When we say glycolic acid, niacinamide or retinol, most of you will have an idea what we’re on about. That wasn’t always the case though, was it? Do you remember when beauty and wellness shrouded itself in mystery and vitamins referred mainly to food? Now, we’re more educated about the exact actives, treatments, and serums we want. Those of you who read our Beauty Report already know this.

When we talk about science-based skincare and educated beauty consumers, one brand has become everyone’s go-to: The Ordinary, known like no other for no-bullshit, no-fluff, ingredient-focused products, that tell you exactly what you get. But The Ordinary knows how to be fun as well. Who else is selling eggs in New York, creating beauty-industry periodic tables and (pretending to) shill Bananas as All-Natural Magical Energy Boosting Bars for $175.90? The company’s VP of Brand, Amy Bi, sat down with our in-house insights guru Anna Burzlaff to talk lab-powered communication, the age of trust issues and the rise of science-literate beauty consumers.

Q&A

ANNA BURZLAFF: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A DISRUPTOR IN BEAUTY IN 2026?

AMY BI: What makes The Ordinary special and why we show up as a disruptor brand is that we're so clear about who we are and what we stand for, which is a really important point of distinction in beauty today. Beyond your product, beyond how trendy it is in that certain month, what are your brand values and what can you stand behind with conviction? Because we know that with such clarity, we're able to play with it in so many wonderful ways within our campaigns, our pop-up experiences, our products, and in all the ways that we show up.

INTERESTING THAT THE FORM OF “DISRUPTION” HERE IS ACTUALLY BASED ON CONSISTENCY.

Exactly. Within beauty there are new brands every week and new campaigns every week. I think it's one of the most high intensity industries when it comes to campaigns and news. If I compare it to footwear or fashion or consumer goods, beauty is just a pressure cooker of content, product launches and virality. It's quite easy these days to go viral, but to have consistency over time is what differentiates the long-standing brands from those that are more trend-based.

WHY DO YOU THINK BEAUTY IS SO SUSCEPTIBLE TO VIRALITY?

Because at its heart, beauty is community-driven. There is this exploratory nature to beauty where you want to try new skincare, you want to try a new eyeliner, and one of the biggest things that powers that is through testimonials and opinions of others. It's such a community-driven space more so than fashion.

Sometimes you'll have something unexpected suddenly get a lot of conversation. For example, Glycolic, which has been a product we've had around for a decade, has been the talk of the town, because the community embraced it and found all of these hacks that surprised us and pushed us to then do more testing on the versatility of the product. Which is such a beautiful relationship to have with consumers, for them to almost co-create or co-grow the product with you. It's very special in beauty and not a lot of other industries have that ability to adapt in that way.

HOW HAS THE ORDINARY EVOLVED WITH THE INDUSTRY?

The definition of beauty and wellness is obviously evolving with technology and with lifestyle. The world is really open to where The Ordinary plays in the future. So long as there is a scientific base for us to be involved in a new space, or an opportunity for democratization and access, then it's an area that we would consider. If you're talking about wearables, or further types of ingredients, or procedures — there’s nothing formal on our roadmap — but I think our principles still continue to guide us, which is how can we provide greater access to something that we believe has scientific credibility and offers true efficacy? That's our ongoing philosophy.

WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE KEY CONSUMER TRENDS RIGHT NOW? HOW HAS THE APPROACH TO SKINCARE AND BEAUTY CHANGED SINCE THE ORDINARY FIRST STARTED?

We're so proud that The Ordinary was part of that initial wave in the industry and of consumers to become more ingredient-driven and scientifically adept. As such an ingredient-focused skincare brand, we were part of that wave of consumers learning, what is hyaluronic acid? What is niacinamide? We got so much feedback when we first started from retailers saying, "Well, consumers will never know these words. Why are you leading with these?" But that was the belief that we had in terms of respecting the intelligence of our consumer and believing that this is what the industry requires, which is more ingredient transparency.

So fast-forward 10 years and what you're seeing in skincare and in beauty overall is a far more sophisticated and literate consumer. You pair that with this sense of discovery and with knowledge at your fingertips, and you have a demographic and an audience that wants to explore and oftentimes knows what they're looking for. Definitely one of the things that we've seen from our consumer base is an overall improvement in the level of understanding when it comes to the science behind skincare.

As the industry continues to evolve, trust is going to become more and more important. What are the resources, the people, the AI engines that I can trust to give me the right information? That is where we want to continually play, to come out in moments of customer requests or based on what we believe we want to speak on. Where we can use our voice of scientific authority and bring truth to the matter based on whatever is trending or wherever the industry is going.

DO YOU SEE ANY CHALLENGES AHEAD IN THIS EVOLVING BEAUTY LANDSCAPE?

Going back to what we said around the crowded space of beauty. Holding a consumer's attention across one product, let alone two or three is a constant challenge for anyone in this space. How do we continue to build that loyalty so they come back to us or see a place for us in their lives? That sense of trust and loyalty is going to be one of the areas that we need to focus on, especially with the emergence of K-Beauty and additional players in this space. We have to still focus on ensuring that consumers know we are here to stay and that we want to be building long-standing relationships with our consumers.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF YOUR BRAND ACTIVATIONS SUCH AS THE MARKUP MARCHÉ?

