New Mom Celestyna Higgins Gives Her Skincare Brand Moss A Younger, Playful Sister Named Ambar

Celestyna Higgins is showing her less serious side.

Two years after launching acne-fighting brand Moss, she’s introducing Ambar with a colorful collection of four products that experiments with formula formats: Daily Antioxidant Primer, Hydrating Mineral Gelée, Micellar Cleansing Essence and Soothing Moisture Fluid. At $72 and under, the Ambar products don’t reach the three-digit price tags found on power-packed Moss merchandise.

“Not to say the skincare isn’t effective because I use the same methodology that I use in Moss, but I wanted something that wouldn’t necessarily be for someone who has struggled with acne their whole life or has major skin concerns they want to address. I wanted a bit less of that weight and responsibility,” says Higgins, adding, “I found myself yearning for something that felt the very opposite [of Moss]: free, young, not targeted toward any particular skin issues.”

Ambar, which is pronounced “uhm-burr” and means sky in Sanskrit, was in its gestation stage during Higgins’ pregnancy in late 2016 and early 2017, when she noticed her skin changing. It became severely dry and sensitive to scent. In no mood for fussy and painstaking products, Higgins concocted straightforward and fun products to deal with her new concerns.

The Micellar Cleansing Essence is designed to make cleansing simple and avoid the stickiness that can crop up with micellar products. Higgins likens the Essence’s appearance to a lava lamp that shifts from translucent to pink. The deep yellow silicone-free Daily Antioxidant Primer mimics the pore-blurring effects of silicone-based conventional makeup primers. Bamboo extract and muru muru butter supply the silicone-style effects.

“The Micellar Cleansing Essence and the Primer provide complete skincare in just two products. It felt good that I was treating my skin well, but it was super easy,” says Higgins. She inserted the Soothing Moisture Fluid into a daily routine she established before her son was born last June to complement the Essence and Primer. Discussing the spray-topped and light yellow Fluid intended for sensitive skin, Higgins details, “It’s almost like you are squirting a serum on your face. At first, it’s liquidy and, then, it turns into a lotion.”

Higgins views the final product, the blue Hydrating Mineral Gelée, as a companion to facial oils, popular components of green beauty regimens. “I’m constantly getting emails from people saying that they can’t use facial oils because they make their skin dry or greasy,” she reports. “If you apply the Gelée over a facial oil or mix it with one, it really helps the facial oil absorb.”

Star ingredients of the Ambar products are listed on the fronts of its bottles. For example, the ingredients yucca root, viola tricolor, rose and apple are itemized on the Micellar Cleansing Essence encasement. The Soothing Moisture Fluid bottle spotlights the ingredients ceramides, wild green oat, calendula and beta glucans.

“I think of ingredients in terms of a narrative or story. With Moss, the narrative is very much a Russian novel. The products are very active and dense. They’re complex, and there are a lot of characters and heroes in each product,” says Higgins. “I wanted Ambar to be more streamlined. It’s more of a focused short story. At different moments, there might be one main character.”

Higgins’ tenure as a beauty entrepreneur had an unusual plot twist in the fourth quarter of 2016. She took a break from Moss. “A lot of formulators come by way of being an aesthetician or TCM practitioner or taking a natural skincare class. For me, it was none of those things. It was very much about healing acne holistically, and I combined ingredients in unusual ways. It became successful organically,” says Higgins. “Moss was doing amazingly, but, around the time I got pregnant, I was stuck in a pattern of working 1,000% of the time. I was trying so hard to take it to the next level. It really became overwhelming.”

In 2017, Higgins ended her hiatus. She plunged into creating Ambar and reformulated Moss products. She made sure every stockkeeping unit had a compelling reason for being and decided to delegate certain tasks. “I am working very hard to have someone else do PR, manufacturing and social media so I can really focus on the big picture of business development,” says Higgins. Her son helps matters. “The baby is the one thing that can redirect my mind,” says Higgins. “It’s super important to be focused on him because he keeps getting into trouble.”

She’s not making as much money as she was prior to taking a breather. Moss previously generated $40,000 monthly on a gross basis. Today, $10,000 to $15,000 monthly is typical. The brand is available at retailers and e-tailers the likes of Alyaka, Integrity Botanicals, Carbon Beauty and Aurora Beauty. Higgins expects wholesale accounts she has relationships through Moss to pick up Ambar and has a broader goal in her sights: penetrating conventional beauty retail chains.

“I have really big plans for it,” says Higgins of Ambar. “Green beauty is really taking off right now, and there are so many people adding their voices to it, so it can be hard to launch something that really stands out and feels necessary, but that’s what I wanted to achieve with Ambar. I think there’s a place for it.”