Cymbiotika sold 200 million liposomal sachets. Now it's taking on the beauty supplement market

0:07Hello, and welcome back to the Glossy Beauty Podcast, a show about the business of beauty and wellness. I'm your host, Glossy's West Coast correspondent, Lexi Lebsack. In a lot of ways, supplement company Symbiotica has perfected the form factor and distribution for modern-day vitamins. The company is based in San Diego, launched in 2018, and quickly found its footing in the marketplace with single-serving pouches of liposomal supplements, which are basically liquid vitamins formulated in a way that is said to aid in absorption. The company told Glossy that it's sold more than 200 million individual packets to date.

0:47It's also grown its revenue 3 ,000 % over the past three years to reach$150 million in annual revenue. The brand sells across masks, online, and grocery retail in boxes plus individual pouches at the point of sale. It entered Target in 2025, Ulta Beauty in March, and Walmart just last week. Now, the brand is making a big bet on a new category with the launch of its first beauty supplement. It's called Beauty Peptide Complex, and it's made for hair, skin, and nails. But the beauty supplement space is sort of its own beast, and it's so incredibly competitive. You're competing with heritage vitamin brands, new vitamin brands, personal care and beauty brands, influencer brands, and the list goes on.

1:40My guest today is Durana Elmi, the co-founder of Symbiotica. And we're going to walk through the brand's strategy to win in this beauty subcategory. This includes the brand's biggest campaign to date, launching this week with a new spokesperson. We also discuss how Symbiotica is using a fashion marketing playbook to win the beauty supplement category. Here is my conversation with Durana Elmi, the co-founder of Symbiotica.

2:13Hi, Durana. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on. Oh, it's truly my pleasure. We don't do a ton of wellness episodes, but I'm so happy to have you here. And that's because everyone is watching Symbiotica right now. You guys are killing it. 3000 % revenue growth over the past three years. For those unfamiliar, tell us sort of what is a liposomal packet? Yeah. So liposomal is a delivery system. What it is, is it encapsulates the nutrients and delivers the highest bioavailability. So when you have a Symbiotica liposomal vitamin C, what it does is it's tricking your body and thinking it's foods.

2:54So it's superior absorption delivering the highest, like goes right into your bloodstream. Your body thinks you're eating an orange. So that's what it is. It's a delivery system and it's delivering at its highest form. The only other highest form of vitamin C that you can put in your body is IV. But IV is very, it's hard to do that every single day. It can get very pricey. And so unlike anything else that's in the marketplace, what's so incredibly differentiated in ours is that we have been a category leader in liposomal and in the form factor that you can just simply rip and sip and take the product on the go with you.

3:38So it becomes a part of your daily ritual, your daily habits. But that's what liposomal is. It's superior absorption, encapsulating the nutrients, so going right into your bloodstream, delivering the highest nutrient level. It's something that you're not just, you know, when you take a vitamin that's most of the time in a pill form, you go to the restroom and it's coming right out. Ours actually goes right to the bloodstream and your body's absorbing it because it thinks it's a food. So interesting. You know, before I was getting pitches from your team, before I really had you guys on my radar professionally, I was seeing the packets everywhere at cash wraps, you know, at health food stores.

4:19I mean, you can sell them individually. You can also sell the box. Is it sort of fair to say that the sachet has been like the big business unlock for you guys? And why does everyone love them so much? Yeah, I mean, for sure. I would tell you, it was a lot of listening to the feedback of our community and our customers, because when we first started in 2019, they weren't in these pouches. They were in Myron bottles, and then the bottles were larger, then we were making them smaller. And so we were really kind of figuring it out with the community and the customers. And what makes this so unique is everyone's life today is so busy and so on the go.

4:59And so we want to be able to show up where you are already are. And, and we don't want you to have to mix our products in something. We want to be able to have it, make it as simple and seamless as possible, as simple as just rip it and sip it. And that moment of rip and sip becomes part of your kind of self-love. It becomes your moment where you are taking in your nutrients. And when you take a look at our modern diet today, it lacks nutrients. And so we are able to show up with you alongside you in your gym bag, in your purse, in your car, and you can travel with our products. I think what's also been really unique that we've discovered in this past year and a half is that you can integrate our products into the foods that you're eating.

