Skincare Industry Shake-Up: What REN’s Shutdown and 2025 Beauty Trends Mean for Brand Founders
The Clean Beauty Wake-Up Call
REN Skincare, one of the earliest champions of clean formulations, announced its closure this week. It’s a sobering moment for anyone in the beauty space: even beloved brands can fail if they don’t evolve with changing consumer demands and operational realities.
What’s Driving Change in Skincare?
Today’s skincare customers aren’t just chasing aesthetics—they’re demanding function. Brands built on trendy ingredients or luxury price tags are losing ground to clinically effective, dermatologist-recommended, and scientifically-backed solutions. AI personalization, vegan collagen, and exosome-based actives are quickly gaining ground as the new gold standards in performance skincare.
What Skincare Brands Must Prioritize in 2025:
Operational resilience: Streamline production and avoid overcomplication
Transparency: From ingredients to regulatory documentation
Scalable innovation: Biotech over buzzwords
Efficacy-first mindset: Think less packaging, more performance
How Vaulabs Helps Skincare Brands Scale Sustainably
At Vaulabs, we work with emerging and established brands to:
Formulate custom skincare products using biotech and clean science
Provide FDA-compliant documentation and testing support
Offer low-MOQ production and scalable manufacturing systems
Integrate AI and data tools for personalized skincare development
Skincare is entering a new era, where formulation integrity, smart manufacturing, and consumer trust are the most powerful assets a brand can have.