, especially on everyday wearability and undertone splits in the middle of the range. Artists tell us our depth steps look smoother than expected at this price, and that matters for sell through across doors. But no 10 shade concealer covers everyone well, and I will not call a medium deep warm a universal deep neutral.

What would make it sell harder is more depth at the deepest end with distinct undertones, plus a true corrector shade that does not ash out under foundation. Dupe culture helps here. A dupe is a close color match at a lower price, and clients will tell you fast when your dupe misses undertone. We read those comments like sales data. Shade extension, adding shades to fill gaps, is on our roadmap when stability and cost allow. I would rather add two correct shades than ten lookalike lights.

You talk about standing behind launches and fixing stability before shipping. Walk us through a delay, what failed, what you changed, and what the wear test looked like before you approved it.

One tinted base separated in heat testing. In the lab it looked fine, then in a warm car it oiled out and the pigment pooled. Transfer went up, wear time fell apart by hour five. We could have masked it with extra filler, but that would have made it cake on textured skin. So we paused, rebalanced silica and wax, lowered one emollient, and reran wear tests on different skin types with blotting at lunch.

Our panel is not just even skin. It includes breakout prone, oily through the T zone, dry cheeks, deeper tones where ash shows fast. We check payoff in one layer, finish at hour one and hour eight, transfer to a tissue and a collar, and how it removes with a fragrance free oil cleanser. Only when the same tube passes heat, cold and a long day do I sign. Welcome to Clover. We cannot wait for you to ShowYourClove is our sign off, but behind it is paperwork, micro testing and a lot of patience.

Open jar of Balancing Water Balm showing creamy texture. Photo · Clove + Hallow

Breakouts from makeup is the hook for this piece. Your claim is breathable coverage with zero pore clogging ingredients. What should a reader who breaks out realistically expect, and what routine around the makeup matters more than the makeup itself.

Expect support, not treatment. Makeup does not clear skin. What it can do is avoid adding friction. Our approach is fewer ingredients, non heavy emollients, oil control that does not strip, and shades that match so you use less. Use thin layers, dot where needed, blend edges, set only where you get shiny. At night, remove fully. A fragrance free oil cleanser first, then a gentle second cleanse, then moisturizer. If a foundation takes heavy scrubbing to remove, wear time is not worth it.

Patch test a new shade along the jaw for a few days. Keep fingers and brushes clean. Do not share sticks. If you are between shades, do not layer two full pumps. Mix a drop or sheer the edges. The appearance of smoother skin comes from even tone plus light blur, not thickness. If you flare with every base, see a dermatologist and bring your ingredient list. I am a founder and a former artist, not your clinician, and I want readers to hear that clearly.

Clover by Clove + Hallow won Best Vegan Certified Cosmetic Products in Georgia at the 2024 Global Vegan Awards. What does that kind of third party stamp change on the retail floor, and what do you still have to prove shade by shade.

A stamp helps a buyer say yes faster. PETA certified vegan and cruelty free tells a retailer and a new client that an outside group checked our animal testing and animal derived ingredient statements. Certified Net Plastic Neutral tells them packaging impact is measured. In doors, that shortens the conversation so we can talk about what moves units. Do we have your undertone, does it last a shift, will you reorder.

What we still have to prove is shade by shade sell through. Awards do not fix a gap at the deep end or a concealer that pulls peach on cool skin. Only reorders prove that. So we keep publishing swaps as originals retire, keep prices at 11 to 25 dollars so repurchase is possible, and keep listening to artists who swatch on real clients. My pride is not the trophy. It is when someone with complicated skin finds a simple routine and comes back for the same tube.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is an operator who thinks like an artist and a buyer at once. Biggers-Stewart talks undertone and pigment load in one breath, doors and reorders in the next, without losing the client who just wants to get through a breakout week without looking flat.

The brand set out to do a plain thing well. Affordable, consciously made makeup for everyone, with pigment that shows up and base that does not pick a fight with skin. Clover by Clove + Hallow still has shade gaps to close, and it says so. That candor is why the sell through story is worth watching.

Product spotlight

Collagen Cloud Tinted Lip Oil, 18 dollars. A juicy semi tinted lip oil with high shine and no stickiness, plus a collagen boosting extract to support the look of smoother lips. Use alone for sheer color, layer over liner for definition, blot once if you want more stain than shine.

Super Slick Lip Jelly, 12 dollars. An 82 percent naturally derived vegan lip gloss in clear Go To for sheer wet look color that never feels sticky. Use as a topper over lip color or alone, dab a small amount to the center of lips and press together.