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When the skincare brand U Beauty made its debut on Net-a-Porter in 2019 with only a single product to its name, co-founders Katie Borghese and Tina Chen Craig barely considered the event a “brand launch.” “We didn’t even have an LLC,” recalled Chen Craig. It was only when the product, its skin-evening Resurfacing Compound, sold out within a day of its release, Chen Craig said that she and Borghese realized they had a bigger business to navigate than the exclusive, limited-run offering they’d envisioned. Since then, the company has grown to include a suite of skincare products for face and body, with the Resurfacing Compound firmly anchored as its consistent bestseller.
The brand’s latest news, however, isn’t a product release, but instead an announcement that’s poised to set it apart from others on the market.
This month, the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology published a “white paper” (industry-speak for a fact-based document offering new insight) classifying U Beauty’s proprietary SIREN Capsule technology as a result-driven breakthrough in the effective delivery of active ingredients to the skin. What’s more, the paper deems it a “successful strategy” to utilize in the development of future U Beauty cosmetic products.
To explain the “how” of it all, a SIREN capsule’s molecular structure mimics that of a healthy skin molecule, allowing it to be readily absorbed, along with whatever combination of active ingredients it happens to contain. According to one of the scientists behind SIREN’s development, the capsules deliver localized treatment by neutralizing free radicals where they accumulate, which is often where skin is in most need of visible repair. In other words, the capsules were designed to target areas specific to the individual, rather than overload the skin with a high concentration of additives, which could potentially cause imbalances and harsh reactions.
Along with U Beauty’s own clinical testing, the studies for this particular white paper were executed by third-party independent laboratories under the supervision of board-certified medical doctors, which for Chen Craig, validates U Beauty’s very existence on retailers’ shelves. “There is so much BS and noise, and claims that don’t stand up in this industry right now. I think the skincare industry should be held accountable,” she noted.
It’s precisely because of all the smoke and mirrors that Chen Craig never imagined herself starting a skincare brand. As an influencer and public figure with over half a million Instagram followers, she’d fielded offers to partner up for the launches of several new beauty and skincare lines in the past, she noted, but declined because she had yet to come across a formula that met her own exacting standards. “I always say that I was the most unwilling skincare founder,” she laughed.
When Katie Borghese, a friend and entrepreneur approached her with the news that she had been working with a lab on the science that would eventually become U Beauty’s SIREN technology, Chen Craig still had no interest in teaming up. “I said to her, ‘I don’t want anything to do with it, I just want you to make something for my own face,’” Chen Craig continued.
The resulting formula was the Resurfacing Compound, which the pair tested out amongst willing friends and peers who were accustomed to using the best skincare products on the market: high-profilers like Nicky Hilton Rothschild, Oscar de la Renta creative director Laura Kim, Olivia Palermo, and fortuitously enough, Billie Faricy-Hyett, who at the time headed up buying at Net-a-Porter. “Three days later, Billie called from the Net offices, and said they wanted to sell it,” Chen Craig said. “Katie and I didn’t even have a name for it at that point.” The duo worked out an arrangement for a limited-run exclusive under the name U Beauty, and secured their own partnership with a hug and a handshake. And then the Resurfacing Product sold out—several times over. Today, Borghese oversees the brand as U Beauty’s CMO, Chen Craig is its Chief Creative Officer who oversees product development.
U Beauty now has 11 products, including its face lotion (the Super Hydrator), a tinted moisturizer, and a clear lip compound—also available in a growing number of shades. Despite demand and the temptation to rapidly expand across their product line, the co-founders take their time with every new addition. It was a full year, for example, before U Beauty released its second product. “We launch when we’re ready, not because of demand,” Chen Craig explained, which often results in a “Supreme-like” fervor around every new drop. In 2022 revenue grew 50 percent over the year prior, with the same growth expected for 2023.
Adding to this science-driven news, November marks the launch of branded U Beauty treatments in Europe through a partnership with three The Set Collection hotels. Hotel Café Royal in London, Hotel Lutetia in Paris, and Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam, will each offer two signature facials and two body treatments using U Beauty products.
Despite positive accolades from the get-go, the convergence of these two disparate, but substantial announcements heralds a watershed moment for the brand. And for Chen Craig, too, the reluctant founder, wary of being lumped in with the droves of influencer and celebrity-backed products swelling the beauty market. “I wasn t even trying to build a brand, I was doing very well as an ambassador, and working with various brands,” she said.
Indeed, as one of the earliest and longest-lasting figures on the blogger scene, Chen Craig saw her blog ‘BagSnob’ balloon from a one-woman enterprise she could operate from her home in Dallas (while taking care of her young son) to a globally-watched brand. “I’m the number one hustler,” she said. She contributes her drive to being a Taiwan-born immigrant who’s felt like an outlier for much of her life. “I think that’s why I’ve led my career this way. I’ve always had to think differently.” In that sense, her unexpected path from blogger to skincare founder seems less improbable. “It’s her authenticity and insight that gained her such a loyal following,” co-founder Katie Borghese said of Chen Craig’s early success with BagSnob. And while it’s safe to assume that built-in audience likely boosted U Beauty’s initial exposure, now the brand has actual lab result-backed bonafides to carry it forward.