After four years on the market, Plantkos has rebranded by elevating its design and foregrounding its pharmacist roots.
Founded by pharmacist Sejal Patel, the skincare brand’s communication is now prioritizing her expertise and the scientific data behind its products. Before it got off the ground, Plantkos poured $40,000 into clinical trials involving testing on a three-dimensional human skin model it describes as made from keratinocytes and fibroblasts or cells that constitute skin and providing greater accuracy than most clinical trials brands conduct.
Patel says, “We want customers to feel very confident that Plantkos is a brand that does take the formulation ingredient integrity as well as the clinical aspect of it very seriously because that’s what I am, that’s who I am, and I’m not going to put anything out there that I don’t feel confident in nor would I put anything out there that I hasn’t gone through some type of clinical testing that shows that products do work.”
She continues, “Our repeat customer rate is 50% to 53%, and when we ask people, ‘Why Plantkos? What makes you want to come back?’ The biggest thing is that it’s founded by a pharmacist, and they like that there is clinical data behind it and the ingredients.”
They also like prestigious-looking skincare that they’re proud to show off on their bathroom counters or in their cosmetics bags. Plantkos has deepened the red tone of its bottles and replaced the yellow in its secondary packaging with gold. The brand tapped graphic designer and creative director Bekkah Clifford to match its website with the revamped design.
Prior to the refresh, Patel explains, “The feedback we got is that the texture of the products feels luxurious, and they wanted packaging to match that, from opening the box and taking the product out, to the feel of the bottles.”
With the makeover, the prices of the majority of Plantkos’s products have increased slightly due to formulation improvements and bigger sizes for select products, according to Patel. For example, Revitalizing Eye Cream has had ceramides added to it and jumped in price from $77 to $83. Hydrating Moisturizer has moved from a 50-ml. bottle to a 60-ml. bottle and rose in price from $72 to $82. Triple C Serum has climbed from $69 to $72 and bestseller Replenishing Essence from $52 to $55.
An outlier, Plantkos’s Exfoliating Cleanser has decreased in size and price. It was in a 200-ml. tube priced at $42 and has transitioned to a 110-ml. tube priced at $27. Customer requests for a travel-friendly size led to the swap. In tandem with its refresh, Plantkos has been offering a 20% discount site-wide on its products. Each purchase comes with two free samples.
Plantkos believes its renovations will be important for its retail business. The brand entered The Detox Market in 2022, the same year it participated in The Launchpad, a program the retailer established in 2021 to guide BIPOC clean beauty brand founders with scaling. In addition to The Detox Market, it’s in Bluemercury and Bergdorf Goodman.
Plantkos works with consultancy KSJ Collective to expand at retail and support its retail partnerships. The brand is deploying sales associates at key retail doors to ensure it’s top of mind for sales associates. Patel hosts quarterly events such as founder meet-and-greets and account executive and spa visits to raise awareness and connect with customers.
Plantkos is gearing up to fundraise to grow its product lineup and international presence. The brand’s new packaging is compliant with cosmetics regulations in the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada. Patel says, “Our hope for 2025 is definitely expand within our current retail partners, explore additional retail partnership and then, hopefully, towards the end of the year, start looking to see what we can do to get the brand out into the EU and UK markets.”
