Peace Out Skincare was the first acne lifestyle brand founded on inclusivity and skin positivity. Easy, effective, one-step solutions for the most common skincare concerns. Fighting the problem at the source, with innovative first-to-market products made from clean and effective ingredients that deliver honest and visible results.
After trying countless acne products, doctor prescriptions, and every treatment one can possibly imagine, founder Enrico Frezza couldn’t find a fast-acting, easy-to-use solution that did what it promised. His frustration became the catalyst for developing a first-of-its-kind, patent-pending technology that not just treated but worked to help heal pimples in six hours or less. He wanted to treat the pimple head-on at the source, stop further breakouts and active picking—not just the overall symptom.
The breakthrough “aha” moment came while scouring the drugstore aisles for anything that could possibly clear one of his nasty breakouts. It was then that he discovered hydrocolloid dressing—a biodegradable, flesh-coloured dressing normally used to heal wounds in the medical field. He bought every hydrocolloid bandage in the drugstore and began self-testing with various acne fighting ingredients. Once he had a baseline, he located the only lab in the world that could make it and developed the first hydrocolloid acne pimple patch infused with active fighting and healing ingredients—a one-step, easy skincare solution to treat his acne once and for all.
Brand Founder: Enrico Frezza
Founded: 2017
Leadership:
2023 Full Year Expected Revenue Range: $30MM to $50MM
Categories: Skincare, Color Cosmetics, Entrepreneur
Distribution Channels: Prestige, Amazon
Funding Rounds: Private Equity
Total Funds Raised: $20MM
Notable Investors: Fifth Century Partners
Notable Advisors: Zack Zavalydriga
What are you most proud of having accomplished?
Today, Peace Out Skincare is the only over-the-counter (OTC), approved, clean hydrocolloid acne patch in the US, and the only pimple patch that can claim and say “acne” treatment. We are a leader in premium patch technologies with multiple patents and patent-pendings. Over the pandemic, we went from an acne brand to a multigenerational skincare solutions company while continuing to exemplify a new generation of skin-inclusive, gender-fluid companies. Peace Out has quickly become the #1 acne brand at Sephora, and more than 70,000,000+ acne dots have been sold to-date.
We’ve also reformulated the hydrocolloid in our acne patch products to create a fully clean skincare brand, and by doing so, created the first-ever clean patch on the market. This innovative technology has earned the brand Sephora’s clean seal of approval—the retailer’s designation that signals to consumers which products meet specific criteria around transparency, formulation, and ingredients. Most recently with our launch of Acne Day Dot, we’ve become the first-ever, virtually invisible, clean, and makeup-friendly pimple patch—a full redesign of the top layer that creates a makeup-friendly surface and also one of the thinnest, if not the thinnest, clean hydrocolloid pimple patches in the industry.
What has been the biggest surprise since the brand was founded?
That as we have grown, our community has grown with us, taking us from an acne patch brand to a multigenerational skincare brand with our first customers bringing in their sisters, mothers, brothers, friends.
That we have become the #1 best selling prestige acne patch brand, and the only prestige acne patch brand that holds patents for its products.
What aspect of your brand DNA fuels your competitive advantage?
We love competition, and we love being the first to market with innovative products, ingredients, and delivery systems that are clean, fun, easy to use, not doctor driven, and do exactly what they say they will. We will never be that brand that relies on boring, predeveloped products that they just slapped their labels on and sell. We will always do all our R&D in-house from concept to completion. This also includes our marketing and brand voice. We will never rely on an outside company to tell us what our brand should be verbally, visually, or how we are, and what we stand for. We will always be the guardian of our brand's ethos, identity, or community. That is how you stay competitive.
Please share your insight on the future of the beauty industry.
The beauty and skincare industry will continue to grow in a positive direction building on clean, inclusive, and honest skincare. Gen Z consumers will continue to grow with the brands they grew up with, wanting more from them in return for their continued brand loyalty. Value, promotions, first-to-try, insider moments of connection that pull them more into the brand family. Unique rewards programs will also become more important; “What is my return on investment” outside of healthy skin? We will continue to grow in midstige and prestige skincare as more brands diversify their portfolios to expand low and high, allowing them to enter new channels of distribution. Value sets, mini sets, mini tester products to bring in new customers from other brands, will become more important.
Old school advertising—such as in-home, catalog, postcards, invites, inserts, newspaper, weeklies—becomes new school as it merges even more with digital media, CTV, QR codes, etc. This will create new and more viable ways to gain valuable analytics needed as we enter more privacy restrictions.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Don't ever change your brand identity; stay true to the brand you created and the path you started on to continue to grow them in a positive direction. You owe it to your customers who came and come to you for the brand you are.
Paying it forward, what advice would you give to someone contemplating launching a beauty brand?
Be inspired, be innovative, be honest. Listen to that little voice; it's corny but 99% of the time it is telling you the truth. You've got to believe in you and your vision. Most importantly, don't give up! Sometimes the process is exhilarating, sometimes it's brutal. To succeed, you will win and you will fail. When you fail or when something does not go as planned, dig into it deep, don't leave any stone unturned. Take those learnings, grow from them, adjust your strategy as needed, and don't make the same mistakes twice.
If you could change one thing in the beauty industry, what would it be?
Lack of regulation, more advancement in ingredient approvals, continued growth in inclusion and diversity, greenwashing, and more chemical regulation to protect the planet.
