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Tower 28's Amy Liu on Caring for Sensitive Skin (Rewind Episode)

Gloss Angeles

Sat Jan 11 2025

Summary

Gloss Angeles Podcast Episode Summary
Episode: Tower 28's Amy Liu on Caring for Sensitive Skin (Rewind Episode)
Release Date: January 11, 2025
Hosts: Kirbie Johnson and Sara Tan

Introduction: Addressing Current Events and Introducing Amy Liu

In this special rewind episode of Gloss Angeles, co-hosts Kirbie Johnson and Sara Tan pivot from their usual content to offer support amid the ongoing fires in Los Angeles. They express their commitment to helping those affected and announce the postponement of their upcoming guest episode to next Friday. Instead, they revisit a beloved 2021 episode featuring Amy Liu, the founder of Tower 28, a brand renowned for its sensitive skin-friendly products.

Kirbie Johnson [00:32]:
"Amy actually was one of the people displaced from the Pacific Palisades. And as much as we know right now, her house is still standing, which is nothing short of a miracle."

Guest Introduction: Amy Liu’s Journey and Admiration

Amy Liu joins the hosts, who enthusiastically commend her and her brand. They discuss their long-standing admiration and personal use of Tower 28 products, highlighting the brand's authenticity and effectiveness.

Sarah Tan [04:23]:
"Lastly, before we hop into the question, I have Tower everywher... We've talked about Tower 28 on the podcast before."

Amy Liu’s Professional Background and Founding Tower 28

Amy delves into her extensive experience in the beauty industry, having worked with giants like L'Oreal, Smashbox, Kate Somerville, and Josie Marin. Her passion for creating a brand that caters to sensitive skin led her to establish Tower 28. She emphasizes the importance of empowering individuals through beauty products that enhance confidence without causing irritation.

Amy Liu [10:22]:
"I really have always loved the way that women relate to beauty products and the confidence that they feel when they like the way that they look."

Challenges of Transitioning from Corporate to Entrepreneurship

Transitioning from corporate roles to founding her own brand, Amy faced unexpected challenges, including gaps in her operational knowledge and the realization of the beauty industry's self-regulation. She highlights the importance of community and humility in overcoming these hurdles.

Amy Liu [13:30]:
"I didn't realize how much I didn't know... It was really different to do a job than it is to be next to it."

Defining Clean Beauty and Commitment to Sensitive Skin

Amy defines clean beauty through adherence to reputable standards like Credo Beauty and the National Eczema Association's No-No list. Tower 28 distinguishes itself by prioritizing non-irritating, high-performance products that are both clean and effective for sensitive skin.

Amy Liu [22:42]:
"We are the only beauty brand that 100% adheres to the National Eczema Association's No-No list."

Spotlight on Hero Products: SOS Spray and Sunny Days Sunscreen

SOS Spray:
Amy shares the creation story of Tower 28's SOS spray, an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory product developed to aid eczema sufferers. Initially inspired by a friend's use of hypochlorous acid for surfing injuries, Amy collaborated with chemists to refine the formula, resulting in a versatile product praised for its healing properties.

Amy Liu [28:17]:
"It's antibacterial and it keeps things so clean in surgery... It's amazing because it works for a multitude of uses."

Sunny Days Sunscreen:
Introducing Sunny Days, a broad-spectrum SPF 30 tinted sunscreen, Amy discusses the meticulous development process over three years. Collaborating with diverse makeup artist Kiran Body, they ensured the formula offered excellent coverage without a white cast, catering to a wide range of skin tones.

Amy Liu [34:35]:
"We are launching it on October 12th in all stores, US with Sephora, Credo, Revolve, and at Kohl's, too."

Personal Insights: Managing Eczema and Wellness

Amy candidly discusses her lifelong battle with eczema, sharing her journey through various treatments and the emotional impact of the condition. She underscores the mission of Tower 28 to provide products that do not exacerbate skin issues, aiming to make beauty inclusive and accessible.

Amy Liu [43:11]:
"SOS really did help me. It helps my skin be a little more consistent and reliable."

Future Aspirations and Brand Vision

Concluding the episode, Amy expresses her aspirations for Tower 28 to be recognized by influential figures like Oprah Winfrey and emphasizes the brand's reliance on word-of-mouth and genuine product quality over institutional funding.

Amy Liu [46:25]:
"I'm really committed to the fact that our products just have to be good. We can't make mediocre products."

Conclusion: Launch Details and Final Thoughts

The episode wraps up with details about the Sunny Days launch date and availability, encouraging listeners to try Tower 28's innovative products designed for sensitive skin.

