Lululemon didn’t nail athleisure beauty, but it’s hardly the last company to try. Alo Yoga, the Lululemon competitor reportedly seeking investment at a $10 billion valuation, has launched personal care and bath products, including Mindful Magnesium Bath Soak, Supernatural Deodorant and Magnesium Reset Spray, available at Sephora and Nordstrom. And several additional brands are popping up to give their takes on beauty products targeting active consumers.

These brands are creating skincare and makeup specifically designed to suit athletes’ needs: skincare products resist sweat, revitalize chafed skin and cleanse without stripping, and waterproof makeup formulas withstand vigorous activity. Ahead, we’re spotlighting six selling skincare and makeup for people with athletic lifestyles and some whose lifestyles are aspirationally athletic.

In July, a headline in the The New York Times proclaimed, “Emily Oberg wants Sporty & Rich to be the next Goop.” More specifically, the founder tells the publication she wants the brand to be a “younger person’s version of Goop.” Beauty is Goop’s business engine, and Sporty & Rich has followed it into the category.

Oberg tapped First Production Beauty founder Cierra Sherwin, a product developer and marketer known for her work at brands like Glossier, Victoria Beckham Beauty and Bobbi Brown, and LB Luxury Beauty Private Labels founder and formulator Ludivine Blin to help realize her vision for her apparel and lifestyle brand’s beauty products.

In September, Sporty & Rich’s beauty range launched with five products priced from $28 to $48: Skin Softening Milk Cleanser, Multi-Vitamin Face Mist, Multi-Purpose Balm, Nourishing Body Oil and Replenishing Hand Cream. They can be purchased via the brand’s website and its combo store and spa location in New York City.

Oberg, 29, was motivated by her own experience with sensitive skin to create straightforward skincare. Each product has soothing, hydrating ingredients like argan oil, hyaluronic acid and aloe vera leaf juice to leave skin feeling nourished, calm and healthy.

“My philosophy with our beauty line is that less is more and that no product will compensate for an unhealthy lifestyle,” says Oberg. “We launched a skin and gut reset guide with this line, which is meant to educate people on the importance of what they put into and onto their bodies.” She emphasizes, “Most beauty brands market themselves as being able to fix people’s skin issues without addressing or even considering the underlying causes and concerns.”

A self-funded company, Sporty & Rich reports it’s on track to generate $30 million in 2023 sales. In 2024, it expects to expand within the United States and outside of it in China, Japan and Middle Eastern countries.

In 2014, Sporty & Rich came to life initially as Oberg’s mood board on Instagram, where it currently has 527,000 followers. Lately, it’s been building a community on TikTok, where it has about 5,500 followers. Sporty & Rich has had a string of high-profile collaborations with the likes of Adidas, Lacoste and Solid & Striped.

Started in 2000 by former collegiate athlete Rasheen Smith, Flexpower’s sole hero product for most of its existence was its scent-free pain relief lotion for athletes. Up until 2019, the brand was, as it describes on its website, the best-kept secret “in pain relief and recovery among professional athletes and trainers across the NBA, NFL, NCAA, and U.S. Olympic Teams.”

In 2019, it broadened its reach beyond professional athletes, teams and trainers to become available to the wider public with botanical-based products made in the United States. Flexpower’s bestselling anti-inflammatory Flexpower Warm Lotion warms up naturally when applied to skin thanks to its key ingredient, chili pepper. NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo is a spokesperson for and investor in the brand and $34 Warm Lotion is his go-to pain relief product.

Antetokounmpo has backed Flexpower through his investment firm Ante Inc. According to Flexpower CEO and co-founder Heather Vandenberghe, Antetokounmpo, who has been using Warm Lotion since 2016, told her, “This is going to be the biggest pain product in the world.” Antetokounmpo and his brother Alex star in Flexpower’s campaign, Feeling Good Starts Here.

In addition to Warm Lotion, Flexpower’s assortment contains $34 Soothe Lotion, $38 FlexSun Moisturizing Sunscreen, $62 Cool Bath Salts and $24 Flexbalm Lip Conditioner. The brand offers duos and gift sets like The Feel Good Duo, which includes Warm Lotion and Cool Bath Salts for $102. The products have ingredients such as arnica, rosemary, aloe, calendula, camphor, turmeric, jojoba seed oil and echinacea.

