REYN began with the intention to put an end to the relay race that is the modern skincare routine.
The seductive cult of the 10-step skincare routine offers an overload of options. Seeking the perfect choice is a recipe for misery, as research shows that too many choices can leave us feeling paralyzed and even less satisfied once we actually decide. When a product doesn’t live up to its promises, we’re left with a nagging feeling that our disappointment could’ve been avoided if we had only chosen better. When nothing works the way it’s supposed to, you start to think it must be you. It’s not your skin that’s the problem — it’s your skincare routine.
We took a long, hard look at the skincare industry and realized they were all focused on the same thing: solving skin problems. Although this effort might seem noble at first, it falls apart when we started to realize that many of these products are attempting to solve the problems that their very products create. Dryness, irritation, and weakened skin barriers caused by over-exfoliation and acids might find some temporary relief in creams and serums, but often they’re just a band-aid. Sending in troops to fight a battle and then swooping in with a rescue plan once the damage is done always seemed a little counterintuitive to us.
Every new product you introduce to your routine is a gamble, and the story that the beauty industry tells us is if we just play our cards right, if we just add one product to counteract the consequences of another, their combined potency will work miracles. We forget the one certainty in gambling: the house always wins.
Solving problems isn’t enough when it comes to skincare. We knew we had to get to the root of the problem if we wanted to become part of the solution and emphasize skin health over skincare.
We started with the idea that we needed to treat the outside of our bodies the same way we treat the inside of our bodies. It starts with using the right ingredients at the right dose to promote a healthy biome, clear inflammation, kickstart collagen production, and boost cellular regeneration. Healthy foods do this for your body, which means the right skincare should do this for your face. Sounds easy enough, right?
We knew what we wanted and how we wanted to do it, but finding a formulator to execute our first product to our exacting specifications proved nearly impossible. We spent the first year being told we couldn’t create what we wanted to create, the second year searching high and low for someone who was up to the task of doing the impossible, and the third year fine-tuning the product until it was perfectly active, stable, and yet wildly efficacious.
The result is Base Serum, a one-step serum powered by plants and supercharged with science to give your skin everything it needs to thrive. It’s our humble response to the 10-step skincare routine that many have found does more harm than good. But that’s not all we did.
At the end of those three years, what we ended up with wasn’t just a product. We created an entirely new category we’re calling functional skincare: products designed to play a supporting role in our body’s ability to do what it does best — heal, balance and thrive. Our focus on skin health rather than symptom-focused products led us to develop these molecularly-advanced formulas with biomimicking ingredients that the body recognizes like its own to deliver immediate results and lifetime benefits.
Base Serum is a first-of-its-kind product designed to unlock the skin’s natural healing powers. And it’s only just the beginning.
REYN is a Social Purpose Corporation and Mother Superior venture. We forward 1% of profit to help the next generation of value-aligned founders launch their own ventures, build wealth and command economic agency. Visit reynskin.com for more.
