Function of Beauty Launches First Styling Product
Personalized hair care brand Function of Beauty is claiming a new category.
Launching direct-to-consumer Tuesday, Function of Beauty’s Styling Primer is a lightweight priming mist that retails for $29 and is customizable in its level of hold, styling goals and fragrance, including a fragrance-free option.
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Intended for application onto damp hair, the primer is formulated with the brand’s proprietary Style Defense Complex, which contains rice seed protein and rice extract meant for UV protection, provitamin B5 to intended to strengthen hair and hybrid polymer technology to keep strands in place.
“Styling particularly makes sense from a customization perspective, because people often opt into different styling looks,” said Function of Beauty’s chief marketing officer Marianna Trofimova. “We’re very particular about where we go — the first consideration we ask ourselves is, ‘What is relevant to the consumer?,’ because customization is truly an answer to unmet needs in the market.”
In personalizing the primer, consumers can choose either a light, flexible or strong hold level, highlight priority styling goals, such as deep conditioning, frizz control, curl definition, anti-pollution and more and select a fragrance, options for which include Floret, Go Coco, Takes Two to Mango, Nude Peach and Pearfection.
The information that Function of Beauty gathers from consumers informs its approach to customization, which includes popular formula combinations (Trofimova noted her recent realization of consumers’ tendency to combine certain fragrances with certain colors, for example) and tuning into consumer feedback.
“We have a rich area of consumer data touchpoints you know, unlike a lot of classical [d-to-c] beauty businesses, which we use to actively to understand what people want,” Trofimova said.
While the Function of Beauty’s roots are in hair care — which still composes the majority of the brand’s business — the business has debuted both body care and skin care products in 2020.
The company also acquired customized skin care and technology business, Atolla, in 2021, marking its first acquisition.
For now, Function of Beauty is zeroing in on its goal of raising the bar in hair care, with the launch of the Styling Primer marking the first of many innovations in the styling category Function of Beauty plans to roll out.
“[Hair care] is our priority — we want to consolidate the product portfolio in hair care before we expand [further] into other product categories,” Trofimova said. “We definitely have plans to address styling in a more robust way, both across d-to-c and retail.”
Trofimova did not specify sales expectations for the launch, but industry sources estimate Function of Beauty’s styling business could generate $3 million in sales in its first year.
