Is body retinol the fountain of youth?
Is body retinol the fountain of youth?
An interview with Soft Service's CEO about Software Update 🔌, their new body retinol.
Today’s letter is long, so I hope you have a lunch break or long train ride home. It includes:
An interview with Soft Services CEO Rebecca Zhou
New York Magazine news, from revenue strategist to a new Big Milk-sponsored column on The Cut
My thoughts on why big fashion brands are buying midtown real estate
According to data from Pinterest’s 2023 Pinterest Predicts trend report tracking the fastest-growing trends that are still on the ascent, “body skincare routine” saw 1,025% growth last year, while “body care” experienced 845% growth. Every time I visit Sephora’s website, I’m bombarded by Sol de Janeiro products, including body sprays and firming lotions. Last year, Necessaire launched a body retinol. Barbara Sturm launched an “anti-aging body cream.” But there is one brand that reigns supreme in the world of body care.
Soft Services is one of the only brands I love with the specific type of love that is tainted with a bit of jealousy — everything about the brand works, and the creative decisions they make are so good it’s annoying. Like, “Wow, somebody thought about this a shit ton.” Our world would be full of much better, beautiful, interesting, and more efficient products if more companies thought this way.
When I first discovered the brand through Instagram, I remember scrolling around their site and being surprised, 1. because they credit their contributing writers and illustrators on the site, and 2. they used a term I never heard of before but I knew I’d never forget it the moment I read it: digital waste. The line on their About Us page specifically reads, “More than a company that makes things, we consider what we do a service, which allows us to reduce physical and digital waste in our industry and the world at large.”
The brand launched in 2021 with $3mm in seed funding (the round was led by Michael Dearing, founder of Harrison Metal, and Craig Shapiro, founder of Collaborative Fund), and with a number like that, I think we can expect a lot more from the brand this year. The gateway product for most Soft Services customers is the Buffing Bar, described as a “physical exfoliating brick” in one of their Instagram captions. From the moment you receive the bar (wrapped in paper, tied up in string) to the second you get it wet (microcrystals emerging to scrub away dry skin from past lives, a wash of blue on your shower floor), you realize the products this company makes are different.
On top of the products and packaging being fantastic, their marketing strategy is refreshing and pared down in a sea of loud, embarrassingly expensive beauty marketing. When you scroll through the Instagram you kind of think, “Someone running this page has a charged phone and incredible sense of lighting — I wonder who they are.” There’s an elegant restraint, and they’ve avoided viral campaigns (so far). It just feels chiller vs. amp’ed up TikTok voices and graphics…I want my shower to feel like the former. Also, their posts understand the effectiveness of before / after formats and testimonials.
I spoke to Rebecca Zhou, the cofounder and CEO of Soft Services (formerly Glossier, Gin Lane) about their newest product that launched today, Software Update. We also discussed packaging integrity, and what Soft Services was almost called before the Trademark Gods god involved. I’ve always wanted to interview their team for the letter so I’m excited about this one.
Some background...
"We began working on Software Update in 2020, right at the inception of Soft Services. Uneven texture and tone, breakouts and discoloration from sweat, as well as concerns related to aging were the first three buckets we set out to tackle.
Solutions for the first two buckets we were able to launch back in 2021, and although Theraplush is a part of our ‘aging gracefully’ offering, we’re so excited to be launching Software Update, which serves as the cornerstone of our anti-aging solutions.
Our original goal was to launch Software Update in the fall of 2021. In fact, we filed for the name trademark at the end of 2020. However, the complexities of creating a 'retinol for body' within the Soft Services framework added another 2.5 years to that timeline." — Rebecca Zhou, CEO and cofounder of Soft Services
First of all, why do I need retinol for my body?
"Retinol is the defacto ingredient that scientific research and dermatology turn to as an effective topical solution to aging—the Vitamin A derivative has been widely used in facial skincare for decades.
