Coming out of 2020, the makeup category continued to see challenges as Covid’s Delta variant proved the world was not ready to return to normalcy. But a select few color cosmetics brands, including Ilia, remained resilient and bucked the downturn. The 11-year-old clean-beauty brand has doubled its year-over-year revenue every year since 2017, and it’s on track to reach more than $100 million in annual sales this year. CEO Lynda Berkowitz can be credited with leading the rocketing success of the brand.
For its part, Ilia’s success has been bolstered by the sales of its refined makeup products for millennials and their mothers. Those include its hero products, the Super Serum Skin Tint and the Limitless Lash Mascara.
In 2021, the brand also expanded the shade range for its Super Serum Skin Tint and reached the milestone of selling 1 million units of its Skin Tints and over 2 million of its Limitless Lash Mascara.
Among her recent accomplishments, Berkowitz, who joined the team in 2016, said she’s most proud of doubling Ilia’s employee size to nearly 100 people while the company operated remotely. Successfully driving the growth of the Super Serum Skin Tint, even though it launched in March 2020, was also a win, she said. Notably, the Super Serum Skin Tint is the first purchase of over 50% of new Ilia customers.
“In this industry, there’s a launch-it-and-leave-it mentality. But we have always wanted to do more with less,” said Berkowitz. “And being humble about where we are in this journey is definitely part of a strong strategy.”
In 2022, Berkowitz’s focus will be on continuing to grow the team while also retaining talent, she said. Ilia plans to conduct an internal study on what it takes to motivate a team, after which it will ideate non-traditional methods for talent retention and promoting motivation. Berkowitz said Ilia is unlikely to go back to working in a traditional office setting five days a week.
Additionally, Ilia is moving to mono-material packaging to facilitate easier recycling of its products. It announced in September that 1% of all sales from its hero Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 40 will go toward the charitable initiative 1% For The Planet, focused on reforestation.
