Meet Daybird: the anti-beauty brand simplifying your morning routine

When Daybird founders Veena Krishnan and Whitney Mcelwain introduce their brand, they make it clear that they are not your typical beauty brand. In fact, though they create functional makeup and skincare hybrids, they describe Daybird as an “anti-beauty brand.” Whitney explains, “When we say anti-beauty, we’re not saying you should be against it. We’re saying, ‘Define it on your terms.’ What relationship do you want to have with beauty, skincare, and makeup? You should be able to own that relationship and not have societal pressures define it for you.”

Whitney and Veena first discovered their shared frustration with the beauty industry when they met in business school. Veena says, “We had both worked in historically male-dominated fields, and we’d felt this unspoken rule that we had to spend extra time, money, and energy, putting all of these products on our faces in the morning to look professional and feel confident.” Whitney continues, “Even products that were simple were still attached to brands that were asking you to use them with nine other products and telling you, ‘This is what you need to use to look professional or feel confident.’ But confidence doesn’t come in a bottle.”

Whitney and Veena soon discovered that their frustration with the beauty industry was nearly universal. Veena says, “The people we talked to had products collecting dust on their shelves. They felt the same fatigue from the beauty industry messaging to keep chasing more products to attain this seemingly unattainable standard of perfection…Daybird came from tapping into what these customers were looking for. They were looking for fewer products that fit into their daily lives, not the other way around.”

Daybird’s hero product

Daybird’s first product – a four-in-one serum skin tint — was born out of the very conversations that got their wheels turning in the first place. Veena explains, “As we spoke to all these folks about their morning routines a lot of them said, ‘I’m reaching for one all-over facial product.’ So we knew we wanted to create a one-step morning routine. Four-in-one serum skin tint has it all in one bottle: two skincare serums, moisturizer, mineral SPF 50, and a very sheer, stretchy tint.”

Beyond these primary ingredients, Veena explains, “We also made sure the product was sensitive skin friends, clean, vegan, dermatologist tested and approved, non-comedogenic, mineral SPF 50, fragrance-free, and all of the other things that are table stakes for a high-quality product today.”

While combining makeup and skincare seems to be trending, Daybird is clear that their skincare benefits are not mere marketing claims. Veena says, “On our packaging, it says niacinamide at 2%. We intentionally list that percentage of those key skincare ingredients so that customers know that it’s at an efficacious level…You see many products that claim to have skincare ingredients, but they’re at a marketing claim level, so [customers] don’t always know if it’s at a percentage that will deliver the benefits.”

Whitney continues, “Clean can also be a marketing claim. Anyone can say their product is clean because there’s no regulation yet. One of the ways I tell people to measure [products] is to look at what a retailer defines as clean. That’s the only standard we have in the market besides a brand defining it themselves. Sephora clean is different from Credo clean, which is different from Target clean. You can utilize those standards to get a sense of where a product is at from a clean perspective. We call out that we are clean by Sephora standards.”

Approach to retail and exhibiting at Newtopia

Daybird launched DTC, and then, only one year into business, launched online at Urban Outfitters. Veena explains, “Our strategy has always been — we want to be where our customers are shopping. Our customers are not necessarily the traditional beauty enthusiasts. They’re not spending their Saturday afternoon browsing the Sephora aisles. They prefer the convenience of being able to pick up products where they’re already shopping for other lifestyle essentials. So we’re always trying to keep that North Star in our head of, ‘How can we be where our customers already are so we can make it as seamless as possible for them?”

“We think of it as a walk, jog, run approach to retailers. We’re in our walk phase right now with Urban Outfitters and capturing those initial learnings. We don’t want to go from zero to 100 overnight and squander a relationship. We’ve had to be patient, even though that’s very hard. It would be great to launch in 2000 Target doors tomorrow, but that requires so much extra work.”

As they prepare to exhibit at Newtopia Now, Veena and Whitney are looking forward to buyer conversations that may bring Daybird to more shelves. Veena says, “We feel like Daybird will be a great fit for our friends in the natural products industry. Our customers are already running into their natural grocers, whether it be Sprouts, Fresh Thyme, Whole Foods, etc. to grab their daily healthy living essentials. Why not grab Daybird as well? The big benefit of the trade show is connecting IRL, putting a face behind the name, shaking hands in person, and showing them the product — especially with a skincare product like ours, we see people resonate with the tangible feeling as soon as they try the product. We’re trying to take a multifaceted approach to make IRL connections [at Newtopia] and then use that as a starting point to jump off from.”

Whitney continues, “We’re excited about Newtopia because it fits into our strategy and we’re able to dedicate resources to do it well, though we’re being scrappy. We have to pull something together that represents our brand in a five-by-10 space, which isn’t a lot. We heard the advice that you want the booth to bring your brand to life and show a buyer, ‘This is the vibe we would be channeling on your shelf.’ So we’re trying to pay attention to the little details.”

Advice to fellow founders

For Veena, her number one piece of advice is to build out a community of fellow founders as soon as possible. She says, “I’m so grateful to have a co-founder, but you also need more people…Creating a circle of friends you can text quick questions, especially when things don’t go right, which is often, is so helpful. When you’re at a decision point or you have to pivot — a quick text on a Tuesday evening can give you a lot of mental peace and help you think of creative solutions. Being a founder can be isolating and hard for others to relate to, so surrounding myself with three to five people I can be authentic and vulnerable with is essential.”

For Whitney, she recommends founders prioritize their needs and celebrate the small wins from day one*.* She says, “The goal stick is constantly moving, so celebrating small wins is so important because you’re always going after the next thing. Also, you’re never going to get to that space as a founder where you say, ‘Now I have more resources. I’m going to have more time to prioritize myself.’ With more resources, you’re just going to have more work. Realize that you do need to prioritize yourself from day one and celebrate the small wins whenever you have them.”

To learn more about Daybird, check out their website.