What We Look For and Why

Ingredients are the building blocks of how and why a product works. A label can promise hydration, clarity or repair, but the formula is the only place that promise is either kept or broken.

That means looking at the whole formula, not just the headline active. Actives do the targeted work, structural compounds give a product its texture and stability, and the preservative system keeps it safe to use. A brilliant active in a poorly built formula still under-delivers.

Across a formula and product catalogue, we favor a diverse range of potent botanicals, functional plant-derivatives, and other valuable ingredients rich in active compounds intended to work with the skin's own biology.

For structural and preservative systems, we look for modern compounds derived from more renewable, gently processed sources rather than petroleum-based ingredients and other legacy, solvent-intensive fallbacks.

A lot of skincare is made by someone other than the brand on the box. Many brands hand production (and sometimes the entire formulation process) to a third-party lab. Some brands do little more than put their name and label on a ready-made formula (known as ‘white-labelling’).

We believe this kind of outsourcing rewards good marketing over real know-how. A brand can say a lot about its products. However, if someone else makes them, that brand may not fully know every ingredient in the bottle or verify exactly how a product was made. It’s like a restaurant promoting its dishes without having a kitchen or a chef, and ordering everything pre-made from a ghost kitchen behind the scenes.

Brands that make their own products work the other way around. One team owns and is ultimately accountable for everything: the formula, the supply chain and the production process. They choose every ingredient themselves and know why it’s there. They’ve made, tested and tweaked every batch to verify the details and have learned how to improve the product. That’s where the real expertise comes from, and how we can trust each brand fully understands what it sells.

In other words, we exclusively look for restaurants with their own kitchens and experienced chefs making dishes on-site.

For us, quality is defined by how a product is made as much as what is in the bottle.

Small-batch production gives tighter control over each step of the production process, and leaves room for the detailed care and attention that mass production tends to trade away. With more controlled quantities, a team can work by hand, watch each batch closely and continuously refine their techniques and formulas. Smaller batches also mean products tend to be fresher because they can be made closer to when they’re sold.

All added together, we believe this system allows for more precise oversight that leads to higher-quality products.

“Indie” has become one of the most popular terms in skincare. Unfortunately, we feel it has largely evolved into a marketing category rather than a meaningful distinction. It once pointed to brands that were open about their work and focused on making better products than the legacy names.

Today, many self-described “indie” labels belong to larger corporations or private equity firms (for example, L’Oréal’s multibillion-dollar acquisition of Aēsop). Of those that remain unowned, many are highly dependent on third-party labs for their core products and formulas.

Is that true independence?

For us, independence comes down to who drives and controls the vision, operations and product outcomes. We think a truly independent brand is owned and run by its founders and employees and answers only to its customers. No corporate parent or investor sets its direction, and no outside manufacturer decides how its products are made.

That freedom lets a brand focus on what it wants to make, in whatever way it wants to make it. Without external demands to scale quickly, cut costs, or follow trends, we’ve noticed that independent brands tend to prioritize their products. We think that focus shows in the quality, from the formula to the finished bottle.

It’s why we look for independence in a brand’s structure and operations, not just “indie” as a label.