NCLA Beauty

NCLA Beauty is an American cosmetics brand founded in 2010 in Downtown Los Angeles by sisters Elin and Anh-Thu Dannerstedt [8]. It began as a nail brand, selling hard-to-find nail wrap designs at the height of the nail-art trend, and later grew into vegan nail polishes, colour cosmetics, lip care and body care. The company positions itself as a vegan and cruelty-free brand made in the United States, and its current catalogue centres on lip and body products rather than the nail lacquers it started with.

The brand remains active. Its website continues to sell a current range, and its most recent activity includes a 2024 expansion into travel retail and a body-scrub launch the same year.

NCLA Beauty was started in 2010 by sisters Elin and Anh-Thu Dannerstedt in Downtown Los Angeles. The two set out to build what they described as "a destination of products that is truly clean and innovative while staying colorful and cheeky." Elin Dannerstedt, the brand's chief executive, graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in 2003, where she majored in product development.

The company launched with a small collection of nail wraps — adhesive printed designs applied to the nail — entering the market, according to the founders, "when nail art was at its peak." Early collaborations with Hello Kitty, Beyoncé and Barbie helped draw press attention. From the wraps, the brand moved into nail polishes and treatments, building the foundation for the wider range that followed.

After establishing itself in nails, NCLA Beauty broadened its line considerably. In 2018 it launched colour cosmetics and lip care, expanding beyond nails for the first time [2]. The lip range later grew to include masks, scrubs and balms, and the brand added a body-care line of butters, scrubs, bath bombs and treatment oils.

In 2019 its First Base nail base coat won a HelloGiggles Beauty Crush Award [10], and the product was also recognised among InStyle's Best Beauty Buys. The brand opened a wholesale channel with a 2020 launch in Anthropologie [11], and in 2022 released a collection in collaboration with The Beverly Hills Hotel [12]. In 2024 it announced an expansion into travel retail [13] and launched a Lychee Martini body scrub.

NCLA Beauty describes itself as a vegan and cruelty-free brand, summed up in its tagline "Vegan & Cruelty-Free Beauty." The company frames its appeal around feel-good products made by female founders, stating that its line "is always made in the USA with clean, vegan ingredients." It says it maintains fully vegan formulas and declines to sell in markets that require animal testing.

The brand's stated identity blends a clean-beauty stance with a colourful, playful character, reflected in a scent-led approach to its lip and body ranges with options such as Birthday Cake, Coconut Vanilla and Watermelon.

The brand's nail polishes and gel formulas are marketed as "7-Free," meaning they exclude seven ingredients the company singles out: formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, camphor, dibutyl phthalate, xylene, toluene and TPHP [5]. NCLA Beauty states that its products contain no animal-derived ingredients, listing among the excluded materials guanine, tallow, gelatin, lanolin, beeswax and carmine.

Across its history the brand has highlighted several signature items: the original nail wraps; the award-winning First Base primer; a "So Rich" pumpkin-spice hand and cuticle oil that the founders described as a first-to-market product; and its Balm Babe lip balms in scents such as Horchata and Watermelon.

NCLA Beauty's First Base won a 2019 HelloGiggles Beauty Crush Award and the brand featured among InStyle's Best Beauty Buys. Its products have appeared in titles including Allure, which covered its lip care, and Forbes. The brand has also been worn by a number of public figures: Taylor Swift wore its pastel nail lacquers in the "ME!" music video [19], Cardi B wore its nail wraps [20], and Paris Hilton and Emily Ratajkowski have also been pictured in its products. It produced a nail-wrap collaboration collection with Beyoncé [21].

NCLA Beauty is active. Its website sells a current product range, and its most recent documented activity dates to 2024, with a travel-retail expansion and the launch of the Lychee Martini body scrub [24]. The brand has shifted its visible focus away from the nail lacquers that defined its early years toward lip and body care, but remains operational.