Unleashing some really important facts about men’s facial skin. Blowing little-known---but hugely important facts---wide open on Story + Rain Talks with Freddie Sheridan, CEO + Founder of The Y Code skincare for men, who is also a global retail expert.
Listen to it here: STORY + RANT WITH THE Y CODE FOUNDER + CEO AND GLOBAL RETAIL EXPERT FREDDIE SHERIDAN
Transcript:
Tamara - I’m here with Freddie Sheridan of The Y Code, an amazing entrepreneur. Freddie, congratulations on your immaculate skincare brand for men. You launched your first hero product called Well Kept in January of 2025, an eye serum.
We're going to talk about that and why you launched with a product for eyes. But first, for what I think is the many people and our listeners who don't know, let's unleash some really important facts about men's facial skin. Let's blow the facts wide open here on Story and Rain Talks.
You've said that when you started the journey into skincare, you were and are aiming to redesign men's skincare from the ground up because you recognize that many men's skincare lines were ultimately women's products disguised in masculine packaging. How so? And let's sort of talk about all these, what I think are very little known facts about men's skin.
Freddie - For sure. I think it's a really important point. I think it's something that not enough brands are really talking about and seemingly focusing on.
So just to step back tiny bit, obviously to give a bit of context around how this journey started for us. So I designed retail stores for many of the world's leading luxury brands, and a big part of what we do has always been in the beauty sector. So when we start our design journey, rather than just jumping into the look and feel, we have a really in-depth strategy process that we go through, which involves a lot of research into the brand itself, the products that they've created, the customer, the market, and really we go through on a journey of creating strong recommendations to make sure that all those things have the best possible chances of connecting.
Tamara - Well, first, can we talk a little bit about what some of those beauty brands are?
Freddie - Of course, yeah. So we work for anyone from the big conglomerates, like Estée Lauder, L'Oreal, Unilever, P&G, all those kind of people, down to what we call highly funded startups. So we worked very closely with the team around Fenty when Rihanna launched Fenty Beauty.
Victoria Beckham, we've done recently. Christian Naboutra, we've worked with brands like Esop. Augustinus Bader, we were very heavily involved with when they started as well.
So a lot of the world's leading brands that people would know and recognize at the core of the beauty sector. So like I said, when we start that journey with them, we have this amazing strategy process that we go through. And it was about five or six years ago, we were going through this for many of those brands.
And we kept coming back in our research to the fact that the men's beauty kind of sector was flagged as one of the biggest potential areas of growth within beauty in general. And what we were seeing was that there was a massive gap between what everyone considered to be this huge potential and the actual adoption rates coming through from men. So as we saw this more and more, we started to explore why that gap existed.
And there were lots of really interesting things that we were stumbling on in terms of a big problem with apathy in the market and the way that brands were communicating with the customer and the fact that perhaps guys didn't find skincare as exciting as they did, you know, sneakers or clothing or accessories, whatever it might be. But as we drilled deeper and deeper into this, the one thing that we kind of kept coming back to was the fact that essentially, you know, most men's grooming brands or men's skincare brands weren't... They were creating what looked like men's brands, but actually below the surface, like the product didn't seem to be tailored for men at all.
It was very kind of surface level. They might, you know, take an existing base designed for women, and then at most kind of, you know, tweak a few actives. But then most of them were just focusing on top level stuff, like packaging and branding and messaging.
So more kind of adapting marketing, but not really adapting the product to focus on men. So, you know, we know from the experience in the sector that men's skin is actually very different to women's. And so, you know, it's 25% thicker.
Men have twice as much oil content in their skin as women do, which is driven by testosterone, and it leads to kind of, you know, really tangible differences, like the fact that men might experience a lot more inflammation in their skin than women do due to that increased oil content. And it has a lower baseline hydration. We're on a completely different schedule when it comes to collagen in terms of, like, when we tend to experience collagen loss.
So, you know, collagen is a challenge in men's and women's skin, but you'll notice, like, perhaps, you know, in teens that a man and a woman, you know, women can tend to look a little bit older in their late teens than men do, for instance. And that's because men experience, women experience a little bit of depletion ahead of men at that point. But then later in life, when it comes to, like, you know, our early forties, men have a significant loss at that point.