5:45We've launched a Symbiotica Wellness Cafe at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas. And again, And the success of that cafe has taught us that you can integrate in your smoothies, your shots, your acais, a salad, your wrap. And so it's, again, really unique because this is as simple as this liquid, you know, product that you can just take without having to mix it with something without, you know, it just, it kind of shows up everywhere you are. And it makes wellness accessible. It makes wellness easy and it allows you to integrate in a way that it can be consistent and daily. I mean, it makes a ton of sense.

6:30I can totally see why you're doing so well with it. Well, we're here today though, to talk about the beauty supplement. Big congrats. It just came out. And we're also going to talk about the campaign that's coming out this week. Why beauty and why now? So I've always been a huge fan of beauty since I was a little girl. Like I'm a little girl that's always been, you know, how do you get the glow and give me the highlighter and I want the blush. But I think as we approach wellness from the inside out, we're really kind of moving away from just ingestible beauty and topical beauty. Consumers are more sophisticated and savvier than ever.

7:10And understanding where does real true like skin health come from? come it comes from your gut and so i think it was like a perfect time for us to really launch our liposomal beauty peptide product it's kind of like the perfect intersection of i would say wellness meets beauty and the consumers now are just more savvier than ever and wanting something that's just beyond topical i think the topical is still very important i love my highlighter i love my serums. But I think real beauty comes from the inside. It's how you're nourishing your body. It's what you're putting. It's how your body is absorbing it.

7:52Is it absorbing it? And then it's, that's, that's the real beauty. And so I think it was just a perfect, perfect timing. The consumers are ready for it. And so are we and real beauty comes from the inside. There must be a little bit of a halo effect right now, just from like the larger peptide conversation happening about online. Would you say that's true? It's very true. We kind of like did a play on, we did a campaign with OBV and Michael Ratner where it's like really cheeky and it's like Amelia Gray is the star in it. And it's like hot girls sip peptides. But when you think of peptides, peptides is generally you inject peptides, you don't sip peptides.

8:38And so we kind of had this fun play on with that. And peptides is really popular today. And we're first to market and introducing a peptide liposomal complex product with varisol hyaluronic. And so we're really, really proud of this product. And I think you're starting to see a shift in the consumer's approach towards beauty. And being there in the forefront of that today is something we're really, really proud of. Your company has launched a lot of products so far. Did launching a beauty supplement or like an inside out wellness offering, did it feel different from the jump or is it mostly just different in terms of how you're, how you're sort of marketing it?

9:23I think it's different in terms of how we're marketing it. You know, we've always really been into like beauty. One of our hero products is glutathione, which glutathione is a master antioxidant. You know, again, skin health. I have a little girl right now who's going through like hormonal acne, right? And so like skin health really kind of comes in the form of like, what are you putting in your body, right? How are you, obviously you're taking care of your skin matters, but it's nourishing your body from the inside out. And so we're doing a lot of clinicals around our products. And we really want the science to do the talking.

9:58But again, I think it's about messaging it differently today because the products have always been there. It's just about educating our consumers about the impacts that the products make when your insides are running properly and your gut is healthy and functioning properly. Naming this one a beauty supplement, are you hoping to differentiate from your other ones or are you hoping to get a new customer? What are the goals in launching a specific beauty supplement? Yeah. I mean, for us, we were, um, we've gone into a category that is new for us, beauty going into Ulta. And we really wanted to, we know that there's a need for supplementation within the beauty category.

10:46And so this was kind of an entry into that. We launched it in Ulta. Um, and we're really, really proud that we can introduce a product to the beauty consumers that's going to help them towards some of their goals, whether that's hair, whether that's skin or that's nails. And so, yes, this was a product that has helped us in the beauty category really launch and introduce ourselves and also be another option for the beauty consumers. So are you thinking about this being a new customer? Yes, a new customer, sometimes a customer that already knows us, but is like, oh, wow, For example, vitamin C helps your skin.

11:28It's great. It's got collagen in there and biotin. And so this, again, is just reintroducing some of our existing products and also bringing new products in the beauty category that can help solve for some of the issues that consumers are having. And I think what's really unique is at the heart of the beauty peptide, there's Verisol, which Verisol is a bioactive collagen peptide that supports skin elasticity. It helps improve appearance, fine lines, wrinkles. And it also has another key product, which is Ceramicides. Ceramicides is a plant derivative Ceramicide that helps support your skin moisture barrier and also hydration.

