Tatcha

Tatcha was founded in 2009 by Vicky Tsai, a Harvard MBA who left a management consulting career after a skincare crisis sent her to Kyoto, where she studied centuries-old Japanese beauty rituals. The brand built its product line around traditional geisha skincare routines — Hadasei-3 (a fermented complex of green tea, rice, and algae), camellia oil, and silk powder — and translated that philosophy into a US prestige range that became a Sephora best-seller.

Unilever acquired Tatcha in 2019 in a deal reported around $500 million, scaling the brand into wider distribution while preserving Tsai's creative vision. The Dewy Skin Cream, Silk Canvas Primer, Rice Wash, and Indigo Soothing Cream Cleanser are the franchise heroes — the Dewy Skin Cream in particular built a cult dupe culture around dewy-glow finishes that became a category-defining product. Tatcha sits at the intersection of skincare and makeup primers, with the Silk Canvas Primer crossing over from skincare into makeup-prep usage in nearly every prestige routine.