“Made for TikTok dreams”: behind new Gen Z beauty-from-within brand Glowery
New beauty-from-within brand Glowery appears to know its target market, Gen Z, better than they know themselves.
The ‘made-in France’ brand has blended topical skin care with wellness-boosting supplements and then lovingly packaged the range in fun-filled rainbow-bright bottles that are just made for TikTok and Instagram posts.
It could be said that the brand is following in the footsteps of other colourful skin care startups like Byoma, yet it also adds a fresh new twist to the concept: a focus on beauty-from-within as well as on topical skin care.
“We really focus on Gen Z skin care. So mainly those aged between 15 to 25,” explained founder Alexandra Kolasinski.
“We aimed to have as few ingredients possible in the formulations, with a focus on improving and protecting the skin barrier,” she continued.
“Everything is fragrance free and everything blends into your skin nicely with no stickiness.”
Taking an inside-out approach
Glowery takes an almost prescriptive approach to meet the needs of young beauty and wellness consumers who are pretty well-versed on the relationship between the state of their skin and what’s happening inside their body when it comes to gut health or potential nutrient deficiencies.
Its combination-use range of topical skin care products and supplements puts an overall focus on collagen.
For the topicals, this means “harnessing the power of pro-collagen ingredients” with a focus on skin elasticity and hydration.
It also has a range of mixed-formulation nutra products and pure collagen powders.
This combination skin care offering seems to have turned up just at the right moment, as more beauty R&D departments turn towards ‘inside-out’ solutions and start to create holistic regimes like this.
A "total reliance on clinical studies"
Despite Glowery’s light-hearted packaging, Kolasinski is very clear that the brand has a focus on science, high-quality and efficacious ingredients, and subsequently, a "total reliance on clinical studies."
The topical product line up consists of a three-step daytime regime and a three-step night-time regime, which is based around the circadian rhythms.
The morning-use range includes Before Noon: a “Pro Collagen Glazing Milk” that was formulated with ceramides, kalpariance derived from algae to protect against oxidative stress, botanical extract ‘taladvance’, which it claims soothes and protects from environmental aggressors, and antioxidant vitamin E.
The cleanser needs to be followed by Daily Dew Tiger Grass Serum: a serum made with Centella asiatica (AKA ‘cica’), glycerin and niacinamide to strengthen skin barrier, reduce redness and enhance collagen production.
The third step, Butter Balm, is a protective shield with hyaluronic acid, vitamin E, Illumiscin: a brightening, anti-ageing ingredient that reduces hyperpigmentation and promotes an even skin tone by inhibiting melanin production and protecting against UV damage; as well as a bioactive complex that “supports skin microbiome balance” ‘Holobioys Bio’.
For the evening, there is a double cleanser Honey Glow, which has a “honey-to-oil" texture according to Kolasinski, and includes vitamin E, apricot oil and almond oil.
There’s also an exfoliator that’s gentle enough for daily use Pillow Prep, which features a “ACB fruit mix”, niacinamide, vitamin C and more of the Illumiscin.
Kolasinski explained that it has minimum percentages of the named ingredients to make sure it can safely be used on a daily basis on young skin.
The third step is a reparative night-time moisturiser Midnight Glow, which includes ceramides, vitamin e, jojoba oil and phytosqualan (from planet sources).
Nutra blends for a 'beauty-from-within' approach
To take an inside-out approach, there are three supplement blends to target common beauty issues. All feature tripeptides of marine collagen, with additional ingredients to target the specific issue.
Whopping Hair features biotin and is said to aid hair growth and glossiness; anti-bloating blend Belly Pop fuses fennel and ginger root with the tripeptides of marine collagen; and BB Skin, which is aimed at those with acne, blends it with vitamin C and zinc for “clear and balanced skin.”
With these mixed products, Kolasinski explained that these are aimed at young people whose collagen production is still strong. For these, the brand has deliberately combined the lowest molecular weight of collagen with other useful nutrients to target specific beauty ‘issues’.
"We considered how collagen could help for other areas and not just anti-ageing,” she explained.
Meanwhile, the straightforward collagen powders are aimed at consumers over the age of 25. These, known as Glow at Home and Glow to Go (AKA the travel-sized version), are both based on marine collagen type 1 and type 3 with “a molecular weight of 2000 daltons.”
Kolasinski said they are made in France, clinically proven, and aimed at the over-25 market.
“We realised that a lot of people taking the collagen were under 25 and we said: ‘you don’t need it; your collagen production is at full power right now’,” she explained. Hence why the brand has created the combined supplements.
Refillable & biodegradable packaging
Being aimed at Gen Z, Glowery has also considered sustainability in its NPD. The rainbow-coloured packaging is made with PET and stone powder and is 100% biodegradable.
It’s also all refillable, plus it has a story behind it.
“The designs were drawn by my five-year-old daughter,” said Kolasinski.
“She doodles all the time. One day she started doodling something that looked like this and then I asked her to make the doodles using plasticine and she sparked the idea for the packaging.”
Kolasinski, who previously worked in luxury marketing for the LVMH group also shared that getting this brand off the ground wasn’t an overnight job.
“It has taken a long time to develop,” she explained. “Everything is made in France where there are a lot of restrictions on formulas.”
“We have clinical studies for absolutely everything and we work with experts to create the products, for example we work with a board of dermatologists as I want the products to be as safe as possible,” she continued.
The brand will be sold via its D2C website as well as in high-end retailers such as Galeries Lafayette, although it’s aiming to go mass market in the long term.
Products are priced between 19 – 39 euros. “We want to be accessible to young people but not too cheap either as our research and ingredients are high quality,” said Kolasinski
She noted that the brand “was made for TikTok dreams” although for her there is a bigger agenda. She is keen to ensure young beauty consumers take good care of their skin by using ingredients that are best suited for their age and not too potent that they are potentially damaging their skin barrier.
On the topic of the ‘Sephora Kids’: teenagers and even pre-teens using retinol-based products and other ingredients that were designed to work on ageing skin, Kolasinski’s advice is “Don't do it. You’ll be at the dermatologist in five years’ time.”
“I really would say to younger consumers take it easy,” she concluded. “I hope these products are affordable enough and fun enough that they will want to use them to take the best care of their skin.”
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