Who cares? Looks fade
Review #26 - Topicals 🤠
Alright team, we’re back to regularly scheduled programming. As a refresher (for you and I both): I do this wellness & beauty-oriented brand / marketing / product review once a week. It started as a way to blend my two vocations, writing and brand strategy, but it’s also a convenient excuse to play human guinea pig. Most importantly though, it’s become a wonderful way to connect with you.
I can’t not say “foster community” without a big fat eye roll, but it’s truly the reason why I love brands and products. Some of my favorite friendships have started from a shared love of a specific moisturizer or our thoughts on the newest Oura ring; conversational entry points leading to more philosophical, esoteric topics, if you could believe it. What a beautiful, albeit slightly dystopian, result of capitalism.
Another relevant and trite phrase: every body is different. No two people have the exact same experience with a product, so it’s my honor—no, my duty—to sacrifice myself and my bank account as a means of opening the door to a larger conversation. Plus, now that brands have such an all-encompassing, humanlike presence online (and IRL), you don’t even need to buy a product to feel like you’re part of their world. Gagging.
Oh, on format: I decided to break this analysis down into smaller sub-sections, not because I read an essay about listicles, but because I’m having more fun this way. I hope that’s reason enough.
Enough out of me. Let’s talk about this under-eye patch.
Review #26 - Topicals 🤠
What Is It
Topicals makes skincare for flare-ups.
I have genetically dark / sunken under eyes (thanks Grandma…) which means brightening those bags is my lifelong assignment from God. Topicals and their goings on come across my desk often enough, so I’ve decided to try out the Faded Under Eye Masks as a means of writing about the brand world they’ve created.
It’s also worth noting that I don’t struggle with a lot of the issues their products aim to target (hyperpigmentation, dark spots, acne scars). Aside from those panda bear eyes (I’ve been told they resemble Emma Chamberlain’s), I have naturally good-ish skin. My main concerns tend to be eczema and perioral dermatitis, in case you were wondering.
Brand
Backstory
I do a f***ton of research for these reviews, as you can imagine, and I’m grateful to have had a wealth of information handed to me on a silver platter. Sarah Shapiro of Retail Diaryrecently shared this podcast with Topicals founder Olamide Olowe, which provided a great foundation for this piece. Here are my favorite takeaways:
She wanted to be a dermatologist, but realized that creating a product was a way to make good skin more accessible.
She tries to de-center herself in conversations about the brand’s successes because she’s “not the reason Topicals is successful.” It’s because she has a detail-oriented team who cares deeply about the customer.
“We know that Black culture leads popular culture in the United States” —> by making something for “the fringes,” they’re making something for everyone else.
Olamide seems like a really good boss, consistently championing her employees’ creativity and well-being.
I had no expectations going into this episode, so I was surprised by how much Olamide’s story and perspective resonated with and inspired me. We’re both younger than expected, highly motivated, and successful at what we do. She’s reminding me that I can be hot and also smart while having fun. That was mostly a joke.
Positioning
The brand’s purpose is to transform “the way you feel about your skin,” an important distinction from transforming the skin itself. At first, my genetically legal brain perceived this as a genius loophole. Wow, these products don’t even have to physically do anything, because they never promised they would! But I know the point of that statement is much more good-hearted, so I shove my cynical impulses aside.
By transforming the way you feel about your skin, they’re actually relying heavily on mental health. The official term is psychodermatology, which is exactly what it sounds like — how our skin affects our mental health and the reverse. Gut-brain axis anyone? They leave room for flare-up-positivity, but they also acknowledge that it’s often painful and undesirable to deal with these skin conditions, so while it doesn’t have to be embarrassing to have them, it also doesn’t mean we have to suffer through them.
The long and short of it is: they’re skin/body care with a specific purpose. To me, a Soft Services Stan, it feels like a similar mission, but with different products (including face-specific formulas) and a younger audience. Apologies to use a reference that’s been beaten to death, but I think this analogy will ironically offer some clarity: Topicals is brat whereas Soft Services is more demure.
Visual Identity
My favorite word to describe design that panders to Gen-Z is funky, and this is no exception. Bright colors with heavy emphasis on pink and big blocky text treatments are all sure-fire signs of a TikTok-friendly brand.
While it’s not necessarily my personal taste, it is very well executed. Looking at the website, the about page is the most fun part. It’s a customizable and playful experience, not unlike the way they view skincare… Love a UX-related metaphor.
Vocal Identity
Like I said, they’re clearly Gen-Z (I’m already sick of this phrase, but alas, there’s no synonym). That doesn’t mean they’re annoying, though.
Actually, this brings up an interesting point: I don’t think a youthful voice is always annoying, and in fact, the “bestie-speak” that irritates me the most tends to come from Millennials posing as Gen-Z. Either way, the generational divide continues to plague my thoughts.
Topicals is young and fun, they understand trends, but they’re not overly hyperbolic (guilty) or, checks notes, “brainrot.” There’s a bit of self-awareness at play too, something I think is crucial for a brand’s likability (and also a person’s, if I’m being honest).
For instance, their Faded serum is notorious among their customers as smelling, as one commenter says, “like hot dog water.” Instead of turning a blind eye to the criticism in hopes of a quick and painless death, they embraced the odor allegations, doubling down on it through education and humor.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
All of these factors (visuals, voice, etc) contribute to a singular fact: Topicals, as an entity, is cool. Like, those-middle-schoolers-are-terrifying type of cool.
