Youth To The People

Youth To The People is an American skincare brand founded in 2015 by cousins Greg Gonzalez and Joe Cloyes, and based in Los Angeles, California [4]. It builds its formulas around a "Superfoods + Science" idea, pairing nutrient-rich plant extracts such as kale, spinach and green tea with conventional cosmetic actives, and markets its products as vegan and cruelty-free. Since December 2021 the brand has been owned by L'Oréal, which folded it into its L'Oréal Luxe division [3].

The company traces its knowledge back further than its 2015 launch. Gonzalez and Cloyes grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area around a family skincare business, and describe the brand as an outgrowth of three generations of formulating experience.

The two founders are cousins from Northern California. Their grandmother, Eva Friederichs, launched a botanically driven professional skincare line in Oakland in 1979, an early American use of plant-based ingredients for salons and spas; Greg's mother and an aunt still run that original business [5]. Gonzalez has described Youth To The People as a reworking of that inheritance: "What was exciting was being able to take the three generations of formulas" and reimagine the company for a new audience [5].

Sources differ slightly on how the family generations are counted. In an interview with TheNodMag, Gonzalez states plainly, "Our family's been making skincare for 45 years and we're the third generation" [7]; a fourth-generation figure sometimes appears, but the interview and the WWD account of grandmother-to-parents-to-cousins do not support it. The third-generation figure is the founders' own.

The name reflects a stance rather than a demographic. Cloyes has said "Youth isn't about age or appearance; it's about a mindset—an openness and excitement for life" [7].

Youth To The People makes cleansers, toners, creams, masks and serums built by cold-pressing superfood extracts. Recurring blends include kale, spinach and green tea; maqui berry, açaí, prickly pear and goji; and later releases using kombucha, black tea and adaptogenic mushrooms. Products have typically been sold in transparent glass packaging labelled with their main ingredients, an aesthetic the founders liken to a smoothie.

The company frames its approach as a partnership between skincare technology and plant extracts rather than a strictly natural positioning. Its own account describes formulas "stacked with high-performance raw materials at intentional percentages," and states a belief "in good synthetics and the latest in cosmetic science." The trademarked line "Superfoods + Science" summarises this. The brand's stated mission is to "make high-performance skincare using vegan ingredients with practices that are good to the planet and good to the people" [3].

Its best-known product is the Superfood Antioxidant Cleanser, made with kale, spinach and green tea, which became Sephora's top-selling cleanser in its category in the United States and won an Allure Best of Beauty award in 2021 [9]. Other signature items include the Superfood Air-Whip Moisture Cream, the Adaptogen Deep Moisture Cream, the Polypeptide-121 Future Cream and the Retinal + Niacinamide Youth Serum.

According to the company, its products are 100% vegan and cruelty-free, and free from sulfates, phthalates and parabens; it also describes its packaging as recyclable [5]. The brand is listed as Leaping Bunny certified by the cruelty-free aggregator Bunny Search [8].

After launching in 2015, the brand entered Sephora in 2016 — the retailer became its main distribution channel, and it was at a Sephora event that L'Oréal executive Carol Hamilton first encountered the brand [4]. A Sephora partnership that began online in late 2017 expanded to more than 1,500 stores globally by early 2018, and the company reported more than doubling its sales annually in this period. Products also reached Nordstrom and Amazon alongside the brand's own site.

In 2020 the founders established the Good To The People Fund, pledging $1 million over three years to nonprofits working on climate change, social justice, gun violence prevention, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ youth support and food security [4]. In 2021 the brand began international expansion through Cult Beauty, ran its first out-of-home advertising campaign across five cities, won Beauty Independent's Beacon Award for Best Brand, and crossed $50 million in sales [4].

On December 8, 2021, L'Oréal announced an agreement to acquire Youth To The People for undisclosed terms, integrating it into the L'Oréal Luxe division [3]. Cyril Chapuy, president of L'Oréal Luxe, described the brand as "a favorite among all genders" whose "skincare expertise based on healthy, vegan, high-efficacy formulas make it very strategic" [3]. Within the L'Oréal group, its sister brands include Kiehl's, Lancôme, Helena Rubinstein, Carita and the fragrance house Creed.

Youth To The People continues to operate as an active brand under L'Oréal Luxe following its 2021 acquisition. Its founders remained involved through the transition, and the brand has continued to launch products and expand into new markets — including a 2023 entry into India through Reliance Retail, with distribution via Sephora India [7].