Whereas women's next one tends to come later in life, sort of around menopause, basically.
Tamara - It's so interesting to me. I feel like no one really talks about that or knows about that, you know?
Freddie - Yeah, for sure.
Tamara - Yeah, and this is what you really uncovered when you started to understand, you know, what is going on with men's skincare products in the market and why is there this gap?
Freddie -Yeah, 100%.
Tamara - I don't think people know about, I mean, it's a very interesting difference in the two skin type, in the two genders of skin type.
Freddie - Definitely. And even the next one, for instance, like the fact that men's, you know, pH levels tend to be more acidic. You know, anyone who has a kind of simple, you know, diploma in chemistry or biology will understand that some, you know, kind of chemicals will respond better in alkaline environments, and some will respond better in acidic environments.
And if you think about applying, you know, the same ingredients to a man's skin versus a woman's skin, that's a really good example of how, you know, it can respond really differently in those two different types, basically. So if you analyze every single one of the differences and then think about ways in which you might treat men's skin differently to women's skin, you know, there's a lot of room for tailoring products specifically for men's skin that will give much more efficacy and results much more quickly if they're really taken into account. So I think, you know, that was a really exciting thing for us to focus on.
And, you know, even though we understand why other brands might choose that route to market, which is about taking an existing base and adapting it, because essentially commercially, it's the fastest way to get a product from idea to market. You know, we felt really strongly that we wanted to do perhaps the un-commercial thing and actually go through a process of really understanding men's skin and then designing products that are really genuinely catered to it. And we took around five years to go through that process before releasing our first product.
And, you know, I might be wrong, of course, but I believe that we're probably the only brand who's taken the time and really gone through that process in depth, basically.
Tamara - You have a really exciting product. And when you and I met a few weeks ago, one of the things that we talked about were, again, of course, we're going to get into more details about Well Kept. But one of the things that we also talked about, how you're sort of disrupting and changing the game, is you're changing how men look at pigment or makeup on their face.
Can you talk a little bit about that? I mean, it's an eye cream in a range of colors. What is your stance and what is your take on the sort of makeup tint element of your product?
Freddie - Yeah, so I think we've seen, you know, various brands come along with tinted products. And I think that, you know, tinted, firstly, the word tinted is probably a word that comes from, you know, women's skincare slash cosmetics.
Tamara - That's right.
Freddie - It's where you take a color product and combine it with skincare so that you get benefits of both.
Tamara - Right.
Freddie - And, you know, when it comes to specific products for specific, you know, issues, I think there's definitely a place in which we can explore similar solutions. But I think that it's really important that we actually, you know, get into the fact that men's solutions need to be significantly different to the solutions that are coming up, you know, for women. So when we look at men's eyes, for instance, which is where we felt very strongly about starting, one of the biggest issues is the fact that because of that higher oil content in the skin, men can actually struggle with, like, inflammation and dark circles around the eyes even more, you know, extremely than women can, perhaps.
Tamara - No, this is something, again, I don't hear anyone talking about. You know, you constantly hear about women and combating under-eye circles and pigmentation and puffiness, but it's, in fact, it can be a lot worse for men's skin.
Freddie - Definitely. Yeah, yeah, I think, you know, arguably, because of the higher oil content, if my wife and I have a disturbed night's sleep, for whatever reason, young kids or, you know, the next door neighbor's, you know, alarm goes off or whatever it is, arguably, if we have, you know, a lack of sleep and we have the same amount of sleep, I will wake up looking worse and she will. And that's because of the higher oil content.
So when we're addressing, you know, men's issue around the eyes, which we all know is a really, really important area, and, you know, we know there will be an issue with inflammation, and that's something that we address really well with the product that we created. If you put it on one eye and not the other, then you'll see, you know, within one to three minutes, you'll see a significant, you know, reduction in the inflammation around the eyes. But another thing that guys struggle with specifically is dark circles when they're tired and run down and, you know, slightly not themselves.
