Launch Date: August 2022
Geography: Kingston, New York
Founder: Chris Salgardo, Founder + CEO
Executive Team:
2026 Full Year Projected Revenue: $2M - $5M
Primary Category: Men's Grooming
Other Category: Skincare
Funding: Angel Investment
Primary Distribution Channel: Department Store
Other Distribution Channels:
Key Retail Partners:
2026 Projected Offline Distribution Points: 200
Atwater is a modern men’s skincare and grooming brand founded by Chris Salgardo, former President of Kiehl’s, who brings decades of experience in beauty, skincare, men’s grooming, and wellness. Launched in August 2022, Atwater was created to make high-performance skincare feel straightforward, approachable, and built for real life. The brand simplifies men’s routines without sacrificing efficacy, offering clean, elevated formulas powered by clinically recognized ingredients and intuitive systems that support long-term skin health. Rooted in education, trust, and founder expertise, Atwater is helping redefine what men’s grooming can look like today—less complicated, more effective, and more culturally relevant.
Insights: Chris Salgardo, Founder + CEO
Why now and why you?
Men’s grooming is evolving quickly, but many brands still either overcomplicate skincare or underserve men with products that feel outdated, clinical, or one-dimensional. Atwater meets this moment with a more modern approach: straightforward, high-performance skincare that is easy to understand, easy to use, and rooted in long-term skin health. With my decades of experience leading and building trusted skincare brands, Atwater brings both authority and fresh perspective to a category that is ready for more innovation, education, and elevated product experiences.
What fuels your competitive advantage?
Atwater’s competitive advantage comes from the combination of founder authority, product clarity, and a deep understanding of the men’s grooming consumer. The brand simplifies skincare without dumbing it down, creating routines and products that feel approachable while still delivering performance. Its Skin Armor System reflects this philosophy, pairing intuitive routines with clean formulas and clinically recognized ingredients to help men care for their skin in a way that feels modern, effective, and realistic.
What’s your proudest accomplishment to date?
After a career inside the world’s great beauty houses—including 18 years at Kiehl’s, 12 of them as President—I’m most proud of building a brand that is entirely my own and watching men who never gave skincare a second thought make Atwater part of their daily lives. In three years, we’ve earned more than 30 industry awards and a place in prestige retailers like Saks, Bloomingdale’s, and Bluemercury. But the accomplishment I value most is cultural: proving that men’s grooming can be high-performance and genuinely simple and that a founder-led brand built on honesty and expertise can earn real trust in a crowded category.
What is the one thing you wish someone had told you?
That building a brand and running a business are two different disciplines. I spent decades learning how to create products, tell stories, and grow brands—but nothing prepares you for the relentlessness of operating a young company where you are the marketer, the financier, and the shipping department all at once. The product is the easy part. The endurance it takes to keep everything moving, every single day, is what I wish someone had described to me honestly.
What would you tell your past self before starting this journey?
Move with conviction but be patient with the timeline. The brand does not have to do everything at once—focus beats breadth, and the discipline to say no matters as much as the vision to say yes. I’d also remind myself to protect my own steadiness, because a founder’s energy sets the temperature for everyone around them. This work is a marathon. Build like it.
What does success look like in the next 3-5 years?
Success is Atwater becoming the brand men instinctively trust when they decide to take care of their skin—the modern standard for men’s grooming. In 3-5 years, that looks like meaningful scale across prestige retail and digital, a loyal community that reorders because the products genuinely work, and a cultural footprint where “simple, effective men’s skincare” and Atwater are the same thought. Profitable, durable growth—built to last not built to flip.
What's one industry trend that is overhyped, and what's being overlooked?
Overhyped: the ever-expanding, multistep routine and the ingredient arms race—the idea that more steps and longer ingredient lists equal better skin. Most people, and especially most men, will never keep up with 12 steps, and they shouldn’t have to. What’s overlooked is the male consumer as a serious, loyal audience, and the quiet power of simplicity done well. Three effective products used consistently will always beat 12 used once. The brands that win the next decade will educate and simplify not complicate.
How do you think the industry needs to evolve?
The industry needs to take men seriously—not as an afterthought or a smaller version of women’s beauty, but as a distinct consumer who wants efficacy, clarity, and respect for his time. It also needs more honesty: fewer miracle claims, more education, and products that earn loyalty through results rather than hype cycles. And it needs to make room for founder-led brands with real expertise, because authenticity and authority are what build lasting trust—something no marketing budget can manufacture.
If you could wave a magic wand, what one wish would you make for your business?
That every man who would benefit from Atwater already knew it existed. We’ve built the products, earned the awards, and won the trust of prestige retail; the one thing I’d wish for is the reach to match the credibility, so the brand’s discovery moved as fast as its quality. Give me that, and the rest takes care of itself.
