Brand blueprint · No. 01
How a single body cream became a $50M brand in three years.
Cyklar launched in 2023 into what everyone called a saturated beauty market, and won anyway. It wasn't a revolutionary product. It was a strategy. Here's the blueprint.
- $50M
- brand value in 3 years
- 200K+
- units sold at launch
- 2M+
- built-in audience
- 1
- hero product to start
The three moves
- 01
Position · find the empty room
Skip the crowded category entirely
Every celebrity brand like Rhode, Rare Beauty and Fenty fights for your face. Body care is far less crowded. Cyklar brought the same premium ingredients to the 90% of skin people ignore, then made it smell incredible, so one scent hooks you into the whole line: oil, wash, and more.
- 02
Operate · bring in the experts
Fix the part you can't do solo
After building alone, the gap was manufacturing. Joining a beauty accelerator (behind top brands) cut production costs and nearly halved the price. A more accessible product meant more customers, and more sales.
- 03
Distribute · use the audience you built
Sell direct before you sell to retail
On YouTube since age 13 with 2M+ subscribers, she sold directly through TikTok Shop instead of begging retailers, moving 200K+ units at launch. By the time Sephora came knocking, the demand was already proven. It kept selling out.
The takeaway
Empty room · the right experts · an owned audience. The cream wasn't the magic. The sequence was.