In the influencer world, Desi Perkins is an OG — Perkins got her start on YouTube via an accidentally viral makeup video.
In 2020, she launched Dezi, an approachably priced collection of sunglasses. A year later, she introduced Dezi Skin, with just one product, a vitamin C serum called Claro Que C. It features what the brand has dubbed “Dezi youth juice,” a blend of Mexican plum fruit, acai berry, tamarind, mango, soursop, guava and avocado extracts, all sourced from Mexico.
Five years later, Perkins is launching the brand at Sephora — online-only, to start.
Launching with the retailer is the realization of a huge goal, Perkins told Glossy, noting that she wanted to take time to grow the brand direct-to-consumer to make sure it was ready to meet the demands of a retailer like Sephora. “I really wanted to get my bearings as far as developing the brand and being a founder,” she said. “I think everything happens in the time that it’s meant to.”
Sephora will launch five of the brand’s hero SKUs, which, together can comprise a simple skin-care regimen. They include its two cleansers, the Canvas Gentle Detox Cleansing Gel and the Skin So Balm Makeup-Melting Cleansing Balm, the latter of which is an Allure Best of Beauty winner and is currently sold out on its DTC site. The assortment will also include the aforementioned Claro Que C Vitamin C Glow Serum, the Agua Fresca Thirst Quenching Gel-Creme Moisturizer and, a personal favorite of Perkins’s, its Pink Nectar Squalane Oil Serum Drops.
“Desi is a unique influencer, in the sense that she’s not a cash grabber. Her goal is to separate it from herself, and she doesn’t rush,” said Daniel Kiyoi, who runs the indie beauty brand incubator Magic Dusk, which helped develop Dezi Skin, as well as the hair-care brand Mane Ivy and makeup brand Auric Cosmetics, among others. “Everything has taken a ton of time. Even on the development side, all the products take a long time, because she won’t release anything until it’s absolutely perfect. Everything has custom packaging, and the supply chain is honestly quite complicated.”
Kiyoi said this patience will help Perkins win. “A lot of influencers make the mistake of wanting this big splash. They don’t take five years to build the brand and then launch in retail, because everyone’s in a hurry to grow and make money. It ends up not working because the community isn’t there yet. You may have a splashy launch and do really well at first, but [then] you can’t sustain those numbers and grow the brand like Sephora wants to see.”
Dezi Skin will host an intimate event for creators and loyal customers after its official Sephora launch on August 5. Most of the marketing promoting the launch will rely on the brand’s social channels and Perkins’s. The brand has 133,000 Instagram followers and and 8,800 TikTok followers. Perkins herself has 4.2 million Instagram followers and 630,000 TikTok followers. The brand will also use its Instagram broadcast channel to talk about the launch.
Perkins joins a select group of fellow Latinx founders at Sephora, which includes Rea Ann Silva’s Beautyblender, Babba Rivera’s Ceremonia, and, of course, Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty. Creator-founded brands have faced challenges at Sephora — both Addison Rae’s Item Beauty and Hyram Yarbro’s Selfless by Hyram were previously stocked by the retailer but are no longer available. Item Beauty has since shuttered; Selfless By Hyram appears to only be available via its own e-commerce site. Standout successes include Marianna Hewitt and Lauren Ireland’s Summer Fridays and Patrick Starrr’s One/Size Beauty.
Dezi Skin’s launch at Sephora comes during a difficult economic landscape for beauty brands that has seen closures, some of which have been seen as setbacks for diversity in beauty. That most notably includes the recent announcement of the upcoming closure of Black-owned makeup brand Ami Colé.
Perkins plans to directly tell her community just how important it is to show up for the brand, especially if they eventually want to see it on Sephora’s IRL shelves.
“I always tell my community that if you want to see more of [yourself] in these spaces, [you have to support] people you want to see in them.” Even though the brand makes less money selling on Sephora.com than on its own DTC site, those sales send a message to the retailer, she said. “In the long run, [online sales] let retailers know that this is what [customers] want to see in store. This is what we want to see more of.”
A certain transparency is now required with customers, Perkins noted. “Gone are the days where [you can] be really quiet about how things work. … You need to let them know, ‘If you guys want to show up for me, do it this way.'”
And Perkins is confident her followers will show up for her. “I have the most supportive community,” she said. “They always show up through every phase of my life, through every change, through every venture.”
Since its launch in 2020, Dezi Skin has seen annual sales growth. Year to date, it has seen 55% year-over-year growth in 2025, and the company expects that number to grow as it “thoughtfully” expands into retail channels, a spokesperson said.
