Launched: 2021
Key Executives:
2025 Full Year Expected Revenue Range: $20 to $30 million
2025 Projected Offline Distribution Points: 500
Primary Category: Skincare
Other Categories: Bodycare, Fragrance
Key Markets: United States
Retail Partnerships: Ulta Beauty, Jenni Kayne, Nordstrom, Beauty Space x Bloomingdale's
Primary Distribution Channel: DTC
Other Distribution Channels: Amazon, Prestige, Boutique, Department Store, Professional
Funding Rounds: Venture Capital
Total Funds Raised: $8 million
Notable Investors: Silas Capital, Unilever Ventures
Board Members: Julia Hunter
Oak Essentials was founded (August 2021) on Jenni’s belief that hydration is the foundation of aging gracefully. Every formula, from serums to bodycare, is crafted to promote moisture retention and support healthy, glowing skin. We embrace the power of a thoughtful skincare and bodycare routine, which is why we’ve created two simple signature regimens that not only rejuvenate the skin but also deliver a luxurious, spa-like experience through their textures, scents, and performance.
As we’ve evolved, our product offerings have expanded to address specific skin and body concerns, ensuring that our routines are fully customizable. While our brand truly offers something for everyone, we know our customer is the sophisticated, mature woman, a group we feel is often underserved in the category. With her in mind, we develop products and shape our messaging to offer a purposeful assortment of skincare essentials that blend efficacy, experience, and results.
Insights provided by Lauren Harris, CEO
Key business initiatives for 2025?
Having primarily been an online-driven brand prior to this year, we are thrilled to bring Oak Essentials to life in physical spaces through our expanding retail partnerships. In-person experiences allow us to truly engage with customers, offering them the opportunity to interact with our unique sensorial products, from textures to scents, which can’t be fully appreciated online. We’re also ramping up our event programming in collaboration with Jenni Kayne and other retail partners, hosting our first large-scale customer-facing pop-up in New York City in October celebrating the launch of our Nourishing Cleansing Milk. These activations are an essential part of our strategy to introduce the brand to new audiences and offer a more immersive experience to our existing customers.
What are you most proud of having accomplished?
I view 2024 as the year that we laid all of the necessary groundwork to support future scale. In just a few short months, we've hired an incredible, seasoned in-house team, expanded beyond DTC to open retail distribution and secured a partnership with Ulta Beauty, diversified our marketing strategy, and ultimately as a result of these things, raised significant capital from some incredible partners needed to recognize the growth goals we have for the business. In one year, it feels like we went from being a best kept secret to a brand recognized as a major up-and-comer within the skin and bodycare categories.
What has been the biggest surprise?
For me personally, coming from a background almost entirely in apparel, I have been so impressed by the supportive and inclusive community of women leaders in the beauty industry. Help and advice is available at every turn, and there is a genuine feeling that everyone in the category can have a win, no matter what your goals are. The beauty industry feels like a small world in the best way, and I'm very lucky to now be a part of it.
What fuels your competitive advantage?
Much like the timeless, understated wardrobe and home pieces that define the Jenni Kayne brand, Jenni's personal approach to beauty has always been about simplicity and intention. We wanted to create a skincare line that reflected this philosophy—a pared-back, thoughtful collection of essentials, so Oak Essentials was a natural extension of that vision. Over the past few years, Jenni has really started to focus on embracing this idea of aging gracefully—taking care of yourself in a way that feels natural and authentic, rather than complicated or overwhelming.
Insight on the future of the beauty industry.
There are so many incredible brands across all categories of beauty with new faces popping up seemingly daily. In the prestige/luxury space in particular, knowing that retailers are having a bit of a harder time with this segment at present, I think it's going to become even more important to show up in a compelling, differentiated way in a retail environment that drives real connection to the brand and creates new reasons for a customer to walk through the door and choose you. For us, being that one of the hallmarks of our brand is the spa-like experience of using our products, we're looking to bring that to life in a retail environment through mini treatments and in-store spa takeovers that we hope create moments of self-care for our customers.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
That it's okay to slow down. When you're in early stage growth mode, it's easy to feel like you have to do everything and be everywhere all at once. I show up more clearly and strategically when I'm taking time for myself, and our team is able to have a greater impact when we focus on a few key initiatives vs. overfilling the calendar.
What is the best mistake you've ever made and what did you learn?
Similar to the answer above, it would be in the past not structuring the way I work to create space to work on both myself and the business, vs. just being in the business 100% of the time. I'm very fortunate to work with a very wise executive coach who challenges me to do (surprisingly challenging) things like creating rules around my max number of meetings per day, what hours I'll take meetings in, what meetings I will and will not attend, etc. In practice, I've found I have so much more of an impact when I work that way.
What advice would you give to someone contemplating launching a beauty brand?
I would have to say, know where your strengths lie in terms of your contributions to the business, and then surround yourself with the best people you can find to fill in all the blanks. For me personally, that means knowing I'm not the creative visionary, so it's important for me to understand how every aspect of the business functions, and even more importantly, how they all interact to bring Jenni's vision to life across all of our channels. Being new to this industry, I've learned so much from my team and have spent as much time as possible in the last year soaking up every bit of information I can from them; it's been invaluable to me.
If you could change one thing in the beauty industry what would it be?
I would love to see the industry refocus on a more mature customer. Obviously Gen-Z and Gen-A are the future, and it's important to think about how we engage with that segment, but there is also so much power, and in my opinion white space currently, in decidedly saying that we are developing products, messaging, and experiences that target a woman who is at a time in her life where it feels like the system is no longer there to support her—be that in healthcare, day-to-day experiences, etc. Women of all ages deserve to feel seen and valued, and I hope to see more brands celebrate aging and addressing the concerns of women 40+.
