Pioneer of the concept of skin-benefitting makeup, Kosas is introducing a collection of facial cleansers.
Launched on May 1, the Plump + Juicy Double Cleansing System includes an oil cleanser ($48) and a gel cleanser ($38; $86 when purchased as a set). The set is meant to leave the skin feeling “plump and juicy,” said Kosas founder Sheena Zadeh. High-quality ingredients and a “spa-like” scent profile were also prioritized during development.
Kosas will officially turn 10 years old in October. One of the OG “clean” beauty brands, it has always marketed its products as makeup that benefits the skin. In fact, in 2019, it debuted the tagline “Makeup for skincare freaks.”
This has become a popular positioning in the “clean” beauty space. Westman Atelier, launched in 2018, dubs itself as “Skincare that looks like makeup,” while Saie, launched in 2019, uses the tagline “Makeup as skincare.”
As for being early to the idea, Kosas founder Sheena Zadeh said, “I was on a mission to change the industry’s mindset, and that’s what happened — so I can’t really be mad about it.” Still, she said, “words are cheap.” For its part, Kosas has always made a point to clinically validate that its makeup is, in fact, as efficacious as skin care and to communicate those results to its customers. Take its Revealer Skin-Improving Foundation SPF 25, for example. Aside from including SPF 25, the product can also claim, based on consumer studies, that 100% of its users saw an improvement in their skin’s hydration, as well as firmness in their bare skin.
So the next logical step was to introduce skin care.
“We have built a lot of trust with the consumer, to the point where our No. 1 requested next thing [was] actually cleanser,” Zadeh said. “We are seeing our community ask us for skin care; this is not the skin-care brand no one asked for.” Currently, the brand sells a face mist, dubbed the Plump + Juicy Vegan Collagen Spray-On Serum, as well as a deodorant and a body wash. Kosas declined to comment on what percentage of sales its existing skin- and body-care products comprise, but in 2023, it was reported that the brand had reached $120 million in sales, up from $80 million in 2022. Products like its luminizing SPF (DreamBeam SPF 40 PA++++) and hydrating setting spray (Cloud Set Mist) also exist as bridge products between the skin-care and makeup categories.
Ahead of the launch, Kosas CMO Adeline Leong teased the cleansers to the brand’s 732,000 Instagram followers and 342,000 TikTok followers by flipping its tagline, posting: “Skincare for makeup freaks.” The set’s marketing will focus on the importance of double cleansing, a process many still don’t understand, especially outside of the K-Beauty niche, Leong said.
“True skin-care freaks understand the importance of properly removing makeup,” Leong said. In one promotional post on Kosas’s feed, a mockup of a billboard reads, “Your skin isn’t clean unless you’re double cleansing.”
As for other marketing, this will be a quieter launch than some of the brand’s splashier makeup launches, for which it often works with mega-influencers like Glamzilla and Mikayla Nogueira. “Marketing skin care is not the same as marketing makeup; having a cleanser go viral is not necessarily even what you want,” Leong said. As she sees it, rather than the most “viral” skin care, people typically buy what they believe will be best for their skin.
“I don’t expect 1,000 people to open their mailer tomorrow and be like, ‘Oh, my god. I tried this cleanser and it changed my life,'” Leong said. “Viral is starting to become synonymous with a moment in time, and we don’t want that. We want loyalty over time.”
Kosas will seed the products to influencers, as well as skin-care experts like aestheticians. It previewed the launches to several bigger creators on its most recent influencer trip, in Punta Mita, Mexico from March 30-April 2. They included Katie Fang (6.3 million TikTok followers) and Kensington Tillo (1.7 million TikTok followers).
The cleansers are exclusively launching on Kosas’s e-commerce site. A more accessible trial set of minis ($35) is also being sold. The brand has not yet determined if the products will launch at Sephora. Leong said the products were made for dedicated Kosas fans and existing community members, unlike the brand’s recently launched color-correcting concealer, which was intended to attract new customers to the business.
As the brand nears the end of its first decade in business, rumors have swirled about who may acquire it and when. When asked if category expansion is connected, in part, to that next phase of business, Zadeh was adamant that it is not. “One of the things that’s so special about this brand is that we have a very rich and layered DNA. … There are an infinite number of stories I want to tell, … and everything Kosas does is through the lens of our DNA. This launch is in service of the brand. [That is] always the way that we operate.”
