Exponent is introducing itself with an iron-clad POV, launching with four superior serums. Each serum features its own active powder formulated around a hero active ingredient that suffers from degradation, and all are mixed interchangeably with the same quadruple hyaluronic hydrator. “We will not be launching products just to fill out the category,” shares founder and CEO Liz Whitman. She’s launching Exponent into a category of its own called “self-activated skincare,” based on the notion that “skincare shouldn’t be premixed, watered down or bottled up.” Where did the realization to innovate freshly whipped, clinically backed serums come from? It turns out, a spa chair.
During her role as President and Chief Marketing Officer at Red Door by Elizabeth Arden, Whitman found herself in the hands of one of the brand’s most masterful facialists on Fifth Avenue for a very luxurious kind of market research. As the facialist mixed the masks and serums she was applying, she explained that the active ingredients (think antioxidants, Vitamin C, retinol) were incredibly fragile. By mixing them immediately before application, degradation due to exposure to air, water, or light could be avoided. The results were as impossible to deny as the science. Whitman started wondering how effective the premixed products she was being sold actually were. “I couldn’t get this idea out of my head,” she explains. Years later, after her time at Red Door by Elizabth Arden, she decided to test her theory herself.
“The first thing I did,” explains Whitman, “was buy the top-selling clinical skincare products on the market and send them to an independent lab to test the concentration of the active from day one to day sixty.” The results confirmed her suspicions. 60% of the products tested didn’t even have a starting concentration that would be beneficial for skin. Beyond that, products lost about 40% of their active ingredient concentration in a mere eight weeks.
Bringing Exponent to life happened a few years later, and began with the complicated equation of building a formula that could maintain its efficacy by avoiding the degradation prompted by air, water, and light. Whitman says that a third of the process came down to formula, and the remaining two-thirds were spent on packaging. “The dispenser itself has 19 pieces in it,” she says. This series of wheels moving in different directions at the same time unlock the power of skincare mixed at the ready versus expiring in a bottle. Hitting just the right amount of power and liquid in a precise ratio, or what Whitman calls “an optimal concentration to get benefits without irritation,” is what sets Exponent apart in the self-activation category.
Research and development took three years, and after the massive amount of proprietary research had been collected, Whitman thought, “Why are we just sitting on this?” The Exponent Standard—a new standard for effective skincare—was born. The database of recommendations lives on Exponent’s site and celebrates the brand’s emphasis on valuing what products are full over what they’re free of. Three criteria must be met in order to be included: products must contain one of the 12 tried-and-true ingredients in skincare, at a concentration that proves actually beneficial, and must have undergone clinical testing measured with instrumentation. “We looked at 500 products and found 79 that fit those qualifications,” shares Whitman.
The skincare market’s constant evolution has primed the market for a brand like Exponent. “Three years ago, the highest growth category in skincare was clean, now it’s clinical,” shares Whitman. “People are looking for deliverable results. People are potentially starting to doubt what clean can deliver for them.” The Exponent Standard touches on consumer fatigue in self-diagnosis and a sea of recommendations from social media. Having a data-driven resource with shoppable results serves as an antidote to context-free suggestions from a stranger with an affiliate link.
Communicating directly is integral to how Exponent honors the customer’s need for real results backed by science. “We don’t talk down to the customer,” explains Whitman. She credits consumers’ appreciation for stats, data, and fact over fiction as part of this approach.
Direct doesn’t equal boring. Exponent’s packaging pushes back against the minimalist, all-white aesthetics of the past few years. The brand is looking to form a new perspective; one that’s counter-worthy and environmentally conscious. No plastic waste in package, refills packed in colorful jars with alumni caps, and a B Corp certification all point toward this. “We’re all looking for a little joy in our lives,” shares Whitman. Joy, it seems, and self-activated skincare driven by data and real-time results.
