Across every category—from prestige skin care and mineral SPF to press-on nails and niche fragrance—beauty’s obsession with endless SKU churn is officially over. In an era of economic scrutiny and savvy consumers, leading brands and retailers are shifting away from launching new products purely for the sake of novelty, embracing a "fewer, bigger, better" mandate instead. In this exclusive Q&A series conducted by Sofi Chernyak, founder and CEO of MaquillAR Studio, 13 industry executives—representing powerhouse names like MAC Cosmetics, OPI, Supergoop!, U Beauty, Glamnetic, Colorescience and BeautySpace—pull back the curtain on how they navigate the modern growth equation. Together, they reveal how to protect and renovate core bestsellers, engineer clinical efficacy, build genuine cultural equity, and turn single-product hits into enduring multi-category franchises. -Editor
Fewer, Bigger, Better: The New Rules of Beauty Retail
A conversation with Noah Rosenblatt, president at BeautySpace
"One of the major factors many retailers take into consideration for emerging brands pre-launch is their social relevance," says Noah Rosenblatt, president at BeautySpace. "It is about how engaged they are with the pre-built community."Noah Rosenblatt
Sofi Chernyak: How can established brands continue to stay relevant when newer brands have that natural advantage?
Rosenblatt: There was a time when we were seeing established brands rolling out six new SKUs a year or multiple launches, not just seasonal launches.
Right now, what we’re finding is that established brands are doing fewer, bigger, and better launches.
Then established brands were trying to keep up with the influx of new brands. Now they’ve said, actually, let’s just be really true to the core of who we are.
You can look at a brand like Olaplex. They’ve taken their hero product, Olaplex Nº.7 Bonding Oil, and put it into a new format of Olaplex º7 Shine Serum Oil Mist.
When existing brands stay true to their core, I think they have a tremendous amount of runway in regards to keeping up with all of the newness that’s being introduced.
Chernyak: For emerging brands, on the other hand, what tells you that they deserve to be seen and have the potential to grow big?
Rosenblatt: Our new business development team sees over 300 brands a year on the inbound, which is almost one per day.
When we’re using our discerning curation, there are some pre-launch signals that we tend to look for.
The first one is a compelling story. That doesn’t have to be founder-led; it just has to be compelling.
The second is that there has to be a problem-solution in the products they’re wanting to bring to the consumer. For example, in the body and bath category, there was a time when it was all around scent profiles. Now, the consumer expects performance added into that SKU.
The third is that they have to have the ability to support the growth.
The fourth is the organic enthusiasm from our team.
Chernyak: Once a new brand launches, what tells you that it has real staying power?
Rosenblatt: One of the major factors many retailers take into consideration for emerging brands pre-launch is their social relevance. It is about how engaged they are with the pre-built community.
Then, the cleanest way of understanding whether or not they deserve some of that shelf is post the first purchase.
We look at the return rate over a period of time and at the breadth of the assortment. While a hero SKU can be really important for many brands, ultimately that hero SKU needs to be able to bleed into additional opportunities from a product perspective.
A good example is a brand like SIDIA, it started as a candle brand with two scent profiles. Those scent profiles were doing quite well, and then they got into hand serums. Their hand serums are performance-based, reinforcing the hero scent profiles. More recently, they’ve gone into body mists with performance-based benefits, and now we’re seeing them go into solid perfumes.
Chernyak: Do you see Little Luxuries supporting hero products or mainly opening the platform for testing the new?
Rosenblatt: In Little Luxuries, what bestsellers do is add speed and accessibility to finding your favorite products in a very fast, fun, exciting environment.
What newness does is bring the sense of discovery, which lends itself to consumers spending a longer period of time in your stores.
But the discovery, which is why we’re always incorporating new brands into Little Luxuries, is also what keeps the consumer returning.
If we look at our fragrance category, we’ve introduced 20 niche fragrance brands into Little Luxuries. These brands have taken their full-size products and made everything 30 ml and under, which we’ve included in our assortment. In less than a month of doing business in that location, the category is becoming our top-performing category, not only from a growth perspective, but also from a total percent contribution to our business.
45 Years of OPI: The Power of Color, Culture and Connection
A conversation with Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, co-founder and brand ambassador at OPI Products, Inc.
Sofi Chernyak: Do you think the way consumers respond to new products and collections has changed since you started OPI? And how do you build narratives today?
Weiss-Fischmann: When people ask me what was the biggest change in our industry, I would say it was social media: how and at what speed we communicated with the consumer.
Everything became faster. The seasons change so quickly that how we work with collections, with colors, and how we produce and release things increased at a speed that would have been difficult to imagine when I first started in the late ’80s.
But brands not only have to have a story and authenticity; it is also about how the brand fits into the consumer’s lifestyle. Did we make it easier for her? Did we create fantasies for her?
We collaborated with different industries - the movie industry, celebrities, and sports - because I always felt that OPI should be injected into the consumer’s lifestyle.
Whether she was watching her favorite movie, listening to her favorite artist, or painting her favorite room in her home, it could reflect her favorite nail color. We partnered with Dell Computer, so the cover of your laptop could be your favorite nail color. Or, for example, we collaborated with Serena Williams around the Grand Slam tennis tournaments.
I wanted OPI to be everywhere you were. I wanted OPI to be part of pop culture.
I always thought that evolving and learning should never stop. That’s my philosophy in life. Otherwise, you’ll feel left behind, and I never wanted that to happen.
