As the beauty-from-within category continues to evolve, brands are navigating a complex intersection of clinical credibility, delivery innovation, and retail accessibility.
In this Q&A, Barrière Co-Founder and CEO Cleo Davis-Urman shares how the company is leveraging transdermal patch technology, strategic retail partnerships, and science-driven formulations to expand beyond prestige channels and into mass retail.
From incorporating longevity-focused ingredients like NAD+ to maintaining formulation integrity at accessible price points, Davis-Urman outlines how Barrière is positioning itself for long-term growth in an increasingly competitive wellness landscape.
CDU: Barrière’s expansion into 776 Target locations represents a significant scale shift. How does this retail growth align with your broader strategy within the beauty-from-within category, particularly as consumer demand for wellness-adjacent beauty continues to rise?
Cleo Davis-Urman: Barrière has seen immense financial success, with 337% year-over-year revenue growth, and the expansion into 776 Target locations reflects a simple but powerful belief that the best product is the one that’s easy to find. Millions of trend-focused consumers already shop at Target every month, so we’re bringing Barrière to them.
Our retail strategy is deeply intentional, and every partnership is chosen with a specific customer in mind. Hudson News carries our Vitamin D3+K2, B12, and Biotin patches because the on-the-go traveler deserves wellness support that moves with them.
Revolve features our NAD+ and Brain and Beauty patches because the customer is already invested in longevity and looking and feeling their best. It is the same brand and same quality that is showing up in the right place, for the right person, at the right moment.
As we continue to lead the adaptogen sector, projected to reach $17.3 billion by 2030, this approach is more than a distribution strategy, but also a commitment to accessibility. Consumer demand for beauty-from-within products is only growing, and Barrière is meeting that demand wherever it goes.
CDU: Ingredients like NAD+ and ergothioneine are increasingly associated with longevity science and prestige skincare. What informed your decision to incorporate these clinically discussed actives into an accessible, mass retail format?
Cleo Davis-Urman: The move to bring ingredients like NAD+ and ergothioneine into a mass retail format reflects our brand’s belief that clinically backed longevity actives shouldn’t be gatekept by high-end retailers. These ingredients have largely lived in high-end skincare and longevity capsules; however, as consumer awareness and demand in this sector increase, Target’s wellness shoppers are actively researching ingredients and seeking efficacy at accessible price points.
Barrière has found a way to formulate these actives without sacrificing accessibility. Historically, we have seen a clear differentiation between luxury and mass consumers, where they have been searching for different products.
The luxury consumer is searching for innovation, design, and convenience, while the mass consumer is looking for products that will enhance their everyday lives without breaking the bank. Our patches and retail strategy are able to meet both these demands.
CDU: Beauty-from-within has traditionally been dominated by premium ingestibles and luxury topical formulations. How are you positioning transdermal patches as an alternative pathway for delivering high-value ingredients without compromising price accessibility?
Cleo Davis-Urman: Transdermal delivery is actually the best answer to one of the biggest challenges in the beauty-from-within category, which is the fact that the most effective ingredients often don’t absorb well when swallowed or applied to the skin in typical over-the-counter doses. Patches sidestep that problem by delivering actives directly through the skin into the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive system and allowing for more controlled, sustained release.
This is a delivery format that is clinically credible and ingredient-forward. It also fits naturally into the wellness-routine aesthetic that Target’s consumers already gravitate toward, sitting comfortably alongside supplements, adaptogens, and functional wellness products rather than competing directly with prestige skincare.
In that sense, the patch format isn’t a compromise on efficacy or price, but rather it’s the mechanism that makes both possible simultaneously.
CDU: With price points ranging from $12.99 to $17.99, how do you maintain formulation integrity, particularly when working with ingredients such as NAD+, melatonin and biotin while preserving margin at scale?
Cleo Davis-Urman: This is actually one of my favorite questions, because the answer surprises most people! When people hear $12.99 to $17.99, they assume we’re cutting corners somewhere.
But our pricing comes from the delivery method we choose, not despite it. Transdermal delivery works differently from oral supplements. When actives are absorbed through the skin, they bypass the digestive system entirely.
That means we can formulate at lower concentrations than a capsule would require, because with capsules, a significant portion of what you swallow never actually reaches your system. We built Barrière around that science from day one.
Lower concentrations aren’t a cost-cutting move; they’re what the science calls for. On the manufacturing side, we use a medical-grade facility with fully automated production, no human hands in the process.
That level of precision is first and foremost a quality decision, but it also happens to be cost-efficient. Those two things together are what let us offer an accessible price point without compromising the formulation.
CDU: As you scale across DTC, prestige retail and now mass distribution, how does your approach to ingredient sourcing, manufacturing and third-party testing evolve to ensure both accessibility and perceived luxury remain intact?
Cleo Davis-Urman: We strategically chose to develop Barrière patches in an MHRA-registered facility in the U.K. from the beginning. The U.K. operates with some of the strictest supplement regulations in the world, and combined with comprehensive third-party testing, it ensures every product we bring to market is built on clinically-studied ingredients and holds up to the highest standards of safety and efficacy.
As we scale, that focus remains the same and becomes a strong foundation in brand equity. The certifications and transparency that come with our manufacturing standards are what allow us to maintain credibility with the luxury-focused consumer while still converting the Target shopper.
CDU: Looking ahead, do you see the future of beauty-from-within innovation being driven more by novel ingredients, new delivery technologies like transdermal systems, or expanded retail access, and how does Barrière plan to compete on all three fronts?
Cleo Davis-Urman: The most defensible position in beauty-from-within belongs to whoever can win on all three fronts simultaneously, rather than treating them as silos. Novel ingredients generate credibility but are easily duplicated once they go mainstream.
Retail access drives volume, but without a differentiated formulation, it commoditizes a brand fast. Delivery technology is arguably where the most durable advantage lives right now, and transdermal is still early enough in consumer awareness that a brand that owns the education can define the category rather than just participate in it.
That is exactly where Barrière is positioned. Our patch format is the through-line connecting all three: it’s how we deliver NAD+ and ergothioneine directly and effectively into the body; it’s what sets us apart in a crowded retail environment; and it’s an innovative technology which we’ve only scratched the surface of, with meaningful room to evolve.
The brands that lead this space in five years will be those that treat ingredient science, delivery format, and distribution as a unified system, and that is exactly what we are aiming to do.
