Barbara Paldus, the CEO and Founder of Codex Beauty Labs, believes brands should publicize the data behind their product claims to help consumers make fact-based purchasing decisions. To challenge the industry, she’s taking the first step with a food-nutrition inspired labeling system that began rolling out on all Codex Beauty’s product packaging this month. Called “efficacy panel,” the new labels have been designed to clearly explain the quantitative clinical data behind the brand’s third-party product testing, revealing both positive results as well as results that may have only been temporary. The goal, said Barbara, is to offer a transparent snapshot of product performance, as well as eliminate confusion about ingredient benefits.

“Codex Beauty Labs was started to create a movement to bring transparency and sustainability to the beauty industry, as well as to educate and empower the consumer. Every other industry I know except for art and fashion has product specification sheets. This is the point of the new label–to demonstrate that quantitative data is not only relevant, but is essential for making informed purchasing decisions,” said Barbara. “It also allows customers to make educated decisions based on proven product performance for their skin care routines, and well-informed value purchasing decisions based on facts rather than marketing jargon.”

Along with the clinical data, the company plans to continue publishing consumer perception results, and will relaunch its website on March 5 to include both sets of information.

“You can think of it as a product review to share with consumers, but not sufficient support of product claims,” said Barbara. “The clinical data is still key, but it is also interesting to correlate the user perception/feedback with the quantitative clinical results. This is how we have defined the verbs in our claim structure. That way consumers still keep the choice of what information they want to use in making decisions, and we are taking the approach that they should have access to all data. Full transparency.”

Introduced in June 2019, Codex Beauty was established to serve as a skin care company and investment firm to help foster a collective of under-the-radar global beauty brands. Sekhmet Ventures, where Barbara is a founding partner, provided $8 million in Series A funding for the launch. In August 2018, Codex Beauty acquired its first brand, Bia Beauty, from Ireland-based herbal scientist Tracey Ryan. It’s next brand, Antü, focused on skin barrier protection, will roll out later this year. The company experienced a 600 percent growth in 2020, and to date, its January revenue is already one-fourth of 2020. The growth, says a company rep, is partially due to its 2020 launch of its Bia collection in China on multiple on-line channels as well as Sunrise Duty Free stores.

“We are excited that new Chinese regulations were announced in January that would not require animal testing for physical store sales and are ready to submit our registration for all Codex Beauty products when the new laws come into effect in May. We expect to be in physical retail the second half of 2021,” said Barbara.

By April, the brand will be sold on every continent including Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and both Americas and in 20 countries.