Yahoo News Function of Beauty Makes Personalized Beauty Products, But Is It Worth It?
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Some products show up everywhere — subway ads, Instagram, celeb endorsements. With this series, we're testing such products to conclude one thing: Does it live up to the hype?
Function of Beauty, a beauty brand that began with offering custom-mixed haircare formulations and now offers customized lotion, body wash, cleansers, serums, and moisturizers.
Founded in 2015, Function of Beauty has made its mark on the bespoke beauty space by offering a whopping 54 trillion possible formulations of their hair-care products, based on how users fill out a free hair-type quiz offered on the site.
In 2020, the brand launched both body care and skincare categories, using the same quiz format to concoct a consumer's unique blend.
Reviews from Insider Picks, Allure, Byrdie, and The Zoe Report
Raising $150 million in funding in December 2020
Over 805K followers on Instagram
In my never-ending journey to grow out my hair to mermaid length, my tresses have been through some trials. Though I try to stay on top of my quarterly trims, I do heat-style my hair frequently, which has resulted in uneven ends and a near-constant frizz halo. Not every day is a bad hair day, but rare is the occasion when the stars align and I wake up with naturally shiny, wavy, voluminous hair.
The Instagram algorithm must've intuited my despair, because when Function of Beauty began popping up in my feed, it made me wonder: If I tinker with the products I use to wash my hair, could my limp, frazzled locks come back to life? I reached out to the brand to try out a sample of their shampoo and conditioner.
Founded by a team of MIT engineers, cosmetic scientists, and developers, Function of Beauty sells custom-mixed products that are formulated for every head of hair, of all types. Their products are vegan and cruelty-free, along with paraben- and sulfate-free. Anyone can take the brief quiz on their website to specify their hair type and select five hair goals. The ones I selected were:
anti-frizz
fix split ends
strengthen
shine
thermal protection
These hair goals also reveal which ingredients are in your unique shampoo and conditioner. My products were enhanced with açai oil, Amazonian babassu oil, tamarind extract, argan oil, horsetail extract, evening primrose oil, black oats seed extract, beetroot extract, grape seed oil, and linseed oil — all ingredients that are meant to contribute to those top-five enviable hair qualities.
Oh, and the customization doesn't stop there! You can also choose the color of your shampoo/conditioner, along with the scent (even how strong the scent is), and the name on the bottle. Users can also opt for a dye-, scent-, or even silicone-free formulation. I appreciate this level of attention to detail.
My month of use with my cool-blue, milkshake-scented, custom-mixed Function of Beauty shampoo and conditioner was drama-free. While my split ends will probably be split no matter what I do, I have found that my frizz halo has significantly lessened, and I am very happy with how my hair looks. It’s hard to say if there’s been a major improvement in the strength and shine of my hair, but the formula’s thermal protection (aka the grapeseed and linseed oil) could be helping to fortify my hair pre-heat styling, which limits breakage and leads to less frizz. But ultimately, I can't know that this is the case for sure.
One of the best benefits of Function of Beauty is that you no longer have to decode a shampoo ingredients list and guess which oils and extracts are best suited for your hair type. However, this convenience does come at a small cost. The 8-ounce shampoo and conditioner duo will set you back $39, and the 16-ounce duo is $49. But that being said, after a month of use, I am not even halfway done with either bottle. If you barely use a full pump of shampoo per wash, these little guys will last you quite a long time!
As aforementioned, Function of Beauty has expanded its line beyond just hair in the last year, bringing custom formulations to the face and body. I'm happy to say that my experience with trying out Function of Beauty's body care products, launched in July 2020, has gone incredibly smoothly (OK, pun intended).
Both the body wash and lotion (starting at $19.99 for the set) are formulated just based on your skin's dryness, and you can choose the fragrance and strength of the fragrance for these products, too. Currently, I have lightly scented lavender lotion helping to keep my hands hydrated throughout the day. The texture feels slick at first, but absorbs into the skin within a few moments, and the scent fades along with it.
And launched in October 2020, Function of Beauty's latest category is skincare, namely, a cleanser, serum, and moisturizer (starting at $99.99 for the entire set). These products are formulated based on a similar four-part quiz that takes into account the user's face dryness, usual makeup coverage, skin sensitivity, and their personal skincare goals (e.g., anti-aging, minimizing redness, reducing shine). What's really cool is that the skin quiz will actually determine what consistency and format your custom cleanser and moisturizer will come in, whether it's a jelly or micellar gel cleanser or a lotion, cream, or gel moisturizer. There's truly no one-size-fits-all here.
Reviewers of all different skin types praise the new line, calling it “high quality,” “fast-absorbing,” and “beautifully packaged,” with the serum emerging from the trio as the clear fan favorite. You can opt to buy them individually or as a set on a one-off basis or recurrent subscription with free shipping.
If you haven't been able to find the bath and body products that you're looking for on drugstore shelves, and you're willing to pay a little more for something that was formulated just for you (ingredients, scent, color, and all!), Function of Beauty offers an easy, fun foray into the custom hair- and skincare space.
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