Chernyak: So to what extent do philosophies such as storytelling, authenticity, and personalization contribute to the success of a product in comparison with the technical performance of the product itself?
Weiss-Fischmann: As far as I’m concerned, they both go hand in hand. It’s extremely important to tell that story through your experience, to be authentic, and to be who you are as a brand.
But I always said, the first buy is an impulse buy. The second buy is if the product performs.
My philosophy was always that anybody who sees those three letters, OPI, knows what to expect. OPI is what you would consider an old brand as far as age is concerned, celebrating 45 years, and it still excites the consumer.
With each collection, it’s as if the brand is reborn again. I think that has created a huge part of the success.
But again, quality and performance must never be forgotten. It is as important as the telling of the story and authenticity. Authenticity also means that the product’s performance is never forgotten or left behind.
Chernyak: I wanted to speak about ways to reengage the audience and re-inspire them. What would be your advice to brands to create excitement around products that consumers have known for years?
Weiss-Fischmann: OPI’m a Bubble Bunny is a perfect example. The current OPI team created it because they were watching how nail technicians and consumers were layering and mixing different colors.
They realized that the two colors were so popular (Bubble Bath and Funny Bunny) and that people were creating a new shade from them. They created OPI’m a Bubble Bunny, and it was an unbelievable success.
Creating this kind of newness and excitement is a team effort at OPI. It comes from trade shows, from nail technicians being out in the field, from the educational team, the social media team, marketing, creative, education, and sales.
It’s such a collaborative brand. You have to observe and listen. It’s very, very important.
Chernyak: Is there something you recently heard that surprised you or inspired you?
Weiss-Fischmann: I was recently at the wedding of a very good friend of my son. You speak to everybody at the venue, and they ask what you do.
As soon as I said OPI, people started reciting 10 or 12 names of colors that were their favorite colors. The colors made it personal like nothing I could have dreamt of. People remember what they wore on their nails and toes through good or bad times.
The brand continues to evolve, but it has never stopped being relevant and personal.
The Press-On Boom: How Glamnetic Is Building Its Next Growth Chapter
A conversation with Kevin Gould, co-founder, Glamnetic
Sofi Chernyak: Glamnetic is operating in a category that’s been growing rapidly. How has your approach to launching products changed over the years?
Gould: It's been a really high-growth category over the last 5 years. I think a lot of that comes from the huge movement from salons towards press-ons. The quality of false nails is now many times better than salon quality, and the fact that salon prices have risen 50% over the last 5 years is continuing to drive strong growth.
For us, it’s always been about making sure we’re delivering a really high-quality product to the market that has longevity for the user and also hits on the aesthetic and design front, which is really important in this category.
When we think about our product roadmap, we’re normally thinking three to five years out: how do we make sure we anticipate where the consumer is going? We see designs and styles continuing to get more elevated and premium, and we’re seeing that in the requests from customers.
Chernyak: When you think about retention and fundamental growth, do you see it being driven more by a handful of hero products, or by offering enough variety and newness?
Gould: I would say all of the above. There’s obviously a huge array of styles and designs that people want. We want to make sure we service everyone with all of the solids, neutrals, French tips, and the basic styles that you would need.
Then we want to infuse newness and seasonal collections into the mix.
If you look at our business, we have a really amazing core collection of evergreen styles, and then we infuse a lot of timely, relevant collections into our product pipeline.
Chernyak: From a customer experience perspective, what principles are guiding your team today?
Gould: In the end, the consumer experience is everything, and retention in this business is really important.
There are two things to think about with retention. It’s not just retention within our brand; there are also people moving over into press-ons from the salon for the first time.
We want to make sure we’re educating them properly, that they’re having an amazing experience, that they love the designs, they love the quality of the nails, and they love the longevity of the nails. All of those things are super important.
The interesting thing with nails is that there’s very individualistic feedback that comes from every person. Our job is to take all of that individual feedback we hear from consumers and put it into a first-class product that can hopefully create an amazing experience for as broad a category of consumers as possible.
Chernyak: Looking back across your launches, including some of your creative collaborations, is there one that stands out as particularly successful?
Gould: We’ve had so many awesome collaborations and great results as collaborations tap into new affinity audiences.
Hello Kitty was a huge collaboration for us, and Harry Potter did amazing. Those two definitely stand out. I’d say Glamzilla as well. That was such a natural connection because she had been wearing our nails for a year, so it was a completely organic, authentic connection.
Chernyak: What are the key pillars of your marketing and growth strategy today, and how does your community fit into it?
Gould: We need to be in lots of different places with the consumer because we’re in an era where attention is spread out. We’re on DTC, we’re in retail, we’re on Amazon, we’re on TikTok Shop - we’re in lots of different places to meet the consumer where they are.
From a community perspective, we do a lot. We have an amazing Facebook group called Glam Fam that we’ve had since the beginning of the business, where our most loyal fans and consumers are.
We also do a lot of community activations, and we’re doing more eventing, which we’re really excited about.
The New Rules of Beauty Brand Relevance
A conversation with Valentina Pasotti Boselli, head of marketing, MAC Cosmetics Italia
"When you launch a newer brand, you are building recognition and establishing a distinctive point of view," says Valentina Pasotti Boselli, head of marketing, MAC Cosmetics Italia. "You need to make consumers understand what the brand stands for and, importantly, why it deserves a place in their lives."Valentina Pasotti Boselli
Sofi Chernyak: You’ve had the opportunity both to introduce newer brands into the Italian market and now to lead marketing for MAC. How does launch strategy differ for brands with different histories?
