Welly, originally known for dressing bandages and other first aid essentials, has moved into body care.
of The 4-year-old brand expanded in August by adding over-the-counter medications and supplements. The brand is sold at Target, CVS, Walmart, Wegman’s and Amazon, among other retailers.
Now, on February 5, it will launch its first seasonal products at Target. There will be six to start: Daily Hydration Body Lotion, Eczema Body Cream, Rough and Bumpy Body Lotion, Dry and Itchy Body Lotion, Body Pimple Spray and Firming Body Lotion, priced between $16-17. The brand has selected six body care concerns to focus on based on the data The most popular among Gen Z and millennials, according to consumer data company Numerator.
Welly was founded by Eric Ryan, a serial entrepreneur known for founding the cleaning supply and personal care company Method and supplement brand Olly. SC Johnson acquired Method in 2017, and Unilever acquired Oli and Welly in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Ryan is involved in all three brands.
Ryan says he looks broadly at the brands he creates in terms of the categories they live in. “First Aid is a beauty product at its core. It goes on your skin, it’s the only healthcare product you wear, and it has such design and wear quality. It’s also about repairing your skin, which is a form of beauty.”
The integration of beauty and health is a sustainable trend, he said. Throughout his career, he’s taken “tips” from the beauty industry, allowing him to leverage his expertise in more everyday categories like cleaning supplies and vitamins. But a body care startup flips the script, he says.
“This is the first time I’m taking health and bringing it to beauty,” he said.
According to Ryan, the therapeutic path has stopped. It offers products that everyone needs, including Eucerin and Vaseline, but they’ve stayed the same. Meanwhile, other parts of the beauty industry have evolved to meet contemporary aesthetic sensibilities.
“Target is very excited about the idea. Therapeutics [as a category] It was completely burned. Brands out there are growing like crazy. But there was this gap between how beauty brands were presenting themselves and the emotional connection [with consumers]And how clinical and boring [aesthetic of the] It was a therapeutic place,” he said. And not to mention that, he said, traditional medical brands are “not pure.”
With all of Ryan’s brands, he strives to combine efficiency and “better-for-you, better-for-the-planet” products, he says.
Welly has tapped Dr. My Zion (586,000 TikTok followers) to lead promotional efforts for the new collection.
“We know that conversations about skin health are important [on TikTok]. Dr. Ko takes an educational lens with her content to help her audience and other consumers understand how the products work and what issues they respond to,” said Marie Mazzuko Kordahl, Welly’s Communications Manager. “We are also enabling TikTok influencers at the medium, micro and nano scale. We are prioritizing the channel that we know Gen-Z users and Millennials. [are active on]He said.
“Millennials were the first to see health and wellness as a lifestyle, and they saw that first in fitness; [the rise of] SoulCycle and Barry. Then he switched to being an athlete. It influenced the way we thought about building the Ollie brand,” said Ryan. “With previous generations, like Gen X, the approach to health was more rigid: you have a problem, you treat it. And Baby Boomers have neglected their health. Gen Z is more open, honest, transparent and direct about health issues.”
Embracing the skin care issues that come with living in a human body is the new frontier. It’s part of the radical acceptance message that Gen Z is known for. And, it’s a message that’s now being shouted across the beauty industry, whether it’s Starface’s attention-grabbing pimples or Megababe’s shameful way of including the “chub rub” for previously marginalized body care concerns.
“With these products, you don’t hide acne and these different needs that previous generations would have hidden and not talked about,” Ryan said. “That’s why we bring bright colors to it [the packaging]Make it a little party.”