Tower 28 and the New Playbook for Sensitive Skin: How a Joyful Brand Became a Sephora Fast-Grower

Table of Contents

  1. Key Highlights
  2. Introduction
  3. Reframing Sensitive Skin: From Clinical Hush to Confident Companion
  4. Voice Without Diagnosis: How Tone Builds Trust and Desire
  5. Ingredient Credibility: Why Third-Party Seals Matter and What They Buy You
  6. Design and Packaging: Joyful Restraint Wins
  7. Product Efficacy: The Role of Ritual and Experience
  8. Retail Strategy: How Sephora Amplified Scale
  9. Community and Content: Ingredient Literacy Meets Empathy
  10. Practical Playbook: How Brands Can Reframe Their Categories
  11. Trade-offs and Risks: Where the Strategy Can Falter
  12. Where the Market Goes Next: Opportunities and Headwinds
  13. Case Comparisons: How Other Brands Navigate Similar Terrain
  14. Measuring Success: Metrics That Matter
  15. What Leaders Should Watch: Organizational Practices That Support This Strategy
  16. Actionable Framework for Product Teams
  17. The Cultural Moment: Why Sensitivity Sells Differently Now
  18. FAQ

Key Highlights

  • Tower 28 reframed sensitive-skin care by shifting from clinical reassurance to an affirming, companion-like voice, making "sensitivity" acceptable rather than a problem to fix.
  • The brand combined ingredient credibility (NEA, Psoriasis Foundation, Rosacea Society seals) with cult-favorite products and retail placement at Sephora to convert trust into rapid growth.
  • Its strategy offers a replicable playbook: marry genuine efficacy with a human voice, secure third-party validation, and design experiences that remove shame and invite belonging.

Introduction

A skincare brand built around sensitivity does what every such brand promises: it keeps things simple, safe, and soothing. Tower 28, founded by Amy Liu in 2019, did that—and then did something less expected. It treated people with sensitive skin as full human beings instead of clinical problems. That subtle shift changed everything.

Tower 28’s SOS line carries seals from the National Eczema Association, the Psoriasis Foundation, and the Rosacea Society. Its SOS Spray earned cult status among both casual shoppers and ingredient-savvy consumers. The brand moved quickly from direct-to-consumer origins to becoming one of Sephora’s fastest-growing brands. Those milestones make for an impressive growth chart. The more interesting achievement is less quantifiable: the brand reframed how sensitive-skin care looks, sounds, and feels.

The lessons embedded in Tower 28’s ascent extend beyond skincare. They illuminate how product integrity, tone of voice, design, retail strategy, and community-building combine to convert credibility into relevance. This article unpacks that combination: why neurotic, clinical branding fails, how a human voice wins, what third-party validation really buys you, and how other brands can adapt the approach without diluting their science or credibility.

Reframing Sensitive Skin: From Clinical Hush to Confident Companion

Traditional sensitive-skin branding leaned on quiet authority. Neutral palettes, clinical typography, and language that read like a prescription were meant to reassure: “We won’t make your skin worse.” That reassurance is necessary, but it has a cost. It casts the customer as a problem to be fixed—patient, vulnerable, constrained. Tower 28 removed that framing.

Amy Liu’s line—“We want to make people feel more confident in their own skin… not like patients or victims”—summarizes a deliberate posture. The brand’s tagline, “It’s okay to be sensitive,” does more than describe a category; it transforms identity. Sensitivity becomes an attribute, not an ailment. That linguistic shift signals a deeper design choice: brand behaviors should empower rather than pacify.

Why does that matter? Consumers with sensitive skin still want beauty, aspiration, and moments of pleasure. They want products that work and an experience that respects their condition without diminishing their agency. When a brand treats sensitivity as part of someone’s identity, it unlocks emotional purchase drivers—pride, belonging, confidence—that typical solution-first brands rarely access.

The posture also addresses stigma. Skin conditions carry social anxiety. By normalizing sensitivity, Tower 28 reduces shame and creates an environment where customers feel permitted to participate in beauty rituals without worry. Framing the brand as a companion shifts the relationship: the customer is no longer a patient; the product is not only a medicine but an ally.

Consider the consumer journey. Under a clinical model, every touchpoint is reassurance-driven: careful phrasing, sterile imagery, medical endorsements. That can communicate competence, but it also suggests distance and fear. Under Tower 28’s model, touchpoints invite, entertain, and soothe—without losing authority. The result is a more emotionally resonant experience that still rests on reliable formulation.