Marketing
Like I mentioned, Topicals is cooler than I’ll ever be, but I’ll aspire to it nonetheless. The best brands tow the line between aspirational and relatable, and Topicals is no exception. Being a Gen-Z powered brand, social media is where it lives and breathes.
Social Media
The big headline is that their social media presence is phenomenal, and it’s for a few reasons. I personally believe more followers is everyone’s goal on social (whether conscious or not) but if that’s Trojan Horsed by “engaging with community members” or “growing brand awareness” the golden rule still holds up. And what is that golden rule, you’re asking? Provide value. I hate this next sentence, but vibes (otherwise known as brand identity maintenance) are value, too — especially when you’re in the business of world-building. In Topicals’s case, the value looks like:
Genuinely educational content. Give non-customers a reason to follow you!
A creative medium for product campaigns and partnerships (more on that shortly).
Showing off the cool stuff they’re up to offline. Just like I always say, an equally important part of a social presence is the offline presence. That’s what my grandkids will remember me by.
Connecting with their community. Sorry, I had to.
High production value is underscoring all of these different content pillars, thereby making the viewing experience less like an Instagram reel and more like a short-form TV show that happens to fit social dimensions. Pour one out for Quibi, the one that got away.
Partnerships
Partnerships, for any brand, is two-pronged. You’ve got the brand-brand partnerships and the brand-person partnerships.
Side note: writing that out just brought back a core memory of learning about “connections” in elementary school english class: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world. There’s an idea here that I should work into future consulting projects…
Brand-to-Brand: Working with other Black-owned brands is key, according to any piece of Topicals-related literature. They brought others along on their brand trips and work hard to make sure beauty is an industry “with other Black-owned brands that can be successful and fun.”
Brand-to-Person: They’ve landed some epic partnerships. Most recently, they launched a new Faded soap and featured Flo Milli as the face of the campaign.
There’s a secret third option which is brand-to-charity, but I’d rather not lump that into the marketing section for somewhat obvious reasons…
Less of a partnership and more of an event, Topicals participates in the “brand trip” phenomenon that arguably hit its peak with Tartegate. I’m of the personal belief that brand trips are dumb. That is, except if you’re inviting me to one, in which case, soooo fun. However, if I was to sign off on one of these over-the-top getaways, it would be Topicals’.
Instead of just sending their favorite influencer partners to Bora Bora so they can F off and post TikToks about what’s in their beach bags, Topicals is a bit more intentional in their itinerary planning. Take their previous trip to Accra, Ghana in celebration of Detty December as a prime example. At its core, a brand trip relies on creating FOMO with community members who are looking in on the experience through their phones. So instead of attempting to make the trip more accessible, an inherent oxymoron, Topicals capitalized on the feeling of aspiration and luxury in a way that spoke directly to their target audience—with a trip to West Africa. More on that here.
Community
Everything else I’ve written about all culminates in the most important aspect of their brand: the community. Since I’m a self-identified Zillennial, I have to compare everything back to Glossier. Aside from Rhode, I haven’t seen a community of people so enamored with a brand since the big G word.
It’s not a one-way street though—the Topicals community is foundational to the entire brand, a symbiotic relationship where one cannot exist without the other. They make products for their community members, and those brand fans in turn make purchases, post about them, and even help them improve their web presence.
The comments on their social channels are proof enough, but for a more concentrated way to engage with these fans, they’ve taken to TYB (the community metaverse platform created by none other than Ty Haney, a personal favorite girlboss of mine).
Since this is my first experience with the brand, I can’t in good conscious say I’m a certified Spottie Hottie at this moment in time. That being said, if anyone is, or is simply a die hard Topicals fan sans affiliation, I’d love to talk. I could be interested in joining.
My Experience / Efficacy
Do the eye masks work? Good question.
As far as eye masks go, these are good ones. Something I really appreciate about these is that they don’t slide down my face.The box instructs me to keep them on for 15 minutes, but that’s not happening for my ADHD self. These babies are staying on for an hour, because I’ll absolutely forget they’re on my face and engage in 3+ other household tasks. Even after the 90 minute mark (oops), these still stay exactly where they’re supposed to. Impressive.
When I finally remember these are on my face, they’re easy to peel right off, and I can feel an additional, forgive me, plumpness, under my eyes. The biggest test for one of these eye masks, though, is how the concealer looks on top.
The Faded masks pass the concealer test—there’s none of that weird flakiness that seems to happen when my skin is either too dry or way too moisturized. A real Goldilocks situation, you could say.
I thought I was having a good makeup day (those exist, right?), but no matter how good you think you look, someone on TikTok will have a different opinion.
Overall Thoughts
As many people say “Topicals just gets it.” I’d have to agree, and I feel proud of myself for having a handle of what “it” is.
**It’s come to my attention that the Faded Serum is actually the same formula that’s built into the masks, which means I could have just purchased a tube and DIY-ed the masks with my Dieux reusable patches. C’est la vie.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5
In Other News…
Big week for the blurry line between skincare and beauty:
Victoria Beckham Beauty x Augustinus Bader collabed on a concealer pen (so many shades, plus the precision on this thing is incredible)
And a Rhode comeback story
And finally, a non-alc bubbly thanks to none other than our good friends at Ghia.
That’s all for now. If there’s a product you want reviewed or just want to chat, reply to this email or leave a comment. :)
Oh, loved this one! It’s nice seeing a brand embrace the weird/criticism they receive + use it as an opportunity to educate. 10/10!
this is such a joy to read! thank you for the deep dive