We're seeing a stronger desire for unique in-person events and moments. They want to be a part of something tangible and special that's offline, so we have been focused a lot on creating those moments for our consumers in a way that is interesting, creatively inspiring, different and ties back to our roots. I think the reason those initiatives were so successful is because they're unlike a traditional beauty pop-up. There's a meaningful message behind them and we're doing them in a way that people want to see for themselves.

THEY'RE ALSO QUITE LOCAL. THE MSCHF EGGS, FOR EXAMPLE, ARE A RESPONSE TO A VERY SPECIFIC LOCAL QUESTION.

Exactly, the more local you get, the more meaningful the message is and the more it's truly felt by the consumer. We are very comfortable going small scale if we see that the insight is so sharp and true because then the internet does its thing and it grows from there, but we certainly take a lot of pride in nailing something right on the head and it's not always about reach for us. It's really about engagement and impact.

HAS YOUR CUSTOMER PROFILE CHANGED OVER THE YEARS?

The Ordinary has always been about being for everyone. We like to describe ourselves as a faceless brand. When you close your eyes, we don't want you to have a clear picture of what the typical consumer is like. That's why our packaging is as minimalist as it is and so much of our marketing is as well, because we're intentionally staying neutral in that sense. We still believe that that in and of itself is almost an act of distinction within beauty, which is so rainbow-colored, intense, and shiny. Our commitment to simplicity in our design and language is an act of intention. We continue to be for everyone.

What we've noticed is a really strong uptick in men who engage with us. We love that. As well as overall a more scientifically literate, a more sophisticated consumer. When we started, the key authenticators for us in the beginning were a very chemistry-oriented scientific community, but now we are seeing the type of engagements and questions we get grow in sophistication and come from a larger group of people.

WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE MALE BEAUTY INDUSTRY?

As the skincare industry has grown and matured, men see that there is space for them. That's what we've always tried to ensure is apparent, that there's space for them here and that it's not about beauty per se, but about skin health. It's another form of healthcare. Your skin is the largest organ in your body and taking care of it is important even at a basic level. As the education of consumers increases, men just become part of the halo effect of that. And as culture evolves and there is more gender fluidity, openness, and a progressiveness towards these topics, they're becoming more accessible for everyone. It's part of the overarching growth in what is considered wellness.

Even the adoption of makeup in men, especially within Gen Z, is such an inspiring and exciting area to see these barriers be broken. We're very encouraged by it, and for us as a brand, we certainly don't want to ever gender ourselves. As long as we lead with science, we're able to create the most accessible approach into being a part of our brand or trying out our products.

“We definitely believe that the message is more important than the paid media spend, and we trust that if a message is authentic and sharp enough that our community will be our evangelists.” – Amy Bi, VP of Brand, The Ordinary

THE ORDINARY STRIKES THIS BALANCE BETWEEN THE CONSISTENCY, THE CLARITY OF ITS MISSION, AND ITS ROLE WITHIN THE BEAUTY LANDSCAPE, BUT THEN ALSO THIS FLEXIBILITY AND AGILITY TO BE ABLE TO RESPOND TO PARTICULAR MOMENTS IN CULTURE, TO RESPOND TO TRENDS. HOW DO YOU THINK THROUGH THAT BALANCE?

It often comes back to those overarching philosophies that we have. We don't chase trends. How do we focus on education? We talk about this idea of scientific enlightenment. How do we remain humble and quiet? We definitely believe that the message is more important than the paid media spend, and we trust that if a message is authentic and sharp enough that our community will be our evangelists. We have those conversations internally every day. It's so easy to chase trends, it's so easy to populate a content calendar based on cultural moments, what's happening in the world.

When that Russian couple climbed to the top of the Empire State Building, all these brands within hours co-opted that image. The message that they had on their flag was a beautiful message about the world and what's needed, and for brands to take that and push something commercially, it speaks to this temptation to always be of the moment and reactive — it's like a sugar high. It's like candy, but that can’t sustain you in the long run.

AS IS EVIDENCED BY THE DIFFERENT CAMPAIGNS AND ACTIVATIONS THAT YOU'VE HOSTED, YOU CAN STILL CREATE A LOT OF NOISE. IT'S NOT LIKE CONSISTENCY OMITS THE POSSIBILITY THAT SOMETHING CAN BE VIRAL.

A great litmus test is to look back at campaigns we did three or four years ago and see, do the messages still resonate today? For us, they do. We did a campaign probably over five years ago called ‘Everything is Chemicals’, it was when there was so much buzz about clean beauty and fear around the presence of chemicals in your skincare products. We built an entire campaign in partnership with our scientific team around how literally everything in your life is a chemical and we should not fear that word. That's a campaign that we could still run today because it's still so true to our beliefs. How many campaigns do you have that you cringe at and how many campaigns do you have that you're still really proud of?