Beauty disruptors: Brands making waves in the sea of beauty products
Game changing. Customer-centric. Rooted in innovation.
Those are all words describing disruptive brands — those that deliver a new perspective and or a consumer need solution. For beauty, these are the brands bringing in new customers and building volume. What makes a brand disruptive could be anything from ingredients to a purpose-driven positioning. Many deliver a product that fills a gap in the market.
DSN canvassed retailers, beauty experts and consumers to identify mass-market brands that they feel offer a competitive edge. While there are many other brands changing up the status quo, here are some that received mentions.
UOMA by Sharon C.
Launched and sold: June 18, 2021 at Walmart, and on Walmart.com and UOMABeauty.com
Mission: Setting the bar for true non-performative inclusive beauty.
Competitive edge: Rooted in skin care, self-care, and soul care, the new line of products was created for everyone with naturally derived, vegan, cruelty-free formulas and sustainable, 100% recyclable packaging, as well as affordable price points.
Sharon Chuter, the founder of Uoma, has become one of the most recognizable forces in the beauty industry with her breakthrough brand, but also with efforts such as Pull Up For Change.
The sister brand for UOMA that she created for the masses bowed at Walmart. “Beauty is for every color, every budget, beauty comes in every culture — everybody must be welcome to the table,” she said of why she added a lower-priced collection. The mother brand prices reach up to $44.
Best sellers: Flawless IRL Foundation, Badder Boom Volumizing Mascara, Go Awf! 2-in-1 Water-Activated Cleansing Wipes
What’s next: Primer, brow product, lipstick
Price points: $5.99 to $23.99
Reserveage
Launched and sold: Reserveage was launched just over a decade ago in 2009. The brand has grown into a leader in beauty ingestibles, and now topicals with the launch of a new line of Pro-Collagen skin care.
Its products are sold in major national and regional retailers, including CVS Pharmacy, The Vitamin Shoppe, Hy-Vee, Harris Teeter, King Soopers, Rayley’s, Whole Foods Market and Pharmaca, as well as on major online retailers such as Vitacost, Kroger.com, Lucky Vitamin, Swanson, iherb, Amazon and more.
Mission: Reserveage lives by its mission, applying a science-backed approach and innovating with ingenuity to create supplements and topicals with clinically tested ingredients.
Competitive edge: Reserveage was founded by a woman and is led and run by women with a commitment to providing products that will help them look and feel their best.
Best sellers: Reserveage boasts a collection of best sellers, including Resveratrol 500 mg, Collagen Booster and Keratin Hair Booster.
What’s next: Reserveage will step into the realm of skin care topicals, advancing its product portfolio to become more dynamic in its approach to helping women feel confident in their skin.
Price points: Reserveage is a premium brand with products retail ranging in price from $21.99 to $84.99.
No Fade Fresh
Launched and sold: No Fade Fresh debuted in February 2020, just prior to the coronavirus outbreak. “As salons were forced closed, and anyone that colored their hair was unable to make salon visits, our product became a do-it-yourself option at home,” said CEO Leland Hirsch.
The products are available in more than 8,000 stores, including CVS Pharmacy, Target, ShopRite/Wakefern, Wegman’s, Harris Teeter, Rite Aid and H-E-B, as well as on Walmart.com.
Mission: “We are passionate about delivering ‘clean beauty hair color’ that is free from what we define as ‘dirty dyes.’ We want hair coloring to be easy, fun and healthy. Our product fights the No. 1 problem with hair color — fade,” Hirsch said.
Competitive edge: “We only use FDA- and EU-approved dyes in our products, where many companies will use dyes that are intended for textiles,” Hirsch said. “We have gone to great effort and expense to make sure that our products are 100% gluten free/vegan, are PETA-certified and cruelty free, and are also free from sulfates, PPD, parabens, formaldehyde, phthalates and mineral oil.”
Best sellers: Icy Platinum Silver shade is the best seller because it is a “brass buster” for blonde hair and removes unwanted yellow from color. The next best-selling SKU is normally Light Pink, which is a fun shade for all ages.
What’s next: The company is working on new product offerings and new colors for the existing line.
Price points: The color-depositing shampoos and conditioners have a MSRP of $14.99, and its BondHeal Conditioning mask is $9.99.
Her By Alikay Naturals
Launched and sold: The Her collection was released in October 2020 and is sold in mass market retailers and online.
Mission: The Her Feminine Care Collection is new from Alikay Naturals, a lifestyle brand that provides natural beauty products and education to empower customers, as well as promotes self-love and healthy chemical-free beauty practices. Created by Rochelle Graham-Campbell, who started off as a YouTuber/Influencer. Alikay provides natural products for the entire family: hair, skin, bath and body, and baby. Alikay is family owned with a private manufacturing facility that is certified Made in the USA.
Competitive edge: The ingredient story is an important component of the brand. HER by Alikay Naturals currently includes a feminine foaming wash and a feminine refreshing spray in two different formulas — normal and sensitive. The pH-balanced, paraben-free and cruelty-free products feature such key ingredients as rose water, aloe vera, coconut oil and pineapple extract for a light refreshing scent.
Best sellers: Foaming Feminine Wash Normal Formula and Foaming Feminine Wash Sensitive Formula
What’s next: Line extensions are in the pipeline, according to the company.
Price points: $9.99
Purezero Clean Beauty
Launched and sold: Launched in January 2019 with national distribution in food, drug and mass at Target, Whole Foods Market, Rite Aid, Walgreens and CVS Pharmacy among many others
Mission: Produce salon-quality performance clean beauty products at a value to bring more consumers into the category.
