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Bonjour Millionaire,
I am really into sunscreen. It's something I gift OFTEN. Is that normal? Don't answer that! Speaking of sunscreen... |
Was this email forwarded to you? |
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ON THIS EPISODE OF GO-TO-MILLIONS |
Every time I find out a guy I know doesn’t use sunscreen, I buy him Supergoop! Unseen Sunscreen.
The clear formula and silky texture blows their sun-damaged minds, and they start using it every day and aging better. |
Paul Mescal, ecstatic that I introduced him to Unseen Sunscreen. Okay, I lied. But he must use sunscreen, right?
Le photo credit |
So, basically I’m a dermatologist.
Unseen Sunscreen has been Supergoop!’s hero product since it launched the SKU in January 2018. That’s right. January. Not in the summer, when sunscreen is usually top of mind/beach bag. Unseen Sunscreen sold out 4 times in its 1st year and quickly amassed influential fans, from Hollywood makeup artists to celebrities to all the cool girls at college.
Supergoop! positions sunscreen as an everyday, rain or shine, part of your skincare/beauty routine. And it’s kind of wild considering what the category looks like now (like my 1 true love), but it’s the 1st sunscreen brand that really did that. At least in my mind. Even now, a lot of brands are still advertising sunscreen like it’s seasonal or only for beach days. Even the fancier ones. |
The sunscreen category had a number of OG drugstore brands when Supergoop! was founded in 2007. Think: Banana Boat, Coppertone, Neutrogena, Hawaiian Tropic.
But, the brand ultimately outshone and out-innovated the old guard, making it a hit with Millennial and Gen Z consumers.
Here’s how Supergoop! changed the way consumers think about SPF by packaging, marketing, and formulating sunscreen like skincare.
1st things first, Supergoop! has nothing to do with Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness and lifestyle brand.
The brand was founded by Holly Thaggard, a former elementary school teacher and harpist-for-hire (really) with no background in health or beauty. |
She started thinking about skin cancer—1 of the most preventable, yet prevalent cancers—when a friend was diagnosed in 2005.
Immediately, Thaggard reexamined her relationship with sunscreen. Then she thought about the students in her classroom who spent hours playing outside every day without any SPF.
EPIPHANY! A brilliant idea… that didn’t turn out to be the actual brilliant idea.
Thaggard decided that she’d invent sunscreen pumps for schools, like the hand sanitizer dispensers we now see all over hospitals, grocery stores, offices, etc.
Schools would buy the dispensers and just add sunscreen, except… The sunscreens out there kinda sucked. They felt sticky, heavy, and messy on the skin.
Mineral formulas were difficult to rub in and didn’t work with every skin tone.
Chemical formulas contained oxybenzone, parabens, and other sketchy ingredients.
Thaggard decided to create her own sunscreen and launched the PLAY Everyday Lotion in 2010, which included a big-ass pumpable bottle perfect for a classroom. Full-circle, baby. |
But Supergoop! wasn’t just for kids.
A year later, the brand was sold at SEPHORA nationwide and select Nordstrom locations and used primarily by adults who were tired of the sucky drugstore sunscreens. Supergoop! was just getting started. When Unseen Sunscreen launched in January 2018, consumers went wild for the clear, primer-like formula. |
It worked on every skin tone. It played well with makeup. It dried matte, not shiny, which is not to be confused with dewy. It happens to break me out but works like a dream for everyone else FML
This is when everyone started Supergoop!ing. 2 years later, Glowscreen, a tinted sunscreen + primer debuted. The brand kept innovating and grew steadily during the pandemic. (Sunscreen as a category did really well when all we could do for fun was hang outside or watch skincare tutorials or cry). In 2021, Blackstone acquired a majority stake in Supergoop!. The brand is currently valued at $600-700M.
There are over 40 products, and each new one gets a ton of buzz. So how did Supergoop! do it?
I call the strategy MSFFO: Make Sunscreen Fun For Once. Because as actual dermatologists say, the best sunscreen is the 1 you use consistently.
Thaggard came in with a mission to protect kids from skin cancer and spread education about the importance of daily sunscreen use. Which she did. After years of sunscreen donations, Supergoop! launched the Ounce By Ounce Sunscreen Impact Program in 2024. It plans to donate $1M in sunscreen annually to schools and communities in need.
On top of that, Supergoop! products are vegan, cruelty-free, and made of sustainable materials. But perhaps even more groundbreaking, Supergoop! sold sunscreen products we’d never seen before. There were sunscreen wipes, now discontinued. |
SPF (re)setting powder, mist, radiance drops, body oil, watery lotion, sunscreen + vitamin C serum, eyeshadow…all of it packed with varying SPFs. Every time the skincare industry innovated, Supergoop! was right there with an SPF product that was on-trend and ready to fight harmful UV rays.
A difficult mission in the US, too: our FDA-approved filters lag years behind the rest of the world. Burn. |
Supergoop! acts like a cosmetics brand, maintaining a 5-year product pipeline. And like any great brand, it gets some of its best ideas from listening to customers.
Glowscreen was developed when the brand learned that customers were using Shimmershade eyeshadows as highlighters.
Supergoop! expanded the Glowscreen color palette when customers complained the originals didn’t complement darker skin tones.
Unseen Sunscreen’s formula increased from SPF 40 to SPF 50 in early 2025. The cult favorite is now an entire line that includes a clear sunscreen stick, lip protector, and body sunscreen.
Despite the presence of some makeup-like products, Supergoop! remains focused on sunscreen that feels like skincare. SUNCARE. A whole new category.
The branding and marketing look like something from a beauty brand. Products are described in terms of how they look and feel on your skin, not surrounded with clinical info from renowned dermatologists. |
In 2022, Supergoop! launched its Every. Single. Face sunscreen to appeal to men. (Daniel will stick to Unseen Sunscreen, thankyouverymuch.) Now the site has a “Sunscreen for Men” page, but it’s basically every product that isn’t tinted or overly fussy. |
To keep young, hip consumers aware of all these new products, Supergoop! has invested heavily in pop-ups during moments when sunscreen samples are clutch.
Like ski season in Aspen. Coachella and all the other music festivals where people wear no clothes in the unforgiving sun.
The streets of NYC. |
There’s an ambassador program called the Sunshine Crew, which I’d join if 1) I was IG-famous, and 2) I looked good in yellow. In May, Supergoop! named actress and YouTube influencer Liza Koshy the Chief Super Officer. (I had to look her up. There, I said it.) |
I’d say the future looks bright for Supergoop! 😉 get it?
But Thaggard was possibly forced out stepped down from her chairwoman role in April and now serves as a strategic advisor. We’ll see how this ages… Meanwhile, brands like e.l.f. Cosmetics have duped Unseen Sunscreen, bringing a cheaper clear formula to the mass retail shelves of Target, CVS, etc.
And brands like Vacation are leaning into nostalgia with ironic beachy branding, weird formats (whipped sunscreen is a lawsuit waiting to happen, IMO), and a focus on scent. |
I’m rooting for Supergoop!
For the younger, scantily clad generation. For the skincare girlies and makeup geniuses.
For the guys. I've gifted it to my dad, Daniel, Aidan (Daniel's former coworker), Jay (my coworker), Jake (my coworker), and that's it. But I'm 5/5 and they all like it. Or so they tell me. |
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The feed in the Go-to-Millions Membership looks a little different. The short story? We nixed “Likes.” For the same reason we don't have follower counts.
In their place: reactions that spark conversations. Easier ways to send DMs. Better ways to connect & learn. Meet you there? |
Me when someone tells me they don't believe in sunscreen. |
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