Peace Out Skincare

Peace Out Skincare is a United States skincare company based in San Francisco, best known for the hydrocolloid acne patch that launched the brand. It was founded by Enrico Frezza, who serves as founder and chief executive, together with co-founder Junior Scott Pence. The company centres its range on targeted, single-step treatments for acne-prone skin and describes itself as "The Experts in Acne Prone Skin."

Most sources place the founding in 2017 [7], though one account dates it to 2016, describing the brand as the first "skinclusive" acne label to sell an over-the-counter acne dot [7]. The 2017 date is corroborated by several trade publications and by the company's own timeline, while the earlier date most likely reflects when product development began. The brand remains independent and active, with continued product launches and a global retail presence.

The company traces its beginning to its founder's own struggle with acne and hyperpigmentation. According to Peace Out, Frezza had "tried more acne products, doctor prescriptions, and infomercial products than you can possibly imagine" before finding a solution that worked. The turning point came when he discovered hydrocolloid dressing, a flesh-coloured medical material normally used to heal wounds. In 2014, while working in cyber security, he found hydrocolloid bandages in a Los Angeles drugstore, bought the store's entire stock, and began testing them at home with acne-fighting ingredients [8]. That experimentation produced the first prototype Peace Out Acne Dot.

Frezza is Italian-born, from a family of racing enthusiasts; his brother Marco is a professional racing driver. By the brand's account, the first patch reached market after roughly three years of research and fourteen prototypes, at which point it was taken on by the retailer Sephora. Co-founder Junior Scott Pence is credited as chief marketing officer and creative director.

Frezza has said the idea took shape in 2014, when he first encountered hydrocolloid bandages and began his at-home experiments. Peace Out Skincare launched its acne patch in 2017, entering an exclusive partnership with Sephora. The brand expanded internationally through Sephora and other retailers, and by 2021 trade coverage reported strong year-over-year sales growth and shops-in-shop with Kohl's, where the company said sales ran well above projections [8].

In 2022 the company reformulated its full range to meet clean-beauty standards and launched on Amazon. That November it announced a $20 million growth investment from 5th Century Partners, its first outside investment [9]. The funding was a minority growth stake rather than an acquisition, and the company has remained independent; by its own account it has neither been acquired nor made acquisitions of its own.

Peace Out Skincare operates as an independent company. In November 2022 it received a $20 million investment from the private-equity firm 5th Century Partners, described as its first outside capital. The deal did not transfer ownership of the brand, which continues to be led by its founder.

Peace Out positions itself around what it calls "good, effective, clean and fun" skincare, framed as clean, single-step targeted treatments for acne-prone skin. The company says it aims to help customers "make peace with their skin" and states that skincare "should feel as good as it performs." It organises its actives into functional groups, drawing on ingredients such as salicylic acid, retinol, niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, bakuchiol and peptides.

The brand is publicly LGBTQIA+ founded and run, and partners with The Trevor Project in support of mental-health programmes for LGBTQ youth [4].

The brand's signature product is its Acne Treatment Dot, a hydrocolloid pimple patch that combines a medical-grade polymer with active ingredients. The company describes the polymer as absorbing impurities directly from blemishes while protecting the skin, and reports that in testing 91 percent of people found the dots left skin less red and less uncomfortable within six hours [11]. Other products include Retinol Eye Lift Patches, a Pore Perfecting Cleanser, and what the company calls first-to-market microneedling patches, which use dissolving microneedles to deliver actives below the skin's surface.

Innovation centres on two proprietary formats: the hydrocolloid polymer used in its patches and the dissolving microneedle patch. At the time of its 2022 investment, the company reported twelve products in its range, two of them patented and five patent-pending [9]. By that stage the brand said it had sold more than 50 million acne dots, a figure later cited as over 70 million, and described itself as the top acne brand at Sephora [7].

Peace Out publishes a set of environmental commitments it acknowledges are still in progress, stating it is "not completely sustainable just yet." The company works toward making its products recyclable and made from post-consumer recycled materials, and says it aims for a neutral carbon footprint by 2026. It plants 500 trees a month through One Tree Planted, a reforestation nonprofit, and states that its main packaging supplier holds Sustainable Forestry Initiative and Forest Stewardship Council certification. Its products are described as vegan and PETA-certified cruelty-free, and formulated to the "Clean at Sephora" standard, excluding ingredients such as sulfates, parabens, phthalates and formaldehyde-releasing agents [6].

Peace Out Skincare remains active. Its website continues to publish new product launches and editorial content, and its social channels are current [13]. The company is US-based and sells through Sephora across North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, the Middle East and Australia and New Zealand, as well as through its own site, Sephora.com and Amazon.