Responsible Luxury™️
Review #13 - Nécessaire 🧖♀️
A minimalist skincare enthusiast’s dream. That would be me. Warning: I use the word genius a lot in this one.
Review #13 - Nécessaire 🧖♀️
What Is It
Nécessaire makes “clean, effective body care” which, by their definition, “makes a difference in your skin and supports your health and wellness.” Their suite of body and hair products are carbon neutral, plastic neutral, B Corp certified — all the things.
It felt fitting to try their Body Essentials Set as a foray into the brand’s offerings, and it has nothing to do with the fact that my besties gifted me the set for my birthday.
Brand / Aesthetic
Nécessaire is a Brand, capital B. F yeah.
Let’s start with the name, literally meaning necessary in French (let me guess, you had a feeling?), Nécessaire in one word encapsulates their entire ethos. They design only what’s necessary; a less-is-more approach to clean, earth-friendly personal care staples.
And while environmentally-beneficial body care may seem like a “duh” idea in 2024, remember that at the time it launched, clean (face-oriented) skincare was BOOMING and consumers were completely ignoring / blissfully unaware that their bodies deserved the same respect. I can still remember the mind-blow moment I had when Nécessaire stepped on the scene and essentially jumpstarted a whole new category (by Sephora standards, at least). Anyways, this post gives you some helpful pre-context.
The absolute genius of creating “only the essentials” is that suddenly everything they sell becomes, well, an essential. Take body retinol for instance — I had no idea I needed it but apparently I do. That sounded sarcastic, and to some extent it is, but it’s not so much a dig at them, and more of a comment on how convincing good branding can be. Minimalism and boldness communicates authority without the clinical sterility of a doctor-led brand, and combined with the guiding principle of “essentials only”, you’ve got the Cady Heron Effect in full force.
And with essentialism as the north star, everything from copywriting to art direction to the physical product follow suit.
The packaging was designed by Brian Roettinger of Perron-Roettinger (if that name sounds familiar, you deserve a gluten free cookie — it’s because they designed Ghia’s labels). This checks out considering Nécessaire’s co-founder (and co-host of my favorite podcast) Nick Axelrod cut his beauty-founder teeth with Into the Gloss, and, if you’ll recall from past reporting, Melanie was an early Glossier employee. All of which is to say, Glossier was a breeding ground for genius, and the brand family tree (one example of my girl Emma Apple Chozick‘s brilliance) extends beyond W-2 employees and into the distant relatives of agencies and freelancers.
This is a concept otherwise known as getting a recommendation from a friend. Cool.
You can tell from a quick glance at their website how much thought went into every decision, from the lack of “about us” page to the absence of humans on their PDPs. Remember, they’re giving us only what’s necessary. None of that dumb founder story crap (JK, I weirdly love them in all their corniness).
When you’re writing copy with The Necessary™️ parameters, you’re forced to be incredibly judicious with diction. That’s why it’s all the more impressive that they’ve nailed it with their taglines, and it makes sense why they’ve trademarked them. Another point in the subtle display of credibility department.
This was all a longwinded way of saying the following: Specific, clear, unique, both visually and verbally. That’s how you do it folks!
Marketing
The first and most important contribution to their marketing strategy is the packaging itself. Beautifully designed products market themselves (Seed, Dieux) and I’ll stand by that forever.
Side note: should I make a “Rules of Brand Marketing” list (a la Bowen and Matt’s “Rules of Culture” — if you fall in the middle of Eyewitness Beauty and Las Cultch listenership Venn Diagram, this is your virtual wink) since I’m so painfully self-referential?
Note: it’s less about me and more about the key tenets of good brand marketing that pop up time and time again.
But if we’re talking social content, it’s also awesome. I find it so refreshing when a brand is deliberate with their digital output, posting high-quality photos and videos on Instagram that continue to strengthen our correlation to the brands’ visual identity. Social media isn’t just about metrics and awareness, it’s about brand recognition through repeated, consistent messaging, too.
Every single piece of content is incredibly dialed in, always on brand. Usually this would become stagnant over time, but the brand has evolved in a really positive and powerful way. Randi Christiansen, their other equally visionary (and ex-Lauder) co-founder, said it best in relation to their products.
