2/26: Trend Fatigue...

Protein and Fiber -Maxxing and Q&A with Experiment Beauty

Feb 24, 2026

Hi, and welcome back to CPGD: your weekly guide to emerging brands and industry trends. It’s Zoya, Head of Growth & Content here @ CPGD. 👋

Hope everyone is warm. It has been so crazy to watch how much snow has fallen in the city.

In case you missed it, Doritos Is Releasing Protein Chips This Year. This headline made me laugh and also partake in a few conversations with friends over the weekend. As a result of the now fiber-frenzy, protein-maxxing, and everything in between, I feel like we all have developed immense consumer-fatigue. Timelines are moving faster than our actual behaviors - TikTok says fiber is trending, then every brand is re-thinking, reacting, and recalibrating to be up to date with the supposed ‘trend’. See this article by CNN not long ago on how protein is already out: “Protein is so last year. Why fiber is the next big thing.”

By the time a trend is obvious, it has already circulated, and strategy then becomes purely reactive. When multiple companies are chasing the same hype wave and social media buzz, you get an overwhelming sea of products that mimic the claims of the one next to it (like, with our current protein obsession). The shelf fills up with slightly different versions of the same idea, each one claiming its independent originality.

Cultural awareness definitely matters on socials, don’t get me wrong, but perhaps the real advantage lies in seeing how to fit into the conversation rather than chasing it.

Job Posting of the Week: De Soi is hiring a Director of Marketing

Why are you hiring for this role right now?
We have SO much in the works for 2026... new product launches, retail partnerships, & big ambitions for marketing. Unique opportunity to lead marketing at such a pivotal moment in time!

Who would be the dream type of person for this role?
We’re looking for a unicorn: Someone with boundless ideas, creativity & curiosity AND the strategic lens to operate with discipline around our true north star.

What’s the culture of the team or something applicants should know about De Soi that isn’t online?
We are a high-trust, low-ego team. Everyone here owns outcomes- we move quickly, debate ideas directly and care deeply. It’s a culture where learning and high standards co-exist.

5 Brands Added This Week:

Every week we add five new brands to the directory. Here are the brands we’ve been loving...

Retrouvé: Luxury skincare and body care with natural, clean formulations.
Moonbrew: Functional sparkling coffee beverages with adaptogens and natural energy.
Wizard Wellness: Wellness brand reimagining allergy care through microbiome science.
Stesh: Guilt free pistachio butter packed with nutrition and irresistible flavor.
Hōji: Sparkling hojicha tea with natural energy and no added sugar.

Tips and Tools

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Book a call with BELAY!

Community Resources 👀

CPGD Office Hours: Brand & Creative Strategy
We’re partnering with Tiny Stampede to offer FREE brand and creative strategy sessions for food & beverage founders. Get expert help with positioning, branding, content strategy, campaigns, CRM, and experience design. Past clients include Sweetgreen, Saveur Magazine, and Verizon. Available in-person and virtual. Apply here!

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News Last Week 🗞️

Just Ice Tea just secured $9M in Series B funding
Great Circle Ventures is launching their First Growth-Stage CPG Fund
WeNatal rolled out Meditations by Phase to support emotional and nervous-system health
Honey Department is a new honey brand that launched with squeezable thick honey
PepsiCo is launching multiple fiber-infused snack SKUs with Smartfood Fiber Pop and SunChips Fiber

Founder Q&A 👋

A conversation with Lisa, co-founder of Experiment

I’d love to go back to the beginning. You two met through the Sephora Accelerator — Lisa, you were right out of college, and Emmy was working for Benefit. What was that experience like, and how did it fundamentally shape what Experiment became?

It was a really important part of the journey to Experiment. My previous company, which I founded, was called See Thru — an ingredient transparency tech company — and I went through Sephora Accelerate in 2019 with that business. Unbeknownst to me, Emmy was attending as an employee of LVMH and came over to talk to me after the presentation. When I found out she was a chemist, I was so excited. She was the only other chemist I met that day, and the only one who knew that when I was speaking about ingredient transparency, I didn’t mean “clean ingredients” — I meant educating consumers on the science of ingredients. The goal was a more educated, informed consumer base, not to further their anxiety about weird “chemicals” lurking in their skincare. That was what brought us together: this shared mission and passion for spreading education on the chemistry behind your beauty products.

Did that early relationship plant the seeds for eventually becoming a seller there?

Oh, definitely. In the early days, when we imagined Experiment at a big retailer, it was always Sephora. We knew how they operate from our past experiences, and how clear-eyed they are on the importance of brand building. Even though our price point ($15–$35) is compatible with many different retailers, Sephora was always where we came back to — it just felt right.