Voice Without Diagnosis: How Tone Builds Trust and Desire

Voice matters in every consumer-facing brand. For sensitive-skin shoppers, tone can either amplify anxiety or alleviate it. Tower 28’s voice avoids diagnosing and instead converses. It speaks like a friend who understands boundaries and shares small joys.

This balance—“aspirational without being alienating,” as Liu described it—requires deliberate choices. Language must be plain and empathetic, but never patronizing. Visuals should be warm, but not saccharine. Packaging must communicate safety and delight simultaneously.

Two pitfalls define the tonal tightrope. The first is excessive aspiration: creating imagery and language so elevated that the target consumer feels excluded or insecure. The second is excessive accessibility: stripping away desire until the product becomes purely functional and forgettable. Tower 28 holds both. It offers a style to aspire to while remaining rooted in recognizably gentle, everyday self-care rituals.

Voice also shapes community. A companion-like voice invites conversation and user-generated storytelling. Customers feel comfortable sharing wins and setbacks. That dynamic accelerates word-of-mouth, particularly in categories where personal testimony matters. When a brand removes the stigma associated with sensitive skin, people talk about their routines more openly. Conversations become a marketing channel in themselves.

Real-world comparisons clarify the difference. Brands anchored purely in dermatological authority—some legacy pharmaceutical lines—exhibit a clinical voice that reassures mass audiences. Brands that skew aspirational—certain high-end beauty houses—project desire but risk alienation. Tower 28 sits between those poles. It borrows sufficient clinical credibility to be trusted, then layers on voice, design, and social context that make the products desirable and shareable.

Ingredient Credibility: Why Third-Party Seals Matter and What They Buy You

Product claims alone do not convince wary consumers. Third-party validation changes the calculus. Tower 28’s SOS line displaying seals from the National Eczema Association, the Psoriasis Foundation, and the Rosacea Society signals that the brand’s formulations meet rigorous ingredient and safety standards important to people with specific dermatological concerns.

What do these seals do in practice?

  • They reduce friction in purchase decisions. When someone anxious about flare-ups sees an NEA seal, their perceived risk lowers.
  • They serve as a heuristic for retailers. Large beauty retailers use these markers to categorize and merchandise products for sensitive-skin shoppers.
  • They underpin PR narratives. Media coverage often highlights third-party endorsements more readily than self-asserted claims.

Securing seals also imposes discipline on product development. Ingredient lists must be curated. Potential irritants are eliminated or reimagined. That constraint can be an asset: limitations force creativity and clarity. The brand stops trying to be everything and focuses on what matters most to its customer.

Not every brand can or should pursue every seal. Each endorsement carries different criteria and different consumer signals. Some are medically oriented, others speak to industry best practices, and some are condition-specific. Choosing the right endorsements requires aligning scientific validation with the brand’s target community.

Beyond seals, transparency matters. Ingredient-literate consumers compare lists; they evaluate not just what’s absent but what’s present and why. Tower 28 mixed clean, recognizable ingredient choices with a communications strategy that explained the function of those ingredients in plain terms. That combination—third-party validation plus clear explanation—created trust that felt both institutional and personal.

Design and Packaging: Joyful Restraint Wins

Packaging is an argument. Many sensitive-skin brands argue for minimalism and clinical restraint. Tower 28 argued for something different: joyful restraint. The brand uses approachable colors, readable typography, and tactile moments that orient the product toward daily rituals rather than clinical regimens.

Design choices reinforce voice. A cheerful label signals permission to enjoy beauty without compromising safety. The product becomes less of a prescription and more of a ritual that respects boundaries. Such design supports repeat usage: customers who enjoy the look and feel of a product are likelier to integrate it into daily routines.

Packaging also communicates at shelf glance. In crowded retail displays, products that break the neutral mold while still signaling safety capture attention. Tower 28’s visual language differentiates it from beige and grey competitors without undermining its core message.

Sustainability and accessibility amplify design decisions. For sensitive-skin consumers, package functionality matters: sprayers that mist without irritation, lids that minimize contamination, and labeling that is easy to read for people with vision issues. These functional elements combine with aesthetic choices to create a product that feels designed for living.

Product Efficacy: The Role of Ritual and Experience

Efficacy is necessary but not sufficient. The SOS Spray’s cult status results from a formula that genuinely calms irritated skin and from an experience that integrates easily into daily life. A product that solves a problem is valuable; a product that fits into a ritual is sticky.

Ritual matters because human behavior is pattern-driven. A product that is pleasant to use, simple to apply, and fits into an existing routine is more likely to be adopted and recommended. Products that require complex, time-consuming rituals have higher abandonment rates, especially among customers juggling sensitive reactions with busy lives.

