By stufflovely
“Gentle actives” are the pillar of the brand. Yarbro doesn’t want to “fix” your skin in 15 minutes with a high percentage acid-packed mask that delivers instant results; he wants to be a seller of daily, preventative health care for your skin. He’s focused on overall skin health, not just results.
“Hyram’s audience is crazy young and trying to get that Gen Z consumer using gentle, effective actives is absolutely critical,” says Colette Laxton, cofounder of Selfless by Hyram. Laxton and Mark Curry, cofounders of U.K.-based skin-care label, The Inkey List, teamed up with Yarbro to create Selfless by Hyram.
Even though Selfless is a separate brand, it’s been able to use The Inkey List’s expertise in the skin-care industry, Laxton explains. She and Curry co-own Be for Beauty, the parent company of The Inkey List and Selfless by Hyram. Previously, Yarbro’s worked with The Inkey List several times in a paid capacity, including Instagram Lives and a collaboration on a limited-edition skin-care set. “The last thing I would want to introduce to the industry is some crazy powerful ingredients,” Yarbro adds.
Selfless is in line with the skin-care philosophy that made Skincare by Hyram a must-follow YouTube channel and TikTok account. No products will contain fragrance, high percentages of active ingredients, physical exfoliants (like tiny beads or grainy, sand-like particles that slough off the skin), or essential oils. For each product, Yarbro pairs a hero active ingredient with a naturally derived substance, such as retinol and rainbow algae.
“They’re using really tried-and-true ingredients with well-known and well-studied skin-care benefits, things like retinol,” says Allen Sha, chemist and founder of Sha Consulting Group, a consultancy that works with skin-care and makeup lines in product development. Sha, unaffiliated with Selfless, has worked with brands such as Lancôme, Kiehl’s, Beautycounter and Nyx Professional Makeup.
For Yarbro, where raw materials are sourced and how they’re harvested are just as important as the actual ingredients. He includes sourcing information in addition to listing ingredients, an added touch sure to attract a Gen Z clientele who prioritize founders’ beliefs. Yarbro says sourcing either “doesn’t hurt the environment” or helps the environment grow or re-grow the ingredient. For example, the rainbow algae stems used to make the retinol serum are sourced from France and individually hand-cut to make sure roots are left intact to re-grow. A percentage of each purchase of this serum will be donated to Rainforest Trust, a nonprofit organization that works to protect tropical rainforests and endangered species.