12:09And so again, we are kind of like creating products around key ingredients that help your skin. But now you're able to take your Ceramicides or your Varisol in an ingestible way rather than just your creams or your serums. I want to talk a little bit about the campaign. You really have, I mean, you kind of mentioned it at the top already, but you really have two big name partnerships here. You have Amelia Gray and you also have OBV Media, which is Michael D. Ratner's content studio. Of course, he's the co-founder of Road. Would you say that it's sort of fair to say you're using sort of a beauty industry playbook here?

12:48And for those who haven't seen the ad, because it's just coming out this week. Tell us about it. Yeah, I mean, really, I would say that first, you know, OBB and Michael Ratner invested in Symbiotica. And so we're really, really proud that they believe in the journey and the mission that we're on, which is making health more accessible to everyone. And for me, I always say I'm a student, all of us, we're students alike. So I'm always trying to learn from those that have been there, done that, and have done an exceptional job. So absolutely, I would say this was a very collaborative process between OBV and our team.

13:23We worked specifically very closely with Amelia Gray. And when we were selecting talent, it was really important for us that the talent was already either using our product or familiar with our product. And when I had the opportunity to meet Amelia, she was like so excited about Symbiotica because Symbiotica is a part of her daily ritual. It's part of her mom's daily ritual. Her whole family uses it. And so it made everything so much more easier and so much more authentic to align with someone who was already part of our community, who already loved our products. The OBV team, they're incredible.

14:00There's not enough that I could say about Michael Ratner and James and the entire OBV team. They bring really true, like, creative vision to life. and the overall, I would say, direction of the campaign from selecting the designer to the designing of the set and the storytelling and all the props. That's all the brilliant minds of OBB. They've really kind of been there, done that. As you know, they launched the Haley Beaver Gap campaign. They did Kim with the energy drink of hers update. They just, you know, so they've always kind of had a really brilliant kind of cheeky way of telling the story and selecting the right kind of talent so that it comes off authentic and everyone can really understand the messaging.

14:49And so, yeah, I mean, I'm really, really, really proud that we've been able to take kind of traditional supplementation advertising, but add in this like unique idea of hot girls to peptides where there's this humor behind it and there's this visual campaign around beauty. And so I think that this really introduces science to consumers in a very different way, especially because you hear Amelia in the campaign talking about some of our key ingredients and she's doing it in a very fun and playful way, yet the campaign is very elevated. And so So Amelia brought in her own personality and her own kind of creative perspective into the process, which was really great.

15:37And I think that's why it came off so organic. And OBB just did what OBB does, which is translate the vision into something that was very visually compelling and attractive. And it makes you want to continue watching and press replay. and so we love what the final campaign has come to and we're very very excited I think it is going to kind of shock everyone of what we've at Symbiotic haven't done before but it's it's our first kind of big major moment in beauty and also in just launching a campaign we've never done that to be honest with you. Where will people see the ad? Gosh everywhere online CTV across the digital.

16:22And we also have some out of home in Los Angeles and we're doing some experiential around it. Today we have, you know, 35 to 40 different influencers who are receiving an oversized raspberry because the BPC product is a raspberry flavor. It tastes like a chocolate covered raspberry. And so we have this experiential element today where 35 to 40, I would say influencers like an Alex Earl and Amelia Gray are getting a special delivery today of this oversized raspberry and the filling inside this raspberry cake is our BPC product. And so we have experiential, we have at a home, we're doing a brunch.

17:02The first week of November, we're bringing together a lot of different creators and we are integrating our BPC product into brunch-like foods and strengths and so that they're able to experience our product in a lot of different ways as they're learning about it. And we're going to have an experiential moment in Los Angeles. So I would say it's going to be everywhere. And we're really, really excited about the world to kind of experience our product and in a visual way. How exciting. Wait, I have to stop because you keep calling it BPC product, which makes me think I'm sorry. BPC 157. Oh, you're so, I abbreviated it.

17:43It's just beauty peptide complex. Yeah, yeah. But are you going to go public or is that like an internal thing or are you calling it that in ads? No, it's clever. It's clever. Thank you. You know, I think it's been an internal thing because I feel like beauty peptide complex, I'm like taking too much of your time. And so like a quick abbreviated way is just BPC is what we call it internally. But yeah. That just represents, it's funny because I didn't really think about that, right? BPC-157, it does play onto the peptide. But yeah, that's just kind of our abbreviated way of saying beauty peptide complex.

