Roger Ein’s thought occurred to him within the bathe, as they usually do.
Ein, a client items entrepreneur and inside designer in Los Angeles, was rinsing off with a lover, who he watched apply an opulent facial moisturiser to the pores and skin on his butt — the second that impressed his bodycare model Buttface, which formally launches on Tuesday morning. The road can be bought instantly on Buttface.com and can promote on Pornhub.
“He mentioned, ‘They don’t make these things for the butt,’” Ein informed The Enterprise of Magnificence. He’s right, type of. One may argue that the swelling international physique care market — estimated to be price slightly below $25 billion in 2026, in accordance with knowledge analytics agency Euromonitor Worldwide — caters greater than sufficient to human pores and skin from the chest down. However Buttface, and plenty of new manufacturers, hope that the usual might be raised by decreasing its purpose.
Buttface’s proposition, expressed in a three-step “Protocol” together with an exfoliant and “BBL” moisturiser, incorporates substances usually present in facial skincare like ceramides and peptides however focused for rear territory. Used as a routine, the merchandise tackle inflammatory pores and skin circumstances like pimples and keratosis pilaris and supply advantages like “lifting.”
If the model identify is audacious,its positioning will not be. Current physique care launches have manifested future on so-called “facial-grade” substances under the neckline, with manufacturers like Nécessaire and Comfortable Providers minting retinols for the physique and hand. Megababe, the purveyor of the trendy anti-chafe stick, has expanded into a spread of butt-specific merchandise; their first, a glycolic acid “Le Tush” masks, got here out in 2020, whereas the most recent, a hemorrhoid cream referred to as Butt Stuff, launched in fall 2024.
Katie Sturino, Megababe’s founder, mentioned she launched into butt care after her prospects wrote to her asking for a butt pimples answer. When Le Tush launched, “Individuals thought it was loopy,” she remembered. Then it began promoting. The Bidet Bar, an intimate cleanser that launched final yr, and Butt Stuff at the moment are prime sellers for the model, with the latter arriving in a significant retailer subsequent month, Sturino added.
Sol de Janeiro, Sephora’s primary model within the class, grew to become a case study-level success for its caffeinated Bum Bum Cream, which inspired customers to have a good time their our bodies whereas pursuing rear lifting and firming. Studying from its instance, Sephora was bullish on the class as lately as final yr.
For all its tailwinds, butt care faces distinctive challenges, like a rising political local weather at odds with the subcategory’s inherent sex-positivity. The physique care growth might too be headed for a pure bust, as financial uncertainty foments.
“Persons are going to be choosier with their private care,” Sturino mentioned. “When folks have a look at physique merchandise, they’re going to wish to see requirements.”
Past Physique Care
Ein insists that, regardless of the model’s origin story, he’s not attempting to sexualise the sweetness market.
However, effectively, doing so is inevitable. Different labels within the so-called “butt care” class are marketed, with various ranges of subtlety, towards individuals who have anal intercourse. Whereas Buttface isn’t utilizing that method precisely, Ein defined how Meta’s conservative requirements towards promoting impressed the model to include “grownup tube websites” like Pornhub and Xtube, that are serviced by the CPM community Visitors Junky, into its advertising technique. These websites have “actually developed of their advertising instruments,” he mentioned; Pornhub, for one, has Tiktok-like “Shorties” that may lend themselves to content material of creators utilizing Buttface, alongside banner adverts.
The model hopes to stability intercourse with sensibility by convincing shoppers of its advantages, which is when it begins to imitate skincare manufacturers; its $42 “BBL firming cream” is made with a candy almond oil-derived peptide that comes with its personal “fast carry” declare.
“Plenty of firming lotions are centered round caffeine, which is extra of a advertising ingredient, for my part,” Ein mentioned. “We actually needed to search out the way forward for pores and skin expertise.”
That is no offence to Sol de Janeiro, whose current advertising efforts included a bikini-filled advert for his or her Bum Bum Cream that beamed into NYC subway vehicles all through the winter. However enhancing efficacy and pushing innovation, even towards unlikely territories, is driving the class ahead.
Sturino mentioned she develops new formulation based mostly on client wants, be it a glycolic acid butt pimples masks or a design-friendly twist on Preparation H. (Her prospects “had been uninterested in a crusty outdated product that your grandpa has in his drawer,” she mentioned.)
Ein is a product developer, who has helped design for hashish model Grassdoor and out of doors label Agile Sportswear. He took no exterior funding, and estimates he sunk about $300,000 into Buttface. Whereas some Asian markets have already begun to provide sheet masks for the realm, the model’s Taiwanese producers of its hydrogel butt masks allegedly marveled on the measurement of the American rear, Ein mentioned.
On social media, the demand for butt care might solely sound like a joke. Redditors have traded ideas for years on the right way to deal with points like hyperpigmentation or irritation like pimples particular to the area. “The pores and skin there’s delicate, however it doesn’t get the identical consideration as arms/faces so it usually winds up breaking out,” wrote one person on r/SkincareAddiction in late April, in a remark with over a thousand upvotes. (They continued: “The Odd glycolic acid additionally appears to assist my assne.”)
Whereas the model is bought on-line for now Ein hopes to have interaction wholesale retailers this yr. “As soon as folks begin to type a brand new skincare behavior,” he mentioned, “the outcomes are going to face for themselves.”
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