Tower 28’s approach optimized for both simple efficacy and enjoyable ritual. The spray format itself is an example: quick, non-invasive, and soothing. Pleasant sensory attributes—light texture, subtle scent-free formulations, clean residue—reinforce trust. That combination encourages repeated use and social sharing.

Clinical testing and consumer trials provide the evidence backbone. Real-world testimonials show day-to-day impact. Institutional endorsements give confidence to skeptical buyers. When those elements align, products move from functional to beloved.

Retail Strategy: How Sephora Amplified Scale

Distribution multiplies impact. Tower 28’s presence at Sephora broadcast the brand to millions of beauty shoppers while signaling mainstream acceptance. Retail placement alone does not guarantee growth, but it can accelerate visibility and trust when combined with a compelling product and narrative.

High-profile retail partners provide several advantages:

  • Discovery: Foot traffic and curated online categories funnel customers who may not otherwise encounter a niche DTC brand.
  • Credibility: Retailers vet products; acceptance by a leading beauty retailer signals a baseline of quality and relevance.
  • Sampling behavior: Retail environments encourage trial, which matters for sensory and experiential products.

Sephora’s ecosystem also supports social proof. Reviews, user photos, and in-store testers create interactive pathways from trial to purchase. For brands in sensitive-skin categories, the ability to read reviews from like-minded users is a powerful trust-builder.

That said, the DTC foundation remains important. Direct channels allow brands to gather consumer data, run targeted experiments, and control narrative. Tower 28 used DTC to cultivate an initial community and test positioning, then scaled distribution with retail partners to amplify the signal.

The move from DTC to retail illustrates a broader lesson: scale requires both a loyal base and an accessible platform. Retail is the amplifier; direct relationships are the engine.

Community and Content: Ingredient Literacy Meets Empathy

Tower 28 found traction among an ingredient-literate audience without making ingredient lists the only story. Instead, the brand layered educational content with empathetic storytelling. That nuance matters when reaching consumers who do more than scan labels—they scrutinize them.

Brands that engage ingredient-literate consumers must do two things well:

  • Provide transparent, accurate information about why an ingredient is included and how it functions.
  • Translate technical detail into practical guidance that helps people make decisions within their personal constraints.

Tower 28’s content avoided dense technical lectures. It used simple explanations, relatable analogies, and real-use scenarios. That lowered the barrier for users who wanted science without jargon.

Community activation supports learning and trust. User reviews, social media conversations, and editorial features function as distributed education. When customers share routines, they implicitly test one another’s assumptions and generate real-life evidence that proprietary product pages cannot replicate.

Brands should invest in content that anticipates user concerns—flare-up triggers, routines that coexist with prescription treatments, and layering products safely. That type of content preempts questions and positions the brand as a knowledgeable partner rather than a marketer.

Practical Playbook: How Brands Can Reframe Their Categories

Tower 28’s approach scales beyond skincare. The core playbook applies to any brand operating in a space where people feel stigmatized, vulnerable, or constrained.

  1. Redefine the customer posture. Treat the consumer as a whole person rather than a problem. Language and visual identity should reflect dignity and agency.
  2. Balance authority with warmth. Keep scientific rigor visible, but deliver it through a human voice that invites participation instead of dictating terms.
  3. Secure credible validations that matter to your audience. Identify third-party seals or certifications that align with concrete concerns and communicate those endorsements plainly.
  4. Design for ritual and delight. Build products and packaging that are pleasant and functional to use; pleasure reinforces habitual use.
  5. Use DTC to learn and retail to scale. Start with direct channels to refine messaging and product-market fit; expand to retail partners when distribution can significantly increase discovery without diluting control.
  6. Invest in content that educates. Offer clear explanations for ingredient choices, usage guidance, and safety notes that respect both lay concerns and technical realities.
  7. Build community as a feedback loop. Treat customer voices as product development input. Authentic user stories can become your strongest marketing asset.

Each step requires trade-offs. Seals and restrictions narrow formulation possibilities but increase trust. A warmer voice risks being dismissed as non-scientific unless it is backed by data and endorsements. The brand’s task is to hold these tensions and let them inform strategic choices rather than resolve into extremes.

Trade-offs and Risks: Where the Strategy Can Falter

No strategy is without downside. Tower 28’s model highlights a few specific risk areas for brands attempting to emulate its playbook.

