Starface Co-Founders Fold Slugging-Focused Skincare Brand Futurewise

The constant drive for dewy—or glass, or dolphin, or glazed donut—skin isn’t enough to keep skincare brand Futurewise afloat, and the slugging-focused brand from Starface co-founders Julie Schott and Brian Bordainick announced Monday that it’s closing. 

In a message to its email subscribers and 31,600 Instagram followers, the brand wrote, “After a lot of thought, we have made the hard decision to sunset Futurewise. We are deeply grateful for your trust and support over the years—it’s been an honor to be part of your skincare routine.” Remaining inventory is being sold at 60% off. March 24 is the last day to place orders on the brand’s website. According to the brand, it received an outpouring of customer support after the announcement and saw one of its biggest sales days ever.

Futurewise, which achieved broad retail penetration in CVS, Target, Walmart and Urban Outfitters, is the second brand Schott and Bordainick have shuttered. In 2023, they closed masstige sustainable body care brand Plus. The closures allow Schott and Bordainick to concentrate resources on their other brands—emergency contraceptive brand Julie, harm reduction brand Overdrive Defense, nicotine replacement therapy brand Blip and Starface, the pimple patch brand that reportedly was on track to reach $90 million in 2024 sales—rather than commit them to properties fighting uphill battles. 

Futurewise took cues from Starface’s modus operandi, with playful packaging, masstige prices and mass-market distribution. While the slugging at its core is a practice that dates back to the 15th century, when Native Americans used petroleum jelly cosmetically, and has been routine in Black households for decades, it erupted on TikTok in 2022, when the brand launched and data from search intelligence firm Spate shows search volume for it spiked 78% from the year before, as part of K-Beauty’s second wave.

Futurewise’s inability to turn the micro-trend into a lasting enterprise demonstrates the difficulties of capitalizing on beauty industry ephemera, particularly in large-scale retail environments where startups lack the name recognition and massive marketing budgets of their legacy competitors. In the slugging space, Unilever-owned Vaseline and Beiersdorf-owned Aquaphor are the dominant players. Futurewise presented a cool—albeit premium-priced—alternative to them with a three-product system—$22 Slug Boost, $24 Slug Cream and $24 Slug Balm—unique from the legacy offerings by being free of petroleum. 

Speaking anonymously, a beauty industry expert with insight into Futurewise’s business says, “Although the brand is super cool, basing an entire brand around the trend of slugging when the larger concept of slugging is using very basic products like Aquaphor/Vaseline/diaper cream is not sustainable [as] a business model. I think consumers catch on and move on too quickly for a brand that is quite specific, yet also doesn’t own the space.”

Kirsten Ludwig, co-founder of brand consultancy In Good Co, believes Starface has thrived and Futurewise hasn’t because the former nailed a special emotional connection with customers that the latter lacked. “[Starface] made acne products feel fun and even cool at exactly the right moment,” she says. “Those yellow star patches weren’t just products, they were social currency.” In contrast, with Futurewise, she adds, “The messaging just didn’t connect as deeply.” 

Ludwig remains bullish on Schott and Bordainick’s approach of launching multiple brands in different categories and emphasizes that successful entrepreneurs view mistakes as learning opportunities rather than failures. “It’s like not putting all your eggs in one basket. The winners can fund the losers, and they’re building expertise across multiple consumer spaces,” she says. “The question I’d ask is, how they’re applying those lessons to their next ventures?”

Previously, Futurewise’s leadership team included former investment banker Janet Park as co-president and GM and Sara DeCou, previously SVP of creative at Starface, as co-president. According to LinkedIn, Park left Futurewise in 2023 and DeCou exited in April. Former head of marketing Priyanka Mathew, previously a marketing executive at Estée Lauder and Coty, departed the brand in October after about a year and a half to join Hanni as VP of brand and marketing. Align Ventures, a venture capital firm backing Starface and Julie, had invested in Futurewise.