When you come from a family of doctors, going into medicine isn’t exactly a shocker. But for Courtney Rubin, MD, skin care is professional — she’s a board-certified dermatologist practicing in Pasadena, California — and personal. “I’m half Korean, and Korean culture takes taking care of and protecting the skin seriously,” Rubin said. “I have a memory of my cousin Genevieve and I fighting as children over who would get to sit on the shady side of the car when my grandmother would drive us around Burbank.” (Cousin Genevieve, she added, is also a dermatologist.)

Now, along with co-founder Kimmy Scotti, Rubin is aiming to bring part of the dermatologist’s office to the masses through Fig.1, a line of clinically proven skin-care essentials. Rubin said that the brand concept came from her dermatology patients. “Almost every patient that came into the office for a medical visit had questions about skin care: What skin care ingredients are good? Are they safe? Should I be spending $60 on this?” she recalled. Most patients wanted to learn about skin care, but few could afford the pricey creams sold at dermatologists’ offices. “People who have difficulty spending $25 on a medical co-pay aren’t going to be creating a skin care routine out of $250 serums,” she noted.

Then Rubin met Scotti, the founder and managing partner of Neon, an early-stage venture capital firm. Already an investor in Hill House Home, Sakara, and emergency contraception startup Julie, she was turning her eye toward the booming skin care market. The women found that they sought skin care good enough to impress dermatologists, but with an average price of around $30. The hitch? They didn’t know whether that was possible. “We thought that when we looked into the supply chain, raw materials, and clinical trials, maybe the products would cost $200 to make and that’s why they cost $250,” Rubin said with a dry laugh. “That’s not true.”

Scotti was intrigued by the high margins of the beauty industry; Rubin was excited by the idea of results-driven formulas at a lower price. Both were committed to prioritizing sustainability in packaging. And so, in 2020, Fig.1 moved from concept to development with support from Nike and LVMH alum Kelly McCarthy and cosmetic chemist Lizzy Trelstad. (Trelstad and McCarthy are no longer actively involved in the brand.)

Fig.1 launched in June 2021 as a direct-to-consumer play, initially debuting with six SKUs offered in refillable, airless glass packaging. From the start, the brand’s progressive, three-tiered approach to retinol helped it stand out from similarly priced options. “The system is a way to allow more people to get the myriad of benefits of having a retinoid in your skin care routine, while avoiding the irritation, the burning, the stinging, the redness, the itchiness, the side effects,” Rubin said. Users begin with Retinol Night Cream Level 1, a slow-release 0.15% retinol within a ceramide-laden cream, before graduating to two higher levels of retinol. To date, Retinol Night Cream Level 1 remains the brand’s best-selling SKU.

In the three years since launching, Fig.1 has grown in part by expanding its behind-the-scenes network. In 2022, supermodel Ashley Graham signed on not as a spokesperson, but as a partner and investor; the brand has also assembled an advisory panel of board-certified dermatologists to weigh in on products. “They are my mentors — the people who I communicate with all the time, who I have a personal relationship with, who I respect immensely, who have had illustrious careers that span decades beyond my own experience,” Rubin said. “When we’re thinking about how to develop a product and the ingredients to use, I’m going off of my own clinical experience, and they’re adding in their own color and their opinions and their experience as well.”

The product offerings have grown to 21 SKUs. “We have a really comprehensive product line at this point,” Rubin said. “We can cover pretty much any skin type’s needs, from cleansing all the way to protection with SPF.” Recent launches include instantly dissolvable micellar oil wipes (developed in partnership with Australian startup Conserving Beauty) and this summer’s launch, Mineral Sunscreen SPF 50. Next in line: adding levels 4 and 5 to the retinol level-up system.

Fig.1 products are offered at facial chain Heyday, at 100 dermatology offices, and at 3,200 CVS stores as of March 2023. “So much of our ethos has always been around accessibility, and the vast majority of Americans live within a five-mile radius of a CVS,” Scotti said. “More so than being in an Ulta or a Bluemercury or a Sephora, it felt like being physically in brick-and-mortar CVS stores would put us in front of more people.”

The founders are well aware that their brand is just one player in a highly competitive skin care market, and Scotti said her biggest entrepreneurial challenge is simply getting people to try the products. “Cutting through that noise is really tough, as I’m sure every skin-care founder will identify with,” she said. At the moment, the company is not seeking additional funding, but the founders do have their eye on global expansion. “I would love to launch at sister pharmacies around the world; showing up at Boots would be amazing,” Scotti said. “We have so many big dreams for the business.”