The Fifth Laboratory

The Fifth Laboratory is a Norwegian skincare brand founded in 2024 by cousins Hanne Grøgaard and Rebecca Goodchild, who bring backgrounds from the pharmaceutical industry and brand building [2]. The family- and female-owned company sells directly to consumers and, at launch, centres on a single product: a face and body mist called Pureactil. It remains a small, single-market brand, with distribution confined largely to Norway.

The company describes itself as family-owned, built by two cousins who wanted to make science-based skincare simple. Its stated aim is to develop effective, safe and skin-friendly formulations supported by research rather than trends [2]. That positioning is captured in the tagline "For the love of Skin and Science" [1], and in an in-house motto the founders translate as making products "for real people, not trends."

The Fifth Laboratory presents skincare as something that should be, in its own words, intelligent, transparent and built on trust. The company groups its stated values under reliability, science and a customer-first approach, and says its formulas are grounded in research, ingredient studies and consumer testing. It emphasises transparency "about everything, from ingredient sources to clinical documentation," and describes its route to market as direct, with "no white-label or influencer shortcuts" [2]. The brand also states a commitment to sustainability, referring to refillable concepts and reduced plastic [5], though it publishes no third-party certifications.

Pureactil is a face and body mist the company says is designed to soothe, calm and refresh the skin and to support its natural defences. Its formula is unusually short: the published ingredient list is water, sodium chloride and hypochlorous acid, the last present at 200 ppm as the active component [4]. Hypochlorous acid is a compound the body produces naturally through white blood cells as part of the immune response, which the brand frames as the inspiration for the product.

On a dedicated science page, the company lists clinical claims for hypochlorous acid, including broad-spectrum activity against bacteria, fungi and viruses, a significant reduction in acne and pustules in mild-to-moderate cases, and effects on inflammatory mediators such as IL-12 and TNF-alpha [3]. It cites six peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2023 in support; these are stated by the brand and were not independently verified. Pureactil is described as fragrance-free and dermatologist-tested [5].

The Fifth Laboratory is active. Its site is live and selling Pureactil, and the mist is also stocked by the Norwegian retailer Koch Parfymeri [6]. As a brand founded only in 2024 around a single product, its footprint is small and, so far, concentrated in Norway. No independent editorial coverage or awards were identified at the time of writing, which is typical for a brand this new.