Boselli: Very much. The starting point is different, but I believe one principle applies to every brand: you have to stay true to who you are.
When you launch a newer brand, you are building recognition and establishing a distinctive point of view. You need to make consumers understand what the brand stands for and, importantly, why it deserves a place in their lives.
With an established brand like MAC, the challenge is different. You already have decades of equity, so the role of marketing is not to reinvent the brand every time the consumer evolves. It is to evolve the brand in line with the consumer, without losing what makes it unmistakably itself.
That balance is critical. You need to know which elements of your DNA are non-negotiable and which ones need to evolve. Heritage should be a source of strength, not a constraint.
I think the real opportunity is to stop treating relevance and equity as two different jobs. Culture gives a brand velocity. Equity gives it gravity.
The danger today is confusing visibility with relevance: you can be everywhere for 48 hours and still mean very little six months later.
At MAC, we want to participate in culture without becoming dependent on it. We can move quickly - through creators, fashion, music, and social platforms - but always from a very clear brand point of view. The goal is to have enough cultural relevance to help shape it.
Chernyak: What does it take to make the evolution of a hero product feel as exciting as an entirely new launch?
Boselli: The paradox of an icon is that consumers want you to change it but not too much.
The starting point is therefore respect for the equity that already exists. You need to understand why people fell in love with the product before deciding how to reinvent it.
Then you look at what has changed: consumer expectations, technology, textures, performance, and lifestyles. The most compelling evolution happens when you can say, “This is the product I already know, but somehow it understands me better today.”
And then marketing has to make that evolution culturally visible. A product upgrade can be technically brilliant and still feel like yesterday's news. You need a new consumer tension, a new story and a new way of experiencing the product. That is when an icon becomes new again.
Chernyak: Do you think beauty brands sometimes define innovation too narrowly as launching a new product?
Boselli: Absolutely. In fact, I would argue that some of the most interesting innovation happening in beauty today is not happening inside the formula.
We have spent years equating innovation with the next SKU. But consumers don't experience a brand as a product catalogue. They experience a brand through stories, rituals, communities, people, spaces and experiences.
A new cultural narrative can make an existing product relevant to an entirely new audience. A new service can completely change how someone uses it. Technology can make a familiar product feel more personal. Retail can turn discovery into entertainment.
Sometimes the most disruptive thing a brand can do is change the meaning of something consumers already know. And that is particularly powerful for heritage brands, because you can create newness without constantly asking consumers to learn something completely new.
The 80/20 Rule of Beauty Innovation
A conversation with Jacob Martin, former senior director, head of No7 brand US
"I think you have to look at the larger economic things that are happening in the country and the world right now," says Jacob Martin, former senior director, head of No7 brand US. "The price of everything is going up. So I do think people are more looking to streamline their routines into the few key must-have products they want to use that are going to deliver the most for their effort and their money."Jacob Martin, senior director, head of No7 brand US
Sofi Chernyak: At what point do you decide it’s time to really start investing in something new versus the products that have always proven their results on the market?
Martin: It’s definitely a balance. For most brands, 80% of their business is traditionally their tried-and-true staples. And then the rest typically is innovation. Every now and then, you get a blockbuster innovation which becomes your number one, two, or three product.
What I would say is, because consistently the core is such a big part of the business, it’s something that you can’t just forget about. You have to constantly do what I would call renovation. It could mean updating the packaging, updating the claims, making sure it’s still relevant to the consumer and what they’re looking for as their needs change.
And then sometimes reformulating it as well, because there are advancements in technology and science that still achieve the benefit of those core products, but maybe in a better way. Our science teams are working all the time on whether it’s new peptides or different concentrations and combinations of ingredients to achieve certain results.
Chernyak: How do you decide when a skin care innovation has the potential to evolve into multiple products or maybe multiple categories of products, versus just being one standalone product itself?
Martin: So I think it’s really looking at what that end benefit is going to be to the consumer and understanding: does it have more legs in terms of different delivery formats, different product formats, or different usage occasions, whether it’s day, night, and so on.
When we launched our Future Renew line a few years ago, the underlying benefit really was about reversing different signs of aging.
A serum is going to be your most concentrated form of the active ingredients and the biggest bang for your buck. A day cream would have SPF, whereas a night cream wouldn’t. And then you also have specific skin concerns around the eyes.
Chernyak: Nowadays, do you see more of a focus on maximalism, or is it more about how can we do more with less and simplify the experience?
Martin: I think for a while it really was maximalism, especially in the past few years with the explosion of Korean beauty and those multi-step routines.
But then I think you have to look at the larger economic things that are happening in the country and the world right now. The price of everything is going up.
So I do think people are more looking to streamline their routines into the few key must-have products they want to use that are going to deliver the most for their effort and their money.
Chernyak: Have you ever had surprises in the development process that brought something really inspiring?
Martin: Yes. So, for example, our Future Renew line took us 15 years to develop the peptide technology. Our scientists worked with the University of Manchester in the U.K. to develop patented peptides that are at the heart of that.
And then that became the building block for future innovation. You have this really great ingredient, and then you can start adding other ingredients or other ingredient complexes on top.
So you can have the same ingredients, but use them in slightly different ways, depending on what you add or take away from them.
