Covey, the minimalist skincare brand launched by model Emily DiDonato and her best friend and Google executive Christina Garcia in 2021, has shuttered.
In an Instagram post on Monday, the co-founders announced they “made the difficult decision to close this chapter of Covey.” They thanked customers for supporting the brand, writing, “We are so proud of what we built, so grateful for everything we learned, and beyond thankful for every single person who supported us and welcomed Covey into their routines.” Covey’s website no longer displays its products, instead showing only a “Coming Soon” message.
Not every model-founded beauty brand will become Rhode. Covey’s closure, following the shutdown of Kate Moss’s wellness and skincare brand Cosmoss, is a reminder that name recognition alone doesn’t guarantee long-term success in beauty. Even founders with high profiles face the challenge of sustaining differentiation, driving repeat purchases, managing rising costs and adapting to shifting retail and social media landscapes.
Outside of Covey, DiDonato has remained active in the beauty industry. In January, Vichy Laboratoires announced her as its global brand ambassador. In April, she was appointed the “chief blush officer” of Jones Road and starred in a campaign for the brand timed with the launch of its Blushing Stick.
Aimed at busy millennial mothers, a demographic DiDonato and Garcia belong to, Covey sought to “make skincare feel simple, effective and less overwhelming,” a mission the co-founders reiterated in the brand’s closure announcement. Covey was centered on a straightforward three-step routine featuring the First of All Cleanser, Next Up Vitamin C Serum and Last But Not Least Moisturizer. During a 2022 appearance on the podcast “Founded Beauty,” Garcia compared Covey to a clean, modern version of Clinique’s iconic three-step system.
Later, the original lineup was expanded with products such as Sleep Tight Bakuchiol Serum, Seal the Deal Lip Balm, Sun & Done Moisturizing SPF 50 Sunscreen and Last Drop Body Lotion. Products were priced from $19 to $59.
Prior to developing Covey, DiDonato and Garcia scoured more than 500,000 beauty product reviews on platforms like Reddit and X, according to the co-founders’ “Founded Beauty” interview. Despite using numerous products, they often weren’t seeing the results they expected, an experience they both shared. Although she fronted campaigns for Maybelline, Biotherm and Giorgio Armani’s Acqua di Gioia fragrance and tried countless products, DiDonato was frustrated by the outcome.
“I’m using all these expensive products, but I was using them all at once and wondering why my skin still looked like crap, honestly,” said DiDonato on the “Founded Beauty” podcast. “I would literally go to work and makeup artists would be like, Emily, what are you using now? Like your skin is a mess.”
Covey entered the market just as “skinimalism” was gaining momentum as an antidote to the 10-step skincare routines popularized at the height of K-Beauty’s influence in the 2010s. The year the brand launched, Pinterest identified pared-back skincare as a top beauty trend. As with clean beauty, however, what began as a point of differentiation gradually became commonplace, making it harder for brands focused on that philosophy to stand out.
According to startup database Dealroom, Covey raised a single $800,000 angel round in 2021, far less than the many millions of dollars often raised by beauty brands seeking to expand into specialty retail environments like Sephora and Ulta Beauty. Covey was primarily a direct-to-consumer brand throughout its run.
