As she prepared for her 2018 wedding, Rebecca Zhou searched high and low for a dress that would conceal her body acne.

“I’d struggled with it through my teenage years and into adulthood and had a hard time finding a wedding dress that wouldn’t show parts of my body that I was not excited to flaunt,” she said. “In trying to resolve my body acne for my wedding, I realized that there weren’t a lot of great options when it came to body care. Whatever I could find, I wasn’t sure what the ingredient story was, whether it was clean, if the packaging was sustainable.”

In the process, Zhou had what she called her “lightbulb moment.”

“I realized this was a real opportunity,” she said. “We have so many products that the industry has given us as customers — for the face, hair. Treatments galore. But when it came to the body, there was next to nothing. Apart from fragranced body washes and lotions, it’s like a desert.”

Hence the birth of Soft Services, a brand Zhou launched in 2021 with a single product. (The company was originally co-founded with Anne Kreighbaum, a colleague from Zhou’s previous employer, Glossier. Kreighbaum is no longer involved.)

The brand’s debut product was a hefty block of fragrance-free soap called the Buffing Bar, which is infused with microcrystals for exfoliating and tending to issues such as rough elbows, keratosis pilaris (little bumps on the arms, thighs, and hips), and ingrown hairs.

The New York-based brand today has 10 SKU’s, including a scented version of Buffing Bar, released in early August, as a collaboration with niche Brooklyn perfumer DS & Durga, based on their top-selling fragrance, Debaser.

The wider Soft Services collection also includes Carea Cream, a daily softening lotion; Smoothing Solution, a gel-format exfoliant; and Theraplush, an overnight hand and cuticle repair treatment.

Throughout the line’s formulations Zhou has adhered to her original premise, which she describes as “elevated body care that works, in a format that is lovely to use, packaged in a way that feels luxurious.” Zhou recently held an intimate launch event at DS & Durga’s Venice, California-based store to celebrate the launch of the scented Buffing Bar.

“Using it should feel like a nice moment instead of feeling like medicine,” Zhou said.

Beauty has been at the core for much of Zhou’s professional life. She began working for Glossier in 2014, hired as its third employee, in the role of Head of Digital.

“Six months after Glossier’s launch I helped build out their digital store front. I was on a team learning how to sell beauty at a digital purchase point. In 2014, that wasn’t really common.”

Her time at Glossier equipped her with the understanding that there needed to be an emotional and functional storytelling that would help the consumer understand the product, and to make sure it felt on par with the physical experience.

“We focused on shade matching, being able to convey textures, all using a new digital platform.”

After she left Glossier, Zhou worked as a consultant across companies in beauty, fashion, and home goods, especially in helping to build out their digital footprints.

“I had an itch to get back into beauty,” she said. “But for years I didn’t see a white space that felt obvious to me. For hair, skin, and makeup, everything was covered. There was more than enough. We could all have anything we desired.”

It wasn’t until 2018 when confronted with a skin condition that prevented her from wearing certain styles of wedding dresses that Zhou landed on the idea for Soft Services.

“I went to 100 close friends and family and asked them about their beauty routines. But they weren’t doing much about body care. A lot of them had bumps, dryness, wrinkling, signs of aging. A lot of them were realizing, ‘wait, why aren’t I taking care of my body the way I’m taking care of my face?’ People were searching for products and coming up short.”

The Soft Services line — which launched at Sephora stores and online earlier this year — is predicated on a specific visual aesthetic. For example, the $62 Theraplush overnight repair cream, which contains retinol, colloidal oatmeal, and panthenol, is housed in a reusable case that looks like a modern decorative night table item. The pods containing the cream are refillable, and the cream is delivered through an airless pump.

“We want people to love the routine of taking care of their hands,” said Zhou. “It’s been super-successful for us. We have a lot of moms and daughters and granddaughters using this. Part of it is the design. It makes you want to use the hand cream. And sustainability is really important to us. We’re always thinking about efficacy but also a way to stay clean.”

As she continues to grow her line, Zhou wants to keep in mind the challenges she faced.

“We want to take away any shame or embarrassment that might exist, and to help people understand that many people have these issues. Everyone wants to see results from the products they use. And we are here to help.”