Clinical skin care has a new entrant.
Plastic surgeon Julius Few is launching his eponymous brand, Dr. Few Skincare, direct-to-consumer this month. In February, the brand will roll out to seven Neiman Marcus doors, as well as on the retailer’s website.
The products are meant to be combined, or “stacked,” as he called it, much the way he approaches treating patients. “I first published the term ‘stackable’ in a dermatologic journal in 2012, and the basis of the work was being able to combine, lasers, fillers and neuromodulators. Back in 2010 or 2011, that was considered heresy or malpractice, and I did the clinical work to show there was a way to do it. There’s a sequence and you can get safe, reproducible results,” he said.
Related Articles
The range includes an exfoliating cleanser, an oil serum, a moisturizer in two textures, an eye cream, an SPF and retinol. Prices range from $85 to $195.
“The target audience is a consumer who wants clinical data behind their product, but that meets the criteria of ‘clean’ and being sustainably produced,” said Few, who practices in Los Angeles and Chicago. “In years of research talking to my patients, we refocused and refined the products. We have indicators showing what to use at day versus night and to make it easy. It’s really simplified.”
Few didn’t comment on sales, but industry sources think the brand will reach between $1.5 million and $2.5 million in sales in 2024.
Clinical skin care is a key driver in a white-hot category. According to third-quarter data from Circana, skin care was the fastest-growing category in prestige beauty by unit sales, and momentum only picked up during the all-important holiday season.
Few reasoned that there’s still opportunity in bridging the gaps between products billed as “clean,” those with clinical backing and those that consumers enjoy using.
“You either have the clinical, scientifically tested products that smell awful or is packaged poorly, or you have a very expensive prescription, versus something at a local drugstore that’s very basic and has lots of ingredients you don’t want to expose yourself to,” he said. “We’re creating something that captures the entire potential consumer pool, and it’s based on my neurotic approach to everything I do, which is very obsessive about details.”
Skin care’s tried-and-true ingredients power the formulas. The retinol, for example, includes a peptide complex and green tea for its soothing and antioxidant properties. The oil serum combines antioxidants with moisturizing oils that also promise to not clog pores.
For distribution, Few is also counting on his website to cast a wide net beyond the seven Neiman Marcus locations. “We want to be accessible for a variety of consumers regardless of their skin tone, regardless of what their targeted focus is, and they don’t have to be patients or clients to have that,” he said.