Launch Date: June 2022
Geography: Los Angeles, CA, US
Founder:
2025 Full Year Projected Revenue: Under $2M, according to industry estimates
Primary Category: Skincare
Other Category: Personal Care
Funding: Self-Funded
Primary Distribution Channel: Independent Retailers
Other Distribution Channels:
Key Retail Partner: Formula Fig
2025 Projected Offline Distribution Points: 15
MARK Los Angeles was co-founded by pharmaceutical scientist Mark Menning, PhD, and hospitality, wellness, and spa expert Dee Khalsa, with a mission to unlock the untapped potential of flavonoids in skincare. These potent plant compounds, well-researched for their anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties, have been overlooked due to challenges with stability, delivery, and dosing. Drawing on decades of experience developing FDA-approved antiviral therapies, Mark created XDF. This proprietary transdermal delivery system stabilizes flavonoids and delivers them deep into the skin at low, effective doses. Unlike oral supplements, topical delivery through XDF makes these compounds bioavailable where they’re needed most.
Insights: Mark Menning, Founder + CEO
Why now and why you?
Flavonoids have well-documented pharmacological activity, but their topical use has long been limited by poor solubility, instability, and low skin absorption. With my pharmaceutical background in antiviral drug development, I saw an opportunity to apply translational pharmaceutics, using formulation science, to enable a class of compounds that otherwise wouldn’t be viable. XDF, our transdermal flavosome platform, addresses the core delivery issues, allowing the flavonoids to become functional in skincare.
What fuels your competitive advantage?
XDF isn’t just a unique formulation; it’s a delivery platform built from a novel combination of physical and chemical properties that form stable, liposomal-like structures. It enhances the penetration of ingredients that typically struggle to reach therapeutic levels in skin (like flavonoids, peptides, and ceramides). Flavonoids have low oral bioavailability due to poor solubility and high liver metabolism. However, they are ideally suited for topical delivery: lipophilic, relatively safe, and potently anti-inflammatory at low concentrations. XDF enables effective topical dosing, providing a scalable platform and a robust innovation pipeline.
What are you most proud of accomplishing to date?
We created our cold sore serum and accompanying balm that uses plant flavonoids to block viral replication and visibly reduce symptoms often within hours or a day, without relying on synthetic antivirals. This category has seen little innovation over the past two decades. We saw an opportunity to bring about real change. Our formulas are fast-acting, effective, and offer people a new kind of relief, grounded in science rather than outdated solutions.
What is the one thing you wish someone had told you?
Translating science into marketing language is an ongoing challenge. You can’t assume people will just “get it.” The messaging must be continuously simplified, clarified, and reiterated. Bridging that gap between technical accuracy and consumer understanding takes time and humility.
What would you tell your past self before starting this journey?
Keep simplifying the science, and don’t be afraid to lean into your background. We’re trained as scientists to stay humble, but there’s value in owning your expertise. You’ll need to step outside your comfort zone to communicate, market, and lead effectively, but your foundation in science is your greatest asset.
What does success look like in the next 3-5 years?
I want MARK Los Angeles to be recognized as the leader in flavonoid-based skincare, with a clinically backed pipeline that includes acne, cold sores, barrier repair, and haircare. I’d like to see XDF adopted as a go-to platform in dermatologist-forward retail, medical aesthetics, and pharmacies, defining a new standard in transdermal delivery.
What's one industry trend that is overhyped, and what's being overlooked?
Active ingredients like peptides, ceramides, and even flavonoids are often overhyped but rarely delivered in a way that makes them truly effective. The real gap isn’t in the ingredients; it’s in how they’re delivered. That’s what’s being overlooked.
How do you think the industry needs to evolve?
We need to move past “clean beauty” as a marketing crutch. Ingredients like phenoxyethanol, at concentrations of less than 1%, are effective and safe preservatives, yet they are unfairly vilified. Behind the scenes, ingredient manufacturers have made significant strides in purity and safety, and many have transitioned from petroleum-based feedstocks to biobased alternatives; yet, they rarely receive credit for it. It is time for a shift toward evidence-based formulations, ingredient transparency, and treating consumers as capable, informed participants.
If you could wave a magic wand, what one wish would you make for your business?
That the versatility of our platform would be instantly understood. How it unlocks the power of flavonoids, peptides, and ceramides through accurate transdermal delivery. And if I were granted a second wish, I would make social media and online ads make sense to me. Pouring money into an algorithm and hoping for virality doesn’t align with how we built the science.
