Shiseido-Backed Brand Phyla Brings Acne-Fighting Phages To Sephora

Phages are moving to their next phase—entering Sephora.

Phyla, a brand using phages or viruses that infect and kill bacteria to fight acne, is launching exclusively at the beauty specialty retailer and has arrived on its website in advance of rolling out to Next Big Thing displays in nearly 90 top locations in March. Sephora is carrying its three-product system plus a set: $70 Acne Phage Serum, $60 Anti-Blemish Moisturizer + 5% Niacinamide, $30 pH Balancing Gel Cleanser and $120 Acne Phage System.

“Sephora is the ideal retailer for us because of their brand, reputation, overlap between our target and their clients and ability to partner with an emerging brand and help them grow,” says Neil Giugno, CEO of Phlya. “We don’t see exclusivity as a barrier. They have our attention and we have theirs. The first few years are all about focus.”

Phyla has taken a long road to Sephora. Yug Varma, the CTO and co-founder of the brand who has a doctorate in bioorganic chemistry from Johns Hopkins University, began developing the technology that powers its serum over a decade ago. Giugno highlights that the technology has a patent in the United States that makes “it difficult for others to bring phage technology into the acne space.”

Previously, the brand held probiotic skincare positioning, and Maria Cho, co-founder, ex-CEO and current CEO of biotechnology startup Triplebar, handled operations. Giugno, former marketing director for Colgate Palmolive Mexico and an investor in and COO of nutrition platform GenoPalate, came on board in an advisory capacity in 2021 and was named CEO in 2023. Phyla inked its deal with Sephora last year.

For the better part of 2024, Phyla was what’s called “in the kitchen” with the retailer or in the process of refinement to make its best case to shoppers. The brand toned down the creaminess of its Acne Phage Serum to give it a liquid serum texture preferred by young consumers, and it scrapped green as the primary color for the product’s packaging in favor of black.

Giugno believes the choice of black packaging communicates to consumers with acne that, while acne sucks, it doesn’t mean they can’t have a cool product for it. “Black is bold. Black is confident. Black can be edgy. When people want to feel proud, and they are going out at night, and they want to celebrate, what’s the color that most of them wear? It’s black,” he says. “It also helps us differentiate. If you look at the acne space, there are two segments. There are clinical brands, which are white and something you may find in a derm’s office, and then there are playful brands.”

Even more than its packaging, Phyla’s phages differentiate it. Originally, its product had to be refrigerated because it had live probiotics, but the brand has worked to sell it without refrigeration. Acne Phage Serum contains salicylic acid along with phage technology. Phages are the most abundant microorganisms on the planet, and Phyla touts its phage technology for nurturing the skin’s microbiome as it fends off unwanted acne-causing bacteria without side effects.

“Sephora is the ideal retailer for us.”

At Sephora, the brand pushes the needle for acne care, a category that it’s intent on building. Immediately prior to Phyla, the retailer picked up Sofie Pavitt Face in the adult acne arena. Giugno groups Phyla’s customer base into two cohorts: women in their 20s and 30s disappointed with the plethora of acne products they’ve tried, and parents hunting for alternatives to the harsh acne offerings on the market for their children.

In fact, Giugno mentions that Sephora executives who are parents tested Phyla with their kids, and the results convinced them it should be in the retailer’s assortment. Phyla has conducted an 8-week clinical study showing that its ingredient technology halts overgrowth of the bacteria causing acne and improves skin microbiome diversity. Since 2023, Giugno reveals that over 50% of people purchasing Phyla on its site have returned to purchase a product from it again.

The brand has raised $9 million in funding throughout its history, including from Ryan Reynolds, Shiseido’s venture capital fund LIFT Ventures, incubator Squared Circles and VC firms SV Tech Ventures and Willow Growth. Although Giugno says Phyla’s “cash profile is comfortable right now,” it may consider fundraising later this year to support expansion. International expansion with Sephora is a possibility down the line. Phyla has filed for patent protection in Japan, South Korea, China, Australia, Canada and the European Union.

Giugno says the brand’s “very healthy” margins and retention put it on the path to potentially reach profitability by the end of the year. He declined to discuss Phyla’s revenues. Judging by sales estimates in the publication Women’s Wear Daily of brands in Sephora’s Next Big Thing displays, it’s unlikely Phyla’s retail sales will surpass $10 million in its initial year at the retailer.

Outside of Sephora, the brand has products in the hands of roughly 250 dermatologists. The dermatology channel can serve as a credibility and awareness booster to facilitate sales in Sephora, and many brands have attempted to be successful in it in tandem with beauty specialty retail.

Sampling is a key strategy for Phyla, and the brand has been sampling products to people with acne to spread the word about their benefits. Giugno says, “We don’t want to invest just in influencers in a broad sense because acne is an emotional and painful problem and people want to trust who they’re receiving information from.”

Phyla could extend its product selection beyond acne to one or two additional skincare categories. “What we are great at is using phage technology to solve significant skincare conditions,” says Giugno. “Our first is acne, and we are pretty excited about what we have seen with our early results with the technology, and now we have two channels—derm and Sephora—to really grow.”