This marketing Darwinism — or Jobsinism, if you will — applies to all aspects of Nécessaire’s identity, my favorite example being their word choice. While they initially set out to be “sustainable”, they’ve retracted that word from their vocabulary and replaced it with “responsible”, a switch that I much prefer due to my sustainability-fatigue (see: thoughtful-fatigue and intentional-fatigue on family member Annie Kreighbaum’s canonical post).
Quality over quantity in everything they do. Instead of churning out a lot of stupid crap on TikTok like I am, they’re creating actually GOOD stuff (predominantly on Instagram), leaning into their beautiful imagery and investing in top tier UGC. All of their creators have a POV and general cool factor — another very smart approach to maintaining an aspirational edge at a relatively accessible price point.
That being said, I don’t think it would hurt to add more informative content to the mix. They’ve done such an excellent job of establishing themselves as the pinnacle of skincare standards, so it would behoove them to leverage their expert-positioning and educate their consumers. Pause: Can you believe I just used the word behoove on here? Perhaps I’m really revealing my cards here, but I’d pretty much trust what they say about skin and body care blindly (ICYMI: critical thinking is in its flop era). That’s the power of strong branding. Or maybe it’s the result of trademarking everything they say. Either way, two thumbs up.
There’s also a case to be made for more large-scale influencer or brand partnerships, but, as we know, they’re only doing what’s necessary. It’s getting redundant to type, but it’s honestly refreshing.
They do a beautiful job of forgoing trends in favor of useful innovation based on consumer insights. A great example: Rosemary Shampoo + Conditioner. Hair growth is all the rage in wellness these days (a.k.a. yassified rogaine), but instead of doing some half-assed collaboration or content push, they created a new SKU with a popular, purposeful ingredient, rosemary.
Speaking of trends that aren’t really trends, it seems like they’re leaning into the luxury fragrance bullishness by adding Le Labo-adjacent scent options to the fan-favorite body wash. Innovation that doesn’t anger the fragrance-free loyalists, while, once again, maintaining an air of aspiration. Chef’s kiss.
The one and only thing I reeeeeally don’t like is that I got an abandoned cart text message after spending too much time on the site (for research purposes obviously). I definitely signed up for SMS so it’s very much legal but creepy nonetheless. Let’s just nip that please.
Efficacy
It’s worth noting that as much as I love skincare and learning about new products, I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a skincare girlie for a number of reasons.
I have an Eyes on the Prize mentality thanks to my maladaptive hyper-productivity and ADHD diagnosis, which means that my skincare routine has to take less than 5 minutes and anything extra has to be absolutely necessary (that wasn’t on purpose…….)
I have very sensitive skin and I’m terrified of most products giving me rashes
For the longest time, an extensive body care regimen was a hard no. But with age (read: immense burn out) I’ve decided to make some changes to my life that require me to stop and smell the roses, or better yet, eucalyptus. I also decided I was allowed to actually use the good products because I’m the boss of my life and I deserve nice things.
So, in a shock to no one, I’m happy to announce that I love these products. Honestly, it really would have sucked if I didn’t.
Like I said, I tried The Body Essentials Set which includes The Body Wash (eucalyptus), The Body Serum, and The Body Lotion. Straight up: my skin is the softest it’s been in, like, ever. There’s something to be said about the additional serum step in my body care routine and the way it creates a moment of indulgence. Cheesy alert, but it’s helped me view body care, something I previously rushed through as a means to an end, as a self-love ritual. Now every time I shower I feel like I’m in a mini spa. It’s truly the little things.
Overall Thoughts
There’s not much left to say. Nécessaire is officially admitted into my Hall of Fame.
The minimalist design and unique POV is what draws you in, and their consistency and attention to detail is what makes you stay. That, and the fact that I can literally feel my skin being nourished.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5
In Other News…
Bravo, Cosmic Bliss, Erewhon, and Hailey, Bravo.
You love to see Kohler making a millennial splash (pun intended).
So long, Kiehl’s, Grown Alchemist is taking over Equinox locker rooms. I clumsily attempted a TikTok about the changeover, but Jake Bell said it a lot more eloquently.
You’ve heard of red light masks, now it’s time for red light hats.
That’s all for now. If there’s a product you want reviewed or just want to chat, reply to this email. :)
If "responsible", one still wonders "why plastic packaging?"
I started doing full body red light beds. It’s great !!