Tan-Luxe And Isle Of Paradise Parent Company Future Beauty Labs Expands Its Portfolio With Barrier-Boosting Brand Byoma

Future Beauty Labs, the parent company of Tan-Luxe, Tanologist and Isle of Paradise, is looking to disrupt skincare in the same way it’s done self-tanning with the launch of Byoma Beauty, a brand focused on rebuilding the skin barrier.

The brand premiered Sunday exclusively on Target’s website in the United States and will enter all the retailer’s doors on Feb. 15. “Consumers really think of Target as a destination to discover skincare,” says Marc Elrick, CEO and founder of Future Beauty Labs. “It was very aligned with our ambition of being accessible, approachable and affordable.” Multi-brand end-caps at Target featuring Byoma will be situated around its stores in March to provide “consumers different places and touch points to interact and discover the brand,” according to Elrick, and the brand will be placed in dedicated end-caps in July. Byoma is slated to launch chain-wide in another large retailer in the U.S. later this year.

Elrick noticed a white space in skincare after the pandemic hit. At the outset of it, Future Beauty Labs turned to social media to offer yoga, meditation and financial literary classes. “It really helped strengthen our connection with our customers and they became a lot more open with the information and concerns that they were sharing with us,” says Elrick. One concern they were open about was their tendency to over-treat and over-exfoliate their skin. He relays, “People are wrecking their skin, playing chemist and using all of these products that are now more affordable than ever before and highly efficacious.”

Elrick says the question for Future Beauty Labs became, “How do we help?” Its team decided to team up with a lab in Korea to perfect a proprietary tri-ceramide complex composed of ceramides, cholesterol and fatty acids. Elrick explains, “We’re essentially putting back into your skin what it is already made up of.” Byoma joins a burgeoning group of brands concentrating on the skin barrier.

Byoma’s debut collection is comprised of seven products priced at $16.99 or less, including Creamy Jelly Cleanser, Moisturizing Gel-Cream, Moisturizing Rich Cream, Balancing Face Mist, and Brightening, Hydrating and Clarifying Serum. Every product has the tri-ceramide complex, which is paired with ingredients like green tea, niacinamide, squalane, hyaluronic acid, blue tansy and gylcerin. Elrick says, “You get the best of skin-compatible technology, but you also get the performance and the efficacy of high-performing actives.”

Future Beauty Labs started in Glasgow in 2016. The company currently operates out of Glasgow and New York. The idea for it was born in Elrick and his husband’s Glasgow hair salon, Rainbow Room, where they overheard clients complain about the fake tanning products on the market. “Our light-bulb moment for developing our first brand was very much, if you can customize your makeup, why can’t you customize your self tan?” he recalls.

Tan-Luxe was Future Beauty Labs’ initial answer. Isle of Paradise founded by celebrity tanner Jules Von Hep and Tanologist created by influencer Lottie Tomlinson came shortly after. “We have very much gone from being the category disruptor to the category leader to the category advisor in some of the biggest retailers in the world,” says Elrick. Future Beauty Labs’ products are carried by Ulta Beauty, Boots, Superdrug, Space NK, Asos, Walgreens, Walmart and Sephora. At Sephora, Elrick says Future Beauty Labs owns 80% of the self-tanning category. Over the last two years, the company has registered 70% year-over-year growth.

Elrick is taking a similar wide-reaching, global distribution approach to Byoma. The brand is debuting across the pond at Selfridges, but Boots will be its primary partner in the United Kingdom. It’s arriving at Boots in the third week of February. In the U.K., Cult Beauty is a partner, too. It landed in the e-tailer’s selection last week and is already among its top 10 brands. Elrick shares Byoma will be rolling out to roughly 11 markets beyond the U.S. and the U.K. this year. He says, “The only way that we could make this brand affordable was to do it in a really big, meaningful way and to launch on an international level.”

Future Beauty Labs runs a majority of its business in-house, from branding to design to manufacturing to research and development. Elrick believes the in-house talent is critical to the company’s capacity to scale. “We’re very vertically integrated, which allows us to make decisions quickly, let demand drive distribution, which is very important,..and really control our own destiny through innovation,” he says. “We have control, and the consumer really informs and inspires that through our social channels and third-party data we receive through or DTC channels.”

From Future Beauty Labs’ social channels, Elrick has gleaned that there’s a lack of skincare education and a rise of skincare misinformation. Byoma addresses the problems he sees in part through its primary packaging. Each product has its INCI list printed on the bottle along with a descriptor of each ingredient. “The consumer needs information to make smart, educated choices and that needs to start right on the pack,” says Elrick.

Another education element is chat panels the brand plans to host on social media incorporating Future Beauty Labs employees, formulators, dermatologists and sustainability experts. Elrick says the primary goal will be delivering “unbiased information and education.” Other brand founders will be represented. “We’re realists and the reality of this industry is that people don’t just use one brand,” says Elrick. “I’m over 40. I use retinol. It’s not in the range. That’s OK. We will encourage the consumer to invest in Byoma, but also to invest in whatever their skin needs.”

He emphasizes Future Beauty Labs has always operated with a collaborative approach. “Our core product in our sunless brands, you don’t apply directly to your skin, you mix it with your existing skincare regimen. So, I suppose we’re applying that same belief in the development and communication and strategy for Byoma,” says Elrick. “We hope our brand network will join us on our channels as we highlight the features and benefits of both of our brands and how they work and play well together.” He concludes, “My sole ambition is to inspire and educate the consumer to make the best choices when purchasing skincare and whether the consumer chooses to invest in Byoma or use us as an outlet for unbiased information, then, you know, I will die a happy man.”