The Couple Behind Image Skincare Tackles Inside-Out Beauty With New High-End Range Hush & Hush

Aesthetician Janna Ronert and plastic surgeon Marc A. Ronert, the husband-and-wife duo behind Image Skincare, are expanding their beauty empire with the launch of luxury clean nutraceutical line Hush & Hush.

The line’s targeted four products—the regenerative TimeCapsule, hair health promoter DeeplyRooted, sleep-supporting MindYourMind and, launching this summer, the green superfood powder PlantYourDay—are each priced from $65 to $85 for a month supply. The brand is priced significantly higher than Image Skincare, which the Ronerts founded in 2003. 

“We created Hush & Hush to fill a void in the marketplace,” shares Janna Ronert. “We were unable to find high-end nutraceuticals that complement our lifestyle. And we could not find ones that were part of a complete system, so we created our own. Our goal is to offer consumers a better way to get their daily essential vitamins and minerals with added beauty and age-reversing benefits.”

While there’s no shortage of beauty-boosting ingestible brands for consumers to choose from, the sector appears not to have hit saturation yet. The global nutricosmetics market is forecasted to climb at a compound annual growth rate of 5% to reach nearly $8 billion by 2025, according to Transparency Market Research. Hush & Hush enters the upper tier of the market. The brand is centered around pill-based wellness solutions designed to be at a minimum on par with super-luxe skincare serums that customers pay $100 and beyond for per ounce. 

TimeCapsule’s proprietary blend of vitamins and botanicals was designed to help shield against natural aging processes and environmental factors that contribute to age acceleration.

“While there were supplements on the market, there wasn’t anything that really worked in a 24-hour wellness-type program. Those products were more of a one-off solution,” says Elise Minton, director of brand marketing and founding partner at Hush & Hush. “There wasn’t that upper echelon line that was problem solution-oriented and catered to the luxury consumer.”

Minton, who served as executive editor of the magazine NewBeauty for 14 years prior to joining Hush & Hush, explains the line is focused on the struggles people face attempting to grow old gracefully and garners the first “hush” in its name from the silence shrouding those struggles. “Everyone wants to look better and age better and live younger and longer, but everyone’s still doing it secretly,” she says. “Even though things are being talked about, still people are being secretive about how old they are and are not being totally transparent. That’s where the name came from, it’s a play on the secret aspect.” The second “hush” in Hush & Hush is a nod to the brand’s tagline, “The secret is science.”

“We were unable to find high-end nutraceuticals that complement our lifestyle. And we could not find ones that were part of a complete system, so we created our own.”

The science powering Hush & Hush is rooted in a 24-hour cycle during which users take its supplements at different times of the day for maximum benefit. “It starts with PlantYourDay, a green superfood powder with protein, probiotics, fiber and antioxidants,” details Minton. “Later in the morning, you’d go onto TimeCapsule, which protects against environmental damage, smoke pollution, blue light, UV rays and has a proprietary complex as well. Third is DeeplyRooted for hair health. It works synergistically with TimeCapsule for best results, but they also can be taken on their own. The last product is MindYourMind, which is a nighttime product to calm you down at the end of the day and set the stage to have a restful night.”

With a monthly bill totaling approximately $300 for the recommended daily doses of all four products, Hush & Hush’s regimen is aimed at a specific type of consumer: discerning and wealthy. “This is for the person who is spending $2,500 on getting botox and $1,000 for highlights and, then, picking up nutraceuticals that are upwards of $100 bottle,” says Minton. She continues that Hush & Hush is targeted at women and men aged 25 to 65. Monthly auto-replenishment is already available to customers on hushandhush.com. The brand anticipates about 15% of its sales will be generated through subscriptions.

“This is for the person who is spending $2,500 on getting botox and $1,000 for highlights and, then, picking up nutraceuticals that are upwards of $100 bottle.”

Hush & Hush’s distribution strategy is directed at prestige retailers like Barneys New York. On top of retailers, the Ronerts are able to capitalize on the robust professional network they’ve built though Image Skincare to gain traction for Hush & Hush at plastic surgeons’, dermatologists’ and nutritionists’ offices, and upscale spas and resorts. Image Skincare, which includes both consumer and professional collections, is sold in over 50 countries worldwide.

Profits from Image Skincare have bankrolled the Ronerts’ latest beauty venture. “There are no investors in the brand, [and] they don’t plan on bringing any on,” says Minton of Hush & Hush. “It is all privately-funded.”

Hush & Hush founders Mark and Janna Ronert
Hush & Hush founders Marc and Janna Ronert

The West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Ronerts are not only the creators of Hush & Hush, they’re its target customers, too. “Hush & Hush isn’t another vitamin brand. It is a way of life,” says Marc Ronert, a specialist in the science of aging. “The brand is all about encouraging consumers to take the proper steps to improve the inevitable aging process. We are all going to age, but the rate and extremity of aging can be controlled.”