INNBEAUTY Project represents the culmination of over 30 years of combined experience from its co-founders, Alisa Metzger and Jen Shane. In late 2019, the two joined forces to launch INNBEAUTY Project after identifying a void in the beauty industry for clean and efficacious skincare that was accessible to the next generation of beauty consumers. Metzger and Shane had spent their whole careers working for larger beauty brands when they saw the clean space exploding but quickly noticed that there were a couple of blatant things missing, namely accessibility, which is why their products have an average price of $25. Matched with the average salary in the United States, which is less than $45,000 a year, they saw a white space for high-quality, clean, sustainable products that were accessible to a wider millennial audience and Gen Z consumers.
Founder: Alisa Metzger and Jen Shane
Founded: 2019
Leadership:
2023 Full Year Expected Revenue Range: $10 to $20MM
Categories: Skincare, Color Cosmetics, Body Care
Distribution Channels: Prestige
Funding Rounds: Venture Capital
Please share the inspiration for your brand and how it meets a need in the beauty industry.
Metzger and Shane had a vision of skincare without compromise, so you can have it all—clean, clinically effective, sustainable products that won’t break the bank. With this mission in mind, INNBEAUTY Project was created to break barriers, filling an industry need for innovative, efficacious products with the highest quality, clinically proven ingredients that make you feel unstoppable.
What are some of your key business initiatives for 2023?
As a growing omnichannel brand, 2022 showed explosive growth for INNBEAUTY Project, with close to 275% year-over-year growth at Sephora. The brand is continuing its meteoric rise in 2023 with continued retail expansion with Sephora—both in the US and internationally—and new product launches in key skincare categories, aiming to more than double year-over-year growth.
What are you most proud of having accomplished?
-Alisa Metzger, Co-Founder: While the cost and formula effectiveness make up the functional part of the brand, I’m most proud of the emotional component. From day one, our community feels like they’re a part of the brand. INNBEAUTY is bold and bright on the outside but serious on the inside—the colors, the packaging, the branding, the aesthetics; it sparks joy and makes you feel energized and confident. We’ve built an unstoppable community of people that are passionate about sharing their skin journeys and how their routine has evolved. That emotion of, "This is not only fun to buy and use, but the accessible price point enables it to be a part of their everyday routine and makes them feel empowered," is something we are grateful to be a part of.
What has been the biggest surprise since the brand was founded?
INNBEAUTY is committed to making clean and efficacious skincare that is accessible to the next generation of beauty consumers. When you compare the average American salary to the price of a clean beauty routine from major beauty brands, that community is completely out of reach for a majority of consumers. INNBEAUTY products have an average price of $25 and provide a high-value experience and product to these consumers who are looking for solutions.
What aspect of your brand DNA fuels your competitive advantage?
At INNBEAUTY Project, we are passionate about efficacious, innovative formulas that are anything but one-note and creating supercharged, clean skincare products at an unbeatable value. We’ve built relationships in the industry that help us source high-quality ingredients at incredible price points. Those ingredients are then meticulously calibrated, at the perfect ratios, into overachieving formulas that foster everyone’s most resilient skin. That emphasis on innovation is always at the heart of everything we do whether that’s continuing to amplify our multitasking core products or blowing consumers away with new formulations.
Our powerful, clinically effective products enable us to compete with prestige clean beauty brand formulas without a price that breaks the bank. This aspect of INNBEAUTY Project’s mission is why we’ve been called “skincare’s best kept secret.”
Please share your insight on the future of the beauty industry.
INNBEAUTY believes the future of the beauty industry is going to go beyond a self-care ritual. Through our range of versatile and energizing products, INNBEAUTY is more than just a moment of pause—it’s skincare that propels every person forward in life. We believe skincare should make you feel unstoppable; a motivation that is clearly resonating with the next generation of beauty consumers.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
One of the best pieces of advice is that competition legitimizes what you're doing. In order to create something, you need competition and other brands alongside you in retail and online to create a category and emphasize your customer segment. I'm excited by the challenge of a saturated market to continue to innovate in skincare and create a high-value product for our community.
If you could change one thing in the beauty industry, what would it be?
As a female founder duo, we had to be relentless in our approach when it came to pitching investors. Even though we are two industry veterans with intimate knowledge of the category and the support of Sephora, a leading beauty retailer, we heard a lot of no's. Historically, less than 5% of VC funding has gone to women-owned and women-led businesses, which is far too low for how many incredible female entrepreneurs are creating innovative solutions across categories.