The Long Game of Beauty Growth: U Beauty on Efficacy, Retention and Brand Value
A conversation with Ankit (AJ) Patel, SVP of global growth at U Beauty
Sofi Chernyak: In your interviews, you’ve spoken about customers growing with the brand and how their routines evolve over time. What kinds of products seem to support that type of expansion best?
Patel: Traditionally, we started with our face serum, the Resurfacing Compound, which was the first product that we ever developed. We created a moisturizer, The Super Hydrator, shortly after it became our hero regimen.
We don’t want to have multiple products for the same concern. We want to make sure that each product has a distinct place within a consumer’s regimen.
More recently, we’ve been doing a lot with body and neck. Our neck cream, The Sculpt Neck + Décolleté Concentrate, became a complementary product to The Duo, which is our Resurfacing Compound and Super Hydrator, which historically has performed very well.
We have various cross-sells and flows that we work with to personalize routines based on consumer behavior, replenishment cycle, what products they’re ordering, and what makes sense from a brand-affinity perspective.
More recently, the shift has been around efficacious body care clinical products that will actually show material benefit to the consumer. Historically, it was more around nice fragrance; it wasn’t necessarily focused on the treatment aspect.
I think that’s where we’ve filled a niche with a lot of our products. Our products aren’t just a standard lotion. It really is a treatment that is going to improve the consistency and texture of the skin.
Due to our proprietary Siren Capsule Technology, our products truly are personalized treatments that are adaptive to each individual and, because the formulas are specifically targeting the skin cells that need it most, visual results are fast.
Chernyak: Beyond the initial signals during a launch, what tells you that a new product has real long-term potential?
Patel: We always look at customer repurchase rates and customer lifetime values for consumers who are acquired through a particular SKU.
We also look at the competitive landscape. We don’t want to enter a marketplace that is filled with low-cost, low-impact products.
Every single product that we develop really has to have a strong purpose, and it has to have strong clinical efficacy. Transparently, we’ve done products where we have deviated from that, and we haven’t seen the success that we have when we truly focus on the clinical aspect of the product itself.
Chernyak: How do you make sure that expansion doesn’t dilute the brand?
Patel: We really want to own the beauty experience. We were never going to create a sub-brand or something that would dilute the brand equity that we hold.
Discounting is such a drug. A lot of people in growth and e-commerce utilize that to scale and grow a business.
But when you look at brands that last, like Louis Vuitton or Prada in the luxury space, the reason why they have sustained such a long time is that they’re very conscious around their price and very conscious around retaining the value based on the product quality, versus the value that’s driving sales through promotion.
Chernyak: During launches, how do you communicate with your customers to create trust around your products, for example in the case of Siren Capsule technology?
Patel: One of the ways we’ve identified that has worked really well is visual messaging. We made a lot of visual animations that explain how the Siren Capsule technology works.
We also use a lot of analogies to explain how exactly it works. We have the analogy of magnets being attracted to the Siren Capsule, which represents free radicals being attracted to it.
You can think about the siren song. It attracts people. That’s exactly the metaphor behind the name.
The Second Life of a Bestseller: Colorescience on Building Momentum Beyond Launch
A conversation with Margaux Vallino Reese, digital marketing executive at Colorescience
Sofi Chernyak: As the brand matures, how do you decide when to invest time into telling new stories versus investing in new launches?
Reese: For us, it really isn’t an either-or decision because new products and bestsellers play a different role within our business.
A hero product has already earned something really valuable, which is customer trust. We know that it works, we know that customers love it, and we have years of reviews, data, education, and real-life experience in order to continuously optimize.
But behind a bestseller, the story is not always finished. We continuously ask ourselves: Have we unlocked the opportunity around this product, or are there still customers or use cases that we haven’t reached yet?
Sometimes the greatest opportunity is creating a new product, but other times you can unlock just as much growth by helping customers see an existing product in a new way. That could mean connecting it to a new consumer need, a different usage occasion, new scientific proof or a clinical study, a new seasonal moment, or simply educating customers about a benefit they may not have fully understood.
Chernyak: With new launches, especially when you’re bringing in new technology, how does the e-commerce strategy differ from how you communicate an existing hero product?
Reese: Because we’re really science-backed, we anchor all of our messaging with data and science. With a hero product, a customer may already be aware of the product. They may have seen it on social or been referred to it by a friend, so the path to conversion is a little bit smoother. The e-commerce role here is really to make the experience as seamless as possible.
With a new product, we really want to educate the customer. We’re answering questions a little bit further up in the funnel: What is it? Why is it good for me? Why do I need it in my routine? What makes it different? And why should I trust it?
For us at Colorescience, education isn’t something that happens separately from e-commerce. Education is part of the conversion experience.
Chernyak: When you think about marketing hero products versus new launches, what is the biggest difference in your approach?
Reese: With hero products, it’s all about scale. A brand may have a lot of customer reviews, historical performance, and data in order to scale what is working within a hero product.
When we look at new launches, we’re investing to discover what we don’t know yet. Who is responding to the message? What messaging is resonating? What problems are customers trying to solve? And where does the product fit within their routine?
For example, we launched our Face Shield Flex mineral sunscreen, and it was a very strong performer and one of our bestsellers. However, it became viral two years after its launch.
It didn’t launch with enormous momentum, as it launched during COVID. It had a second life with that second wave of virality, where it was introduced to new customers organically by an influencer whose post was stitched by many others who were trying the product. Our team recognized the opportunity, amplified it, and turned a moment into sustained momentum.
