Skin positivity is a tricky space to navigate, especially from a brand perspective. You want to acknowledge the trauma (yes, trauma) and impact that skin conditions have without being shame-y or negative. You need to uplift these conditions without being patronizing or fake, and of course, a brand is a business: It needs to sell product. No one has nailed this balance like Topicals.
“Funner flare-ups” has become the unofficial slogan of the skin-care brand, which launched in August with two products: Faded, a serum to fade acne scars and hyperpigmentation, and Like Butter, a soothing mask for eczema-prone skin. In addition to the impeccable branding and skin-condition-centric formulas, the brand stands out for its mission to make skin conditions, well, fun.
Today, the brand takes this idea even further with its Good Skin campaign, which recognizes how harmful beauty standards have been, and not only normalizes but celebrates skin in any condition. The video looks like something you’d see from any other cool-girl brand—think thumping base and pops of colorful makeup on glowing skin—except each model has visible skin conditions like acne and eczema. “You make skin look good, not the other way around,” reads the text at the end of the video.
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While the video sends a powerful message that, yes, all skin is good skin, it also raises the deeper question: What does good skin even mean? Olamide Olowe, Topicals cofounder, tells Glamour that she grew up with the idea of “good hair” and later began questioning what the concept means when extended to skin. “You can’t put a morality on skin care, just like you can’t put a morality on hair—I don’t think it makes sense to use that language,” she says. “So we wanted to showcase women with visible skin conditions in a way that was fun.”
This sense of fun is what sets Topicals apart from other brands, which can often come across as pandering, condescending, or out of touch. Olowe said when thinking about the brand’s messaging, she wanted to move away from the clinical before-and-afters that most people with skin issues are used to without veering into forced “I love myself” positivity.
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“I think that we are pioneering this type of beauty movement which is skin neutrality,” says Olowe, mirroring the push that is also happening within the body image space. “We say internally, ‘It be like that’—sometimes you love your skin, sometimes you don’t. It’s okay to have feelings on both sides of the spectrum, and I think our campaign shows that.”
She adds the brand overall thinks of skin flare-ups as an extension of personal style—which is why their ethos centers around fun. “It’s okay to not have a ‘good skin day,’ whatever that means,” she says. “The idea is not to have perfect skin with these products, but to have funner flare-ups.”
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At the same time, Olowe knows firsthand how difficult it can be dealing with skin conditions and the effects it can have on mental health. She cites the strong correlation studies have found between chronic skin conditions and depression or anxiety. “While we’re super fun, and want to feel aspirational and for people to aspire to be their highest self,” she says, “we also want people to understand that the beauty standards that have existed have been really detrimental to people’s health—and by reworking that and transforming the way people feel about skin, we really have the ability to help people’s mental health.”
So far she's been pretty successful. In addition to creating a tight-knit community, Topical’s Faded has sold out time and time again since launch (including a drop at Nordstrom that sold out in mere minutes). The secret? One: Having products that actually work; and two: having a mission that shines though. “As a Black woman in the beauty industry, I’ve never been the first person people think about, so we don’t waste time trying to serve the masses. We go after the underserved consumer,” says Olowe. “We have the power of the internet, community, and hard work to shift the status quo. I’m so excited and blessed to be in a position of power to do that for our community and to do that for little Olamide, who would have loved to see a brand like this.”
Bella Cacciatore is the beauty associate at Glamour. Follow her on Instagram @bellacacciatore_.
