New Scientist-Founded Brand Terns Wants To Energize The Sun After-Care Segment

Unlike the growing number of sunscreen brands focused on reflecting ultraviolet rays, Terns is addressing their aftereffects.

The brand is launching today with two products: Everyday, a $38 cream for regular sun exposure, and Mayday, a $58 gel-cream for overexposure to the sun, were the results. They’re intended to be used in tandem with rather than in place of sunscreen.

While Mayday is designed for sunburned skin, Terns founder and chemical biologist Eduardo Esquenazi says of Everyday, “I think of it as the ying to the yang of daily sunblock use. If we’re going to go through the trouble of putting on sunblock every day in the morning, maybe you should put something on to help some of that inflammation at the end of the day as well.”

Esquenazi explains Terns decided to enter the after-sun segment because “there’s been very little innovation, maybe because it’s a much smaller market when compared to sunscreens, but we started to really realize that taking care of your skin after sun exposure and pollution is just as important when it comes to skin health, so we thought about what products could help people alleviate those effects from both daily and extreme sun exposure.”

Grand View Research pegs the global sun after-care market size at roughly $1.2 billion in 2022 and forecasts it will advance at a compound annual growth rate of 3.7% through 2030. The market research firm estimates the global sun care market is roughly 10X the sun after-care market and is advancing at a CAGR of 4%.

Everyday and Mayday contain a proprietary ingredient blend Terns calls Sirenas Complex. It features natural ingredients the brand describes as derived from the ocean. Esquenazi, who received a doctorate from UC San Diego in biology and natural marine products, founded biotechnology and drug discovery company Sirenas in 2011 after receiving a cancer diagnosis while in graduate school.

“As I was getting better and doing all these medical treatments, I learned that a lot of the medications that I was being given were derived originally from nature,” he says. “I embarked on a mission to really understand the chemistry produced by natural sources such as plants and eventually marine organisms.”

On its website, Sirenas asserts it has the one of the “largest and most unique collections of marine organisms and plants from diverse ecosystems and geographies.” It subjects the marine organisms and plants to chemical extraction and analysis to determine if they have human applications. Once Sirenas determined it had molecules effective for skin inflammation, Esquenazi went to work building a brand for the sun after-care segment.

Terns was two years in the making. It’s named for the Arctic tern, a small gray and white bird with among the longest migration patterns of any animal on the earth. It travels from the North Pole to the South Pole following the sun or chasing “perpetual summer,” as Esquenazi suggests. The Arctic tern’s outline is present in Terns’ branding.

“I’m a surfer and fisherman and have lived my whole life around the ocean and outside,” says Esquenazi, adding that terns “usually hover over the ocean and, as a fisherman, they signal where other fish might be, so they’ve always been a favorite of mine.”

Terns is Esquenazi’s first foray into the consumer goods space, which he’s realized is quite different from the drug space Sirenas operates in. Drug companies often venture into beauty to generate sales on a faster timeline than medicines that have to clear United States Food and Drug Administration approval.

“When it comes to drug discovery, there are so many people and years involved between coming up with an idea and it ever reaching somebody that can use it,” says Esquenazi’. “It’s very convoluted and complex, so this was fun.”

Along with his scientific expertise, Terns’ sun after-care products suit Esquenazi’s adventurous, outdoorsy lifestyle, and the brand is targeting consumers with a similar penchant for the outdoors and love for travel. Parents are also targets.

Terns is starting in direct-to-consumer distribution and aims to land partnerships with specialty retailers drawing customers interested in sustainability and outdoor activities. The brand declines to share the amount of funding it’s raised or a sales projection for its initial year on the market. It disclosed it has investment from Sirenas and a “small private fund” specializing in impact seed rounds, and its goal is to remain closely held and attract a few aligned investors.