New Brand Multi Wants To Make Science-Forward Wellness Fun And Multifaceted

Multi is updating the standard pimple patch to support the skin microbiome.

Decorated with a smiley face, the new brand’s biomimetic, hydrocolloid The Multi Patch 2.0 combines peppermint extract and lactobacillus ferment, a skin-soothing ingredient the brand calls a postbiotic because it’s non-living, but is generally described in the beauty industry as a probiotic, to diminish the appearance of pimples and stave off bacteria. Multi released an earlier version of the hydrocolloid smiley face pimple patch last year, and the 2.0 version is priced at $18 for 32 patches compared to $14 for 32 patches for the 1.0 version.

The Multi Patch is just the opening salvo for Multi, which is envisioned by co-founders Mal Tayag and AJ Addae to be a multifaceted wellness brand with topical and ingestible products addressing the interconnectedness of various elements of the human body. Tayag, owner of creative talent agency Schema, explains Multi has spelled out a “Feel Good Framework” that outlines the “body regions that contribute to your overall well-being: skin, gut, mind and your axis points.” She says, “As our product pipeline starts to unfold, you’ll see us move more in the direction of these other regions.”

Addae, a cosmetic chemist and founder of beauty product formulation house Sula Labs, teams up with dermatologists, naturopathic doctors and gastroenterologists to guide Multi’s products. Its product pipeline is focused on biomimetic products or products that emulate natural human functions and structures. While the brand is taking a science-forward approach to wellness that welcomes quantitative analysis, it doesn’t discount anecdotal evidence.

Addae elaborates it asks, “Where’s research headed? And how can we use those tools to inform our product development?” She continues, “We really wanted to create is something that really marries the clinical evidence from academia and the anecdotal evidence from holistic wellness to create something that meets our consumer in the middle, and that middle is where a lot of people of color are situated.”

Addae notes that microbiome research has been accelerating quickly in its understanding of ingredients and that research informed The Multi Patch 2.0. She says, “We really wanted to make sure that we capture that in this product.” Lactobacillus ferment’s inclusion in The Multi Patch 2.0 is part of that objective. The ingredient is in skincare products from the likes of Clinique, Nuebiome, Codex Beauty, Ole Henriksen, Pai and Missha, but it’s not been in a patch before, and its inclusion in the patch borrows from patch-related medical delivery systems.

Addae says lactobacillus ferment is “found all up and through your body specifically really present in the vaginal area as well as on your skin surface and even in your gut. That really helped us speak to the idea that there is a big sense of interconnectedness when you look at your body.”

The motivation for Multi stemmed from Tayag’s struggles with chronic conditions such as acne, eczema, psoriasis, leaky gut and anxiety. She learned from a naturopathic doctor that stress underpins them all—and the role of stress in wellness setbacks will be integral to the brand. Looking for a formulation specialist to put science at the center of its product development, she reached out to Addae via Twitter in 2021 and began developing Multi’s products in early 2022.

“There is a lack of trust in the industry behind products, especially wellness,” says Tayag. “It’s so congested, it’s so saturated, but there are lots of claims that get thrown around and products that aren’t trustworthy.”

With Addae on board to infuse Multi’s products with scientific rigor, Tayag used her branding and community-building chops for the brand’s design and to grow a following for it. Multi incorporates bright colors and amoebic shapes to stand out on screens. Tayag and Addae have assembled a group of 200 community members to test its products, share content and provide feedback. They communicate via a dedicated Slack channel. The founder duo also have a podcast, “Multea Media,” where they discuss the challenges of bringing Multi to life and getting its business going. An episode dives into the exit of Nina Huynh, formerly a brand co-founder.

TikTok has been a key platform to cultivate Multi’s community and spread its gospel of interconnectedness. Last year, a TikTok video produced by Tayag for Multi featuring her talking about how many times a day people should fart and how farting speaks to what else is going on in their body went viral. Part of the brand’s “30 Days to a Healthier Gut” series, the video has over 344,000 views.

“I was like, OK, cool, my face is viral for talking about farts, but it brought into the conversation, what is gut health in relation to the frequency of your farting?” she says. “We’re always thinking about ways that we can talk about topics that are traditionally taboo and talk about them in a way that makes people feel comfortable to discuss them.”

Addae and Tayag raised around $200,000 to launch Multi. Friends and family accounted for $150,000 of the total, and the remaining $50,000 was raised on crowdfunding service Wefunder. The pair invited BIPOC backers with salaries of $60,000 or less to contribute. The buy-ins were between $100 and $500.

Tayag says, “We realized that a lot of our communities are ones that don’t have the funds to invest, and we were like how can we use our business as a vehicle to help our communities gain wealth? We are a startup, but we want to scale and grow to be very massive.” She emphasizes, “We’re really excited to take up space both from a brand perspective and as humans and as women of color in this industry.”