Cosmedix And Osmosis Co-Founder Launches Synthetic Ingredient-Free Skincare Brand Kleos+Klea

In 1997, Tammy Demos and her then husband Ben Johnson founded among the earliest med-spa chains in the United States, which broadened the reach of aesthetics services by offering them outside of dermatologists’ and plastic surgeons’ offices.

Two years later, they released Cosmedix, a breakthrough clean skincare entrant in the professional beauty channel. After selling the brand in 2003, Demos and Johnson returned to the professional beauty channel in 2008 with Osmosis, another clean skincare brand that helped popularize retinaldehyde as a less irritating form of retinol.

Timed with her divorce from Johnson, Demos exited Osmosis in 2011 and had no plans to get back into the beauty industry. She considered operating a greenhouse facility to supply stores, but was outbid on the facility. Meanwhile, she was dealing with skin issues that were becoming worse and worse.

“My melasma was so bad that it looked like a full beard on my skin. I had rosacea, hyperpigmentation. I started looking for products everywhere I went in the world, and what I found was everything was the same. It was the same ingredients with a hero ingredient that they would market slightly differently,” says Demos. “My ego was traumatized. It’s like, what am I going to do? I’m single. I’m approaching menopause. I felt like life was ending, to be honest. It’s so superficial, but I totally admit that.”

Desperate, Demos stopped using all the skincare products she’d purchased and rebuilt her skincare routine with natural ingredients, beginning with aloe vera. As she slowly reintroduced ingredients, she noticed she was coating her skin with solutions rich in minerals and vitamins A, B, C and E. She also noticed dramatic improvement. Not able to ignore the results, Demos reluctantly concluded she must reenter the skincare business.

She recounts, “I put my head down and started really paying attention to what I was doing, measuring, seeing what ingredients worked, what changed the smell, what started to create a little too much circulation in my skin, making it too red. That’s when a light bulb turned on. It’s like nutrition. My skin needs nutrition.”

“I’m pushing clean to be cleaner.”

Now, Demos is launching Kleos+Klea with four synthetic ingredient-free skincare products: $140 Akatha Nutrient Cleanser, $90 Prima Rosa Balancing Oil, $180 Ónisi Essential Vitamins and $109 IÓ Essential Minerals. A bowl for product mixing will be available subsequently. Kleos+Klea describes itself as “the world’s first nutrient-only skincare line.”

“I’m pushing clean to be cleaner,” says Demos. “We started in 1999 with Cosmetix, and we’re still at that same technology with clean skincare today 25 years later. It hasn’t really gone through any type of evolution. This is a push to do more.”

Demos realizes that clean beauty has experienced a backlash in the years since Cosmedix was founded, with clean beauty detractors calling for an end to the demonization of certain ingredients like parabens. But she’s following what’s been effective for her skin, although she’s encountered pushback from cosmetic chemists wanting to incorporate synthetic preservatives in Kleos+Klea’s formulas.

To avoid preservatives necessary for products with water, Akatha Nutrient Cleanser, Prima Rosa Balancing Oil and Ónisi Essential Vitamins are in powder or oil formats. IÓ Essential Minerals is characterized as a mineral water.

“I believe synthetic ingredients create work for your skin. This is a big thing for me. You do not want to create work because work’s going to happen anyway. You’re going to go in the sun, you’re going to have stress,” says Demos. “So, I couldn’t add anything to these products that created work. It had to only be 100% beneficial.”

Without synthetic preservatives, she figures Kleos+Klea’s products are good for a year. To ensure its products are fresh, the brand will be doing limited production runs. Demos is inaugurating Kleos+Klea with a 10,000-unit run.

“I believe synthetic ingredients create work for your skin.”

“When you get it, use it,” says Demos. “It’s not something you just want for art on your bathroom counter. As soon as you activate them with liquid, whether it’s the oil or the mineral water, you want to use it and you want to use up that bottle.”

Demos has poured millions from her personal savings into developing self-funded Kleos+Klea. She faced several obstacles along the way. At one point, she was interested in encasing the brand’s formulas in biodegradable packaging, but the packaging wasn’t strong enough for them. Instead, Kleos+Klea’s packaging is primarily painted glass, but features a modicum of metal, and the lids are plastic. It’s soft touch and curved to reflect natural elements. The design is meant to keep out water and light.

Naming Kleos+Klea was tricky. Demos sought a name that would nod at her Greek heritage. She was going to name the brand Ousia, but it was too close to the skincare brand OSEA’s name. Then, she was going to name the brand Klea. That was taken. She combined it with the masculine version Kleos, the Greek word for “glory” or “renown.” Demos says the name Kleos+Klea conjures up “the yin and yang dualities in nature.”

Unlike Osmosis and Cosmedix, Kleos+Klea isn’t aimed at the professional beauty channel. Demos believes that spas, salons and doctors’ offices may not be open to its concept. She’s weighing placing it in functional medical doctors and naturopaths’ offices, but is concerned they prioritize their own private-label brands over third-party brands.

At the outset, Kleos+Klea will be in direct-to-consumer distribution, and its core demographic is women aged 35 to 60 years old. Demos is spreading the word about it by taking to social media and podcasts. Acknowledging she isn’t an expert at managing a DTC brand, Demos intends to ultimately hire a CEO to guide the brand’s growth.

As for product assortment growth, Demos says, “I’m not going to introduce a product unless it’s absolutely necessary and missing from the market.” Kleos+Klea expects to expand in skincare, and Demos envisions it making a lip product, hair products and even lifestyle and kitchen products.

Before those extensions, Demos says its customers should “dive in and learn the story. You will have no fear or any skepticism that you can’t trust me. You’ll be able to trust me, and more importantly, you’ll lean on me eventually.”