Lianna Albrizio, Assistant Editor01.27.23
Bubble Skincare is bubbling over with suds of new customers in the new year.
Less than three years on the market, this Gen Z-centric skincare line which started out direct-to-consumer has burst into the mainstream marketplace with retail partnerships with Walmart, Ulta and CVS. The success driven by its loyal community of more 10,000 college-aged consumers and some celebrities, Now, Bubble is leveraging social media to further drive revenue.
This week, the brand reported that sales skyrocketed by over 300% at Walmart, Ulta and CVS while Bubble’s DTC website saw a 700% increase in sales, specifically for its Slam Dunk moisturizer. Officials said a slew TikTok videos were responsible for the bump in revenue. Everyday Gen Z consumers danced as they were saving money on Bubble products, others showcased their “hauls,” and some applied them while readying for a bat mitzvah.
Apart from Gen Z enthusiasts, the brand has garnered a loyal following from celebrity fans including Samantha Logan, Diego Tinoco, Sam Hurley, NFL star Justin Jefferson of the Minnesota Vikings and Madison Pettis, who helped the brand celebrate its expanded retail footprint with a yacht cruise around the Hudson in August 2021. Pettis said she's a fan of the brand's Super Clear Acne Treating Serum and Jefferson a fan of the brand's Over Night Hydrating Sleep Mask, for which the brand threw a promotional pajama party in New York City's SoHo House last October.
Slam Dunk by Bubble
A popular product in the Bubble stable is Slam Dunk, which is formulated with natural ingredients aloe barbadensis leaf juice powder and hoya iacunosa flower extract to deeply hydrate and restore essential nutrients to parched skin. Slam Dunk also protects and repairs the skin from blue light damage from cell phones and laptops, leaving skin calm and with a strengthened barrier.
A viral TikTok featuring Slam Dunk garnered 5.7 million views with hashtags that included #walmarthaul and #bubblemoisturizer by a user. The brand caught the attention of the The Today Show, too; this past week the show featured the skincare brand’s Slam Dunk moisturizer along with other hot beauty trends including hair bows and vanilla fragrances.
“The viral TikToks were all organic, which is pretty incredible, and the authenticity behind them helped them go viral,” said brand CEO Shai Eisenman, who made Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Women of Influence in 2022 and won the Retail TouchPoints Retail Innovator Award. “As a brand that prides itself on giving Gen Z a voice, we have always had a presence on TikTok to meet consumers where they are. TikTok gives us the opportunity to not only communicate with customers, but educate them in an entertaining way, and as soon as we saw consumers gravitate towards our other products when Slam Dunk sold out, we made sure to make videos that explained the different use cases for each.”
Apart from Slam Dunk, the brand also seen an increase in sales in its Balancing Gel Moisturizer, Level Up, which is a gel-based moisturizer for consumers with oilier skin types.
Mind-Blowing Awareness
Bubble said it sold out the brand’s Slam Dunk moisturizer, and it gained upwards of 82,000 additional followers on TikTok.
“As a young skincare brand, the awareness that the viral TikToks have garnered has been completely mind-blowing,” said Eisenman. “The power of utilizing online social channels to drive in-store purchases is a trend we are going to continue to pay attention to moving forward, as we believe we will continue to see TikTok videos translate into sales for us. We’re learning a lot throughout this process and will use TikTok on our own account to educate our customers through fun videos. We’ve also learned that consumers gravitate towards different products after others sell out, even if it is not the right match for their particular skin type. Our objective has now shifted from visibility to education, so we have happy customers that can truly rely on our products to help their personalized skincare routine.”
The skincare line— which offers efficacious, plant-based and science-backed products that hydrate, moisturize, repair and cleanse—had its second largest sales day in early January since its inception in late 2020.