Amy Liu [49:46]:
"Tower28beauty is our handle for Instagram and for TikTok too."

This episode offers a deep dive into Amy Liu’s dedication to creating inclusive, effective beauty solutions for sensitive skin, highlighting Tower 28's commitment to quality, community, and continuous innovation in the beauty industry.

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Transcript

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Kirby (0:32)

Hi Glams, it's Kirby. You may know that Los Angeles is undergoing unprecedented fires and it's been ongoing since Tuesday. Sarah and I have been busy sharing resources and trying to make sure that people who have been displaced or have lost everything in these fires is going to get the help that they need. We felt that it was a little it just didn't feel right going on business as usual. You may have seen that we've been dark on social media and while we are thinking about the future because we are going to need a lot of help for months and years to come, we're thinking about ways beauty brands can get involved to help people and how we can use our collective network and resources to really help out so many people who have lost absolutely everything. We did want to make sure that we had an episode for you, but we also at the same time wanted to make sure that the guests that we had planned for the first guest episode of the year gets the shine that they deserve. It's a very exciting episode. It's a huge guest that we were so excited to get and we want to make sure that we are able to promote it the way that it deserves to be promoted. So we're going to actually push that episode to next Friday. In the meantime, we're going to re air an episode from 2021 when we first had Tower 28's Amy Liu the podcast. Amy created Tower 28 because she had sensitive skin and couldn't find anything to help. And I know that this episode turned on so many original listeners to Tower 28, and if you were a new listener, maybe this episode will turn you on to it. If you're not already obsessed with the brand. Amy actually was one of the people displaced from the Pacific Palisades. And as much as we know right now, her house is still standing, which is nothing short of a miracle. And even despite being affected by these fires, she is working hard bringing people together to create care packages and give a gifting suite of sorts. I don't even like calling it that because it's not.

Sarah (2:39)

It's.

Kirby (2:40)

Amy Liu (10:22)

So I've always loved beauty. I was my first job at a college because I was trying to be a really responsible, I think Asian girl was. I worked in consulting, and that was kind of the job that it looked put on a resume, and I didn't love it necessarily. And I actually went back to business school, so I went to USC to get my mba, and my intention was to change careers. And while I was there, I thought I really wanted to do something that I could resonate with. I'm actually not a huge makeup junkie in the sense where I don't wear a ton of makeup. It's not like if you bring me into a Sephora, I can't hold myself back and I have to spend $500. Like, I'm not that kind of a person necessarily. Necessarily. But I really have always loved the way that women relate to beauty products and the confidence that they feel when they like the way that they look. There's something about it that I think is really empowering. And it's funny, having worked in the beauty industry for so long, so many people have said, you know, when things are stressful, they say, listen, guys, like, let's all calm down. We're not carrying cancer. And I do agree with that. But at the same time, I actually do think that the work that all of us do is really important because, like it or not, women are very affected, or people, I should say, not even women are really affected by, like, how good they feel. And their confidence is really attached to expression of the way they present themselves in the world. And so I think that was what really excited me about it. And in all the jobs that you've mentioned, I've really always made a point to not just work on the corporate side, but to go to events, to be in stores, to touch people, to give them, to do makeovers. Even though I'm not exactly a pro makeup artist, because I do think it really helps you understand how people relate to the products. And so my first job was at Maybelline, and then I went to. To Smashbox. Kate Somerville, Josie Marin. Like you said, in my job, if you look at the companies I went to, my roles got bigger, but the companies got smaller. And I think that was one thing that was really intentional, because what I wanted was to have a seat at the table. I really always wanted to. To do this, to have my own brand. When I was in business school, I majored in entrepreneurship and marketing, and I told myself that I was working for other people so I could learn on someone else's dime and all those things. But all of a sudden, you blink, and it's been a really long time. I had a friend who literally was like, you need to shit or get off the pot. Like, either you're going to do it and you'll take another job and then you'll never do it, or you should do it right now. So that was kind of what shifted things for me and made me decide to start Tower 28, because I felt like I had to, because this was. It was like now or never almost.