Competitive edge: Purezero has developed a proprietary surfactant blend meant to deliver a lather and performance that outperforms its clean-beauty counterparts. Priced as a mid-tier product, the company said the products are made with premium formulas in an effort to democratize the clean beauty space and make it more accessible.
Purezero has a list of over 120 ingredients (commonly used in personal care products) that the company refuses to use in its brand, including the basic sulfates, parabens, pthalates and phosphates that a consumer would expect, but goes further by eschewing formaldehyde-releasing preservatives and ingredients known to be carcinogens.
Best sellers: Biotin Strengthening Shampoo and Conditioner
What’s next: Purezero is focused on growing its U.S. distribution in food, drug, mass and specialty beauty in its core hair care category while working to bring its brand mission to other beauty and personal care categories.
Price Points: $5.99 to $6.99
Spascriptions
Launched and sold: Based in New York City, Spascriptions joined the umbrella of family-owned Global Beauty Care brands in 2016. Spascriptions has distribution in over 75,000 doors globally in key food, drug, mass, value and specialty retailers.
Mission: The company said its mission is to offer high-quality, luxurious skin care with trending ingredients at an affordable price.
Competitive edge: Spascriptions provides high-performing skin care to Gen Z and millennials that delivers a daily spa indulgence at home for self-care and healthy-looking, feel-good skin. “We are a skin positive brand and strive to keep our products free from parabens, mineral oil, sulfates, silicones, phthalates, dyes, alcohol and fragrances whenever possible — and we never test on animals,” said Laura Bernthol, chief marketing officer at Global Beauty Care.
Best sellers: Clinicals by Spascriptions Facial Serums, Day & Night Cream Sets and Spascriptions Peel-Off Masks
What’s next: New items include its new Clinicals by Spascriptions line with formulas that contain luxurious, concentrated prestige skin care ingredients to reboot skin health and help moisturize, tighten, smooth and recharge skin for a youthful glow.
“We are also launching innovation in the nose treatment and facial mask categories,” Bernthol said. “Our Deep Cleansing Nose Peels with applicator offer individual customizable treatments to help gently remove excess oil and blackheads. Our new Spascriptions facial masks feature high-performing formulas with skin care ingredients.”
Price Points: $1.99 to $9.99
Urban Hydration
Launched and sold: Founded as a small online store in 2010 by Psyche Terry and Vontoba Terry, Urban Hydration was inspired by a need to offer better products for dry skin and hair, without compromising on clean formulations and ingredients. Today, products are sold in more than 10,000 retail stores across the nation, including Ulta Beauty, Target, CVS Pharmacy, Bed Bath & Beyond, H-E-B stores, Family Dollar and more.
Mission: With every purchase of an Urban Hydration product, one gallon of water is donated to a community in need through a keystone partnership with WATERisLIFE.
Competitive edge: Urban Hydration is focused on natural, plant-based ingredients and has always upheld a standard of clean beauty, with all products being paraben-free, silicone-free, sulfate-free and phthalate-free.
Best sellers: The Aloe Vera Leaf collection, while the best-selling SKUs include the line’s spot cream, face wash, face toner and gel moisturizer.
What’s next: Urban Hydration launched on Walgreens.com with an assortment of items from the best-selling Aloe Vera Leaf and Castor & Shea collections. Additionally, in October, the brand has exciting new bath and body products launching at Ulta Beauty stores. Of note, the brand landed at Ulta Beauty in 437 stores in October of last year before rolling out to all of Ulta Beauty’s nearly 1,300 stores in March of this year.
Price points: Individually, Urban Hydration products are priced primarily from $5.99 to $14.99.
Addicted Beauty
Launched and sold: Addicted Beauty launched in 2018 and is sold on several e-commerce platforms and Macys.com.
Mission: Addicted Beauty’s goal is to provide 100% natural products that work. The natural industry is often associated with products that don’t deliver, the company said. Addicted Beauty aims to change the conversation.
Competitive edge: “We at Addicted Beauty did our research and focused on 100% natural ingredients following the Ayurvedic methods (ancient Indian herbal medicine) to curate hair oils that do wonders for the hair and scalp,” founder Rida Khan said. “We blend different herbs and roots that have been used for centuries to cure hair fall and other hair- and scalp-related issues. [They] are considered super fruits and super roots with their levels of vitamins and minerals.”
Best sellers: The top three products are Booster Oil, Nourishing Oil and Indian Gooseberry.
What’s next: Shampoos, conditioners and other products with same ingredients that help tackle all the ailments are in the works.
Price points: From $20 to $25 per bottle
Sky Organics Curl Care
Launched and sold: March 2020, Walmart
Mission: “One of the pillars of Sky Organics is making natural and certified organic products accessible,” said Dean Neiger, chief strategy officer.
Competitive edge: The company offers a line of USDA Certified Biobased hair products. By listing the percentage of biobased content on the label, a USDA Certified Biobased product takes the guesswork out of how natural a product is and gives the consumer a direct understanding of how much of the product content comes from renewable biological sources. Biobased products replace the need for many petroleum-based products, thereby reducing dependence on fossil fuels. The environmental impact of this reduction is that it minimizes the amount of new carbon that is released into the atmosphere and thereby helps reduce climate change.
Best sellers: Wash Day Shampoo, Bouncy Curl Cream
What’s next: Sky Organics recently launched a Youth Boost formulated with bakuchiol, a plant-derived retinol alternative.
Price points: $9.98