Launched: 1996
Founder: Jenefer Palmer
Key Executives:
Offline points of distribution projected for 2024: 3,000
Primary Category: Skincare
Other Beauty Categories: Body Care, Wellness
Key Markets: United States
Retail Partnerships: Ulta Beauty
Primary Distribution Channel: DTC
Other Distribution Channels:
Funding Rounds:
Private Equity
In June 2021 the brand took its first outside investment from CAVU Venture Partners.
Insights from founder Jenefer Palmer
OSEA was born from generations of women inspired by the sea and the healing power it holds. Our family’s relationship with the sea can be traced back to over 100 years ago. In the 1920s, my great grandmother, Elsa Reuschle, one of the very first female chiropractors, had an injury and tore several tendons in her leg. Elsa was bedridden, unable to care for her patients for many months. As a lifelong helper and healer, this injury was devastating. One night a message came to her in a dream:
“The ocean will heal you.”
The women of our family followed in Elsa’s footsteps as helpers and healers. During the '80s, I studied various holistic healing modalities including polarity therapy, acupressure, shiatsu, and biodynamic craniosacral therapy. OSEA emerged from my desire to create nourishing, results-driven products with potent and effective ingredients.
After more than a decade of formulation, OSEA officially launched in 1996. At the time, there were no "clean" products and no products that met my high standards, so I created them. Twenty-eight years later, OSEA products are more relevant than ever.
What are some of your key business initiatives for 2024?
In 2024, we're going to grow our body care category and expand into a few new and exciting categories in beauty and wellness.
What are you most proud of having accomplished since the business has launched?
We sell one unit of our bestseller, Undaria Algae Body Oil, every thirty seconds!
What has been the biggest surprise since the brand was founded?
The biggest surprise since the brand was founded is that clean beauty has emerged as a popular category in beauty, and it's no longer niche. Clean products are moving into the mainstream. It wasn’t that way 28 years ago!
What aspect of your brand DNA fuels your competitive advantage?
OSEA's name stands for nature's elements: Ocean. Sun. Earth. Atmosphere. Nature is in our brand's DNA, and it has been since the beginning. We've also been clean since 1996, demonstrating our long-standing commitment to safe and effective products.
Please share your insight on the future of the beauty industry.
I believe that there is a shift happening where clean products are becoming the consumer standard. There's also a growing body care category as people are treating the skin on their body like the skin on their face. I predict this will continue, and body products will continue to grow.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Never look at your peers as competition. When people ask me who my competition is, I say, “No one."
What is the best mistake you've ever made and what did you learn?
Sometimes the right product launches at the wrong time. I launched an intimacy wellness product in 1998, before consumers were ready. People weren’t ready for a conversation about intimacy care like they are now. I still want to bring it back!
Paying it forward, what advice would you give to someone contemplating launching a beauty brand?
It’s much harder to launch a brand than you would ever imagine. Just because you have a great idea and a great product doesn’t mean anyone will find it. You can have a great concept, but you still need to figure out a way to get it out there. And that is the challenge. It also takes a very long time to create a trusted product. It takes time to build trust with consumers.
If you could change one thing in the beauty industry what would it be?
What I've wanted to change about the industry is already happening. When I started OSEA 28 years ago, people thought I was crazy to care about ingredient integrity and product quality. To watch the growth of the natural category has been the biggest gift. I'm so proud of how far we've come as an industry as we've prioritized health and safety. Now clean beauty is a growing category going mainstream. It's so inspiring to witness. I only hope that it continues!
