Amanda Baldwin, President of Supergoop!, won’t waste an opportunity to gently remind you on the underestimated importance of sun care. “The first thing I’ll have to say is that UVA rays cut right through clouds. So even on a cloudy day you’re still getting sun damage,” she tells us over our cosy hour-long chat. “It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t say that.”
Born and raised in the city of dreams, Amanda began her career working in finance on Wall Street. After leaving the belly of the beast, she started her career in beauty working for some of the industry’s heaviest weights, including Clinique and Dior. Then, came a call.
“About four years ago, I got a phone call from a headhunter about Supergoop! which was a tiny little business with an incredibly passionate, special founder.” The business was on a single, mighty mission to revolutionise sun care for the world. It was a mission that spoke to Amanda who as a marketer, brand lover and passionate believer in SPF, saw no end to the stories they could tell.
“We want to change the way the world thinks about sunscreen.”
In a blink, Amanda has been helming Supergoop! and taking it to unprecedented new heights alongside the brand’s founder, Holly Thaggard, for three years. “We’ve been having a tremendous run and the business is growing triple digits year over year. We truly are changing consumer behaviour and it’s really exciting to watch.”
But First, Sunscreen.
The Supergoop! team is driven by a single, but critical purpose: To have everybody wear sunscreen every single day, in a fight against the epidemic of skin cancer.
It is a philosophy that both propels but challenges the team to constantly imagine (and reimagine) novel ways to convey their SPF message: “We’re really making sure our product is first to market, that there’s never been anything like it before.”
“[Holly and I] have a very deep philosophy about how to do things differently. If it’s already been done why do it again?”
The result? A line of distinctly Supergoop! products that are fun, peppy and wholesome all the way from objective, to function, to packaging. Just take it from one of Supergoop’s longest running best sellers, the Smooth + Poreless 100% Mineral Matte Screen (SPF 40), an ultra-light translucent primer that blurs, controls oil and protects your skin from both UV rays and blue light!
You heard that right. It doesn’t just end at UV protection for Supergoop!’s super-powered products, as Amanda emphasised: “We’re trying to create that great beauty product you know and love with SPF built in. In addition to SPF we put blue light protection, pollution protection etc. so you’re getting fully protected from the sun plus everything else.”
Venturing beyond sunscreen, Supergoop!’s growing line of makeup products are equally high-performers to beat. The Supergoop! 100% Mineral Invincible Setting Powder (SPF 45) sets makeup, is stubbornly sweat-resistant and loaded with more skin-happy ingredients including Ceramide 3 to safeguard your skin barrier.
The brand’s overall hearty ‘live bright’ approach to sun care is exactly what sets it apart and is a commitment to its goal of inspiring a positive SPF revolution. “I don’t think you scold or scare people into changing behaviour, you inspire them into it,” Amanda tells us.
“I always say we’re treating a serious subject with a smile.”
Clean SPF? It Doesn’t Get Better Than This.
There’s also a seriously good reason to smile about Supergoop!’s cutting-edge formulas — the brand’s uncompromising dedication to effective but clean SPF (also vegan and cruelty-free!).
Supergoop! is committed to a running (and growing) list of ingredients it will never use, including Oxybenzone (otherwise present in approximately 65% of sunscreens), Parabens, as well as Synthetic Fragrances. By next year, all Supergoop! products will also be Octinoxate-free. “We were the first brand to remove Oxybenzone from our chemical sunscreen…not all chemicals are bad, we certainly believe in chemical sunscreens,” explains Amanda, “but taking some of the yucky ingredients out have certainly made a huge difference.”
A self-professed clean ingredient fanatic and compulsive label reader, there are no shortcuts for Amanda or the devoted Supergoop! team when it comes to perfecting competent, safe formulas. Their products undergo cycles of tedious and rigorous development — some are already in their 8th iteration and counting. “Sunscreen is very technically challenging from a chemistry point of view, so getting formulas that feel good [using clean ingredients] and have true performance benefits is really hard to do,” Amanda shares.
“It can get exhausting but if we can do it better, we’ll go back and do it better.”
The Supergoop! team remains unfazed. “It’s an endless [process] but it’s something I think we are really unique in our ability to do because we’re the only ones [doing this]. We have to put SPF in [our products].” Amanda also reveals that she and her team test new products all the time, even in their trial stage: “I also have a line-up, often in my medicine cabinet, of little white bottles of things that haven’t come out yet.”
“We’re always working on something and there’s no better way to test a product than to make yourself the guinea pig! We certainly all do that in our team, we make sure we fall in love with [our products].”
A Superhero For Everyone.
It’s easy to see how Amanda’s personal belief that everything is unique and personal resonates with Supergoop!’s motivation: “Our philosophy for product development is making sure that every single person has that one right [SPF product]. We’ll keep going until we have that answer for everybody.”
“Be 100% passionate about what you’re doing. The road blocks always fall away if you feel really passionate and committed to whatever your angle is.”
Another award-winning cult favourite, the Supergoop! Unseen Sunscreen (SPF 40) for example, was formulated to be 100% invisible and a complete game changer for those who love the no-sunscreen-but-sunscreen feel. Unsurprisingly, the imperceptible formula is particularly popular among men, Amanda shares.
It feels like an understatement to call Supergoop! just another sunscreen brand. Adamant on finding the right SPF product for every need, use and person, Supergoop! is a sunscreen Superhero that endeavours for you. As Amanda tells us, “I think it all starts with a great idea and an unbelievable product. I’m a big believer that you have to have a product that has a real reason for being, that’s unique, that’s different, that the world wouldn’t be the same without it.”
Indeed, after taking what was once a sleep category by storm and disrupting both the skincare and makeup industry with its innovative products, Supergoop! is steadily changing sunscreen as we knew it.
The good news? There is no end in sight for this sunny business and Amanda is just as piqued about the brand’s future: “When I think of everything we’ve accomplished, I’m really proud, but I’m just as excited about everything there is left to do.”
Well, we’ll be right here waiting. Though till then, armed with Supergoop!’s super-powered SPF products, you bet we’ll be living our brightest (but safest) lives yet!
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Discover Supergoop!’s full range of extraordinary SPF products now available in Sephora stores islandwide, as well as online!
Take care,
Melisa