Amy Liu (13:30)

I would say two things. One, I didn't realize how much I didn't know, if I'm being honest. I thought because I had worked in the industry for a long time and I had the benefit of working at actually pretty small companies where there was a lot of visibility, and so even if I wasn't the one running operations, I thought I understood a lot of what that department did. And the truth is, it's really different to do a job than it is to be next to it. And there was so much there I didn't know. And I'm really grateful. I think one of the things that has worked really well for me is I'm really lucky that I have community and I have friends who've worked in the industry. So, you know, this is such a small example, but when I first started Tower 28 and I was working with my vendor, and they said, okay, can you send me over a bomb, a bill of materials? And I knew what a bomb was, but I literally didn't know what it looked like. I was like, does it look like an equation? Does it look like, you know, component plus fill plus pan? I didn't know what it was. And so I could text a friend and ask them, and they could screenshot something and Send it to me so I didn't look as silly as I might have, you know. So I do think a lot of it was just not knowing what you don't know. But also being, I think having the humility of not knowing it and being willing to ask people has really been an important thing. I think the other thing I didn't know is how unregulated the beauty industry is. I have worked at companies that were big enough that they were doing things the quote unquote right way. Right. So they were doing all the testing that was required and all of those types of things. And I think starting this on my own was the first time I really realized that it's a self regulated industry. Right. You're just doing it on your own. It's on your honor to some extent. Right. And you're maybe just worried that somebody else will come along and like the FDA will come or something, but there's really nobody policing it.

Amy Liu (18:44)

The more natural something was, the. The more clean it was in a lot of ways. Right. And I actually tried to make the switch to clean, clean beauty. But I really. A lot of that product was actually pretty sensitizing for my skin because it had things like essential oils in it, plant botanicals that were more active, that type of a thing. And so it was one of the things that was really hard for me. Like, I wanted to be conscious of it. But I think also as somebody who has sensitive skin, you're even more thinking about like what you're putting on your skin. Because I didn't have like a perfect skin barrier. So I actually, I agree with you and what you're saying about like fear mongering and everything, where your skin barrier should be working for you, right? It should be keeping out things. That's the role of your skin. But if you have a broken skin barrier, like I often have in life, I am that much more conscious of one share what's going in, but also to just making it worse. Right? Because I don't want it getting aggravated when I think of it. It's a combination of wanting clean but also wanting products that are safe for my sensitive skin. And by safe, I really mean non irritating. Right? So that is really the difference to me. And then when I looked at products that were safe for sensitive skin, one, they definitely were not necessarily clean, but two, they also, a lot of them made me feel like a patient. A lot of it really looked very clinical in its approach, which there's nothing wrong with that, but if that's what you feel like is your only option. And for some people, sensitive skin is like a moment in time. They're like, I just, I'm going to take a oatmeal bath and then I'm going to get better and I'll go back to my regular routine. But for me, it's like a lifestyle, right? So it felt like I wanted something that was fun and cute and cool. It's like the kind of the way I think about eating. Right. Like, I also try to eat decently healthy, but then at the same time, I don't want it fed to me in a way that's like, I only get to eat kale, you know, that's not fun either.

Amy Liu (20:37)

So, yeah, so that was basically one part of it. The other part of it was. So Tower 28 actually gets its name from a real lifeguard tower in Santa Monica at the intersection of Santa Monica and Venice. And part of that is I was born in Minnesota, My parents immigrated to the US from Taiwan. And I was born in like, I was raised in the 90s. I was growing up as a teenager in the 90s, and all of the aspirational imagery and the vibe was very much like Stussy and Hurley and all of these things that were super cool. But I didn't see myself in it to this day. Like, my husband is a surfer, I live on the west side, and I still don't see images of beach culture that look like the beach that I see when I go to the beach. And so one of the things I really wanted to do was create a brand that was representative of the LA that I know and love, which is really this big melting pot. And the beach specifically, to me, is this place where everybody gets to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. And you see literally every kind of person, specifically at Tower 28, because you see the people from Venice who are, you know, like, you can smell the weed in the air and it's like, really kind of more urban. And then in Santa Monica, you've got, like, your double jogger stroller or whatever. So I just love that it is every. Every type of person. So the white space in my mind, to answer your question, Kirby, really is the intersection of products that are not only clean, because I think that's just like, it's table stakes at this point. It's like, why wouldn't you just be clean enough? Vegan, cruelty free, all of those things that we want. But then in addition to that, can we make products for somebody like me where you can feel a little bit safer using it? Just in the sense that it's not going to irritate your skin. Somebody's already thought through making it non comedogenic. Someone's going to make sure that it doesn't irritate your skin and that you don't include these ingredients and still have it be high performance.

