Farmacy

A Brooklyn-based entrepreneur partnered with a New York State honey farmer in 2015 to build a skincare brand around a single proprietary plant extract. Proctor and Gamble acquired it six years later for a reported $200 million. Mark Vida had spent two decades in natural products branding before partnering with farmer Kent Shoemaker at Lucky Clover Farm in Upstate New York. Shoemaker grew a specific variety of echinacea called green envy, high in a compound called succoric acid. The two launched pharmacy in 2015 around that proprietary extract with honey potion the warming mask as the hero product. The farm partnership was structured to give pharmacy exclusive access to the green envy variant, blocking competing skincare houses from the same citoric acid source.