For face, almost everyone I know who is serious about skincare has either considered using retinol, is currently using retinol, or used to use retinol but is currently on pause because of pregnancy/breastfeeding. Retinol is so ubiquitous within facial skincare today that—legend has it—Sephora staff is being bombarded by teenagers asking for Drunk Elephant’s Retinol Cream.
But for body, especially back in the inception of Soft Services, retinol was nowhere to be found in mainstream body care. Within niche beauty, the only body retinol product that I knew of was “The Chemistry Brand Retin-Oil Body Oil”, by one of the now-discontinued Deciem brands. A few friends and I were hooked on this product and would buy 3-4 at a time as it was constantly out of stock. I remember the product reviews were almost all 5 stars and asking for “a bigger size” and to “please stop being out of stock”. I think late 2019 was the last time I was able to buy a stash.
And so, we started developing Software Update.
Considering the dermatological threshold that retinol is effective above 0.25% and safe below 1.0%, we began formulating with 0.25% as the baseline. Initially, our aim was to go higher, but after many formulation iterations, we settled on 0.25% as the optimal balance between delivering efficacy and minimizing potential adverse effects. Given that we’re in the early days of retinol adoption in body routines, we think Software Updates’ 0.25% is an accessible place to start, while still being able to deliver the results our customers are used to seeing from regular use of Soft Services.
What’s also different about Software Update as compared to some of the other ‘body retinols’ is that it is a focused solution, which is in line with the product philosophy we apply to all treatments from Soft Services.
It isn’t an exfoliant (we have Buffing Bar and Smoothing Solution for those needs), and it also isn’t a moisturizer as we know our customers already have moisturizers they love, some even have a rotation based on the time of year. Instead, the purpose of Software Update is offering a pure retinol for body that is incredibly easy to integrate into a customer’s existing body routine. We worked hard at making a formula that layers well and isn’t prone to pilling, whether under body moisturizers, creams, or oils.
All other ingredients in the formula are there to support, balance, and/or stabilize the work that retinol is doing, which is addressing the changes in our body skin as we age.
After launching Theraplush, our first retinol product: an overnight repair treatment for hands, we had some customers write in recollecting how they would mix in their prescription retinol (Tretinoin) with other lotions they have for their hands and body. Now that finally can all be a thing of the past as DIY-retinol is not something we’d recommend to most.
A few months after concluding our consumer perception study for Software Update, a few testers reached out to follow-up on the official launch date of the product or we had extra samples to spare.This is a direct quote: “Just checking in and wondering when you're gonna release your delicious renewing retinol, as I have been forced to purchase another brand in the meantime and I don't see the same difference in my skin.”
It’s been very apparent to us that customers are ready for their body skin to reap the same benefits that they are seeing from using retinol on their faces and we’re so very excited that Software Update is here to serve this need." - Rebecca
How did you name Software Update? 🌐
"The name Software Update actually first came up as an idea during the naming process for the company. I threw in a set of possible names that came from ideas in technology, a natural place my brain goes as a former tech product manager and the holder of an underutilized undergrad Computer Science degree.
If I remember correctly, ‘Software’ was a name that was seriously considered, but trademark issues made it a no-go as a name for the brand. We ended up with ‘Soft Services’, which came a few brainstorms later.
From the moment ‘retinol for body’ was put on the product development roadmap, I knew Software Update was the name. Luckily, trademark counsel cleared it for use as a product name in beauty.
To quote the copy in our press release:
“Our skin cells typically regenerate every 28 days, which results in fresh, smooth, baby plump skin—though as we get older and all the wiser, this production process slows down. Depending on age, it can take up to 90 days. Slower skin cell regeneration appears as dull, dry, crepey/wrinkled, uneven-toned, and/or congested skin. Retinol addresses the changes that come with aging by speeding up collagen production and the rate at which your skin cells turnover.”
When a piece of technology gets outdated, a software update upgrades the operating system with all the recent and up-to-date developments to help it run as efficiently and smoothly as possible.
A ‘software update’ is the perfect metaphor for what retinol does within our skin’s ‘operating system’." - Rebecca