Plant-based skin care brand Bioclarity is getting bigger and staying small

By Deanna Utroske

- Last updated on GMT

image courtesy of the brand
image courtesy of the brand
Well, not small exactly but niche. The current proliferation of beauty startups means that every brand has to work harder to be distinctive and win consumers over. Cosmetics Design checked in with Melissa Reinking, general manager at Bioclarity, to find out how this emerging brand is approaching product development, navigating consumer trends, and staying true to its founding vision.

Bioclarity launched its first skin care products, expressly for acne-prone skin, nearly two years ago.

“Since launch in 2016, we’ve added an Essentials Routine, a skincare routine for normal and dry skin, a Hydrate Skin Smoothie moisturizer, and now two new face masques – one to hydrate and one to clarify.   And yes, we plan to continue to extend our product lines where we feel we can create healthier products that excite customers in new ways in 2018 and 2019,” ​says the brand’s general manager Melissa Reinking, who also leads product development and marketing at Bioclarity.

Read more about the brand’s beginnings in this Indie Beauty Profile, featuring founder Rick Sliter​.

First steps

While certainly some prosperous beauty startups have launched with a sizeable portfolio of products, conventional wisdom in the indie community is that it’s best to start with just a few SKUs.

“When we initially launched in late 2016, we launched with a laser focus and a single product set to help with what we saw as clear unmet consumer needs for a solution built on natural ingredients to help with acne prone skin,” ​Reinking tells Cosmetics Design.

That product set comprises three items: one to cleanse, one to treat, and one to restore. Restore is formulated with the brand’s proprietary Floralux ingredient. “Our hero ingredient, Floralux, a deeply nourishing form of chlorophyll, has clinically proven properties as an ingredient alone to help reduce the appearance of redness, pore size, breakouts, erythema, and blotchiness,” ​explains Reinking, adding, in terms of that go-to-market strategy, “It made sense for us to start there.”

Moving forward

There is, however, a larger brand mission beyond acne care. “Our overall vision is to make healthy beauty more accessible and to be an integral part of our consumers’ well care,” ​Reinking tells Cosmetics Design.

Explaining how the two newest Bioclarity products came about, she says, “our product development philosophy is to design great products that will engage our customers visually and experientially that are chock full of plant-based power.”

“The Pore Purifier, Clarifying Masque is a clay wash off masque that contains…Floralux and natural antimicrobial silver ingredients,” ​as Reinking describes it. The chlorophyll-based Floralux ingredient gives the brand and this mask its “signature green” ​color.  Outlining the formulation further she notes that “other active ingredients in the product include Niacinamide (antioxidant/anti-inflammatory properties), Silver (anti-microbial), Kaolin (exfoliates and refines pores), Witch Hazel (skin conditioner), Licorice Root (skin brightener), Aloe (humectant/emollient), Tea Tree (antioxidant/antimicrobial), [and] Oat Kernel (skin conditioner).

The brand’s newly launched peel-off hydrating mask is decidedly blue. (Read more about that on-trend color on Cosmetics Design in What’s happening with blue skin care?​)   “Glow Getter’s blue color is from a combination of three natural ingredients, titanium dioxide, mica, and indigofera tinctoria extract,” ​says Reinking.

As for the rest of the formulation: “Active moisturizers include Coconut water, Glycerin, Aloe, Sodium hyaluronate, Ceramide, Soybean seed extract to name a few.  Other active ingredients include, Kaolin and Bentonite clays which help exfoliate and refine pores, Apple fruit extract (antioxidant), and lentil seed extract (refine pores),” ​as she tells Cosmetics Design.

“Our skincare products are certainly Insta-worthy,” ​admits Reinking.  ​But she emphasizes that “the color of our products are natural colors, not from artificial dyes.  On social, our customers and influencers love to share our products both applied on their skin as well as [featuring] the product [as] a part of their healthier lifestyle.” 

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DeannaUtroskeEditor

Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.

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