Haven’t run across a facial cream on the skincare market that you’re crazy about? CrēmBar has a solution: Create one for yourself.
The new bespoke beauty concept from the founders of direct-to-consumer pharmacy delivery service CaryRX allows customers to choose ingredients suited to their skin without the pressure of sales associates or brand marketers. All it takes is a few minutes to fill out a form specifying base, antioxidant, exfoliant, anti-irritant, anti-acne and fragrance preferences, and wait five to seven days for jars inscribed with customers’ names to arrive at their doorsteps.
“CrēmBar revolves around customized facial creams, great ingredients and very transparent products,” says Areo Nazari, a pharmacist who developed Washington, D.C.-based CrēmBar with partner Kevin Lance. “Most creams today are mass-produced, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but we think there’s a large segment of people attracted to a customized experience. We have found the people that are using us now know what ingredients work for them, and they know what they like. They can select what they know and like, and make a high-grade cream.”
In picking skincare ingredients available for tailored creams, CrēmBar gravitated to those that are popular, effective and play well together in formulas. The antioxidants are vitamin C and E, resveratrol, caffeine and matcha green tea. Anti-acne options include salicylic acid at 1% and benzoyl peroxide at 4%. The exfoliants are glyclolic acid at 2%, lactic acid at .5% and hyaluronic acid at 1%.
“Most creams today are mass-produced, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but we think there’s a large segment of people attracted to a customized experience. We have found the people that are using us now know what ingredients work for them, and they know what they like. They can select what they know and like, and make a high-grade cream.”
Among the anti-irritants are aloe vera, rose water, sea kelp and colloidal oatmeal, and among the fragrances are coconut, rose and grapefruit. Customers can decide on a silky base or a base that’s slightly thicker. In the early goings, vitamin C and matcha green tea are oft-requested ingredients.
The price of a CrēmBar facial cream varies from $50 to $300 depending on the number of ingredients customers put into their facial cream blends. On average, a 1.7-oz. size with four ingredients is $90. The quantity is meant to last one to two months. Every CrēmBar product is handmade to order and inspected by a pharmacist to safeguard quality.
“We use compounding techniques to make the creams much like you would see in any independent pharmacy,” explains Nazari. “We ensure the ingredients are added to the base at the right amounts and right times. We don’t just take ingredients and throw them into a pot. By using pharmacy techniques, we’re able to make a stable and pure cream that’s exactly what we say it is.”
“We ensure the ingredients are added to the base at the right amounts and right times. We don’t just take ingredients and throw them into a pot. By using pharmacy techniques, we’re able to make a stable and pure cream that’s exactly what we say it is.”
Prior to CrēmBar, Nazari had practice compounding formulas for the face. “Fresh out of school, I had a dermatologist asking me to do a lot of custom compounds. She had all these crazy mixes of different herbs and vitamins, and that’s where I got my first dose of compounding custom ingredients,” says Nazari. “Fast forward several years, and we started a pharmacy. We were doing compounds for a dermatologist in the area, and making batches here and there for family and friends. At that point, we realized that there’s an opportunity to bring customized facial creams to the masses.”
The process to produce a customized CrēmBar facial cream takes 20 to 30 minutes or more. Nazari would rather the process take 10 to 15 minutes for CrēmBar to scale its business. A streamlined process could help CrēmBar move into physical locations, where Nazari envisions pop-ups providing captivating experiences for beauty shoppers. He says, “We think it could be cool to walk into a store, and one of the services there is building a cream and seeing it being made in front of your eyes.”
A typical CrēmBar customer is expected to be a woman 25-to-32-years old, according to Lance. She’s visited Sephora or Ulta Beauty, but isn’t satisfied with the overwhelming selection of skincare available at the beauty chains. She’s educated on skincare ingredients and intrigued by the possibility of assembling products with them. To reach her, CrēmBar is depending heavily on social media.
Nazari’s goal is for CrēmBar to generate $250,000 in revenues for its initial year in operation. He will potentially seek to raise money to fuel its growth in the future, but he comments he wants to “understand what it will take to make this a high-volume engine that can sustain large volumes of cream production” before doing so. Nazari says, “Right now, it’s about proving the concept and the go-to-market strategy, showing that the system works and that there is demand.”
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