In 2018, Vandenberghe, formerly CMO at shopping center company Westfield, threw out her back and a friend recommended she try Flexpower’s Warm Lotion. It helped clear up her excruciating back pain in a week. Wowed by the product, she felt she had to meet Smith to encourage him to take it mainstream. He tapped her as CEO of Flexpower to realize that goal.

The pandemic, however, intervened. It hit the U.S. just two weeks after Flexpower unveiled a site with Warm Lotion as its only product. “All of our plans to get in front of retailers, gyms and spas disappeared, and we were too small to compete with the direct-to-consumer ad budgets other brands were implementing,” says Vandenberghe. “Instead, we doubled down on creating more exceptional products, working in partnership to develop topical products that solve real problems better than anything else out there.”

Since 2020, Flexpower has been selling in direct-to-consumer distribution and at select premium hospitality locations. The brand recently became available to shop via Amazon Premium and will enter Bloomingdale’s in 2024. Instagram is its primary marketing focus, but it’s been testing the waters of TikTok influencers.

Vandenberghe says, “The growth of this business has been truly organic, with people literally sharing their personal stories with their friends and followers, and we are excited to watch how this continues to unfold now that we have these new superstar partners talking about the brand and products.”

Jemma Salisbury, a serial beauty entrepreneur and feng shui consultant whose active lifestyle led to unwanted skin issues like sun damage and hyperpigmentation, launched Australian brand PB SKN in 2021 with high-performance skincare intended for fitness enthusiasts. “I wanted a range of skincare that was extremely clean and natural that I could also take with me to the gym,” she says. “I could only find natural brands that looked and smelt hippie-ish and were packaged in delicate glass bottles, which aren’t great for throwing into your gym bag.”

Salisbury admits it hasn’t been easy to compete against brands with substantial funding and connections, but she remains passionate about PB SKN’s mission to create clean products loaded with healthy ingredients for folks on the move. “We are extremely strict with what we choose to put in our formulas and what we leave out,” she says.

The brand’s bestselling Refresh Cleanser retails for about $30 and features natural antibacterial and anti-inflammatory ingredients like wheatgrass, green tea, Tasmanian pepper berry and finger lime to combat potential breakouts caused by working out. It’s formulated to be gentle on the skin while simultaneously protecting against aggressors like sweat and UV rays.

Other PB SKN products are Restore Moisturizer, Pump Face-Firmer, Glow Gleam-Giver, Boost Youth-Yielder and sponges Cleansing Cookies. The price range largely spans $6.50 to $42. PB SKN also offers an Essentials Pack for nearly $70. The brand’s formulas are designed to be fast-absorbing and non-greasy for use before and after workouts.

Along with influencer and social media marketing, beauty awards have boosted PB SKN’s brand awareness. Refresh Cleanser has received multiple awards for best cleanser, including the Editor’s Choice in Beauty Shortlist Awards 2023 and the She-Com Awards 2022. It was a finalist in the 2022 Clean Beauty Awards and the Clean + Conscious Awards 2022.

Currently, PB SKN is sold in direct-to-consumer distribution. Salisbury envisions placing the brand in retailers down the line. She says, “A wholesale strategy would help to get more eyes and hands on the brand.”

Kate Solomon, founder of Babo Botanicals, which was acquired by Mustela parent company Laboratoires Expanscience in 2018, and former professional tennis player Dominique van Boekel launched Athletic Cosmetic Company to address the beauty needs of active individuals. The brand’s makeup and skincare products are formulated to be light, long-lasting, non-acnegenic and, of course, sweat proof.

“I couldn’t help but notice a gap in the beauty market,” says Solomon. “Among the many athleisure and athluxury brands, there lacked a clean athbeauty brand that could seamlessly blend comfort and high performance for an active audience.”

Athletic Cosmetic Company’s assortment includes Hyaluronic Powerhouse Gel Serum, a cooling hydrator formulated to tackle oily, dehydrated and acne-prone skin types, waterproof G.O.A.T Mascara and Sheer Passion Lip and Cheek Water Stain. The products are priced from $22 to $34, and everything is vegan and gluten-free.

Solomon reports that Athletic Cosmetics Company has been inundated with partnership requests from collegiate athletes. “Working with these young talents is exceptionally rewarding, and we are excited about the many partnerships, Instagram Stories and TikTok content that will soon grace our platforms,” she says. “We also have several professional athletes believing in our mission and posting content on their own.”

