For years, skincare brand NIOD (Non-Invasive Options in Dermal Science) was DECIEM’s secret menu: an erudite skincare brand drenched in scientific language, like its products named things like Copper Amino Isolate Lipid and ELAN: Ethylated L-Ascorbic Acid 30% Network. When the late Brandon Truaxe created NIOD in 2015, he intended for it to be the cerebral, complicated big sister to The Ordinary’s simplicity and budget prices.
Truaxe set Deciem’s pricing structure to reflect the caliber of chemist it took to formulate the brand’s products. The reason The Ordinary is so well priced is that entry-level chemists can formulate well-known actives like glycolic acid and niacinamide. But NIOD scientists are breaking new ground, advancing molecule combinations, and using high-priced actives. It’s costly to employ this caliber of chemists; it all contributes to the $45-$95 price tag as opposed to The Ordinary’s budget products that are mostly priced between $7 and $20.
According to Deciem, the difference reflects the greater research, formulation expertise, and ingredient investment required to develop its products, not higher margins.
Later this month, NIOD will drop its sense of scholarly exclusivity when it rolls out to 200 Sephora stores across North America, arriving at a moment when consumers are more knowledgeable about skincare science than ever before.
This isn't a reinvention of NIOD but rather a reintroduction. Because long before The Ordinary transformed Deciem into one of beauty's biggest disruptors, there was NIOD.
Deciem was conceived by Truaxe as an incubator for a portfolio of beauty brands built around a shared philosophy of scientific innovation, transparency, and accessible pricing. Among its earliest launches was NIOD, which embodied Truaxe’s vision of highly advanced skincare. But when The Ordinary debuted as Deciem’s 11th brand, it quickly became the company’s breakout success.
“We had so many believers in this philosophy that quality isn’t determined by price point,” Amy Bi, Global Vice President of Brand & Incubator at Deciem told BeautyMatter.
As demand for The Ordinary surged, much of Deciem’s attention shifted toward supporting it, leaving NIOD to quietly build its intellectual consumer base. Now, with its Sephora expansion, Deciem is reintroducing the brand that helped define its original vision.
“NIOD was born out of this true insight that there’s a way to develop extremely advanced formulations,” said Bi. “There’s a consumer base that will be excited about this, and there is a consumer base that sees skin as an investment process.”
Despite the brand’s heftier prices, the company maintains that NIOD is rooted in the same philosophy of accessibility that made The Ordinary successful. By keeping everything in-house, Deciem can reduce costs across all of its brands while allowing each to reflect the complexity of its formulations.
Bi added that while every Deciem brand benefits from the company's vertically integrated model, “It's not because we've marked up the products more in NIOD than we have in The Ordinary. It's because the formulations truly are more innovative.”
Rather than treating products as finished formulations, NIOD approaches skincare more like technological advancements. The brand continually "upgrades" its existing formulas as scientific advancements emerge. The goal isn't to convince consumers to buy something different but to improve the products they already trust.
Working with a tightly edited portfolio of hero ingredients, NIOD reformulates products only when a more sophisticated version of an ingredient or delivery system becomes available. Take Copper Amino Isolate Serum (CAIS), NIOD's hero serum, for example. Now on its third iteration, the original formula required consumers to mix a powder with a liquid before application. As formulation technology advanced, NIOD was able to stabilize the product into a single bottle without compromising efficacy. For the brand, that wasn't simply a reformulation; it was a level up.
“The way you upgrade your iPhone, like your iOS, we take that same approach to skincare,” said Bi. “We're literally saying what you have is good enough, and when it's better, we'll upgrade it for you. It's not about switching to a different product. It's about staying invested in the right ones and trusting us that we're going to keep you on the forefront of skincare innovation.”
This messaging stands in contrast to an industry increasingly driven by rapid product launches and viral ingredient cycles. Instead of encouraging consumers to replace their routines constantly, NIOD emphasizes refining existing technologies.
Looking back, NIOD's biggest challenge over the past decade may not have been the products themselves but where the market was at.
When the brand launched, consumers were still largely shopping for skincare based on brand names, marketing claims, and promises of anti-aging. Today, they're searching for ingredients, understanding delivery systems, and building routines around efficacy. Education has taken precedence, creating an environment where a brand like NIOD feels less intimidating.
That shift has been fueled by a broader cultural obsession with longevity and optimization, according to Bi. Consumers are increasingly embracing biohacking, whether through supplements, wearables, injectables, or preventative wellness, and skincare has become part of that conversation.
For NIOD, which has always focused on preventative skin optimization, the cultural shift is a validation.
The brand’s use of copper peptides illustrates that shift. While the ingredient has become one of the beauty industry's fastest-growing conversations in recent years, NIOD has built much of its portfolio around copper peptide technology since the brand's inception. Interest has only recently increased. Recent market data shows searches for GHK-Cu, the copper peptide used throughout NIOD's portfolio, increased by more than 1,200% year over year, while broader searches for copper peptides have also surged as consumers become increasingly interested in ingredients associated with elasticity, collagen production, and skin longevity.
Bi attests that this trend simply reinforces what the brand has believed all along.
“NIOD really serves that lifestyle in a way that didn't exist if we were to have done this five or 10 years ago,” she said. “It's just that the consumer has finally caught up. We want to be where consumers are. We want to have more people explore and be able to access our product.”
That changing consumer is exactly why Sephora makes sense now.
The retailer has recently invested in expanding its assortment of science-driven and efficacy-focused skincare brands. NIOD will sit alongside science-forward brands like Skinfix, Remedy, and Prequel, soon to be joined by Medik8, reflecting a broader shift toward performance-led skincare at Sephora.
For NIOD, Sephora offers access to a shopper who arrives ready to discover. Rather than overwhelming those consumers with an expansive assortment, NIOD will center its Sephora presentation around "skin optimization," merchandising its products through a three-step regimen of prepare, optimize, and restore. Copper peptides remain the hero ingredient, while educational displays are designed to make the science feel more approachable.
Bi describes the regimen as one rooted in supporting the skin's existing biology. “Everything your skin needs to be healthy, calm, and stable is actually already within your skin; you just need the right ingredients to wake up or connect them to get you there,” she said.
Understanding that approach will be just as important as the products themselves.
“It’s about educating on the ingredients, educating on what it will do for your skin in a way that is not too intimidating because those in a Sephora environment are there to explore and shop around, and so we also want to make sure that what we have is inviting to consumers,” she said.
The company is hoping the strategy will fuel ambitious growth, with Deciem projecting NIOD will grow by more than 300% this year.
So, after a decade of waiting for skincare to catch up, NIOD may finally get its The Ordinary moment.
