Nécessaire

Two former beauty industry veterans launched a body care brand in 2018, premised on a single counter-positioning. Body products would be held to the same standard as prestige face skin care. Nick Axelrod-Welk and Randy Kristiansson had previously worked at Estee Lauder and into the gloss, respectively, when they founded Nécessaire in Los Angeles in 2018. Their argument was that face skin care had evolved to use clinically-dosed vitamin C, retinol and AHA's. While body washes and body lotions still used decades-old formulations sold in plastic squeeze bottles at drugstores. The gap between the two categories was a commercial opportunity if a brand could apply face skin care chemistry to the body and package it with the same visual restraint. The minimalist packaging design was not aesthetic, it was a pricing signal.