Ben Bennett, founding father of Los Angeles-based model incubator The Heart, has teamed with board-certified medical and beauty dermatologist Samantha Ellis for his newest enterprise: Prequel.
It’s a skincare model launching July 25 with three merchandise, accessible for buy on prequelskin.com. There’s the $18 Gleanser, a cleanser with 50 % glycerin, to take away make-up and extra oil whereas sustaining the pores and skin’s moisture barrier and pH. It’s additionally formulated with inulin, an aquaporin-stimulating energetic arginine, oat extract and aloe. There’s an $18 multi-purpose ointment for dry, cracked and chapped pores and skin. It’s non-greasy and created with 45 % USP-grade petrolatum, bisabolol and a pores and skin barrier advanced. And there’s a $22 Moisturizing Milk for the face and physique, with 10 % pure urea, shea butter, glycerin and niacinamide. All are fragrance-free, hypoallergenic and secure for delicate pores and skin.
The model is estimated to make $10 million in first-year gross sales, in accordance with business sources.
A 12 months within the making, Prequel launches with three merchandise on July 25.
The 2 met by Susan Yara, founding father of Naturium, one of many manufacturers owned by The Heart (which additionally owns Phlur, Saltair and Make Magnificence). Ellis had been advising for Naturium.
“When Susan knew that I used to be occupied with doing one thing with a skincare model and that Ben is likely to be , she put us in contact,” defined Ellis, who has a personal observe within the Bay Space. She graduated from UCLA earlier than incomes her medical doctorate from the College of Michigan, and accomplished her dermatology residency coaching at UC Davis — the place she’s now a medical teacher of dermatology. She’s additionally a content material creator, sharing her each day life and skincare recommendation together with her 100,000 Instagram followers.
“Clearly by our manufacturers, we’ve labored with quite a lot of dermatologists, quite a lot of beauty chemists, and my group at The Heart has all the time been a fan of physician Ellis,” mentioned Bennett. (Based in 2020, The Heart acquired a $15 million minority funding from Prelude Development Companions in 2021, which backs Westman Atelier and DpHue.) “We love personalities within the magnificence house, and we simply felt like — and I inform Sam this on a regular basis — there may be this effortlessness and this ease in the best way that she speaks about pores and skin and skincare.”
Working as a dermatologist, together with her observe in Danville, California, Ellis noticed a niche available in the market for her sufferers: “I see the place the ache factors are for sufferers by way of discovering merchandise that match particular niches, that match what they want and likewise for merchandise that they will incorporate into their skincare routine if they’re additionally caring for a persistent pores and skin illness. So, for instance, if they’ve psoriasis or they’ve eczema, they don’t simply want remedy. Additionally they want skincare that’s going to enrich something that they’re doing. And I simply didn’t really feel like there was a model or product that might take the tried and true fundamentals of issues {that a} affected person of mine may discover within the drugstore however then elevate them to a spot the place they’re extra pleasant to make use of, inspiring to make use of. Plenty of sufferers additionally wrestle with compliance…After which the final tenet of that was if I ever launched a skincare model, I actually wished to make it inexpensive and accessible for as many individuals as attainable.”
“I like her want to have the ability to create formulation that make the most of… these tried and true, data-backed and supported substances, however elevate them to make them extra experiential, extra sensorial, extra elegant, with the intent to persuade her clients to make use of their merchandise every day and get them to a spot of having fun with skincare,” added Bennett. “You speak to any dermatologist, they usually can let you know that 90 % of their sufferers barely use a moisturizer, barely wash their face every day. So, this can be a fully completely different viewers. And it’s actually a broader-reaching viewers that Sam is speaking to..it’s not the skincare fanatic on TikTok or Instagram.”
They intention to succeed in this viewers by training through phrase of mouth, social media and their respective communities in dermatology and the sweetness business globally.
“I’m not a believer in a d-to-c model solely,” Bennett continued. “We’ve all the time believed in brick-and-mortar retail along with having a powerful digital presence,” he mentioned, including they plan on working with or collaborating with a retail accomplice to construct model consciousness.