Amy Liu (24:47)

I mean, I think, and maybe you guys will relate to this, but when you work in the beauty industry, there is almost an expectation, or maybe it's one that you put on yourself, that you know how to wear makeup, that you have perfect skin and your friends think that you know the best of everything. For me, as somebody who was working in marketing, I was always going to Sephora and Nordstrom and bundles or whatever it was, and pitching them like, this is going to be our newest product. It's the best complexion boosting, etc. Etc. I had eczema on my hands and I had it on my face and I had it like around my eyes and it was really embarrassing. And it's chronic for me. So eczema is if you go to see a doctor. I think one of the things that's the most frustrating about it is that there's no cure. It's chronic. They don't know why you have it. And the only thing they can do is you can try lots of things. So as somebody who is Chinese American, tried a lot of different herbal remedies, so I went down that path. I also did acupuncture. I also tried all kinds of like allergy panels and shots and things like that. But the one thing that really helped the most was oral and topical steroids. And that is a really bad long term solution because every time you take one of these pills, you see the little stickers on the side of it that say, you know, warning, bone density loss, warning, all these things. And so you sort of feel like you're making this sacrifice in the moment for, okay, well, I have a wedding to go to this weekend. So I want my skin to look nice, so that's my short term gain, but in the long term, am I really doing something to my body? And so that was why it was so important to me that I made products that helped people feel a little bit more like they were just choosing something that wasn't going to make things worse. Really. Because I think the one thing that you don't want with makeup is, yes, you want it to make you look better, for sure, but the baseline is it can't make you worse. Right? Like, that's. That's like the number one thing. I mean. And I also went through periods of time where I literally didn't wear, like, anything but pants and long skirts because I used to get eczema on the back of my knees, and it would essentially, like, fade into something that looked like a bruise. When it wasn't, like, active and persistent. People would come up to me, strangers would come up to me and ask me, like, if I'd gotten, like, beaten or something. Like, it just was a weird thing for me. For me, it's skin, but for some people, it's different issues. But, like, whether it's stress or whatever, I think it comes out in different ways. So maybe for one person, it's your back. For. For me, it happened to be my. My skin. But yeah, I do think sensitive skin is something I really struggled with. And I think one of the things that I'm the most proud of now with Tower 20 is when I see people write to us or write testimonials about how our products have helped them or that they just feel comfortable using them. You know, they send before and afters. Like, if you look at our product pages specifically for sos, spray all of those before and afters, we didn't have the money to go get clinicals done and all these big fancy things that you can. You can do. So we really did source these from the community. These were people who really did write into us and tag us in social, and we wrote to them and said, oh, my God, can we use your before and after that you showed the world. So that is something that I'm really proud of because it's something I really struggled with myself.

Amy Liu (28:41)

So it is an antibacterial and anti inflammatory spray. And the. The true story of how it happened was a friend of mine, her husband's a surfer, and he was sent some product as like an influencer basically, and he was using. And it had a hypochlorous acid in it, which is the active ingredient in sos and he was spraying it on his feet because he was getting reef cuts and things like that. And she was looking at the bottle and reading about hypochlorous acid. And she said to me, I think maybe you should try this. I think it might help your eczema. And so I started spraying it on my face and I started spraying it on my body because again, I get eczema in both places. And it didn't do anything actually for my face, but it was helping my body, which was interesting enough for me. And so I started reaching out to chemists and asking them if they knew about hypochlorous acid. And I found one who'd been working on hypochlorous acid for eight years. And I started talking to him about it and I was like, listen, I've been trying this other product, but it doesn't work on my face. It works. Works in my body. And he said, okay, well, why don't we play with it? Let's work on the PH level, let's work on the concentration, let's work on the formulation in general. And we found one that started working on me. And so we literally got 100 bottles made. And when I think about it now, I think like, I can't believe people were willing to try it. It was just like a white no name bottle. And the girls on my team, we just sent it to people that we knew. We had the most amazing response. Like one of the girls on my team, actually, she was interning at the time and she got a boob job and she had an incision and so she started spraying it on the incision. And you know, the stitches are supposed to just dissolve into your body, but sometimes your body kicks things out that are Foreign to it. Right. Like it makes your skin angry and then that can create infection and etc. And she was spraying SOS on it and the doctor literally called her and was like, what are you doing? I've never seen anybody heal so fast. And we just had these weird things where like a plastic surgeon reached out to me and she was like when we launched and she's like, hypochlorous acid. I've been irrigating with it during surgery. I think it's such an amazing product because it is antibacterial and it keeps things so clean in surgery. I would love you to sell it to me so I can give it to people post surgery to help them heal. And she also has a med spa, so post laser for any type of treatment like that. And so now she keeps in her back bar. And then she also sells it and she gives it away to her surgery patients as well. It's just this weird product that because it is antibacterial. The main thing is when you have any skin that has problem, like eczema, acne, anything, the thing that makes your skin worse is bacteria. Right. So we just want to keep it clean so your skin has the ability to heal itself. Our skin is actually pretty amazing. Your skin, if you get a cut, it wants to heal itself itself naturally. But if you get it dirty, that creates infection, et cetera, et cetera. So because it's going to be keeping it clean because it's antibacterial, it gives it the chance to soothe, to calm, and to help heal itself. So it's this weird, amazing product because it works for a multitude of uses, anything from people with like, tattoos and, you know, fresh earring piercings and things like that. So for me, it's eczema. For a lot of people, it's acne. Maskne has been this huge thing that we actually didn't even think about or know until we started seeing people write in the reviews about it. And then the sales of SOS, honestly in the last year have probably, I don't know, somewhere at least three, if not four times year over year.

