REFY

REFY is a British makeup and skincare brand founded in 2020 by Jess Hunt and Jenna Meek [9]. Its name is a contraction of "redefining beauty" [6], and the company builds its identity around a single idea: simplifying beauty. Rather than expanding a routine, REFY sets out to shorten it, developing multi-functional products and built-in applicators intended to do much of the work for the wearer.

The brand launched during lockdown in November 2020 with a single product, Brow Sculpt, and grew unusually fast from there — sold out early inventory within weeks, picked up by Sephora inside a year, and later expanded across lip, complexion and skin categories. It remains active, with new launches and editorial coverage continuing into 2025 [7].

REFY grew out of a practical frustration. According to the company, co-founder Jenna Meek noticed that Jess Hunt's eyebrow routine was long and complicated — more than ten steps involving several brushes, gels and waxes — and set about reducing it to three. That simplified routine became Brow Sculpt, the brand's debut product. The company says the concept was built out largely over WhatsApp and brought to market in about three months, and that its first stock sold out in under six weeks against a waiting list of more than 100,000 [9].

The two founders came from different backgrounds. Hunt is a social-media personality who became the brand's public face, while Meek had already co-founded the colour-cosmetics label Shrine, previously known as The Gypsy Shrine [8]. Sources differ slightly on attribution: a Grazia review credited Hunt alone as founder [6], but the two-co-founder account appears on REFY's own story page and across trade and retail coverage [8][9].

The timing of the 2020 launch shaped the brand's early rise. Hunt has said the products needed explanation to use well, and that the pandemic — with people at home and open to experimenting — gave that education room to happen. Roughly seven months after launch, REFY was picked up by Sephora, the LVMH-owned retailer, and stocked across the United States and Canada [8]. In 2021 the brand ran a pop-up in London's Mayfair, on Bruton Street.

From an initial focus on brows, REFY broadened into lips, face and complexion. Its Lip Sculpt liner and setter drew wide attention on social media, with the hashtag #REFYLipLiner reaching eight million views [5], and later additions included face primers, bronzers and blushes.

REFY's stated mission is to "Simplify Beauty, inspiring you to be your most confident self." The company frames this as "less is more," designing multi-functional products meant to deliver results without adding steps. It organises this thinking around three named values: Community First, Purposely Formulated and Forever Essentials. The brand also runs a members' programme, REFY World, which it structures around how often customers order rather than how much they spend.

Positioned in the accessible mid-market, REFY's products were described by one reviewer as reasonably priced, ranging from about $20 to $34 [7]. The line is often associated with the "no-makeup makeup" and clean-beauty trends of the early 2020s.

The brand is known for format-led products rather than named signature ingredients. Its debut, Brow Sculpt, is a wax-gel hybrid marketed with a twelve-hour hold, and the same "sculpt" language carries across the range in Lash Sculpt, a long-wear mascara, and Lip Sculpt. Other products include the Blur Liner, a matte lip liner, and the Glow and Sculpt primer, which is sold with a built-in roller applicator. Across the range, the recurring design idea is a built-in tool or dual function that removes a step from the routine.

REFY presents itself as a vegan, cruelty-free and fragrance-free brand. It states that all of its own-brand cosmetic and personal-care products are approved under Cruelty Free International's Leaping Bunny programme, which it describes as the internationally recognised standard for cruelty-free products [3]. The company says it maintains a fixed cut-off-date policy and monitors its suppliers for continued compliance, with that monitoring independently audited. It also references minimal packaging, though detailed environmental data is not documented.

Editorial coverage has been consistently favourable. Grazia described REFY's brow range as achieving instant cult status, noting that stock sold out within minutes of launch and continued to sell out on restock [6]. In 2025, PureWow published a review headlined around REFY as the coolest beauty brand of that year and scored it 95 out of 100 [7]. Bustle ran a founder interview in 2023 tracing the brand's viral start and expansion. No formal industry awards are documented.

REFY is an active brand. As of 2025 it continued to launch products and attract editorial attention, and it sells directly to consumers alongside distribution through Sephora in the United States and Canada, Space NK, and other retailers. Its parent ownership is not publicly documented, and no acquisitions have been recorded.