Beauty / news
Estée Lauder Alum Sarah LaGreca Debuts Tween Skincare Label SkinBerry With $1M Pre-Seed in Sight
Beauty industry veteran Sarah LaGreca has launched SkinBerry, a skincare brand for 8- to 18-year-olds, and expects to close a pre-seed round above $1 million in December. The line's three products retail between $23 and $29.
SkinBerry debuted in August with a three-step regimen the brand calls the Glow Ritual: a Bubble Berry Foaming Cleanser, a Glow Berry Moisturizing Gel Cream and a Berry Boost Jelly Hydration Mask. The range is sold on the company's own website at prices running from $23 to $29.
LaGreca, who is currently VP of global education and artistry development at Hourglass Cosmetics, funded the early stage of the business herself, putting hundreds of thousands of dollars of her own money into the venture. She is now on course to bring in more than $1 million through a pre-seed round scheduled to close in December, with the proceeds earmarked for marketing and groundwork for a move into retail.
Ben Zises, founder of SuperAngel.Fund and an investor behind Create Wellness, Caraway and Lalo, is among the backers. LaGreca has also drawn on her industry contacts to form an advisory board that includes Esther Dong, former general manager of Origins North America; Stephanie Kang, former VP of e-commerce and digital performance at Skinbetter Science; and consultant Moira Finocane, previously CMO of Kudos.
The founder's background spans nine years at The Estée Lauder Companies, largely in education roles across Origins, Too Faced, Clinique and BeautyBank. The idea for the brand took shape almost two years ago during a family ski trip to Vermont, when she saw her daughter and her daughter's friends using their mothers' skincare products.
Rather than remove skincare from her daughter's routine, LaGreca set out to find formulas suited to younger skin and, unable to locate what she wanted, decided to create them. SkinBerry now addresses the 8-to-18 age bracket directly.