That was a very interesting learning: you can create new moments with any product within the portfolio by making it relevant to the time and the market.
The virality came completely organically. It was picked up by an influencer and then stitched through with bigger influencers, which made it a really big viral moment.
Historically, a launch would have looked like a teaser, a launch, a big moment, and then moving on to the next thing. Today, a product can have multiple moments.
Beauty With a Mission: RevitaLash on Purpose, Philanthropy and Growth
A conversation with Dariel Sidney, vice president of philanthropy at Revitalash Cosmetics
Sofi Chernyak: Revitalash Cosmetics started from a very personal family story. How does that history play a role in the company?
Sidney: The product was created for my mom, who was going through breast cancer at the time.
When the success of the company started happening, it was really important for her that the company was philanthropic, because the reason why the product was created in the first place was to give back to her, to give her something to help her heal and move forward in her cancer journey. It’s been an honor for me to lead this department in her memory, in her legacy, because that really truly is why we are here. She was the inspiration.
I think time tells that any product that is created out of a true need is a successful product. Back in 2006, when we launched, there was no other product like this on the market. So our biggest challenge was teaching consumers and the beauty industry what this product was and how it worked. Then it became a product that people can’t live without.
At Revitalash Cosmetics, our motto is Eternally Pink. We don’t celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We are Breast Cancer Awareness Month 365 days of the year. It’s become part of who we are, part of our DNA. I think people associate Revitalash Cosmetics with a company that gives back and that has a heart. So that feels like our mission is really being accomplished.
Chernyak: How does that mission carry through to your business?
Sidney: What’s really unique is that we have 45 different global distributors around the world, and we’re distributed in over 70 countries.
Those distributors want to mirror what we are doing here in the U.S. They’re looking and choosing different breast cancer organizations to support with their initiatives, and a lot of times we’ll match their donations. It’s really touching because that’s not something that they have to do. It’s something that they’ve wanted to do.
I also wanted to read you something. I received a letter from a customer who had been going through breast cancer. She said, “I’ve tried countless products over the years, which only offered empty promises and left me feeling more discouraged. But I was open, and I gave Revitalash a try. For the first time in a long while, and I am almost 100 years old, I feel confident enough to show my face to the world without hiding behind sunglasses.”
I just thought, “Oh my gosh, first of all, this woman is 100 years old, and this is the first time that she feels confident enough to walk around without hiding her face.”
It moves me every time to know that we’re having an effect on somebody’s life that way and giving them their dignity after going through such a hard time. I keep it on my desk as a reminder: just keep doing what we’re doing.
Chernyak: As the brand has grown, how do you think about expansion and launching new products?
Sidney: We’ve been on the market a long time, and we take our time when we launch products. We listen to the market. We listen to our customers.
We launched Revitalash 20 years ago, and then slowly, once we learned what our customers wanted, we launched Revitabrow. Then we learned that people were using the products on their hair, so we launched a product that was specifically designed for the hair.
We listen, we test, and we make sure the products are safe and effective. Our product launch rollout is slow, but thoughtful.
Consumers want choices, and so we follow that. We now have four different Revitalash options available. Most recently, we are launching our peptide formula, and that is in response to what the market is wanting.
Choosing our mascara, our eyeliner, or our brow gel feels really comforting because you know that the same brand helping restore that youthfulness is going to help you with those instant-gratification products as well. When people do become loyal users of a Revitalash Cosmetics product, they do stay within the brand.
Fresh Thinking, Familiar DNA: Supergoop’s Approach to Brand Evolution
A conversation with Philip Utley, vice president, global creative, Supergoop!
Sofi Chernyak: With a brand with such a large portfolio and history, how do you make each launch feel fresh and exciting while still protecting the brand identity?
Utley: When I first came to the company, it was very important for me to respect that we’ve spent two decades changing the way people think about SPF. So there’s a lot of equity there that I wanted to protect.
At the same time, a brand with that much history has to continue to evolve. My team and I went back into the archives and focused on elevating all of the elements that still work and letting some of the other things fall away.
In a way, we went back to basics. We deconstructed the elements and rebuilt them so that the brand and new launches feel fresh and contemporary, but it’s always identifiably Supergoop.
Chernyak: How do you work with those elements for new launches versus hero best-selling products like Unseen Sunscreen or Glowscreen?
Utley: For new products, the biggest thing for me is that my team and I are involved in the development from the very beginning.
I see formula as queen. For me, the story starts there.
We have an amazing product development team, and they’re always innovating. I find that very inspirational. From there, my team takes the story of the formula and turns that into a visual language.
It’s really important that the story and the imagery connect emotionally with the consumer. For me, and really everyone here at Supergoop, it’s more than sunscreen. It’s really about creating a skin-health experience that people genuinely want to be a part of in their everyday lives. This is really key to the Supergoop brand.
For existing products, they’re very trusted and beloved, so it really makes it much easier on my side.
When re-promoting products that people already love, it is important to just focus on the product and not make the campaign messages too fussy or complicated. Let’s hero the product, not an abstract idea.
Chernyak: How do you think about innovation when there are already so many SPF products in your line and the market?
Utley: We really want to try to find out: what are our customers missing in their lives? What problem can we solve for them?
That’s where we start, and then we build off of that. But we always want to make it Supergoop, which means it’s fun, it’s bright, it’s happy, and it’s surprising.
New technologies can certainly make a product better, but they have to be in service of the user. Customers will adopt products and technologies that truly improve their lives.
