The Glossy 50 honors the year’s biggest changemakers across fashion and beauty. More from the series →
For brand founders, launching a hero product, and experiencing the tremendous sales growth that comes with it, is a brand-defining moment. For Angela Caglia, it was also an industry-defining moment.
After seven years in business, Angela Caglia Skincare has had its best year to date. The company has experienced 437% sales growth and retail expansion, largely owed to the success of Cell Forté Serum, Caglia’s powerhouse product offering launched in October of 2023.
But beyond experiencing her business’s hockey-stick moment — which will allow it to end 2024 with around $4 million in sales, 90% of which will come from the new serum — Caglia also deeply impacted the beauty industry’s trajectory toward stem cell science in ingredient research and development.
Cell Forté is powered by “human-derived adipose mesenchymal stem cell-conditioned media,” a technology Caglia discovered when researching treatment options for her mother’s ongoing treatment of dementia.
MSC-conditioned media is sourced from human fat, called adipose tissue, which is donated by young and healthy plastic surgery patients and then processed in a lab. The stem cells are removed from the tissue and placed in a human-like environment where they excrete growth factors, cytokines and proteins, which are then used in the serum. The stem cells, which hold the patient’s DNA, are removed before the broth goes into the serum.
Caglia calls stem cells the “superheroes of our bodies,” thanks to their ability to regenerate the skin, combating signs of aging like fine lines, dryness, uneven texture and pigmentation. Growth factors tell the other cells how to regenerate and act younger, though the process is not yet fully understood.
Caglia has spent the past year educating a growing number of wealthy shoppers about the science behind stem cells. It has gone quite well: The serum has earned a subscription rate of 51%, with shoppers often ordering multiples after finishing their first bottle. It has also fueled the brand’s expansion into Nordstrom. One ounce of the serum sells for $395.
The serum, which is sold direct-to-consumer and through stores like Violet Grey, is part of a growing skin-care category fueled by stem cell science. Products with peptides and growth factors also make up the trend.
It’s a vindicating, full-circle moment for Caglia. In the nearly 30 years since she began her career as a celebrity esthetician, she’s held an unpopular, contrarian opinion about trendy ingredients like vitamin C and retinol, which she believes damage the skin’s barrier and create more problems down the road. She’s long looked for something better that rejuvenates and strengthens the skin, and now that she’s found it, she’s laughing all the way to the bank.
