Fresh on the heels of recent retail expansion, Clark’s Botanicals is building out its product offering, too.
The brand is launching its first product in three years, called the DNA-42 ClinicaLift serum, which will retail for $150 when it launches Tuesday on the brand’s website and with Credo Beauty.
“We had just launched in Bluemercury when they gave us more doors, then Credo launched us and gave us all their doors,” said Francesco Clark, the brand’s founder. “We are now looking to expand in the next six months in Asia and Europe, and we’ve grown the team.”
In tandem with the geographic moves, Clark acquired 40 acres in Amalfi, Italy. “We were studying the ingredients that were growing there and then, while that was happening, we started to work with the Johns Hopkins board-certified dermatologists on it at the same time,” Clark said.
In terms of why now was the ideal time to expand its product line, Clark said, “The timing was right because the formula was right. Once we perfected the formula, I didn’t want to wait anymore. Everybody else is talking about PDRN, but the thing is, we started formulating this long before PDRN and exosomes were really spoken about.”
The serum is comprised of a vegan PDRN complex, which includes rice-derived and barley-derived DNA, and the product derives its name from the 42-day skin renewal cycle that the formula was built around. The serum also highlights a marine biomimetic support matrix, which includes chondrus crispus extract, plankton extract and mineral-rich sea water, as well as a pair of peptides to help both with expression lines and collagen production.
“We dually sourced exosomes from goji berry stem cells. What’s interesting about these exosomes is that they repair the barrier, then part of the exosome goes into the mitochondria to reverse DNA damage,” Clark said. “It’s 266 percent faster regeneration.”
The formula takes 42 days to get the product’s biggest claim — that it reverses up to eight years of aging — and Clark wants consumers to understand how to best deploy the product.
“It’s very much in line with when I go in-store and speak with customers. Brands just stack ingredients, one on top of the other, on top of the other, to the point that customers are now expecting a reaction in order to see a payoff,” Clark said. “That’s not at all the way it has to be, if you have a formulation with synergistic ingredients. You’re building systems and a formula that work well together, you’re not just ingredient stacking.”
The price strategy was also key, with Clark aiming to keep costs lower than more costly modalities. “There’s an interplay between, ‘If I’m spending with my dermatologist, then why am I spending just as much on product?’” he said. “I want to show people how well you can make a formulation work for your skin without needing 18 steps and to really make a difference in the skin.”