  • Perceived Therapeutic Promises: When a brand emphasizes calming and reassurance, it invites close scrutiny about efficacy. Brands must avoid overstating clinical outcomes without sufficient evidence, or they risk regulatory attention and consumer backlash.
  • Over-Reliance on Seals: Third-party seals drive trust, but they can become a crutch. Brands that rest solely on endorsements may under-invest in ongoing product development or community engagement.
  • Narrow Positioning: Focusing tightly on one category can limit cross-category expansion. Brands must consider how to extend product lines without alienating core customers or diluting clarity.
  • Market Saturation: The “sensitive skin” niche has become crowded. Differentiation that relies only on tone or color will not withstand deep competition. The combination of formulation integrity, meaningful endorsements, and consistent voice is the durable axis.
  • Reputational Vulnerability: A single product recall or adverse PR event can disproportionately harm brands that trade heavily on trust. Robust quality controls and transparent responses are essential.

These risks are manageable. The useful takeaway is that trust is a fragile asset; scaling requires operational and communicative rigor to protect it.

Where the Market Goes Next: Opportunities and Headwinds

Consumer expectations continue to change. Three dynamics matter for sensitive-skin brands in the near term.

  1. Personalized Skin Solutions: Advances in dermatological diagnostics and at-home testing may create demand for hyper-personalized routines. Brands that can offer modular, evidence-driven systems while preserving simplicity will win.
  2. Regulatory Scrutiny and Ingredient Transparency: Regulators and consumers increasingly expect more rigorous support for claims. Transparent science, rigorous trials, and clear labeling are likely to become baseline expectations.
  3. Experience-Driven Loyalty: As functional differentiation narrows, experience—how a product makes you feel, fit into your rituals, and connect to others—becomes a competitive frontier. Brands building community, not just buyer lists, will possess a stronger moat.

Tower 28’s trajectory shows how a brand can capture opportunity by recognizing that trust is multidimensional: scientific, social, and emotional. Successful players will treat trust as a product feature and a business imperative.

Case Comparisons: How Other Brands Navigate Similar Terrain

Contrasting Tower 28 with other players reveals different approaches to similar problems.

  • La Roche-Posay and CeraVe: These brands anchor authority in long-standing dermatological partnerships and affordable formulations. Their voice tends toward clinical reassurance rather than aspiration. Their scale and distribution advantage rests on trust built over time.
  • Drunk Elephant: Built consumer loyalty by eliminating a list of allegedly problematic ingredients. Its approach emphasized ingredient exclusion as a virtue and paired that with premium aesthetics. The result was a strong, polarizing brand voice that attracted a devoted following.
  • Glossier: Emphasized community and everyday beauty rituals, creating belonging through user-generated content and direct conversation. It did not position primarily as a sensitive-skin brand but influenced how brands think about voice and community.
  • Paula’s Choice: Focuses on ingredient education and evidence-backed formulations, targeting very informed consumers. The brand’s reputation rests on clear, research-based product rationales.

Tower 28 borrows strengths from each: the clinical credibility of legacy players, the ingredient-mindedness of modern indie brands, the community-first sensibility of Glossier, and the aspirational but accessible aesthetics of contemporary skincare houses. Its distinctiveness lies in recombining those strengths into a posture that treats sensitivity as identity rather than pathology.

Measuring Success: Metrics That Matter

Growth looks different when measured by the quality of relationships, not just revenue. For a brand like Tower 28, consider these metrics:

  • Repeat Purchase Rate: Measures whether customers incorporate a product into daily rituals.
  • Rate of Return Visitors: Indicates the brand’s ability to stay relevant beyond initial trial.
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS) among Sensitive-Skin Shoppers: Reflects advocacy levels within the core audience.
  • Earned Media and Share of Voice in Sensitive-Skin Conversations: Tracks cultural relevance and influencer momentum.
  • Conversion Lift From Third-Party Seals: Measures the incremental effect of endorsements on purchases.
  • Average Order Value and Cross-Sell Success: Show whether product expansion resonates with established users.

These metrics show whether trust translates into sustainable business. High acquisition with low retention suggests superficial appeal. High retention with modest acquisition reveals strong product-market fit that can be amplified.

What Leaders Should Watch: Organizational Practices That Support This Strategy

Adopting a posture like Tower 28’s requires internal alignment.

  • R&D Discipline: Formulation teams must operate under constrained ingredient lists while innovating for efficacy and sensory qualities.
  • Marketing and Science Collaboration: Claims should be rooted in verifiable data. Scientists and marketing teams need shared language to communicate benefits accurately yet persuasively.
  • Community Operations: Brands require teams to listen, respond, and harvest insights from user conversations. Social listening should feed product design and content strategies.
  • Retail Partnerships: Negotiations with major retailers must preserve brand integrity. Branded experiences in-store and curated messaging online maintain consistency.
  • Quality Assurance and Compliance: Robust testing, batch controls, and transparent documentation protect reputation and enable quick responses to concerns.

