Kate McLeod Announces Retail Partnership with Sephora

The brand best known for its Body Stone solid moisturizers expands its retail footprint

RED HOOK, N.Y., April 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kate McLeod is excited to announce its retail partnership with Sephora.com. The company founded by Kate McLeod, a pastry chef turned beauty entrepreneur, is best known for its waterless, plastic-free, and zero-waste Body Stone solid moisturizers.

The solid Body Stone melts into a luxurious body oil as you glide it onto the skin and intensely nourishes dry skin, leaving you soft, supple, and glowing. With over 80% cocoa butter plus nourishing oils, the Body Stone is a waterless concentrate with powerful natural ingredients for moisturizing results you can see and feel. It's designed to be used daily and turns something quotidian into an intentioned moment of self-care—a source of everyday magic. The company will launch on Sephora.com with the Daily Stone, its bestselling blend of rose, frankincense, and neroli that has become a cult favorite in clean beauty.

"Bringing the Daily Stone to Sephora is a big moment for our brand, and for me personally," said Co-Founder, Formulator and CEO Kate McLeod. "This started in my kitchen, and the Daily Stone is where it all began. It took me three years to perfect the formula, and I personally hand poured thousands of Daily Stones when we launched the business. We still hand craft, hand wrap, and hand package every single Body Stone with love at our workshop in the Hudson Valley. We do everything very intentionally, so launching at Sephora with a single hero product felt right for us as a brand, and will allow the Sephora customer to understand that we do things very differently. We've made a solid moisturizer without the sticky wax, preservatives, synthetics, or stabilizers traditionally used to make lotion bars. The Body Stone glides on like silk. it's so nourishing and you really do have to feel it to understand it."

By removing water from its formulas, the brand was able to create sustainable, plastic-free packaging, and reduce its carbon footprint, avoiding some of the biggest culprits of waste in the beauty industry. The company's Body Stone Starter Kits come with a reusable bamboo canister, which provides easy, beautiful storage. Purchase once and refill over time with your favorite full-size Body Stone.

"Our solid formula forced me to look at packaging differently, said Kate. "For me, the answer is always in the kitchen. I spotted a bamboo spice canister.  Bamboo is a wonderful sustainable material that repels water and keeps the Body Stone dry in a damp, moist bathroom. The linen wrap around each Body Stone was inspired by cheese cloth. I was drawn to the natural, food-grade elements I was used to working with as a chef. And they all came together into a reusable packaging system that feels really different and intuitive."

"This is truly the easiest sustainability swap you'll ever make, because Kate has put so much thought and intention into the product design," said Co-Founder and COO Nichola Gray. "Once you start using the Body Stone, it's hard to look at anything plastic in your bathroom. We've weaned ourselves off of plastic water bottles, but what about all the plastic in our bathrooms? As a purpose driven brand, we are thrilled to have Sephora's recognition and support in bringing this message to a broader audience through inclusion in the Clean + Planet Positive program."

Kate McLeod's launch in Sephora's Clean + Planet Positive program comes as the brand announces the launch of its "Healthy Planet, Healthy Minds" program, a CSR initiative that holistically addresses environmental sustainability and mental health. The company views these crises as inextricably linked, with the rise of climate anxiety worsening mental health outcomes and aims to address these issues through its product design, business practices, and charitable giving. The company has committed to donating 2% of its total annual revenue in 2022, split equally across environmental and mental health non-profits.

"Less is more has always been our mantra. Fewer ingredients, less packaging, fewer products, less distraction… when you strip away all the unnecessary layers, you can get a lot clearer about what your body needs and wants," said Kate.

"Sephora is thrilled to partner with Kate McLeod and continue bringing our clients innovative products that support all their clean beauty and wellness needs," said Cindy Deily, VP Skincare Merchandising at Sephora. "With its sustainably focused, innovative Body Stone moisturizer, Kate McLeod helps clients optimize their self-care routines with products that are good for their skin and the environment too. We look forward to introducing this brand to our Sephora community and know that it will be a wonderful addition to our Clean and Planet Positive assortment."

The Kate McLeod brand will launch on Sephora.com on April 19th. 

About Founder Kate McLeod
Kate McLeod left a career in finance to become a pastry chef and accidentally stumbled into the world of skincare via a chunk of cocoa butter. Kate uses her classical culinary training to harness the power of natural ingredients and transform them into award-winning, zero waste products. Unlike most beauty founders, Kate formulates every product from scratch herself, and she oversees the handcrafting of every single Body Stone from the company's Hudson Valley workshop. She currently lives in Rhinebeck, NY with her husband Justin and two children, Oliver and Margaux.

About the Kate McLeod Brand
Kate McLeod creates nourishing, good-for-you products that help customers find magic moments of self care in their everyday lives. A former pastry chef, Kate understands the beauty of simple, homemade recipes made from whole, good-for-you ingredients. In her kitchen, synthetics are forbidden and quality reigns without compromise. The company's Hudson Valley workshop produces Kate's recipes with integrity, care, and love, employing local chefs, bakers, and makers to create products that are handmade just for you.

Media Contact
For more information, please contact Foundation:
[email protected]

About Sephora Americas
Since its debut in North America more than 20 years ago, Sephora has been a leader in prestige omni-retail with the mission of creating an inviting beauty shopping experience and inspiring fearlessness in our community. With the goal of delivering unbiased shopping support and a personalized experience, Sephora invites clients to discover thousands of products from more than 340 carefully curated brands, explore online and through our mobile app, enjoy services at the Beauty Studio and engage with expertly trained Beauty Advisors in more than 500 stores across the Americas. And with its new long-term retail strategic partnership, clients can now shop Sephora at Kohl's, a fully immersive, premium beauty destination, with 200 locations in 2021, and at least 850 locations by 2023. Clients can access the free-to-join Beauty Insider program and digital community, which together enhance the experience of Sephora's passionate clients.

Sephora has been an industry-leading champion of diversity, inclusivity, and empowerment, guided by our longstanding company values. In 2019, Sephora announced a new tagline and manifesto, "We Belong to Something Beautiful," to reinforce its dedication to fostering belonging amongst all clients and employees and to publicly strive for a more inclusive vision for retail in the Americas. Sephora continues to give back to our communities and advance inclusion in our industry through its social impact and equity programming, called the Sephora D&I Heart Journey.

For more information, visit: https://www.sephora.com/about-us and @Sephora on social media.  For media inquiries, please visit our Sephora newsroom or email [email protected]

SOURCE Kate McLeod