Ultimately, that is what put Supergoop on the map. We created products that really did change the way people thought about SPF and made daily protection easier and more enjoyable.
You don’t have to have a million new products. But you do need to be able to create excitement that drives the messaging and boosts discovery.
Chernyak: Where does your innovation inspiration come from?
Utley: I’m inspired by everything. I live in New York City, and it’s a constantly changing, vibrant city. I can be walking down the street and see a piece of architecture or sculpture and think, “That could be a really innovative package that no one has done before.”
The Flatiron Building, for example, was so unusual when it came out; it’s a triangle-shaped building with the first revolving doors. That style wouldn’t necessarily show up in the Supergoop brand, but the idea of making a triangle-shaped product could. Or it could inspire how you open a product.
Those are the kinds of things I see when I go grab my lunch, and then I come back and tell my team, “What if we did this?”
Retailers Want More Than a Product: The New Rules of Beauty Brand Growth
A conversation with Sharron Barajas, sales director for specialty beauty accounts at American International Industries
Sofi Chernyak: As you are working with many retailers yourself, how do you feel retailers are judging brands nowadays?
Barajas: I do think it’s changed quite a bit. It used to be you would just take a product and say, “Hey, here’s our newest product,” and the retailer would be like, “That’s great.”
But with so many products out there and emerging, you have to go in with the full 360-degree plan. You also have to show them how the product stands out among others in the market.
I think even more than the product, retailers are asking, “How is this going to grow my business? How is this going to grow the category, and what is it going to bring to my customer?”
Does that mean there’s an influencer with it? Does that mean there’s a marketing campaign with it? Is it tied to some type of initiative that’s really going to resonate with your particular consumer?
Chernyak: From your experience leading the growth of a large portfolio of brands, how do you decide what products and categories deserve the attention and investment of a new launch?
Barajas: It used to be that you would just come out with products and say, “Hey, we’re going to come out with them,” knowing that certain products might only have a year or two on the market.
But now you have to be more selective.
When you’re looking at investment, you want to come out with products that truly make sense within the space and can grow. Outside of having a great product, does it make sense for the market? Does my customer need this, and why?
Chernyak: What does that mean for an established or legacy brand? How do you stay powerful in a market with so much innovation and competition?
Barajas: If you have a legacy brand, you can’t get comfortable. There are a lot of emerging brands that aren’t comfortable. They may not have all the resources, but they’re agile and able to quickly pivot. Once you become a legacy brand, you still have to be able to modernize fast.
Maybe you need to update your packaging, update your messaging, be more digitally savvy, have better content, or better messaging. And innovations need to make sense for a new or existing customer, because you don’t want to alienate them; they’ve built up trust with you as well.
For example, we have a nail polish brand that we rebranded - new packaging, new formulas, new application. We redid it all. We had existing customers asking, “Is this the same product?” and new customers saying, “I’m really excited for the new product.”
As with any major brand evolution, we continued to learn and adjust along the way. Because we were able to pivot quickly, we saw significant sales growth and strong consumer response.
When you’re revitalizing a brand, there needs to be alignment and belief in the strategy across the organization—from the manufacturer and teams creating the assets, digital content and messaging, all the way through to the retailer.
Then you need real, authentic UGC that says, “This product is what it says it is, and it really works.”
I believe, throughout this process, honesty, integrity, and building trust with your customers are fundamental.
Chernyak: How do you strategize innovating across different content categories?
Barajas: Every category has its unique nuances.
The lash category is very fluid and trend-driven. Depending on what makeup looks are trending, you’re going to have products going in and out.
With skin care, you don’t have as many turns. You need quality products, quality routines, and maybe you’re filling gaps in your portfolio based on what’s going on in the market. You don’t need to be flipping out new products every six months. You just need to reinforce the messaging and the product that you have.
With nails, you’re going to have trends that are seasonal, so that’s a much more fluid conversation.
Changing How We Wear Fragrance: The Power of New Formats and Rituals
A conversation with Abby Wallach, CEO, The House of Scentinvent
Sofi Chernyak: Has the recent rise of fragrance created a more receptive market for innovation you've been developing for years?
Wallach: Absolutely. When we started developing new fragrance formats more than a decade ago, every new format required education. We weren't just introducing a product. We were introducing new behaviors and new ways to experience, apply, and wear fragrance.
What has changed dramatically is consumer behavior, and the role social media and short-form content play in our everyday lives. Creators and influencers have become an important part of that discovery and education, but consumers have become storytellers too.
Consumers are actively looking for new ways to wear scent. They're layering, carrying multiple fragrances, sharing routines, and creating their own daily rituals. That's exactly the environment new fragrance formats needed.
Chernyak: What is the right marketing strategy for the category-defining product?
Wallach: The strategy starts with knowing who you are. A brand has to be true to its core DNA and use media in a way that speaks authentically to its audience and community.
Then you have to understand where and how consumers are already interacting with your products. Ultimately, they're your most powerful advocates.
That's especially important when you're introducing something completely new. I still believe in word of mouth.
Giving people the opportunity to experience something, interpret it, and make it their own is more relevant than ever. I learned that early. When I launched one of my first fragrance brands, I hosted events where consumers could experience a new solid perfume format firsthand.
One of my most gratifying moments was watching a seven-year-old girl pick up the solid perfume stick and show her friend how to use it, explaining it in her own words. That was pure magic to me. She understood it, made it her own, and taught someone else.
