Copyright forbes
A few new Counter products Gregg Renfrew didn’t have to change Beautycounter’s name to Counter—but she wanted to. As the next evolution of the beauty brand that revolutionized the clean beauty world, she thought a new name was fitting for a new start. Formally launching today as Counter, the founder and CEO of both brands is continuing what Beautycounter started—creating cleaner, safer products; pushing for laws to protect consumers; and empowering women, to name a few—with Counter. “Changing the name was an opportunity for us for a variety of reasons,” Renfrew says. “Obviously, it’s a nod to the old company by keeping part of the name. But, when you put the word ‘beauty’ into the name you immediately lose a certain percentage of the audience you might potentially want to serve. We felt Counter was more gender neutral and it also allowed for adjacencies, should we ever desire to go into adjacent products. It was more universal. Counter was always the intended double entendre of going counter to the beauty industry and redefining what a beauty counter experience was. Counter is acknowledging the successes and learnings of the past while also looking to a new future.” Renfrew founded Beautycounter in 2013 and sold the company to The Carlyle Group in 2021, who made the decision to bring in a new CEO. Renfrew was completely out of the company until December 2023 when the head of the board asked her to come back as CEO, which she did in February 2024 with the goal of turning Beautycounter around. Counter Founder and CEO Gregg Renfrew “The business had a series of missteps and it was no longer as sizable or profitable as it once had been,” Renfrew says. The Carlyle Group Carlisle made the decision to no longer fund the business six weeks after she rejoined, causing Beautycounter to go into foreclosure. They weren’t able to find a home for the company, so Renfrew decided to acquire the business herself. “In about a 48-hour window, I made the decision to purchase the business,” she says. “Myself and a small group of investors decided there was an opportunity for this brand to live on. But when I came back in as CEO, I think it was honestly just too late.” Renfrew and the team purchased Beautycounter in late April of 2024 and then she immediately shut the business down. “I did that because I couldn't see a clear path forward for the business for a variety of reasons,” she says. “I spent that summer and the subsequent months with a small team of people who were trying to imagine how we might start a new company, what we wanted to bring over from the old company, but also recognizing this was an entirely new business.” The new Counter The result is Counter, which Renfrew funneled everything she’s learned about beauty into. “As a founder, I'm different—I've grown and changed over the last number of years significantly,” she says. “It's not just about the person who's ideating a brand, and that person in me is a different person than I was when I was starting the brand. I learned a lot through the sale of the business and the subsequent events, and I've learned a lot about where the world is going, and what people love and didn't love from the old brand, what they'd like to see from me, and where the market has gone. First and foremost, I'm showing up differently. I'm thinking about things differently.” Counter Counterglow Tri-luronic Hydrating Serum KEVIN CREMENS Crucially, Counter needed to feel like a new, fresh and innovative company, not just a slight iteration of the exact same thing that had been done with Beautycounter. “The world has changed, so I wanted to show up in a way that was respecting today's consumer, what the demands are of that consumer and the ever-changing landscape of the beauty industry,” Renfrew says. Counter’s sleek, more subdued packaging is a reflection of the next chapter, with an even greater commitment to sustainability. “We are putting more things into glass,” Renfrew says. The packaging is also more functional, with product coming out of the bottle easier, for example. Staying true to Clean Beautycounter has always had a strong commitment to clean beauty, which is why Renfrew started the brand in the first place. “The clean beauty movement was born of our work,” she says. “Not only did we coin the phrase ‘clean beauty,’ we pioneered that whole movement and enjoyed some success with it, and many other companies followed suit. That is something that we always intended. It was never about a singular company, but rather moving an entire industry forward to allow for products that were high-performing and significantly safer, and fighting for legislation that was more health protective and comprehensive.” That mission and those values remain true to Counter. Counter Countertime Mineral Boost Hydrating Essence But, an area of opportunity that Renfrew sees is explaining to the average consumer what clean means. “That will start with conversations with many of the retailers about the fact that their standards of clean are all over the map, and no one can navigate it,” she says. “What one multi-branded retailer says is safe versus another can be completely different. One of our opportunities as a leader is to go in and say this is how we view clean as the original creators of clean, here’s where we are and here's what we measure against that.” Beautycounter was a direct-to-consumer company that used a multi-level marketing (MLM) model, relying on independent consultants who sold products directly to consumers. “Equally important to me has always been the economic empowerment of women, helping women gain