18:21Oh, how funny. For anyone listening who just got lost right now, BPC-157 is perhaps the most popular peptide. That's still under approval and going through the whole process here. But funny, that's sort of a funny thing. Okay, wait. So this is so exciting about the ad. And biggest thing that you guys have done in media, in advertising, so exciting. What was the investment like on this? Very pricey. It was a big one in the sense where we've never really done anything on this level. We haven't done anything on this level for many reasons. Number one, we've really been about the science. The most important thing for us has been community.

19:06first and foremost. And then it's been about really standing behind the science. And we've, for years have continued to craft and perfect our formulations. And I think we wanted to make sure that before we went to market, we had the community in place. We had the right products that made an impact and made a difference and had the absorption. We had clinicals to back it up. We had infrastructure to support the demands. And so I feel like this has been years in the making of kind of the, we've been kind of planting the roots and we're now ready to really blossom and let the world know that the science speaks louder than anything.

19:55We're really proud of the ingredients. They were very, I would say, scientifically driven to make an impact and a difference. And then beyond that, we have the retail expansion to support us being in places where consumers are shopping. And people now know of our brand as a household name. And we're really a category leader. And so we were very surgical about when we were going to make an investment like this. We wanted to make sure that we were ready for it. We had the right partners supporting us. And we had done years and years of education and experiential and, you know, really just honing in on ensuring that the consumers knew what liposoma was before we would launch a campaign of this magnitude.

20:50well speaking of good timing you just mentioned your retailers you launched into 2300 walmart stores last week you have a lot going on right at once big congrats on that as well thank you so much i'm really proud of our team you know we've got a really small and mighty team that makes the choice to show up here every single day monday through thursday and then friday we're kind of hybrid and remote. I'm proud of the team. We're a very passionate team. We want to really make an impact in health and wellness, and we want to make health and wellness accessible. We want it to make it easy. We want it to be really integrated into your life in such a simple way that you could be consistent with it.

21:33And Walmart is just another, I would say, moment. It's another chapter of our story of how hard the team has been working for this opportunity. We wanted to make sure, you know, we run all of our fulfillment here in house and our headquarters in San Diego. So before we made this big kind of leap into Walmart, we wanted to make sure that we had the inventory to be able to support a partner like Walmart. And so we're very, very proud that we've been working towards this moment. Target and Ulta and Sprouts and Whole Foods, they've all been great partners and we've learned a lot. And so Walmart, you know, is really expanding the consumer experience.

22:19When consumers come in, they're bringing in more elevated brands. They're investing in brands. And so we're really proud to be a part of this moment that the shift that they're having in their retailers and for us to be where our customers already are and make health accessible to so many consumers that walk into a Walmart every day. Yeah. What would you say will be the biggest sales lever for Walmart? Biggest sales lever, like in terms of what specific product or guess what's driving people in there? What's sort of making them come off, like fly off the shelves in a Walmart? If you have your customer who's normally shopping somewhere else, it's like, is this a new customer and how are you getting them to shop?

23:06Yeah. So that's a great one. So one is we have a cap table of very influential, I would say, celebrities and creators. And so we have some creative things coming down the pipeline of leveraging and I would say activating some of our influential creators to drive attention and momentum. We have some experiential that we have planned within Walmart. But I think what makes it so unique is this form factor. It's the fact that you can rip and sip. It's the fact that we can do smaller counts and boxes for our retailers so that it's more of a trial. In D2C right now, there are 28 packs, but in a Walmart, you can do a 12 pack, a three pack.

23:49So I think that's what makes us so unique today is that you can buy more of a trial size and try our products without committing to an entire bottle per se, right? This form factor allows us to show up in a really unique way where you can also trial this in store. And we have a lot of experiential plan within Walmart stores across the nation where you're going to be able to try our products right then and there and make a decision if you want to purchase. And then because our products are so unique, we can integrate into smoothies and slushies and like different ways that our consumers can try the product.

24:29And so we have a lot of, I would say, creative components. Our form factor allows our customers and our community and the Walmart customer to try our products without making a grand commitment. And Walmart has just been an incredible partner. And so we're excited to see what's to come. What does the runway look like for the Beauty Peptide Complex sales, distribution? Sort of what does the runway look like here? Yeah, so we have extremely high expectations for the Beauty Peptide Complex, especially as consumers' interest in products that support both beauty and wellness continues to grow. Walmart really taught us that there is a need for this.

