How Skincare Products Are Actually Developed: The Stark Process

Most skincare brands launch new products constantly. Every season brings something shiny and new. Marketing teams love it. Quarterly earnings love it. But constant launching means constant new formulas, constant discontinuations, constant instability. Your skin needs consistency, not novelty. (Unless you create content around skincare...then novelty is great for your Tik Tok feed, but your skin doesn't care for it!)

Every Stark product is created from scratch. No bulk bases. No white label bottles getting relabeled as my own. I launch slowly. In fifteen years, roughly ten products are in my line. That's not because I don't have constant ideas or because I don't know what to make... trust me, it takes a lot of restraint on my part!

I only launch when customer feedback keeps pointing to the same gap, or when I realize something's genuinely missing. The urge to create has to outweigh the real costs: money, time, uncertainty, and all the complications of adding another SKU.

That's the difference, and believe it or not, it's a difference that is better for your skin in the long run.

A Lineup Built Over Fifteen Years

Many of my products have been around for many years. In fact, City, Petrichor, and Aurora are all iterations of the original lineup that Stark launched with back in 2011. Over time, Midnight, Eclipse, Astral, and Equinox were added. Then came Solstice, Boreal, Moondance, and Helios. 

For the span of fifteen years, that's really not a huge lineup.

In the background, I'm usually experimenting with 2-3 new formula ideas, but they certainly don't all make it to market... even if I like them. Some products do get retired, and some products are spinoff of another in my line, but only if I think that makes sense (like Aurora's little brother, Boreal). But mostly, I love to improve on the formulas I already have. That's where the real magic happens.

Let's look at 2 examples of my antioxidant-powerhouses, City and Petrichor.

The City Reformulation: When Customer Feedback Drives Change

In 2023, I decided to reformulate City completely.

City was already an antioxidant-rich oil with tetrahexadecyl ascorbate, added a few years prior. Medium-light texture. Good, but it was ready to "grow up" a little. I was hearing from customers that they really wanted something "brightening". From time to time, I offer a bespoke routine creation program to just a handful of customers, and something like 5/7 of those customers asked for a brightening serum! Although I custom-made brightening serums for each of them, it made me realize that a brightening serum was exactly what my line needed... my devoted customers demanded it! City was already so close to being that product. The vitamin C was there. The antioxidants were strong. I just needed to rework it a little.

The challenge: how do you add more brightening power to an oil formula?

I made City into an oil emulsion. One decision opened up so many doors for City. Everything changed to how I could approach the formula, because oil-only formulas have limits. You can't add water-soluble ingredients like niacinamide, licorice root, or olive extract if there's no water (or something water0adjacent, like aloe juice or a hydrosol). They won't suspend in straight oil. They separate. They clump. They don't work.

An oil emulsion meant I could finally use those ingredients. Suddenly City had more brightening power and better pollution-fighting properties. Same price. More targeted formula.
(Pssst City won Best Antioxidant Oil at the 2026 Beauty Shortlist Awards)

The Petrichor Puzzle: When the Package Becomes the Problem

Petrichor has gone through similar edits, but for a different reason. I had to rework the formula to suit the packaging.

Normally I find the right packaging for a formula. Not the other way around. But Petrichor needs to be a fine mist. I adore the chunky black Miron bottle it comes in, but it was getting stuck in the nozzle over time. That was a problem I couldn't live with.

Unlike most facial mists, Petrichor has a lot of actives. It's more of a liquid serum than a typical spray, but that makes keeping the viscosity super low, which can be tricky. That robust formula meant it was having trouble squeezing itself out of the mister cap from time to time and getting clogged. Not good enough. I had to rework it.

Seems simple enough... make it thinner! But this was an absolute puzzle. I'd think I figured it out. Test it. Something unexpected would happen to the formula. Back to the drawing board. Again. And again. And again. I may have cried once or twice over this one.

Eventually, I had to scrap some ingredients. They no longer served the formula. (Don't worry, nothing went to waste. Those products became my luxury bubble bath at home. I sat there like Cleopatra in a tub containing products likely worth more than my 2000s-era jacuzzi!)

I replaced some of the star ingredients with equally star-worthy ingredients (it had to be a fair trade, or no deal!), and it's a winner. We got there. Petrichor works well. The formula remained robust. It finally flows through the sprayer, and I don't feel like anything had to be compromised.

Why This Approach Matters to Your Skin

When you buy from a brand that launches products slowly, you're buying from someone who believes in what they make. There's no pressure to constantly refresh the lineup. No quarterly earnings calls demanding new revenue streams. No shareholders pushing for cost cuts disguised as reformulations. My products just keep getting more expensive to make! But that's ok, you're worth it! :)

What you get instead is a brand that improves products over time. That listens to what your skin actually needs. That keeps an eye on their formulas and adjusts them when it's necessary. That won't reformulate just to improve margins. That will only change a formula if it makes it better...not cheaper.

This is what it looks like when a skincare brand isn't trying to sell you the latest trend. It's trying to solve your actual skin problems.

Why Reformulation at Stark Looks Different

When a company with shareholders reformulates, it usually means one thing: cut costs, raise prices, improve margins. Classic enshittification.

I don't have that pressure. The longer Stark exists, the more I can afford expensive ingredients. I know that investment pays for itself, even if I never raise prices.

So reformulations here are always upgrades. Better ingredients. Better formulation. Better results. My customers don't panic, and have come to look forward to new iterations when they do take place.

The Reality of Slow Product Development

Developing skincare products costs real money. Testing. Ingredients. Time. Failure. Scrapped batches. There's no shortcut, and there's no way around the expense. This is why so many brands just get white-label formulas, flooding the industry in a sea of sameness.

But that's exactly why every Stark product has earned its place in the lineup. It exists because it fills a real need. It's been tested and refined. It works, and it keeps working better because I have the ability to do so.

That's what slow product development looks like. It's not sexy. It's not fast. But it's the only way I know to build skincare you can actually trust.