Amy Liu (35:15)

Thank you. Kirby. Yeah. So this is. I honestly, this is a long time coming. So we've been working on this product for. I'm not kidding, three years. We launched two and a half years ago. So it took me basically a year to develop the initial products. And so this was one of the products that we were searching for. I have tried and worked with so many different labs trying to find the perfect sunscreen. And we all know the issues with mineral sunscreen specifically. So mineral sunscreens tend to either be white cast, which is why when you're saying tinted is really difficult sometimes, because especially when you get into the deeper shades, nobody wants to have that, like, gray white cast situation, right? Because frankly, mineral sunscreen is white, right? Like titanium dioxide, zinc oxide. They are white in nature. And so it is really hard to formulate it that way because so often they can be white cast in an effort to not be so white cast and make it really easy to. Some of them can also become dewy and greasy, right? Because that's the other thing that happens with mineral sunscreens. Because, again, it's a rock, right? It's a mineral. So it is going to be sometimes really, like, chalky or hard to spread. So the things I was looking for specifically were, one, I really wanted mineral sunscreen because, yes, it's a clean thing. But the other part of it is you said this also on your glossary episode, but the chemical sunscreens can be more irritating for people with sensitive skin. And so I actually reached out to the National Eczema association really early to ask them, like, why don't you guys have any spf? They don't have any tinted colored spf. And they were saying, the thing is that mineral sunscreen, it's safer for sensitive skin. So they have never done this before because they knew it was so important, so many people had asked them for it. Because again, when you have problem skin, not only do you want to protect your skin, because if you have any issues like acne or eczema, where skin barrier is broken, yes, your skin is more sensitive, but also you're prone to more hyperpigmentation issues and scarring issues, right? So you actually do really want sunscreen, but the other thing is you want to cover it, right? You're more likely to have redness, you're more likely to have skin imperfections, and you really actually just want your skin to look better, not just Be protected. So when we started working with the National Eczema association, they basically gave us all of their guidelines, which are a huge nona list. Next, you have to do the testing third party. So on people who say they have sensitive skin, you have to do the irritation patch testing, and then you have to have a dermatologist review it. But then they also asked us to do photo allergy phototoxicity testing, which means that when you are wearing the product and it interacts with the sun, it doesn't create allergy on your skin, where people get kind of like the. The tingling and the itching type thing, which is something I didn't know about, because, frankly, I don't have that problem personally. So we did all of those things and actually are the first color product to ever get the National Eczema Association Seal of Approval guidelines, which I think is really exciting.

Amy Liu (38:24)

Well, so not only was it not easy, but you have to remember we did this over in Pandemic in Zoom. So we worked with celebrity makeup artist Kiran Body, who does amazing people like Frida Pinto and Awkwafina, and Tessa Thompson, she just worked on Machine Gun Kelly. So she's an amazing artist, but she's also a person of color. And I think because she's had that background of working with really diverse skin tones, but also being a person of color herself, it was really important to her that we get those medium to dark shades really right. We started with the deepest shade and then worked down to the lightest shade in our development, as opposed to the other way around. And I think that really shows and it makes a difference. Another thing she's really passionate about is the undertones. And so especially in, like, you can be a medium tone, but if you are, you can have a yellow medium tone, you can have a more neutral one. And so I think that really made a difference that she was so vested in that part of it. And the thing about this product that I think is so cool is that oftentimes you get like a sunscreen product or you get a makeup like foundation product, but they're not necessarily good at both of those things. I think this product is really good at both. Meaning it is a. Clearly, it's a sunscreen. We've done all the testing, We've done FDA ISO testing, but as far as being a makeup, it's not just tinted. Because it's tinted, it really does give you some coverage, and it has a natural finish. So it's not dewy, it's not greasy, and it really does work. You can get, like, a medium coverage from it, even if you wanted to layer it up like that. So the other thing about the shades that is notable is that they're really flexible, too. So despite the fact that they do have some coverage, the shades are pretty flexible. So I can actually wear, like, two to even three, depending on if I wanted to be a little bit more tan or if I wanted to, like, wear it more in the center of my face. Right. So a little bit more brightening. But, yeah, the shades are really good.