Iris&Romeo is starting off 2024 with a new investment and a new retail partnership.
True Beauty Ventures has invested in the company. Iris&Romeo was founded in 2019 and is currently sold in Credo Beauty.
The brand is known for multitasking cosmetics with active skin care ingredients, and has a loyal following, said Michele Gough-Baril, Iris&Romeo’s founder. “We’ve dialed into our customer base, which is 35-plus, and she just wants healthy, glowy skin. Our repeat rate is three times the industry standard. She keeps coming back and she trusts us,” she said.
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Added Tara Desai, the brand’s chief executive officer, “When we launch newness, [the customer] comes back in such high rates. She is craving so much more of this product line.”
Executives didn’t comment on sales, though sources expect Iris&Romeo to close out 2023 at between $3 million and $5 million.
The next move is an expansion into Sephora, starting on Sephora’s app on Dec. 26 before rolling out on the retailer’s website. “Having started testing the retail waters with our customers at Credo, it showed us proof of concept,” Desai said. “We all believed we would do well in-store and at retail where she can touch and feel it. Sephora has done such a good job storytelling around clean and they’re very focused on it.”
“With its minimalist and simplified approach to beauty, Iris&Romeo offers multi-use products that are clean, high-performing, and seek to improve skin’s wellness with every wear. We look forward to introducing this innovative brand to our Sephora community and know that it will be a great addition to our assortment,” added Amy Abrams, vice president of merchandising, makeup at Sephora, in a statement.
Cristina Nuñez, cofounder and partner at True Beauty Ventures, will also be joining the brand’s board. “Under the strong leadership of CEO Tara Desai and alongside an exciting new partnership with Sephora, you can feel the momentum and energy building for the brand,” Nuñez said. “Iris&Romeo is at the right place and time for rapid expansion as consumers are gravitating towards multifunctional makeup-skin care hybrids that deliver performance and purpose.”
The funding will also go toward bolstering brand awareness. “The piece we started building this year is growing EMV and our organic community for the brand. Having the funding gives us the resources and the team to be able to focus on driving awareness and synergizing that with the launch at Sephora and having a platform to talk about the brand,” Desai said, adding that influencer marketing has led to “big KPI shifts.”
“We’re going to build an evergreen presence in the channels that we haven’t been able to do before,” Desai continued.
