Dermalogica

A British skin therapist who trained as an esthetician in Los Angeles launched a professional skincare brand in 1986 that refused to retail directly to consumers for its first three decades. Every product was sold only through licensed skin therapists, who had completed a specific training program. Jane Welland opened the International Dermal Institute in Los Angeles in 1983, an education school for skin therapists and founded Dermalogica three years later, specifically to supply the professional channel her students were working in. For more than 30 years, a customer could only buy Dermalogica at a licensed skin clinic where a trained therapist had completed face mapping and recommended specific products. The education first model produced a distribution channel no competitor could replicate quickly.