You’ve been really outspoken about not jumping on the “clean beauty” bandwagon. Have retailers ever pushed back on that?

Nope! It’s been really great to see that we haven’t gotten any real pushback. We are also very upfront with who we are and how we formulate, so that was important in setting the tone for retail discussions.

Have you ever felt pressure to soften your science-first stance to fit what’s trendy?

I’m sure people have tried to pressure us — but we frankly never really feel it. At the end of the day, very few trendy ingredients have staying power in the market. The ones that do stick around tend to have much more substantial efficacy data behind them. One of our most core philosophies with product development is that we formulate with gold-standard, high-evidence ingredients. We won’t compromise on long-term efficacy for the sake of a trend.

Step zero is making sure you have an excellent product at the intersection of affordability, brand vibes, and efficacy. The steps after that are where marketing creativity comes in. Many brands approach it from the other way around — marketing first, product second — and it shows. Over the long haul, most of those trend-forward brands tend to be super buzzy and then fizzle out, and that’s not our goal.

Lisa, your senior thesis ended up becoming the foundation for how you approach the brand. When you look around now, do you see other brands following your lead on being genuinely science-backed?

My thesis focused on “natural” and chemophobic beauty marketing and how it impacts consumer perception of chemistry as a science. I wrote it in 2016–2017, and at the end, I argued that while the pendulum of market forces may be swinging toward more “natural” and “clean” brands, it will swing back — because beauty, especially skincare and makeup, is also about efficacy, and that’s where science dominates.

Over the last six years building Experiment, it’s been an absolute joy to see more traction and attention given to science-backed brands. We were certainly early to the party, but brands like The Ordinary, Paula’s Choice, and CeraVe are the ones that walked so we could run. Since our inception, we’ve always been more of a science-activist brand, and we’re seeing a lot more brands follow suit — which is great, because that creates real pressure on retailers and larger brands to change their tune on fear-based marketing. That will ultimately change the buying environment consumers are subjected to.

Where do you see Experiment fitting into that broader movement?

I think Experiment’s role and more major influence in the science-backed skincare movement is evolving what science looks and feels like to consumers. More science brands are getting bolder in their aesthetic choices and moving away from the clinical look. We were definitely the pioneer for that, and I’m glad to see it taking hold.

Could you briefly walk me through the decision to go into Sephora?

Sephora reached out to us the day after we launched Super Saturated in 2022, and we’ve been talking with their team since then. Not only was Sephora our north-star partner, but our team there was so intentional about when it was the right time for Experiment to launch. Considering the landscape of options, Sephora was right for us strategically — we would be unique on the Next Big Thing wall, whereas at other retailers it would be more difficult for us to stand out. The way Sephora builds up brands is simply unmatched.

When did you feel ready? Were there specific milestones or metrics you needed to hit?

The end of 2024 was when we felt most ready. It was less about specific metrics and more about assortment, brand awareness, and team. Did we feel confident with the assortment we would launch into Sephora with? Did we feel like we had enough brand awareness and sustained traction online to support a Sephora launch in a meaningful way? You only get to launch once, and that launch can do a lot in gaining attention quickly. Lastly, did we have the right team and bandwidth to execute a launch and then support and grow with Sephora? All those pieces needed to feel (mostly) in place for us to feel confident. But of course, no matter how “ready” you are, it will still be a huge sprint and take a lot of energy and resources. As long as we felt like we had the ability to succeed, we were ready to take the leap.

And then when it actually happened — what did that moment mean to you personally, and what did it mean for the company?

For me, it was so surreal once everything was live and I could finally just start observing the launch day rather than being in execution mode. Starting a beauty brand and being in beauty science was my dream since I was 12. I literally dreamed of the day I could even afford to shop at Sephora… let alone see my face next to my brand in the store! To be honest, it still feels weird — like, why is anyone letting me be a CEO of a brand, let alone a Sephora brand, at the tender age of 29? And what’s crazy is that our community showed up more than I could have ever imagined. Never doubt the lab rats!!

For the company, it was a monumental milestone. We aren’t a celebrity brand, a big influencer brand, or nepo babies. We started this brand with less than $10k that Emmy and I could scrape together from our savings. We’ve had to constantly prove that science sells in an increasingly trend-driven world. The Sephora launch was the marker for so many of our earliest community members that we “made it.” But for the company, it’s really just the on-ramp to the highway — we have a long journey ahead!