Erly is aimed at gen Z consumers, but don’t expect any bubble letter logos or cutesy anthropomorphic mascots.
From moms Hallie McDonald, a dermatologist, and Jamie Chandlee, co-founder of online fashion, beauty and home product review destination Rank & Style, the new skincare brand is housed in embossed packaging with a colorful, yet refined retro look to fit on a teen’s—and that teen’s mom’s—vanity. It launched Tuesday on its website with seven products priced from $22 to $42. Before its official launch, it racked up $75,000 in six weeks of pre-sales through IRL events around Austin during the holiday season.
Considered skincare essentials by Erly and featuring ingredients like niacinamide, hyaluronic acid and peptides, the brand’s debut vegan, fragrance-free products were formulated to suit the sensitive skin of people spanning generations to achieve common skincare benefits such as hydration, anti-inflammation, barrier support and sun protection. There are three $38 serums (Daily Dew, Daily Soothe and Daily Splash), two $42 moisturizers (Start Erly Moisturizer and Early Night Moisturizer), $22 Face Foam and $22 The Mixer, a brush for creating custom concoctions. Erly instructs customers to choose a base, add in a serum and mix them together with The Mixer.
The inclusion of The Mixer harkens to Erly’s target customers making slime as children and Drunk Elephant’s smoothie philosophy of blending skincare products together, which has been a hit with social media-savvy so-called Sephora kids who’ve flocked to the beauty specialty retailer for the Shiseido-owned brand. But McDonald suggests the fascination with Drunk Elephant and other brands with potent skincare products hasn’t been helping skin health as she’s seen a huge increase in patients with skincare routines cluttered with the latest trendy products that have damaged their skin in her practice in Austin, Tex.
“Everybody is using way too many products on their skin and then developing complications from that,” she says. “Inflammatory conditions, perioral dermatitis, irritant dermatitis, eczema, really from just doing too much and being influenced to be using products that are inappropriate for their skin.”
Erly is a portmanteau of Chandlee and McDonald’s 11- and 10-year-old daughters’ names, Emerson and Lyle. Emerson and Lyle’s friendship led to Chandlee and McDonald’s friendship and eventual business relationship. Both understand professionally and personally moms’ interest in their children cultivating responsible skincare habits.
In her practice, McDonald, who also has a teen daughter, says, “I see moms bringing kids in to start skincare routines, prophylactically, wanting to talk to somebody that’s not a TikTok influencer. And I think it’s really trying to get it right the first time versus buying all this stuff that really is inappropriate for young skin.”
Erly is hardly the only brand trying to start younger skincare users off right. Btwn, Bubble, Evereden, TBH, Your Skin Stuff and Good For You Girls are among the growing number of skincare brands catering to gen Z consumers born between 1997 and 2012 and gen alpha consumers born after them. They’re responding to tremendous demand. According to market research firm NielsenIQ exploring 2023 data, households in the United States with teens made 17.1% more annual trips for skincare than households in the U.S. generally, and 52% of households with teens spent on skincare in stores compared to 48% for households generally.
Erly believes that sunscreen is at the core of an appropriate skincare routine for young skincare users. The brand’s Start Erly Moisturizer is an SPF 40 zinc oxide-based sunscreen. Erly’s product pipeline contains a tinted version of the sunscreen to ensure its formula is accessible for all skin tones.
“If we can convince younger people, and not just children, but in their 20s, 30s to start wearing SPF on a daily basis, you’ll be really doing your skin of service,” says McDonald. “A big mission of ours is to formulate something that doesn’t feel like homework and is something that people do as routinely as brushing their teeth.”
Early on for Erly, the brand has concentrated on building a community in its Austin community. It’s connected with parents, influencers and groups and done pop-ups and participated in events in the startup-friendly city. McDonald says the boots-on-the-ground strategy has allowed her to “tell people why they should be using this and not X, Y, and Z, and I felt like the education piece really was able to take the forefront when we were really focusing on infiltrating different parts of our community.”
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