Athletic Cosmetics Company is busy working on partnerships with clean and wellness retailers, athluxury brands and high-end fitness venues to increase its reach. The brand will soon launch a pore-tightening skincare capsule as well as an unfussy makeup line formulated to let skin breathe.

Biochemist Lisa Sanchez spent years researching the skincare needs of outdoor sports enthusiasts before launching Xtreme Element in 2022. She says, “We know an active outdoor lifestyle is harsh on the skin. So, for people who ‘do it outside,’ we designed a line of products to protect the skin and keep it in shape throughout their lives.”

Xtreme Element’s hero product is Swipes, a plant-based cloth infused with a vitamin-rich botanical solution. Packaged in an innovative pop-and-pull delivery system, a 30-pack of Swipes is priced at $55. The cooling cloths are formulated with ingredients like aloe vera juice and cucumber extract to refresh and calm sweaty, inflamed skin. Xtreme Element characterizes itself as a “planet-first” brand that keeps its carbon footprint to a minimum by using recycled materials and planting a tree for every product purchased.

Other products in Xtreme Element’s selection are Cool Blue Muscle Gel, The Perfect 10 Cream and Jojoba Hydration Cream. Cool Blue Muscle Gel contains peppermint, spearmint and eucalyptus to provide an icy effect while revitalizing muscles. The Perfect 10 Cream is formulated with CoQ10 and vitamin E. Its gel-to-cream formula aims to help diminish signs of aging and leave the skin feeling soft and supple.

Xtreme Element’s Jojoba Hydration Cream is meant to hydrate without making skin feel greasy. In addition to fast-absorbing jojoba oil, it contains coconut oil, aloe leaf juice, grapeseed oil and avocado fruit oil to leave skin moisturized and glowing. The brand’s product prices range from $20 to $60.

Sold on its site in the U.S., Xtreme Element plans to extend distribution overseas in 2025. Sports influencers and athletes are expressing interest in becoming involved with the self-funded brand, according to Sanchez, who says, “We are currently strategizing on the best way to create a win-win investment scenario.”

After a pandemic pause, the Brooklyn Marathon returned in 2022, attracting thousands of runners to wind through the borough and causing an hour-long traffic jam. Inspired by it to create a brand that merges wellness and beauty for runners, other athletes and everyone else trying to squeeze fitness into hectic schedules, Kyndall Osibodu, who recounts she has “experienced digestive issues, asthma, flares, all of the things” as a runner, says, “It was just such a beautiful and powerful thing to witness.”

Last year, she spent about $4,000 to develop her brand, The Runner’s Apothecary. “I have always been a maker of sorts and so I decided to start The Runner’s Apothecary out of my own needs, but really also just excitement about running and well-being in recovery generally,” says Osibodu. “The Runner’s Apothecary really is about how we incorporate recovery and well-being into our lives. Beauty and wellness intersect at both strength and healing, in the sense that, to be well is to be strong and to be beautiful is to be strong. And, also, at the same time, beauty and wellness are about rest. It is not always about doing as much or being as productive or doing the most that we possibly can. It’s also in the softness.”

The Runner’s Apothecary’s main products are a soothe balm for muscle relief and a moisturizer for chafing. The products are priced under $30. The muscle relief product, which comes packaged in a neon green tin stamped with “Made with ❤️ in Brooklyn,” is formulated with therapeutic ingredients, including 500 milligrams of hemp-derived CBD, white willow bark, coconut oil, olive oil, beeswax and essential oils.

The Runner’s Apothecary is a self-funded operation, and Osibodu attends local markets and pop-ups to get it on front of customers. Earlier this year, however, she took a bit of a pause to assess the business. “The last year was very much experimental. I did not know what I was doing. I literally started the business because it felt like a great idea. I was excited about it, and I want to do it. I didn’t have any real benchmarks,” she explains. “The break really helped me to realize and helped me actually map out a plan and benchmarks.”

Going forward, Osibodu is guiding The Runner’s Apothecary with intention. “This business is about holistic well-being and to build a sustainable business means the business operations and the ways that I work on the business have to be sustainable as well,” she says. “The Runner’s Apothecary invites people to hold the duality of you can be strong and also be vulnerable. You can be a competitor and also focus on your healing. Movement is medicine, but recovery is medicine, too.”