EXCLUSIVE: Skinfix Is Bringing Exosomes to Sephora

Skinfix is bringing a first-of-its-kind launch to Sephora.

Several years in the making, the skin barrier health brand is introducing its Barrier + Exo + Ectoin Intensive Repair Baume, marking the first exosome-powered product sold at the retailer.

Pairing melon-derived exosomes with vegan growth factor peptides plus ectoin, arnica and allantoin, the serum-balm hybrid retails for $69 and aims to offer skin-repairing, soothing and antiaging benefits in one.

“We wanted to develop a product that would be effective for post-procedure use — something like microneedling, resurfacing peels, laser treatments — to deliver not only a collagen-boosting, antiaging benefit but also to calm some of the inflammation and redness of the skin after it has undergone this kind of trauma,” said founder Amy Gordinier.

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It was at a dermatologist conference in 2021 that Gordinier first caught wind of exosomes’ then-nascent potential to amplify post-procedure wound healing. Long studied for their ability to benefit cancer treatment, diabetes management and other medical conditions, exosomes are sac-like extracellular carriers that can transport molecules like proteins, lipids and RNAs from one cell to another.

They are most commonly derived from human or animal stem cells, though a few emerging vendors, including that which Skinfix partnered with, are extracting them from plant cells.

“Plant-derived exosomes are a relatively new area of technology; we chose bitter melon exosomes because they demonstrated a high efficacy in wound healing,” said Gordinier, adding that a clinical study demonstrated a 20 percent improvement in the look of fine lines and wrinkles after eight weeks of use, with 100 percent of participants seeing visible improvement within four weeks.

According to Gordinier, Skinfix has the highest repurchase rate across Sephora’s skin care brands. Though the founder did not comment on sales expectations for the launch, industry sources estimate the Intensive Repair Baume could do around $5 million in sales during its first year on the market.

The brand has tapped 1,000 content creators to showcase their results on social media via before-and-after photos, also leaning into its network of dermatologists to educate consumers on the launch.

“It’s all about education in the early days, so we love to leverage the expert community to help us educate and tell the story,” said Gordinier, who applied the same approach during the early, pandemic-era days when the skin barrier health conversation was just taking off, and for the brand’s recent fungal acne- and psoriasis-focused launches.