confidence through action, through advocacy, through their efforts in business, through their community,” Renfrew says. “I've always thought of our brand as being a movement. Community and brand are one and the same, and I want to build on that. I do believe in community-based commerce, and I do think we have an opportunity.” How Counter is doing that has shifted. They will no longer build teams, but instead allow individual contributors to build businesses on their own. “We've spent a lot of time thinking about the personalization of that experience for them and that opportunity for them—what are they looking to get out of this versus what they're putting into it, what's important to them?” Renfrew says. “We do know from the old company that people joined our business and stayed in the business for a variety of reasons, and some of those reasons were tied to money, but there are a lot of other things.” The new model will allow brand partners to earn commissions by linking to products. Counter Clean Swipe Hyaluronic Lip Balm Creating a product lineup Another holdover from the original brand are a few fan favorite products. One of the first things Renfrew did when she came back as CEO of Beautycounter in February of 2024 was a sku rationalization exercise to understand which products were driving the business. “I quickly learned that the top 50 skus were driving 90-plus percent,” she says. “The sku proliferation that had happened under other leadership was something that I wanted to put a stop to, and I do think this is where consumers are today. They want products that are multifaceted, multi-purpose. They want less products and they want those products done exceptionally well.” Counter is all about having fewer but better products. They kept heroes and best-sellers, but the new ones reflect that multitasking focus. They also wanted to bring in innovation. For example, the new Glow line is deeply hydrating and gender neutral. “That line is something that I'm really, really proud of,” Renfrew says. “What I've said to the team recently is if you're not willing to bet your job on this product, we shouldn't bring it into the market—you should feel so strongly that you're willing to risk your job because otherwise, it's not good enough. Especially as a company that's a leader and disruptor, they don't want us to settle for mediocrity. I want those products to be covetable. I want them to be safer. I want them to be high-performing and innovative, and I want you to fall in love with them, and I want you to buy them over and over again.” Counter is also leaning into a slighter older demographic, recognizing that their customers have grown with them over the years. Renfrew is especially excited about the Retinatural +Advanced Super Serum, a pink formula with a plant-based retinol alternative that visibly firms skin, improves elasticity, and minimizes fine lines and wrinkles. “Women 38-plus are still largely ignored by the industry, and yet we are the most loyal, we're the most conscious of our health, and we certainly have the most money to spend because we've obviously been earning for quite some time, so I wanted to honor her,” Renfrew says. “If you look at the models we're using, we are leaning into that and doing so with pride.” Counter Jellies Getting feedback from their customers and community has been paramount to Counter. “We're co-creating with our community at large,” Renfrew says. “Our community is our greatest asset, and so understanding what they want and need from us, and what they respected from the old company, and what they want to let go of, has been super insightful for me.” Though the product lineup will remain tight, eventually Counter will expand into other categories where Beautycounter had a presence, including body care and fragrance. “We have to be ruthless in our prioritization, especially with product, so we couldn't come out with everything right out of the gate, specifically speaking to fragrance,” Renfrew says. “The process by which we created the fragrance was exceptional.” A few Beautycounter products are available for sale on Counter.com until they sell out. “We wanted to afford people the opportunity to purchase some of the things that they love that were being discontinued,” Renfrew says. “There were a lot of great products that we have a lot of inventory of. There were certain things that we just knew we were not going to continue with, but people love them, so why not allow them to buy them.” Counter Dew Skin Tinted Moisturizer KEVIN CREMENS Though the product lineup will be different, the mission is the same. “Our desire to continue to fight for more health protective and comprehensive legislation in both the state and federal level remains intact and important,” Renfrew says. In particular, they will focus on the fragrance loophole which allows brands to not list ingredients. “The medium through which I've been most effective at creating change and having significant social impact is through business,” Renfrew says. “How do I focus on business and figure out ways in which I can bring business leaders together to create unified standards for clean is a goal. It's a multi-pronged approach as it always has been, because you have the opportunity to use commerce as an engine for change. Brands that are doing well and doing good don't need to be mutually exclusive. You can do both. That is imperative, and it is our responsibility to create successful businesses that also take care of people and the planet along the way. We're not getting up on any of it.” Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions
