Masstige Skincare Brand Beyou Is Quietly Making A Big Splash At Target And CVS

Good skincare isn’t determined by where it’s sold, at least that’s what consumers today feel. Recent survey data from market research firm Circana shows 67% of them consider skincare brands on the shelves of drugstores and mass-market chains just as proficient as pricier skincare brands carried by department stores.

Beyou Cosmetics is benefiting from the channel blending. Based on the premise that quality skincare doesn’t have to break the bank, the masstige brand that entered Target three years ago, where it doesn’t sell a single product for over $19, has boosted its sales and retail reach. According to co-founder Forty Amsel, self-funded Beyou is profitable, and its revenues have risen more than 100% annually, a rate that far exceeds mass skincare’s growth. For the year ended Aug. 13, Circana estimates mass skincare sales climbed 11.2% to reach $5.3 billion.

Beyou will be in nearly 1,000 Target locations next year, up from 300, and is sold at close to 1,000 CVS locations. In addition, the brand is available at Macy’s online and Anthropologie, but its four stockkeeping units at Anthropologie are currently out of stock. It’s in the process of trying to restock those items soon.

“I always thought that paying $40, $50, $60 for a moisturizer, even for me, was pricey. If we want to make it for everyone, it has to be affordable,” says Amsel. “We met the Target buyer before the launch when we had this idea, and we brainstormed the price range that would be successful. We shouldn’t cross the $20 price line to be successful at Target.”

Amsel has a long history in the beauty industry and providing beauty merchandise to retailers. For several years starting in 2010, the Venezuelan entrepreneur distributed brands such as Hard Candy and Urban Decay in South America. As early as 2016, the concept for Beyou was percolating in her mind as she saw the beauty market move toward clean formulas and brands like The Ordinary focused on powerhouse ingredients. She concluded Beyou could carve out a space in the mass market with clean formulas spotlighting powerhouse ingredients.

Amsel says, “We are very much about easy-to-understand ingredients like hyaluronic acid and retinol, and it’s easy to use.”

In 2020, Beyou began with six products: bestseller Caffeine Eye Cream, Vitamin C Face Cleanser, Retinol Night Serum, Peptides Moisturizer, Hyaluronic Acid Gel Moisturizer and Witch Hazel Toner Oil Control. It’s since introduced Niacinamide Daily Moisturizer Mineral Sunscreen SPF 40 and Green Tea Mist & Setting Spray to the selection at Target and on its website. At $22, Vita-Peptides 10-Second Wrinkle Eraser Eye Cream is Beyou’s newest product on its site and its most expensive to date.

“We are very much about easy-to-understand ingredients like hyaluronic acid and retinol, and it’s easy to use.”

In figuring out the merchandise collection to kick off the brand, Amsel says it was important for Beyou to have products that consumers could assemble into two- to three-step daytime and nighttime routines. For example, the Vitamin C Face Cleanser, Retinol Night Serum and Caffeine Eye Cream can be slotted into a readymade nighttime routine with skincare ingredients that people are searching for. Beyou’s core customers are women aged 25 to 45 years old, and they come to the brand to hop on a social media trend and fill a gap in their routines for a product or ingredient.

At Target, Beyou sits in the clean skincare assortment with brands the likes of Cocokind and Naturium. Its formulas are 90%-plus naturally derived and designed to be gentle for people with sensitive skin. While Beyou initially manufactured in South Korea, its newer products are manufactured in the United States. Roughly half of its production is done domestically now. The brand expects to release around two products per year. Amsel says, “We want to give attention to each and every launch.”

Beyou engages in influencer seeding, but so far the retail-first brand has largely relied on its retail partners to spread the word. It participates in Target’s Circle reward program offers, beauty consultant training and sample programs. On shelf, it’s used its bright pink packaging to catch shoppers’ eyes, but it’s shifting toward subtler branding.

“I’m switching to a more clean white and light pink to be a bit more quiet. I’m doing it because I want to, not because I have requests from the market. I have been told, ‘Don’t touch what is working, be careful.’ As a co-founder, we always are thinking too much,” says Amsel. “I want to make it look more pricy with light colors and not doing the ‘B’ in the logo as big. The customer won’t be shocked by the change.”

Going forward, Beyou, which is short for “believe in you” and has a team of six people, plans to increase sales on its website, travel abroad and expand at retailers in the U.S. Amsel identifies Ulta Beauty as a dream retail partner for the brand. Asked about what she would tell Ulta about Beyou in a hypothetical pitch to the chain, she says, “It is effective. It is affordable. It is inclusive. It has a great message. I think we have everything the Ulta customer is looking for, and I have a proven success story at Target and CVS.”

Beyou is also positioned in a masstige beauty segment that Amsel forecasts will only get stronger. “I see the masstige market just growing in every category, in sun care, in haircare, in body care as well as skincare,” she says. “I just see it growing every day.”