How often does a marketing campaign go viral before anyone knows the brand … let alone what product it sells? Enter Alix Earle.
By Zoya Hasan, Forbes Staff and Alexandra York, Forbes Staff.
Last week, the Forbes Top Creator and Under 30 alum sent her 14 million followers on a digital scavenger hunt to figure out her next venture. The only clue: It was a company. No one knew what for. Still, fans flooded the comments with guesses, while fellow influencers received literal puzzle pieces that, when assembled, revealed a New York City billboard teasing the brand’s debut.
On Tuesday, Earle revealed Reale Actives, a skincare brand created in partnership with dermatologist Dr. Kiran Mian, officially marking her shift from brand partner to brand builder. It was no shock that many followers had already guessed correctly—some weeks earlier, even. Taking a page from Taylor Swift’s Easter egg playbook, Earle has been seeding clues for months, subtly creating content with her skincare products. But the brand has been years in the making.
“What had always excited me was starting a company of my own,” Earle told Forbes. “There was a lot of outreach from other places asking me to either be the face of their brand or work with them in x, y, z capacity—and I entertained a few decisions—but ultimately nothing ended up feeling true to me.”
That’s a strong sentiment coming from the creator who, per Forbes estimates, was earning over $8 million annually with Super Bowl commercials and repping brands like Allison Elsworth’s better-for-you soda Poppi, and even becoming the face of SipMargs, a canned margarita line that she marketed so effectively, many assumed she was a founder.
Reale Actives will launch on March 31 with a focused lineup: a cleansing balm, face wash, mandelic acid serum and moisturizer. The line is intentionally streamlined, prioritizing skin barrier-friendly active ingredients in favor of overly aggressive routines, which is a philosophy shaped by Earle’s own compromised, post-Accutane skin. At launch, the brand will sell directly via its website, with real-world (or should we say, Reale-world?) activations expected to follow. No plans to get on shelves at Ulta or Sephora just yet.
Unlike traditional founders, Earle is entering the market with a built-in feedback loop: millions of followers who have watched her skincare journey in real time. People came to her page for “party girl” content in 2022, but stayed for unfiltered posts where Earle documented her cystic acne. “I took a leap of faith and posted this TikTok video where I showed my skin for a few seconds, and it kind of blew up,” she recalls.
Just months later, she graduated with a marketing degree from the University of Miami while finishing her third round of Accutane. As she experimented with routines to maintain her skin post-treatment, the idea for a brand began to take shape. By fall of 2023, she was meeting with dermatologists and CEOs, eventually partnering with Imaginary Ventures—a VC firm that has backed Kim Kardashian’s Skims, Kylie Jenner’s Khy and Tom Holland’s Bero.
Andrea Blieden, formerly of Kiehl’s and The Body Shop, now leads Reale as CEO. The two have spent months refining everything from messaging to packaging. “Every time we do an iteration of packaging, we develop a color rod and Alix will walk around New York City for like three days with a rod and hold it up in different lights. It is the best thing ever,” Blieden jokes.
“I think a lot of the times people see a celebrity-led brand and just think that they’re kind of slapping their face on it and not involved with anything,” Earle acknowledges.
That skepticism may be warranted. The past few years have seen a flood of creator-led beauty brands, many of which struggle to translate virality into sustainable sales.
Even with the strong founder-product fit, breaking through in a market as saturated as skincare won’t be easy. (And some consumers expressed their disappointment to see “another influencer skincare brand.”)
But Earle is up for the challenge and recognizes there will be a lot of lessons to learn. She’s betting on what she’s really good at—brand messaging—to help Reale stand out.
“I want to go forward with no Photoshopping, just showing real texture, pores and acne-prone skin,” Earle says. “I want this to be a representation of going out and living your life to the fullest and not letting your skin get in the way.”
Plus, you can expect her content will begin to take new shape, too. She says she’s been documenting the brand-building process, so her TikTok content and YouTube vlogs will cover a lot more of the behind-the-scenes of building a company.
With Earle’s marketing expertise—which is now quite literally being developed into a Harvard Business School case study—and her insider understanding of the influencer economy, the opportunity is clear. But so is the challenge.
This article was originally published on forbes.com as part of its Under 30 newsletter. Read the full version here.
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