Chernyak: What made you create The House of ScentInvent?
Wallach: When we started more than 10 years ago, we identified one of the biggest consumer frustrations in fragrance: it doesn't last. What could we do to make it last longer?
We set out to solve that with a fragrance primer. It also introduced a two-step fragrance ritual: prep the skin, let it dry, then apply your fragrance. At the time, that was a new idea, and it required a tremendous amount of education.
From there, we asked a bigger question: how else could fragrance live on the skin? We developed an alcohol-free solid perfume stick with skincare ingredients in a twist-up format. That meant a new formulation and delivery method, applying fragrance directly to the skin in a hydrating base rather than spraying it into the air.
Over many years and many iterations, it became something much bigger: rethinking how fragrance can be applied, carried, layered, experienced, and worn.
Chernyak: What is the strongest path to innovation for fragrance brands?
Wallach: When consumers love a scent and use it often, they want it in different iterations. They want to keep it at home, put it in their bag, travel with it, and experience it in ways that fit different needs and moments in their lives.
Putting a hero fragrance into a new format makes something they already love more convenient, portable, and experiential. The familiarity of the scent makes it easier to embrace something new. It also builds comfort and drives repeat purchases.
But the bigger opportunity is when the format or ritual itself creates a new reason to engage with fragrance.
Fragrance is incredibly emotional. It's about what someone wants to smell like, how they want to feel, and even who they want to be in that moment. A new format can change not only how fragrance is delivered, but how someone interacts with it and makes it part of their life.
Sometimes innovation gives a consumer a new way to experience a fragrance they already love. Other times, it creates an entirely new behavior and a new reason to wear fragrance. And that's how categories change.
Beyond the Trend: How Flormar Balances Newness and Brand Identity
A conversation with Oumaima Mahfouz, brand communications manager at Flormar Morocco
Sofi Chernyak: With a brand that has such a large portfolio and heritage, how do you think about launching new products? What is the balance between investing in something related to trends and making sure the brand identity is consistently present in new launches?
Mahfouz: I think trends are important, but they shouldn’t be followed blindly. A trend can attract attention, but the product itself has to deliver quality and fit the brand’s identity.
At Flormar, we look at trends as inspiration, not as a final strategy. We always ask ourselves if the trend matches what our customers actually want.
A great example is the rise of the K-beauty trend. Consumers today are increasingly looking for healthy, glowing skin, lightweight formulas, and skincare-inspired makeup. This trend inspired our K-Spirit collection, which embraces Korean beauty rituals and brings them into the Flormar universe.
Our strategy wasn’t just to launch a collection; it was to introduce the concept behind it. We focused a lot on storytelling and education, mainly through social media posts and creator content. We explained the inspiration behind the collection, highlighted the hero products, and showed how to use them in everyday beauty routines.
We also created content that demonstrated the results because consumers today want to see the products in action before they buy. Instead of simply saying, “This is a Korean-inspired collection,” we wanted people to understand what makes it different and why the K-beauty philosophy has become so popular worldwide.
Beyond digital content, we brought the collection to life through an immersive launch event, giving Moroccan influencers the opportunity to experience the K-beauty universe.
It wasn’t just about introducing a new collection; it was about bringing the story behind the trend to life.
Chernyak: How does your strategy change for products that have been in the portfolio for a long time and are already loved by consumers?
Mahfouz: For a new launch, our goal is education. People need to first understand what the product is, why it’s different, and how to use it.
But for a bestseller, a product that has been in our portfolio for a long time, customers already know the product. So we focus more on reminding them why they love it and creating new ways to keep it exciting.
For a new mascara, for example, we create tutorials, before-and-after videos, and reviews. But for an existing bestseller, we can use testimonials, seasonal looks, and user-generated content.
We also rely a lot on organic content from our customers. When people share their own experience with the product, it creates authentic recommendations that build trust and encourage others to try it. For us, that kind of user-generated content is one of the most valuable forms of marketing because it shows real satisfaction and strengthens customer loyalty.
Chernyak: Does that difference between new launches and bestsellers also carry through to the e-commerce strategy?
Mahfouz: On our website, education is just as important as on social media. When we launch a new product, we make sure customers can easily understand what it is and why it’s different.
We do this through detailed product descriptions, highlighting the key benefits, ingredients, and technologies, explaining how to use the product, and using high-quality visuals that show the texture, finish, and results.
We also organize products into dedicated collections and landing pages so customers can discover the full story behind the launch. The goal is to make the buying journey as informative and as simple as possible, so customers feel confident before making a purchase. We pay very close attention to product images, descriptions, and reviews because these details help customers make purchasing decisions.
Bestsellers are often the first products customers trust, so we make them easy to discover on the website. We highlight them on the homepage, create dedicated collections, include customer favorites, and recommend complementary products.
Newness vs. Staying Power: Eveline Cosmetics on Building Beauty Brand Loyalty
A conversation with Agnieszka Bernaś-Oleszczuk, senior digital communication manager, Eveline Cosmetics
Sofi Chernyak: How do you find the balance between promoting new products and building up the core of the brand through marketing?
Bernaś-Oleszczuk: Novelties, or new launches, and hero products should not be treated as competing priorities. New products create excitement; they keep the brand fresh and give people a reason to engage. But hero products provide stability. They already have consumer trust, strong reviews, and proven performance. They often become an easy entry point into the brand.
