A Different Way to Discover Skincare
Dear Skin,
We get asked this question a lot: "Why don't you intend to carry brands like La Roche-Posay?”
We're not trying to be another place where you can buy the same brands available everywhere else. You don't need us for that, just walk into any Sephora or Ulta or scroll through Amazon and find those products.
Relterra exists because we believe there's a different way to approach beauty. One that prioritizes quality over marketing budgets, substance over hype, and brands that genuinely care about what they're making.
That means sourcing from international brands that most people haven’t heard of before. Brands that are doing something truly different, not just repackaging the same formulas with better branding.
What We're Looking For
When we're evaluating a brand to bring to the U.S., we're looking for attributes that serve the consumer via quality and connection:
Do they have real expertise? We want brands with years of experience, not startups that launched last year because the founders thought skincare was trendy. We're looking for brands with their own research facilities that have perfected their formulas through strong, regimented testing to create the best products for the end users.
Does their company offer a unique value proposition somehow? Either through reliable commitments to sustainability, unique formulations, use of botanical ingredients not common in the U.S., or different approaches to routine.
Do they prioritize quality over growth? Smaller brands tend to focus on making excellent products instead of scaling as fast as possible. Brands that would rather perfect formulas versus taking a half-baked product to market are those we seek out.
Are their values genuine? We can tell the difference between brands that actually care about sustainability, transparency, quality, and clean ingredients versus brands that just use those words in their marketing.
Do they control their supply chain? We're interested in brands that know exactly where their ingredients come from, how they're grown, and how they're processed. Brands that can answer questions about their formulations because they're directly involved in creating them.
Why Niche to Midsize Brands Do It Better
Many of the large beauty companies out there optimize for profit and scale. They need to sell millions of units, which means sourcing the cheaper ingredients, manufacturing in massive quantities, and spending enormous budgets on marketing instead of formulation.
Smaller international brands operate differently. They're not trying to be in every store and every country. They're trying to make products that work, using the best ingredients they can access, and doing what's best for their customers who care about quality.
This means they can tend to use more expensive, scarce ingredients because they're not manufacturing at massive scale. They can focus on formulation instead of marketing and let the products speak for themselves. They can maintain higher standards and be transparent about their processes.
The Curation Process
Finding these brands takes time and targeted efforts. We discover brands through intentional efforts that involve seeking out those whose values align with our of integrity, transparency, and craftsmanship, and are committed to quality and results. Once we initiate a relationship with these brands, we go all over the world to meet them in person and validate who they are as a business and ensure that their products meet our high standards.
We also ask a lot of questions such as where do your ingredients come from? How long have you been doing this? What makes your formulations different? Can you show us your certifications? We need answers that go beyond marketing copy. On top of that we ask for proof such as certifications, documented sustainability practices, verified organic standards. We want evidence, not just claims.
Example Brand
Take Centifolia, a French botanical brand we're working with.
They've been around since 1983. That's over 40 years of botanical research and formulation expertise. They grow many of their own ingredients on a 125-hectare farm in France and own the land, employ agronomists, and cultivate the plants that go into their products.
They’re certified organic by Ecocert, which means their products and production processes meet one of the most rigorous independent standards for organic and natural cosmetics. Ecocert certification requires strict controls on ingredient sourcing, limits on synthetic inputs, traceability throughout the supply chain, environmentally responsible manufacturing practices, and regular third-party audits to verify compliance.
They've invested in real sustainability infrastructure whereby their facilities run on 100% renewable energy, with over half generated on-site. They go the extra mile, with their farm being an official bird refuge protecting 177 animal species and they’ve planted over 85,000 trees for carbon sequestration. These are concrete, measurable actions they've been taking for decades. You can visit the farm and see it yourself.
Why This Matters to You
Higher-quality ingredients combined with fresher botanical extracts that are more potent than degraded ones create results and avoid damage to your skin. Thoughtful formulations perform better than rushed ones. It is important to know that the brands you put on your skin invest in research to develop more effective products through thoughtful, fine tuned formulations that aren’t rushed.
And beyond that, it matters what you're supporting with your purchasing decisions. When you buy from a massive corporation, your money goes toward executive salaries, shareholder returns, and marketing budgets. When you support brands that grow their own ingredients, operate sustainably, and truly care about their products, your money goes toward maintaining those practices.
The Trade-Offs
We're honest about the downsides of this approach. These products cost more because quality ingredients, sustainable practices, and small-batch production are expensive. We can't compete with some drugstore prices. We also carry fewer brands than a typical beauty retailer because we're selective.
Most of our brands don't have millions of Instagram followers or celebrity endorsements. You probably haven't heard of them, and that's kind of the point. These trade-offs are worth it to us.
The Bottom Line
The brands we work with have expertise, quality ingredients, sustainable practices, and decades of experience, but they don't have the infrastructure to reach U.S. customers on their own.
That's where we come in. We find them, vet them, and bring them here, making it possible for you to access products you'd otherwise never know existed. Because we believe the best skincare in the world isn't always the most famous. Sometimes it's made by a family in France who've been growing their own botanicals for 40 years. Or a small producer in Greece using olive oil and honey the way their grandparents did. These brands exist but they’re just not easy to find. That's the problem we're solving - being a market place for international skincare in the U.S., working with brands that have unique stories which people connect with, build amazing products that work, and commit to higher standards that the every day consumer deserves.
Cheers,
Chase
Founder of Relterra
