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For Scarlett Johansson, years of acting in Hollywood have certainly paid off (she’s got Oscar nominations and her own production company, for starters). But all that time spent in front of the camera has also posed problems for her skin. This inevitably prompted her to launch her own skincare line called The Outset.So far, the brand has been performing quite well. It’s gotten some famous fans too, including Johansson’s husband, Saturday Night Live host Colin Jost.
Scarlett Johansson’s The Outset Was At Least Five Years In The Making
When Johansson started thinking about venturing into the skin and beauty space, she was given the opportunity to just slap her name on a product that’s already on the market.
“It definitely came highly suggested to license my name and do it with something that preexisted, that had an infrastructure, and not start from scratch,” the actress said.
But then, the more she delved into it, the more it became clear that licensing just didn’t work for her. “What I realized was I didn’t have any interest in licensing my name,” Johansson explained.
“If I existed within a larger corporation, it was going to be hard for me to make something that was free of the baggage of being part of a large corporation.”
And so, Johansson and business partner, Kate Foster Lengyel, got to work. For the next five years, the women took their time to learn all about fair trade and non-toxic ingredients.
And while a clean skincare line was “not necessarily” Johansson’s intention, she ended up going this route after taking note of her own skincare preferences.
“I looked at my bathroom counter and cherry-picked all of these different products—a lot of them were noncomedogenic, dermatologically sound drugstore brands,” she explained.
“Once I saw the ingredients lists from the other stuff, it was like, Wow, this is bad. You’re putting gasoline on your face every day, basically. Once you know, once you’ve peeked under the hood, you know you don’t want to put more of this out there.”
The Outset Was Launched With Five Core Products
The Outset’s core collection includes The Cleanser, The Prep Serum, The Moisturizer, The Night Cream, and The Eye Cream. All of these products promise to be consciously clean (free from parabens, sulfates, phthalates, nut allergens, and gluten), cruelty-free (vegan), and clinically tested.
And with a product line that comes with this many guarantees, Johansson was bound to run into some issues initially.
“I think it was the Daily Cream—it was the first product that we were like, ‘Oh, we got this.’ It was working for all of us. And then months later, I don't know what happened. But we're doing the regulatory thing with our claims, and it came back like, there's like a point-zero-whatever trace of coconut, or some kind of nut,” she recalled.
“It was the least problematic, and then it became the most problematic.”
Since then, the company has had a lot of success in identifying what’s good and what’s not as far as ingredients go. “We’ve eliminated 2,700 harmful ingredients and really wanted to make something transparent,” Johansson explained.
Meanwhile, The Outset also introduced its Exfoliating Caffeine Micro Polish since then. “Everybody was asking for a skin polish,” she admitted. At the same time, it’s a product that the actress herself would use regularly.
“In my whole journey of skincare, part of my routine was using a light exfoliant every day, the actress explained. “So that is what ended up clearing all this crazy skin stuff that was going on.” And in case anyone is still wondering, the Exfoliating Caffeine Micro Polish is formulated to be incredibly gentle on the skin.
“It's nut-free,” Johansson confirmed. “You don't have those microplastics, but it's still a perfect sphere so it doesn't tear your skin.”
Together, all these products can give one’s skin a healthy glow, just don’t expect to get that “glassy” glow that other skincare brands may be known for. After all, Johansson isn’t fond of that look.
“I don’t want to look like I just had a laser treatment,” she explained.
Colin Jost Became Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Guinea Pig’ For The Outset
On the other hand, long before The Outset made its debut, it turns out Johansson’s husband was already using one of the skincare line’s beloved products — The Eye Cream.
As it turns out, Jost is an eye-cream-using type of celebrity, having been a fan of Kiehl’s Facial Eye De-Puffer.
But of course, once Johansson’s own eye cream was ready for testing, Jost made the switch right away and became his wife’s “guinea pig.” Since then, it seems, the SNL host has just been loving the product. “He was the first one to use it regularly,” Johansson revealed. “He's been using it secretly for a year.”
Meanwhile, Johansson is also looking into the possibility of introducing more products in the future. Among them is a lip product that customers “can use year-round.” For now, the actress says she’s “still searching for it.”
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