The Inkey List Homes In on Hydration With Ectoin Serum Launch

The Inkey List is doubling down on newness for 2025 — and starting with hydration.

The brand is debuting its Ectoin Hydro-Barrier Serum on Wednesday on the Sephora app before hitting the retailer’s website Thursday for $15. Executives didn’t comment on sales, but industry sources anticipate it to reach $12 million in sales for its first year on the market.

Colette Laxton, who cofounded the brand in 2018 with chief executive officer Mark Curry, said it was the brand’s biggest year from a product development perspective since 2019.

“The beauty industry in the last couple of years has been very trend-led and we’ve seen a huge rise in categories like body and hair, but I think 2025 is going to be super exciting in terms of true skin care,” Laxton said.

Related Articles

Color Cosmetics

EXCLUSIVE: Nameless CPG Snaps Up Wander Beauty

Hair

EXCLUSIVE: Hair Accessories Brand Emi Jay Enters Sephora

The product highlights a blend of ceramides for skin barrier protection, four different weights of hyaluronic acid for hydration as well as its namesake ingredient: ectoin.

“We’ve gotten back to basics,” Curry said, who assumed the CEO role in October. “Using hydration is less talked about, but it’s foundational to balance oil, even skin tone and help those early fine lines and wrinkles. This goes back to a central message.”

Among the Inkey List’s heroes is its hyaluronic acid serum, which came to market six years ago. “For that kind of confused customer, that’s your product,” Laxton said. “We felt it was time to give hyaluronic acid a new friend. People are in a mindset of multifunctionality now, and they don’t always want a 10-step or 15-step routine.”

Curry reasoned that hydration’s universal appeal would bring in more customers than more niche need states, such as acne. “Hydration is for everyone, and we’ve got a bigger pool of customers to grow into,” he said. 

He’s focused on going deeper on facial skin care, rather than building on existing category expansion.

“We could have gone into body care again, because body was super successful. But facial skin care is the heartland and where we need to focus even more,” Curry said.

Marketing surrounding the launch will entail a campaign that speaks to the product’s wide-ranging appeal. “It’s going to be running for six months. It’s not a one-and-done,” Laxton said. “The idea is to hydrate like your skin depends on it, because it does. Any of the issues you’re probably facing, whether it’s fine lines, oiliness or anything going on with your skin, we have funny taglines about how you probably just need to hydrate.”