EXCLUSIVE: Summer Fridays Enters the Makeup Game
Fresh off the heels of its fourth anniversary, Summer Fridays is making its first foray into makeup.
The brand is launching its first complexion product, Sheer Skin Tint, which comes in 10 shades and intends to provide consumers with lightweight coverage and a natural finish.
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“Summer Fridays is all about those hybrid products,” said Marianna Hewitt, who cofounded the brand alongside Lauren Gores Ireland. “I think Summer Fridays is really uniquely positioned to cross over into other beauty categories, since Lauren and I started our careers off as influencers.”
Infused with tiger grass, glycerin, hyaluronic acid and a variety of emollients including avocado oil and vitamin E, Sheer Skin Tint keeps Summer Fridays skin care-focused ethos at the fore.
The launch follows that of the brand’s first SPF product in May, and is an emblematic of its ongoing aim of broadening its reach while remaining consistent in its messaging and mission.
“We’ve increased the cadence of our product launches, especially over the past year,” Gores Ireland said. “We have been really excited to give our community a full morning and nighttime routine, while also still being mindful and intentional about the products we’re coming out with.”
Defining itself as a community-driven brand, Summer Friday’s sought the input of its own consumers and social media partners in developing Sheer Skin Tint.
Maintaining high levels of community engagement has long proved fruitful for the brand, which celebrated reaching more than 2 million products sold earlier this year, in determining the look and feel of its products.
This time around, the tactic was also beneficial in helping the brand ensure its shade range was inclusive.
“We wanted to make sure that everybody felt really great not only about the shades that we offered, but also how many shades we offered,” Hewitt said. “Working with the community on this product took a lot of the guesswork out of it. Some of the things that we might have been novices about, going into a new category, they helped us feel confident with.”
Sheer Skin Tint launches on Aug. 16 on the brand’s website and at Sephora. While Hewitt and Gores Ireland did not comment on sales, industry sources estimate the vegan, non-comedogenic product could exceed $5 million in first-year retail sales.
Summer Fridays’ latest expansion is one of many on the horizon for the brand, for whom the feedback of consumers, as well as the founders’ own long-standing experience on the receiving end of influencer gifting, are the guiding lights informing their approach to product development.
“As a skin care brand, we’re very focused on ingredients, and that will always remain our focus,” Gores Ireland said, adding that she and Hewitt often discuss branching into additional categories, ranging from hair to fragrance.
“We really love to focus on products that we know will be highly repurchased,” Gores Ireland said. “With Skin Tint, it’s something that we envision people using every single day, and buying again and again.”
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