Having been founded in 2009 and sold to Unilever Prestige a decade later, Tatcha knows something about staying power.
The brand, however, is taking on longevity from a different angle with the introduction of its Longevity Serum, both a new product and the introduction of a new range. Priced at $80, the product will debut Monday on Tatcha’s and Sephora’s websites before rolling out to Sephora U.S. doors Aug. 29.
It’s a means of broadening the business’ shoulders beyond key franchises of the brand, which was founded by Vicky Tsai and takes cues from Japanese beauty and wellness rituals. Case in point, Tatcha’s Dewy Cream sells once every 30 seconds, and has amassed 300 million views on TikTok, said the brand’s chief executive officer Mary Yee.
“Those are the main things that are driving our growth and allowing us to break into new areas,” Yee said. “Our new product development has been strong this year, particularly in ingredients, where we see a lot of opportunity. We launched a brightening collection, which is doing phenomenally.”
Given the ritualistic component of the business, consumers are responding well to adding a serum step between cleansing and moisturizing, Yee said. “We know the U.S. skin care market, our largest, has overall been flat-to-declining,” she continued. “But we’ve been able to grow by double digits.”
The franchise is expected to surpass $20 million in sales by the end of 2026, per industry sources.
Longevity has become a wellness buzzword, but the launch came from Tsai’s personal experience following a trip to Okinawa in the business’ earlier days.
“It was 2018, and it was crazy — things looked like they were going really great and we were growing. But on the inside, it was like being on a tightrope that kept getting higher and higher,” Tsai said. “I had this guide the whole time, and she would take us to gardens and would explain the plants, how they use them in food, the medicinal benefits. We would go back and make teas, herb salts, oils.”
Inspired by the ages reached by Okinawa residents — “People were physically very active into their 90s,” Tsai said — she decided to bottle those ingredients. Among them, the Okinawa Cellescence Complex, which combines Shikuwasa Lime extract, Noni Juice extract and Shell Ginger, which boasts a 55 percent claim in reduction of aging senescent cell biomarkers. That complex joins bioactive lipids and a pro-AHA prebiotic.
“This arrives at a time when consumers are curious about cellular health and resilience and prevention. We see that happening,” Yee said. “That, paired with this philosophy that’s anchored and rooted in Okinawa, we’re seeing what’s happening in the market, what we could do with the science, and marry them together.”
The product, seven years in the making, harkens back to Tatcha’s broader brand ethos, posited Nicole Frusci, Tatcha’s chief marketing officer. “What people resonate with the most is Vicky’s origin story of choosing happiness over burnout,” she said. “People feel our resonance because we help them slow down.”
That being said, “If we launched the longevity serum seven years ago, we would’ve been ahead of our time,” Frusci said. Distilling that value proposition, as well as the science and origins of the product, is her mandate. “We’re thinking about telling the story of the inception of the product, but where we win is keeping the consumer at the heart of it.”
To that end, Tatcha has partnered with two key ambassadors to tell the story on the brand’s behalf. “We’re partnering with Stephanie Suganami, and Aki and Koichi, a Japanese couple in their 70s who became influencers after a long life of working,” Frusci said. “We’re trying to thread that needle and weave a story that puts the people at the center, but also breaks down the science in a way that’s understandable.”
As for Yee, the franchise is an opportunity to “increase the lifespan or skin span and the vitality of skin. There are so many legs for that,” she said. “The category is right, that timing is right, and we have the right product with the right story.”
For Tsai, it’s even deeper. “There is a whole approach around not only life span, but health-span,” she said. “And now, there’s a new word I’m hearing called ‘joy-span.’ I created Tatcha to have the opportunity to continue studying the things that were touching me in Tokyo and Kyoto, and when I went to Okinawa, it was a whole new world — how do we bottle this and share this with others?”