These operational practices convert brand strategy into durable advantage. The weakest link—if it’s product quality, inconsistent messaging, or poor supply chain reliability—can erode trust quickly.

Actionable Framework for Product Teams

Product teams building for sensitive audiences should adopt a simple framework:

  1. Define the behavioral outcome. Is the product for everyday maintenance, acute relief, or adjunctive care? Clarity here drives formula choices.
  2. Prioritize non-negotiables. Establish a short list of banned ingredients and a core palette of proven actives.
  3. Design for experience. Consider application format, scent profiles, texture, and packaging ergonomics.
  4. Validate externally. Seek endorsements or certifications aligned with the target condition.
  5. Communicate plainly. Explain why key ingredients are present and how to use the product safely with other treatments.
  6. Iterate with customers. Use DTC channels and community feedback to refine formulations and content.

This framework reduces ambiguity in product development and aligns commercial objectives with user needs.

The Cultural Moment: Why Sensitivity Sells Differently Now

Consumers increasingly demand authenticity from brands. They expect products to align with personal identity, values, and lifestyle. For many, skin is not only a biological surface; it’s a visibility tool and a locus of social confidence. Brands that recognize this psychological dimension—and design products and narratives that respect it—succeed more often.

Tower 28 benefited from a cultural moment in which vulnerability became shareable. Social platforms normalize rituals and demystify conditions. That openness lowers the social cost of buying and discussing products for sensitive skin. Brands that make space for these conversations win.

At the same time, fatigue with vacuous “clean” claims means consumers seek tangible evidence. Third-party seals, transparent ingredient lists, and clear usage guidance answer that demand. Tower 28 applied both cultural and technical levers to bridge emotion and evidence.

FAQ

Q: What makes Tower 28 different from other sensitive-skin brands? A: It reframes sensitivity from a problem to an identity, combining that posture with rigorous formulations and third-party endorsements. The brand pairs credible safety signals with warm, inclusive voice and design, creating an experience that invites use rather than just reassures.

Q: Are third-party seals like the NEA necessary to build trust? A: They are not strictly necessary, but they significantly reduce perceived risk for consumers with specific conditions. Seals function as independent confirmation of ingredient safety criteria and can accelerate retailer acceptance and consumer purchase decisions.

Q: Can a brand be aspirational and accessible at the same time? A: Yes. The balance is deliberate: offer aesthetic and experiential cues that create desire while using language, visuals, and claims that remain approachable and grounded in real-world use.

Q: How do you avoid alienating clinical buyers while adopting a warmer voice? A: Maintain scientific rigor in product development and documentation. Ensure that claims are backed by testing and that educational content explains mechanisms clearly. A friendly voice is not a substitute for evidence; it is a vessel for it.

Q: What are the risks of pursuing this strategy? A: Key risks include overpromising, losing scientific credibility, over-reliance on endorsements, and narrowing future expansion options. Strong quality control and honest communication mitigate these risks.

Q: How should small brands start if they want to emulate Tower 28’s approach? A: Begin with clarity: who you serve and what ritual you enable. Build formulations with clear non-negotiables, test thoroughly with target users, invest in transparent content, and choose endorsements that matter to your audience. Use DTC to learn and refine before scaling distribution.

Q: Is community necessary for success in this category? A: Community accelerates trust-building and provides invaluable feedback. It’s not strictly necessary for every brand, but community-driven growth often proves more sustainable than paid acquisition alone.

Q: What metrics indicate the strategy is working? A: Look beyond acquisition to retention, repeat purchase rates, NPS among key demographics, earned media, and conversion impacts from endorsements. These metrics show whether trust has converted into lasting consumer behavior.

Q: Will regulatory scrutiny increase for sensitive-skin claims? A: Regulatory attention grows with category maturation, especially where health-related claims intersect with cosmetics. Brands should prioritize clear evidence, appropriate phrasing, and robust testing to remain compliant.

Q: How do you expand a focused sensitive-skin brand responsibly? A: Expand by adjacent products that maintain the same safety profile and ritual logic. Test extensions with core customers, preserve core endorsements, and avoid dilution of the brand’s central promise.

Tower 28’s rise illustrates a strategic truth: credibility without humanity is limited, and humanity without credibility is fragile. Combining careful formulations, meaningful third-party validation, and a voice that treats customers as people first, brands can create products that solve problems and fit seamlessly into life. This approach reshapes categories—not by abandoning science, but by applying it within a frame of empathy and design.