And in order to address that, you know, there is an element of coverage that needs to come into play. But if we look at a women's product and we create a tinted eye cream, chances are we might be quite generous with the color that we put into there because we're not afraid of covering, because it might sit well with other products that they're using. But when we're, you know, addressing a similar problem for a guy, the goal has to be to make sure that we address the dark circles around the eyes, but in a way in which no one can tell that they're wearing a product.
So rather than go for a traditional color when addressing that solution, you know, that issue, we actually found an ingredient that's actually really interesting. And what it does is it reflects light, so that essentially what you're doing is you're bouncing light away from the eye area in order to achieve that coverage in a way which is less like painting a wall like you find might do with a women's color product, and more like kind of like, you know, privacy glass, for instance. So we're bouncing just enough light off the eye in order to address the dark circles, but we're allowing enough transparency to go through to make sure that it's an incredibly subtle coverage.
And so we actually spent up to a year just focusing on finding that balance alone to make sure it did enough to cover the dark circles, but it was transparent enough to make sure that you just couldn't tell that a guy was wearing the product.
Tamara - And certainly there are men that don't mind makeup or will utilize makeup, but there are many men out there that might be a little skeptical about putting color on their face. It doesn't feel natural to them, but what you've done is so revolutionary. I mean, it's also very sort of logical that in this eye cream, dark circles, you're going to want a little pigment, you're going to want to do something.
Like you said, your ingredient that bounces the light, but men can feel really comfortable knowing that, yeah, this is the one product that women sort of build a face, right? We'll put a little foundation, we'll do the tint, maybe their moisturizer is tinted, a cheek color. It's a whole set of products for the face, but this is one product that men can feel really comfortable about the fact that it does do a little something in terms of color, but it disappears seamlessly.
Freddie - 100 percent. The interesting thing about this reflective ingredient is in its natural form, it's actually slightly silver, like you'd expect from anything that's mirrored. And the only reason that we went through the process of actually coloring it ever so slightly to suit different skin tones was because it left behind a kind of silvery trace in its natural form.
So after seeing that, what we did is we made sure that it tailored to the three different sets of skin tones that we've selected to make sure that you get an even more subtle outcome than you would in its natural form. And I think the exciting thing for me about seeing guys, we come across three different scenarios, one where guys just don't mind and they're out for trying it anyway, which is brilliant.
Tamara - That's right.
Freddie - Another one in which guys are slightly skeptical, and they give it a go and then they see how subtle it is and then they feel comfortable. And another one that we actually come across more often than you would think is actually where guys have been struggling with this issue and they've been using another product that's been designed for women for a period of time, which could be up to like 10 years. And the sense of relief that we get from them because they've been compromising, they've been using it because they felt they had to use it.
And they felt that it was either too thick or maybe it had a slightly sparkling ingredients in it or whatever it was. And the sense of the relief that we see them feel when they apply a product that does what they need it to do but doesn't show up visually in any way, shape or form is really exciting.
So there are a lot of consumers out there that have been making do with what has been available and then they try Well Kept. And it's a game-changer. Let's talk a little bit more about ingredients.
Tamara - It's no secret that people have become more savvy about what they put on their skin. And brands have wizened up to, at one point, not too long ago, to be honest. I was totally surprised to see brands like Kiehl's and Miletia using harmful ingredients in their key offerings.
But cleaner personal care products flood the market today. Y Code works with algae, green coffee, wild ginger. That's interesting to me.
And wild yellow gentian root, which I've personally never heard of. And sea salt, which I also find very interesting to me. Can you take us through the why of these ingredients?
You talked a little bit about ingredients, but what is the why in terms of what you're packing into Well Kept?
Freddie - No, for sure. I think that's a really important question. And we're lucky enough in London to actually be based opposite what's called the Physic Garden.
And this is a resource that's been around for hundreds of years. And it basically was when the ships used to come back down the River Thames into London after being around the world. Whenever they found new and exciting plants that they believed had some form of medical usage, they dropped them at the Physic Garden for them to be studied and used in medicine.
And what that's given us is a really important reminder that actually a lot of modern medicine is founded upon natural ingredients anyway, right? So we've either taken natural ingredient and we adapt it to use, or more likely we take a natural ingredient as inspiration and we turn it into something synthetic that can then be produced in volume to address the issues for a lot of people worldwide.
