BYBI

BYBI is a London-based skincare brand founded in 2017, its name a contraction of "By Beauty Insiders" [1]. It was created by Elsie Rutterford and Dominika Minarovic, two former advertising colleagues who had already built a following through a natural-beauty blog before they began making products [2]. The brand positioned itself around natural, vegan and cruelty-free formulas paired with an unusually specific environmental focus on carbon, and grew quickly enough to raise venture funding and reach mass US retail.

The founders sold BYBI in 2024 [3]. After what the company has called a difficult period, the brand was relaunched under new ownership and leadership in March 2026, currently as a stripped-down operation built around a single product [4].

Before BYBI existed, Rutterford and Minarovic ran Clean Beauty Insiders, originally Clean Beauty Co, a DIY natural-beauty blog they started in 2015 while working full time [2]. They trained as formulators, earning a diploma in natural skincare formulation from Formula Botanica, hosted workshops in London, and in early 2017 published Clean Beauty, a recipe book of natural beauty formulas, through Penguin.

According to the company, products were never the original goal; the content platform came first, and BYBI followed as a way to bring the same natural, vegan ethos to mainstream consumers rather than a niche clean-beauty audience. The founders described their aim as natural and vegan skincare that delivered real results but was "branded, marketed and sold in places that spoke to us as mainstream consumers."

BYBI frames its approach as "skin positive, pro-planet beauty for all," and argues, in its own words, that "climate-conscious beauty doesn't mean compromising on results." The company organises this around four stated pillars: Results Obsessed, Nothing to Hide, Climate Conscious and Change Enthusiasts. Its tagline, "raising your beauty game and lowering your carbon footprint," captures the dual emphasis on performance and environmental impact.

Notably, the founders were sceptical of the language commonly used in the sector. In a 2021 interview, Rutterford said "the term sustainable is a little bit problematic," citing a lack of regulation and shared standards, and the brand instead made carbon reduction its central, measurable environmental goal [5].

BYBI's range has centred on natural, plant-derived actives. Its best-known product is the Bakuchiol Booster, a facial oil built around bakuchiol, which the brand presents as a natural, vegan alternative to retinol; the company says the 1% bakuchiol formula "delivers retinol-like results, without the usual side effects." Other core products have included the Bake Balm, Eye Plump and the Milk Melt Cleanser. The line has been priced at the accessible end of the market.

The brand's signature innovation was the Glowcurrant Booster, which it described as "the world's first carbon negative skincare product" — a formulation said to remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits [6]. It launched in 2022 and reflected the company's stated ambition to become the world's first carbon-negative beauty brand by 2025.

Carbon was BYBI's defining environmental theme. The brand reported becoming carbon neutral at the end of 2020 by offsetting all of its historic emissions since launch through carbon credits certified by The Gold Standard [7]. It has stated that its products are made using renewable energy and that most of the range is packaged in sugarcane-derived polyethylene, a recyclable bioplastic. Alongside vegan and cruelty-free claims, the brand lists its formulas as free from parabens, sulphates, phthalates, mineral oils and synthetic fragrances.

BYBI's growth accelerated around 2020. In December 2020 it raised a $7 million Series A [8], and in January 2021 it launched into roughly 1,800 Target stores in the United States, a significant move into mass-market retail for an independent clean-beauty brand [5]. The company reported around 200% year-on-year growth during the pandemic period. The 2022 launch of the Glowcurrant Booster extended its carbon-negative positioning into the product line itself.

BYBI's founders and its current ownership are recorded differently across sources, reflecting a change of hands. The brand's own legacy "about" page lists Rutterford and Minarovic and describes BYBI as an independent brand, without noting any ownership change [1]. Editorial coverage, however, records that the two founders sold BYBI in 2024 in what one industry account called "an incredible exit," after which the brand passed to new ownership [3]. The founders are recorded as the original creators of the brand; the 2024 sale and subsequent new ownership are documented in the brand's later history. Rutterford and Minarovic have since moved on to a separate kids-care brand, Rayro [4].

BYBI is active but in an early rebuilding phase. Following the 2024 sale and what the relaunched company describes as "a really tough chapter," the brand returned under new ownership and leadership, beginning on 29 March 2026 with the relaunch of the Bakuchiol Booster, described as its global bestselling facial oil [4]. As of mid-2026 the website is a single-product operation, listing the Bakuchiol Booster with a second product marked "coming soon," and the brand's former separate US site now redirects to the main domain. The company has framed this as rebuilding "step by step, going back to basics."