The next time you’re grabbing frozen Steamed Pork and Ginger Soup Dumplings at your local Trader Joe’s, make sure to check out the personal care aisle to discover a popular — and growing — corner of the beauty world: a store brand that, instead of coming across as a ho-hum collection of generic products, regularly inspires passionate Reddit threads and viral TikToks. And the crazy part? All of this is happening without advertising or big marketing dollars.

Of course, this isn’t just any no-name store brand we’re talking about. It’s Trader Joe’s, the grocery chain known for its wide and ever-changing variety of foodstuffs. Its beauty and personal care merch takes the same approach, offering a mix of basic essentials along with on-trend items, which explains the appeal to the practical shopper and beauty girlies alike.

“I love the offerings of the Trader Joe’s beauty department and am always extremely eager to try everything as soon as it hits,” said Carissa Kosta, a writer and producer in Los Angeles who swears by the Trader Joe’s Marula Oil. “When the essence of a product is something that is affordable, like marula oil, I am delighted to get it at a decent price. If you want the same thing but with a fancy scent, then paying more is available to you with a name brand. But I love the idea that TJ’s is making solid skin care basics available to everyone.”

Trader Joe’s approach to beauty and personal care mirrors its tactics in the food aisles: give the people what they want in a store brand, don’t spend big money on marketing, work directly with manufacturers, and keep the prices low. Although the store keeps its trade secrets private, a 2020 episode of its Inside Trader Joe’s podcast gives a touch more insight into its product development. Taryn Wadas, Category Manager at Trader Joe’s for Health & Beauty [according to LinkedIn], cited a range of inspiration: magazines, luxury beauty, and Korean skin care. “The vision for the category is really to have your everyday basics like toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo, and conditioner, as well as fun things that’ll bring in customers to the section where we can really show a value that they’re great products, they’re on trend but not too trendy,” she said.

Lest you imagine Trader Joe’s is a minor player in the beauty industry, consider this: the number of Trader Joe’s stores in the United States rivals that of Sephora brick-and-mortars. And like any savvy retailer, Trader Joe’s pays close attention to customer feedback and requests. For example, the store holds an annual Customer Choice Awards to showcase fan favorites. “Each year we ask our customers to vote for their favorite products,” Trader Joe’s Public Relations Manager, Nakia Rohde, told CEW. “Some customers are surprised by what a great value they can find in shopping at Trader Joe’s.” This year, top picks included staples such as the Coconut Body Butter and the Lavender Spray Hand Sanitizer.

Trader Joe’s product development process sounds a lot like those utilized by top retailers. “Our product development team travels the world in search of products we think are exceptional and that we believe will find a following among our customers,” Rohde said. “To earn a spot on our shelves, each potential product is submitted to a rigorous panel process in which all aspects of quality and value are thoroughly investigated. If a product is widely loved by the panel and represents an outstanding value, it earns its place on our shelves and becomes part of the Trader Joe’s shopping adventure,” she noted.

While some of its merch seem closely related to what’s on trend, other Trader Joe’s beauty and personal care items are blatant dupes. One popular TikToker, Trader Joe’s Talia, recently pointed out in a video with more than 616,000 views that the store’s $7.99 Honey Hydration face cream looks a lot like Farmacy’s Honey Halo Hydrating Ceramide Face Moisturizer, down to the honeycomb-shaped jar. Also, that the Trader Joe’s Vanilla Lip Mask is reminiscent of Laneige’s Lip Sleeping Mask; and its Marula Oil, priced at $6.99, is often compared to Drunk Elephant’s $69 Virgin Marula Luxury Oil. And on and on.

Cosmetic chemist Victoria Fu sheds light on the mechanics behind such similarities. “It’s pretty common for the beauty industry to ‘take inspiration’ from popular formulas. Sometimes they may even come from the same manufacturer, and the formula is just tweaked up a bit to fit a particular brand’s positioning,” she said. This approach allows Trader Joe’s to present consumers with familiar products at a fraction of the cost. “A lot of money in cosmetics goes into marketing and at Trader Joe’s, we don’t have that,” said Wades in the 2021 podcast. “And just like in food, we also work directly with suppliers who are manufacturing the materials. We have innovation teams that go out to different countries and find suppliers.”

But that doesn’t mean the products have the exact same formulas. Take Trader Joe’s Daily Facial Sunscreen SPF 40, which has drawn online attention as a near-perfect “dupe” of the much-lauded Supergoop! Unseen Sunscreen. Fu analyzed the ingredient lists of both products and provided insights into why these comparisons are so common. “The structure of [the Trader Joe’s] sunscreen is largely the same — waterless, silicone-free, and oil-based. So, both will have a similar slippery application and finish,” Fu explained. However, she pointed out one key difference: “The Supergoop! has active ingredients, in particular a red algae extract that they’ve added to claim blue light protection.”

The trick for Trader Joe’s seems to be finding the balance between trendy products and evergreen stalwarts, like body wash. High-performing SKUs never leave, but new ones are switched up frequently; Pumpkin Body Butter makes way for Candy Cane Body Butter as seasons change, and new launches may (or may not) become part of the permanent lineup. “We’ve offered products like the 100% Jojoba Oil for more than 20 years. We introduce new products all the time; some are limited and others become everyday favorites,” Rohde said. “Our approach for all products is the same. We believe that customers ‘vote’ on what they love — and what they want to see more of — with their dollars.”

For Kosta, the fan of the Trader Joe’s Marula Oil, the simplicity and rotating inventory of the store offerings is a feature, not a drawback. “The price was initially a huge factor for me, but now, I honestly think I’d pick it over other fancier brands even if I felt more flush,” she said.

Given the popularity of the beauty merch offered by Trader Joe’s to date, it can’t be too long before they launch makeup items — we envision an all-natural multi-purpose blush stick as the perfect entry SKU.

“I am waiting patiently for them,” commented Kosta.