Tamara - Very interesting to think about, yeah.
Freddie - Yeah, and I think that's being reminded of that. You know, we in general believe that for most skin care concerns, there will be a solution out there that is equally as strong from a natural ingredient as it is from something that's synthetic basically. So we work really hard on selecting our ingredients to always push to try and find, you know, natural alternatives to synthetic products that will achieve amazing results basically.
So all of these things, super powerful, super, you know, when it comes to efficacy, they all work really well. And, you know, it's kind of helping people feel really comfortable that essentially they're putting products on their skin that they'd be just as comfortable, you know, putting in their food basically, which I think is a really important thing. And actually the one, you know, all of those ingredients have interesting benefits and they all match concerns that we often see around the eyes.
But one of the ingredients that we're actually most excited about from our five year study is we actually saw that of all those kind of typical characteristics of, you know, biological differences about men's skin, we actually found a big crossover in terms of the benefits that microalgae provide and the specific concerns that men see in their skin. So it's actually, you're going to see that as we release more products, there's actually going to be a thread through all of the products.
Tamara - Beautiful.
Freddie - Making sure that we leverage that, you know, crossover with microalgae and moving forward, which is really exciting.
Tamara - You talked a little bit about feedback in terms of, you know, you sort of stumbled upon this consumer, well, several consumers, you named three different kinds of consumers, and, you know, the one being the person that sort of been making do with a product on the market that might have been, you know, something that was created with women in mind. But what has the feedback been like? And has anything else surprised you or delighted you in particular?
Freddie - Yeah, I think we obviously try and maintain a dialogue with guys the whole way through the process, basically. And I think what's always nice for us is that, like, often with guys, we assume they're not thinking about these things. But actually, you know, when you go through the process of reaching out to them and opening up conversations about it, you know, it's surprising how many guys are thinking about these issues and testing and trying things.
I think the invariable thing that we come up with is, like, I tried this and it didn't work as well, you know, so I hoped it might, so I kind of gave up with it slightly, basically. Or I tried this and I didn't get, you know, quick enough results, you know, as I was hoping to achieve. So, you know, it's kind of...
I think the problem with a lot of skincare basically, you know, is what we already know about men's kind of psychology. Like, we want quite quick fixes. And the idea of using something twice a day, every day, from three to six months, you know, is before we even see the signs of the first result, it's something that kind of goes against the way that we think.
So, yeah, that's why we're particularly excited to be able to design products specifically around needs and really have that high, you know, set that high standard in terms of making sure that we find ways of kind of delivering solutions that will really be quite quick, you know, in terms of the way that they work.
Tamara - It's the beginning of this brand, and things are going to get exciting for you in the fall. Can you talk a little bit about what's next for Y Code?
Freddie - Yeah, I think, you know, when we started with our launch, we felt really strongly about Eyes because we know, you know, not only from the women's industry, but also from, you know, talking to men and really understanding the struggles that they have. And, you know, Eyes was really important because that's the first thing that kind of comes up when you're feeling tired and run down and you're having a slightly off day. And it's one of the first things that we knew we could address that perhaps other brands weren't really addressing.
But obviously, now that we've done that and that we've released that product, we want to come back to the basics basically. So we know now in the US, you know, over 50% of men are using some form of skincare product, which is really exciting. And what we want to essentially demonstrate is, okay, you know, that ethos of you think you're enjoying that moisturizer, we'll now try something that is specifically designed for men and see the benefits that you get as a result of using something that's uniquely, you know, catered to you.
So coming back to the basics, you know, later in the year, we'll be launching the daily, Mattifying Daily Moisturizer, which is a really incredible product, you know, not only takes into account the unique biological differences of men's skin, but also all those like subtle nuances and preferences, like the fact that we don't like products sitting on the surface for long, so it has to absorb quickly because we have no oil, you know, we're often worried about shininess on our skin.
Tamara - Mattifying, yeah.
