In the last decade, many skincare brands stretched the cleansing process with a pre-cleanser. To Sophia Lazare, former co-owner of a med spa, the additional step was a sign the beauty industry had gone too far pushing more and more skincare products that didn’t necessarily help the skin—and could actually hurt it. “Why is that? Of course, it’s a money-making machine,” she says.
Fed up, Lazare joined forces with Agnieszka Bozzelli, a friend and fellow spa veteran who previously worked with Bliss founder Marcia Kilgore, to offer an alternative to multistep skincare routines. The pair has launched True Two All, a skincare brand that has two products ($36 cleanser The Wash and $62 moisturizer The Hydrator) and pledges to only have two products forever.
“We’ve specialized in medical aesthetics, and what we’ve seen is that a lot of skin issues people have acquired are from the misuse and overuse of products,” says Lazare. “The idea for True Two All was born of, what would it be like to simplify something that shouldn’t be complex and provide idiot-proof skincare? There’s no way you can overuse the products, and they’re universal irrespective of age, ethnicity or gender. Anyone can use the products, and they can serve to maintain and support skin functionality.”
True Two All isn’t the only indie beauty brand doubling down on a two-step regimen. Ember Wellness, a brand from style and design authority Amanda Schuler, is leaning into two-step programs pairing its Organic Facial Oil and Hydrosol. Duos of the products for sensitive, balanced, mature, dry and acne-prone skin are priced from $54 to $145.
Founded by aesthetician Nadia Porter, Koope is doing the skincare two-step, too. Similar to True Two All, the brand’s steps involve a cleanser and moisturizer, but it’s not restricted to two products. The brand has five products–Gel Cleanser, Milk Cleanser, Lightweight Moisturizer, Mediumweight Moisturizer and Heavyweight Moisturizer–to appeal to skincare consumers’ varied formula preferences. The cleansers are $20 each, and the moisturizers are $30 each.
“We believe in less is more, and that you can have great skin in just two steps. This is our ethos,” says Porter. “We like the concept of being really good at just a couple of things and pride ourselves on being experts at cleansers and moisturizers, so that when people who want an easy, two-step routine come to Koope, they know that they’ll get the best cleansers and moisturizers on the market because that’s what we’re experts in.”
True Two All, Koope and Ember Wellness are extensions of the skinimalism movement that counters the lengthy skincare rituals associated with K-Beauty and the rise of skintellectuals associated with ingredient-centered brands like The Ordinary and The Inkey List. Two-step skincare regimens are intended to be understandable and achievable for time-pressed skincare consumers who can’t distinguish between AHAs and BHAs.
“As someone who has worked in spas and aesthetics colleges, one of the most common things I heard from clients in my treatment room was that they were confused by skincare, and if they bought a plethora of products, they didn’t end up using most of them,” says Porter. “I did a lot of market research before starting Koope and based our product line and formulas on what consumers wanted.”
Lazare concurs, saying, “The trend toward simplicity has really grown in my opinion out of frustration and confusion in the market. It’s confusing to me if I go to Sephora to try to figure out which of the cleansers would work for me, and I’m well-versed in the game. I can’t imagine how frustrating it is for the consumer.”
“The trend toward simplicity has really grown in my opinion out of frustration and confusion in the market.”
Skincare systems with a limited number of steps aren’t novel in the beauty industry. Perhaps most famously, Proactiv has sold millions and millions of units of its three-step acne treatment system. Bozzelli underscores that what’s different about True Two All is it isn’t zeroing in on a skin condition such as acne.
The difficulty of the brand’s approach is that it had to formulate comprehensive products to please a broad base of consumers. In a break from single hero ingredient wonders, True Two All emphasizes its products are stacked with several impactful ingredients. There are 10 in The Hydrator and eight in The Wash. Among them are meadow seed oil-derived meadowfoamestolide, squalene, shea butter, saccharide isomerate, probiotic lactobacillus and red algae.
Generally enticing textures were critically important. For The Wash, True Two All settled on a texture that’s a hybrid of a milk and foam cleanser. “If you don’t like how the product feels, no matter how good it is, you won’t use it,” says Lazare. “We didn’t put any fragrance in because it can be potentially irritating, and we have an anti-inflammatory ingredient in the cleanser, which is particularly beneficial for inflamed or sensitive skin. We also wanted to formulate The Wash to remove makeup and foam enough to be used as a shaving product for the face or body.”
Universal products are crucial to True Two All for business and philosophical reasons. Explaining the latter, Bozzelli says, “We see what’s happening now and how everything is trying to divide people and look for differences. We want to do the opposite. We want to show people that we are the same. We can express ourselves in different ways, but we are all human. Why don’t we look at what brings us together rather than tears us apart?”
On the former, if True Two All is to reach significant size, it must generate significant volume from two products—and that’s a key challenge for brands that commit to constraining their lineup as they promote two-step skincare. “Our goal is for True Two All to be a household name and to be in every household,” says Bozzelli, confident that the brand will accomplish significant volume.
Drilling down on demographics, Lazare and Bozzelli suggest that the brand can draw male consumers, an obviously large group that hasn’t been exhausted by the beauty industry (a 2020 survey by the brand Tiege discovered 30% of men don’t wash their faces daily). Travelers and athletes are another target. And both True Two All and Koope argue that younger consumers are attracted to the ease of two-step skincare.
The sustainability aspect of minimizing skincare routines is a potential magnet for younger consumers as well. According to an analysis by investment firm Coefficient Capital and publication The New Consumer, half of consumers report they prioritize sustainability when making purchasing decisions, including 64% of millennial consumers and 58% of gen Z consumers. True Two All ups the sustainability quotient with refills for The Wash and The Hydrator.
Lazare mentions that True Two All is launching as younger consumers’ beauty spending is being squeezed by economic shakiness and swinging toward makeup as beauty industry trends have shifted toward it, making its promise of maintaining healthy skin without necessitating spending on copious amounts of skincare products especially relevant. “My daughter who is 22 loves makeup, but she really loves a simple skincare routine,” she says. “That’s what we’ve noticed with younger consumers, they want simple.”
Retailers, in contrast, don’t want simple two-step skincare if it stunts sales. Lazare, Bozzelli and Porter don’t think that will be the case. However, True Two All is planning to stick to direct-to-consumer distribution for a year to test its model. After a year, it expects to present retailers with data to show its two-step system resonates with consumers.
Retail is in Koope’s near future. The brand has partnered with distributor KeHE and is rolling out to 75 Fresh Thyme stores across nine states on Oct. 31. Porter says she’s “been hearing a lot from customers that they have always found it so difficult and confusing to shop for skincare, and that Koope is a refreshing solution to this, which is great because that’s our goal.”
