As more and more indie beauty brands come to market every day, it’s hard to be an original. The products and companies featured here have each found a promising niche.
More with less
Indie beauty brands are resourceful. And, many make an effort to be socially and environmentally responsible too. In combination, this means some brands are doing more with less.
The waterless product brand Pinch of Colour, which launched just in time for last week’s expo, is intently focused on building water pipelines for third-world countries and formulating lip color without water. For now the company makes 10 matte shades and will likely expand its product portfolio. The waterless products are made in Korea, since that country simply has “better technology” when it comes to beauty, according to the brand.
Feather & Bone makes Face Gems a cleansing product formualted with only three ingredients: sandalwood, fullers earth, and starch. The ingredients are pressed into a tablet that becomes a single-portion of face wash with just a bit of water.
Consumers respond to the convenience and simplicity of Face Gems, Shubhangini Prakash, the company’s CEO and founder tells Cosmetics Design. She also notes that consumers appreciate how easy the product is to understand.
Other brands doing more with less have built intentionally small product collections and empathize the simplicity of a beauty routine with just a few ingredients or advance the idea of truly universal skin care.
Science sells naturals
Most of the brands exhibiting at IBE last week met clean and/or green beauty standards established by the event organizers. And while those credentials help some consumers trust indie brands implicitly (especially regarding safety and efficacy), another set of consumers is looking for something else.
Dermatologists, aestheticians, and scientists of every manner are founding beauty brands. And, the clinical, in-office experience these experts bring to the product story is helping sell indie more widely.
Fran. E Cook-Bolden is one of the experts behind the anti-aging skin care line TruFora. A dermatologist who works in clinical research and oversees product testing for multinational beauty and pharmaceutical companies, Cook-Bolden partnered with brand founder Sara Sweeney to develop what she calls “botanical equivalents to cosmeceuticals.”
Visha Skincare is just one example an indie brand led by a doctor. Purvisha Patel is a dermatologist who developed a collection of skin care for every woman. She built her own professional experience as well as the lived experience of 4,000 of her patients into the collection.
And MD Solar Sciences has a team of 12 doctors—including a dermatologist, an ophthalmologist, and an allergist—sign off on each formula in the company’s sun care and sun repair product portfolio, according to Kathleen Moor, that company’s social media and marketing manager.
Elevated edibles
Food trends and ingredients that are good enough to eat have long been in demand in the natural indie beauty space. Now, smart brands are refining that trend and setting themselves apart from the crowd.
Each product from the color cosmetics brand Evelyn Iona is formulated with the same ingredients you’d find in your breakfast, Brandi Leifso, CEO tells Cosmetics Design. It's a fun and distinctive way to understand a morning makeup routine.
Other brands like Province Apothecary gather ingredients in a rather old fashioned way, by wildcrafting. It may sound like formulating done out of doors, but, according to the Canadian beauty company founded by aromatherapist Julie Clark, the term actually refers to a sustainable ingredient foraging practice.
And, beauty from within keeps reinventing itself. Brands are selling teas to accompany skin care, supplements for a spectrum of skin and beauty benefits, and collagen powders for the modern age.