YouTuber Claudia Sulewski has officially launched her body care business. How she got here

Claudia Sulewski remembers the exact moment the idea for her first product came to her.

It was back in 2020, the actor, content creator and now, business owner tells TODAY.com, and as with all great ideas, it came to her while she was in the shower.

“I remember just thinking of a very simple jar and being like, has anyone done that? Has anyone just done like something so simple and timeless and it can look good anywhere? And that was the moment I remember — being in the shower and being like, ‘Babe! It’s gonna be a body cream and it’s gonna be in a glass jar,'" she recalls shouting to her boyfriend, Finneas O'Connell, Billie Eilish's brother.

His response? “Yes, that’s good! That’s good,” she quotes with a laugh.

Sulewski got her start as a YouTube creator in 2009. She’s since amassed more than 2.4 million subscribers on YouTube, 2 million followers on Instagram and 1 million on TikTok for her photos and videos featuring makeup, fashion and lifestyle content.

While she still posts social media content, her career is beginning to transition from influencer to business owner. On Oct. 20, the 27-year-old launched a gender inclusive body care line, called Cyklar, inspired by that initial shower thought three years ago.

What is CYKLAR?

Sulewski broke down the meaning of the brand's name Cyklar, pronounced "sike-lure," for TODAY.com.

"The actual name Cyklar itself, is inspired by the word cycle, and just continuing the cycle and continuing to use your products in their own cycle," she says. "So it’s like the whole concept of a loop."

The genderless body care brand aims to put ingredients and sustainability first, including reusable packaging and refills in compostable packaging, which she says will launch later this year.

Cyklar's first product is a body cream in a reusable glass jar, which Sulewski hopes her customers will hold onto and find other uses for, until they're ready to send it to the recycle bin.

"I wanted to develop something that didn't leave your skin feeling greasy or oily," she says, "And that's just like a personal preference because I get into bed after I put on body cream, and I don't want my limbs like feeling slimy."

Sulewski describes the scent of the cream as woodsy, with notes of velvet, moss and cedar, which she's called "crescent," named after the street she grew up on outside of Chicago.

"I grew up surrounded by forests, biking through them with my older brothers, and I knew I wanted it to be a woodsy, forest inspired scent," she says.

She adds she's now forced her friends and family to try out the product, and the most requested ask so far has surprised her: When is "crescent" coming out?

"My male best friends are like, 'Claudia, when is crescent coming out?' Well, the body cream is coming out and 'crescent' is in it. So there you go," she says with a laugh.

From YouTuber to business owner

While now a beauty product creator, Sulewski got her start posting makeup tutorials on YouTube. She says her advice for multi-platform success is "making things you're proud of" and "just being authentic."

"That is the thing that is so clearly infectious to the screen, and people can grab on to that," she says.

Sulewski says that while she's slowed down on posting YouTube videos in the past year, she never plans to fully leave the platform, even as she delves into other ventures like acting and creating a brand.

While her content creator career has led her to collaborations with other brands in the past, including partnerships with Nordstrom and Wildflower Cases, Cyklar is her first foray into the world of business where she’s been in control of every single part of the brand.

"It was always body care in my brain because I felt like it was still kind of like an untapped category," she says. "I feel like so many friends of mine have created makeup brands and skincare and hair brands, and I thought body care was one that like everyone can enjoy."

Sulewski says she fell into a "time warp" once she started the brand. Three years went by before she released a product as she oversaw every decision related to the company.

"I think what shocked me the most was just like how much goes into it," she says. "I came into this so excited as a creative, and I've come out of it feeling very empowered in just learning how to delegate and learning how to like, rip the band aid off with difficult conversations."

Acknowledging she's stepping into the business world for the first time, she shares her advice for those who have an idea but are intimidated by getting started.

"Throughout every step of the process, it is so important to listen to your gut," she says. "It's so easy to ask literally the person next to you, or the person that you're emailing, and ultimately it is up to you. So, so much of it is knowing your intentions going in and always resorting back to that and and working through that stance because it's really easy to make sacrifices along the way."

As for what comes next? Sulewski is already thinking of the future and where she wants to take Cyklar next.

"I hope to create Cyklar as a self-care brand, and start thinking of different areas in the home," she says. "Like, OK if this is on the nightstand, what goes on the living room coffee table? What goes in the bathroom, what goes in the shower? I hope to expand it, of course."

The importance of a ‘sounding board’

In her personal life, Sulewski resides in Los Angeles with O'Connell, a musician and music producer for some of the biggest names in music — including his sister, Billie Eilish.

Sulewski and O'Connell just celebrated their fifth anniversary, and Sulewski says O'Connell has been her point person to bounce ideas off of for the brand.

"Finneas is just so wonderful and one of like, the most creative brains — so I feel lucky just to get to pick his brain whenever, and he does the same with me," she says. "I think anyone that you're living with and you're sharing a household with, they're gonna listen to all of your rants... sometimes it's really nice to just to have like a sounding board."

His perspective as a "dude" has also helped her latest business endeavor as she strives for the product to be genderless.

"I feel really lucky to have a supportive partner that I really respect and that goes mutually both ways. And so I couldn't ask for like a better best friend to get to bounce ideas off of," she says. "And it's wonderful that also he's a dude, and I'm making a genderless body care company for everyone. I'm like, 'Hey, babe, is this too girly?' And he's like, 'No, that's good.' So that's also that's wonderful, too."

This article was originally published on TODAY.com