The best approach is to connect both areas. A new launch can attract attention, while bestsellers can add credibility to the campaign. They can also be shown together as part of a complete routine, product set, or look.
Also, stories of hero products should not be communicated in exactly the same way for years. I see many brands making this mistake. The product can be shown in new contexts, with new ingredients or new formulas, linked to current trends and supported with new content formats in e-commerce or social media.
The key is to use novelties to build attention while using trusted products to build long-term growth. It’s a symbiosis, I would say.
Sofi Chernyak: How do you approximately split attention between new products and bestsellers?
Bernaś-Oleszczuk: It’s around 50/50. What drives the highest sales for Eveline Cosmetics are the bestsellers - mascaras, concealers, and foundations. But novelties give us new consumers.
The strategies are also different. Bestsellers are given attention in more traditional media. We may create a TV commercial or some influencer posts, but without many touchpoints. Novelties often have a full omnichannel campaign when they launch.
Chernyak: Have you seen a new launch become something that you realize has the potential to become a future bestseller? And if so, how does the communication change?
Bernaś-Oleszczuk: The first signals can appear quite quickly after launching a new product. However, strong sales at launch are not enough. Several factors should be analyzed together: sales momentum, repeat purchases, consumer reviews, organic social media interest, and performance across different markets and channels.
It’s also important to look at how much content is created naturally, without additional support from the brand. If you want to have success with a new line, you need to focus on the content that’s created naturally. Interest from influencers, experts, and consumers can be a very strong signal.
But the most important moment comes after the initial launch excitement has passed. If the product continues to sell, receives recommendations, and keeps appearing in consumer content, it may have real hero-product potential.
At that stage, the message should move away from “discover the new product” and focus more on proven results, credibility, and long-term value, based on reviews and opinions from consumers.
Reviews, tutorials, educational content, comparisons, and real consumer experience become more important. The product should also become part of regular campaigns, seasonal communications, influencer activity, and e-commerce support.
Chernyak: Does the e-commerce strategy differ between new products and core bestsellers?
Bernaś-Oleszczuk: Product visibility should not depend only on whether something is new or already successful. It should be a dynamic decision based on business goals, consumer behavior, sales performance, seasonality, and current marketing activity.
New launches usually need strong visibility in the beginning. Consumers need to notice them, understand them, and learn how to use them.
Bestsellers should remain visible for longer because they often have strong conversion rates, higher awareness, and established consumer trust.
Website visibility should also react to what is happening on social media. When a product starts gaining attention, it should be easy to find online. The product page should be clear, complete, and ready to convert that interest into a purchase.
The most important factor is consistency. A product promoted on social media should be easy to find, clearly explained, available, and supported with content that helps the consumer make a decision.
Beyond the Next Big Thing: Why Beauty Brands Need Bestsellers
A discussion with André Leite Fonseca, creative director at 3INA Makeup
"I think beauty brands are slowing down with new launches," says André Leite Fonseca, creative director at 3INA Makeup. "Back in 2017 or 2018, there was an urgent need to introduce a new innovation every two months. Today, consumers are more educated, more savvy, and do not fall for everything that is being positioned as an innovation."André Leite Fonseca
Sofi Chernyak: Do you feel we are moving away from constant newness and placing more emphasis on their core products, or is innovation and reinvention equally important in 2026?
Fonesca: I think beauty brands are slowing down with new launches. Back in 2017 or 2018, there was an urgent need to introduce a new innovation every two months. Today, consumers are more educated, more savvy, and do not fall for everything that is being positioned as an innovation.
People still love innovation, but I do not think they want innovation purely for the sake of making something different. They are also happy to go back to basics.
That is definitely part of our strategy at 3INA. With more beauty brands competing for limited retail space, particularly offline, every product needs to help communicate what the brand represents. Constantly changing and replacing products adds complexity and is not necessarily the healthiest approach for the business.
You cannot really build a successful brand without a solid base of bestsellers. A brand can come up with new products that become very popular at a particular moment, but it will be very hard to sustain.
Chernyak: From a creative direction perspective, how do you make an existing bestseller feel fresh?
Fonesca: For a creative director, activating an existing product is slightly more challenging than launching something new. A new release gives you new technology, new packaging, and new ideas to talk about. With an existing product, you have to find a different way to show what it means to the consumer.
One of the best examples is our shade 503, our perfect nude pink. It is highly commercial, very important to us, and we build a campaign around it every March 5th.
The product itself does not necessarily change, so every year we have to reinvent it.
Historically, we might have presented 503 through a campaign featuring more commercial models and described it as the perfect nude pink that looks good on everyone. I saw an opportunity to shift that language from “a color that looks good on everyone” to “the color for everyone.”
We used an open casting and worked with real, non-professional models. We created lipstick-and-liner kits and featured the people from the campaign on the packaging. A traditional commercial campaign for a bestseller became a campaign about diversity.
Chernyak: How does that same thinking translate into social media and the way the brand participates in trends?
Fonesca: You do not have to follow every trend or feel anxious about constantly being present. When a brand has clear pillars, you know when something feels right.
We can participate in trends around people misspelling or mispronouncing 3INA because that is a genuine experience for the brand.
Also, recently we removed one of the variations of 503 that had been very popular. People were angry and didn’t understand why. As there is a Netflix reality-show trend happening right now, we are currently producing something around it to explain what happened to that shade.
I think we are moving into a more non-marketing era. Hopefully, content will become more entertaining. I think it will be a more sincere moment for social media.