Freddie - Mattifying is a super important thing, not only for real life, but also for photography and videography and all that kind of stuff, you know, it adds huge benefits. And then, you know, another one with the Daily Moisturizer, which is really exciting for us, because again, it's something that you can put it on first thing in the morning, and very quickly, you'll see, you know, a kind of, you know, an optimistic glow, not in a way where, like, you know, that's kind of, it's too much, but like, you will instantly look as if, you know, you're having a particularly good day, basically. So with all of our products, we're trying to make sure that they work, and, you know, well in their own right, but we're also kind of demonstrating the ability to create this layering, which means that when you use the products in combination with other products, you actually see kind of greater benefits as the result of using them combined.
Tamara - Well, I am so excited to introduce your brand and your products to our followers and listeners. And before we wrap, and I'm sure you and I will continue to have some discussions here on the podcast as you launch new products, but knowing all you know about men's skin, what would you encourage men to focus on in terms of facial care routine and products to use sort of in tandem with Well Kept at the Moment? What do you think that men should keep in mind if they're listening to this and they're inspired to use Well Kept to keep an eye on what's next for your brand?
But what are they doing in a daily or weekly routine? What do you know now about men's skin that you can share?
Freddie - Yeah, I think the general advice that we have is like, I think with a lot of things that guys get into, they're new and different and might offer them benefits. Sometimes the temptation is to go out and buy all of these products. Let's buy 10 things, get really into it, and then we'll almost overface ourselves in the excitement that something might make a difference.
But I think for me, it's really important actually not to rush in to this too quickly. You want to see benefits, but you also want to understand which products are working and which products aren't working for you. So in the same way, in your wellness routine, you might try adding protein, and then in three months' time, you're like, okay, great, I know that's working for me.
Let's explore other supplements like creatine, for instance. Then you can layer that in and you see more results, and then you keep testing and trying things. So you know not only what works for everyone in general, but what works for you specifically.
And I think it's really important to take the same approach with skincare. So whereas a lot of brands have taken that approach where they've launched, you know, with 10 products, a very full range, we've taken the approach where we actually want to just focus on one or two products at a time. So try the eye serum, see what benefits you get from that.
And then a few months later, you'll see that the moisturizer and the serum are coming out. Test those, layer those in, see what you get, you know, versus using nothing or using another equivalent product that might not have been designed for you. And then, okay, is that working for you?
Is it not working for you? And then test the new product, you know, and try it out. So just don't rush, take it slowly, understand what works for you.
And we've very much kind of mirrored that in our, you know, new product launch strategy, making sure that we're not dumping everything at once. You know, we're making sure we're layering it in. We've gone from eyes to moisturization.
And then we're going into cleansing, and then we'll lean into night products. And I don't want to obviously give too much away, but just definitely enough to paint a picture of the fact that we'll be layering in more and more so that you can see those benefits kind of increasing and improving, you know.
It's a thoughtful, smart approach to the brand and building a brand and building a customer base. And it was precisely one of the things we were talking about is precisely the conversation I was having with April, a Vintner's daughter, and their three-product offering, three-killer products. And the whole conversation around, you know, use it daily, you know, product fatigue, people, you know, people, you know, are, especially with on social media, people are, yeah, sort of bombarded with this, more is more, products, products, products, try this, try that.
Tamara - There's really something to be said, and the experts, like people like you and like, and like April will tell you, you know, incorporate one product at a time, potentially, use them routinely and see better results, right?
Freddie - 100%. And I think that's the thing. It's like, obviously we're a business and we wanna be commercial to some extent, but we feel like we're gonna build, you know, a long lasting relationship with our customers as a result of thinking, you know, about what they want and they need first.
Tamara - And also, you know, transitioning this into the market in a way in which it's easy to digest and learn and kind of, you know, evolve your understanding of. So, you know, that's the way that we're prioritizing, you know, our strategies on many different fronts.
Oh, it's fantastic. Freddie, thank you so much for being on the podcast, and everyone is gonna keep an eye on Y Code, pun intended. I'm sure I will talk to you soon.
Freddie - Thanks, Tamara. I really appreciate you having me. Great to chat again.
Tamara - Yeah, let's talk again soon.