25:11Consumers are asking. We're approaching the kind of full omni-channel rollout strategically, having first allowed the Simbiotica community to access the beauty peptide complex, building accessibilities with partners like Ulta Beauty, Target, Walmart, Sprouts this November. Each retailer is giving us an opportunity to kind of touch each consumer differently. So we're tailoring our marketing and education efforts to the actual audience and retailers specifically. And ultimately, we want to build momentum beyond just the initial launch, but we want to establish beauty peptide complex to consumers to be able to integrate it into their daily routine as they do with beauty products.

25:59can you tell us maybe just the high level takeaway on how you'll meet walmart target and sprouts customers differently um i think it's through the education it's through the messaging it's through the experiential it's partnering with their calendar whether we're showing up at alta world or showing up to support um target through their experiential events that they have planned And I think for us, again, our form factor of allowing people to just rip and sip on the go is going to really allow us to show up in a way that our competitors can. Dorana, when you look ahead, you know, one year, three years, five years, how will the sort of convergence of beauty and wellness, what will that look like?

26:48You know, if you had to predict, if you had to look at a magic ball. Yeah, I think that I think it's going to continue to evolve. Consumers are becoming smarter and smarter and asking more and more questions that haven't really been asked before in the past. Consumers want to know what's in your products. Consumers want to know how is your body absorbing it. So I think with AI also, AI is really helping analyze ingredients, analyze. For example, Subco is a platform and a partner that really dissects and tests all supplements. And it's not something that you can kind of buy your way into. I think Subco is something that people are looking up now.

27:38People want to know, how are your products being rated? what what's so semiotica actually has a 10 score which is unheard of in sepco um but consumers are becoming more and more savvy um i think looking ahead the relationship between beauty and wellness is going to continue to evolve as people start as people start to see the difference i think the lines between beauty and wellness continue to blur but consumers are becoming more educated about their overall health how their body is being influenced by what they're putting into it beauty is becoming less about quick fixes and more about long-term beauty solutions.

28:18And we're excited that Symbiotica is really leading that specifically. I also think that you are seeing a shift in consumers in their daily routine, which is something that people are talking about. I think Alex Earl is doing a great job of like really talking about what her daily stack is that allows her to travel and stay healthy while she's on the go. So one of the biggest shifts that we're seeing is how much more proactive consumers are being around their health, but also around sharing their daily habits and their daily rituals. People are increasingly turning, I would say, into wearables and really kind of challenging, whether it's things that they're putting in their body from supplementation to sleep to workouts i think they're really kind of turning to blood panels biomarkers and other tools to really understand how their body's identifying with the actual needs and what you're putting into your body i don't think it's a one-size-fits-all approach but consumers are definitely paying more attention to energy levels, sleep levels, recovery, overall well-being.

29:34And I think we're moving towards a more personalized wellness approach. And we're really proud to be a part of that. And we actually have some really exciting things that I can't quite share just yet in the pipeline where we are going to be partnering with different wearable devices because we feel really confident that our products make a difference in your recovery, in your sleep, and in your energy levels. And so we're excited and we think we are a part of the future and wearables and AI trackable devices. How exciting. Dorana, I'll be happy to keep watching the company over the next few years.

30:15Sounds very exciting. And you'll be on stage with me in November at our Glossy Beauty and Wellness Summit here in Los Angeles. So I'm looking forward to that conversation as well. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. Thanks so much for all the insight and congrats on a lot of exciting stuff happening over there right now. Thank you very much. I mean, it's an exciting time to be a part of what we're doing. And really it's just been, I would say kind of years and hours and consistency from the team, hard work and just really believing in what we're doing. And it's great to see the community engagement and the growth and just the community also supporting us as we are growing and expanding, we're very, very committed to making an impact in the world.

30:56So thank you for your time today. And thank you for this incredible platform where we can come out and kind of share our story and talk about all the things that we're doing in a very exciting way. Yeah, truly my pleasure. Thank you so much. My pleasure as well. Thank you.

31:17And thank you for listening to this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. If you enjoyed it, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening. And for even more coverage on the beauty industry and more, please visit glossy.co slash beauty.