Dr. Muneeb Shah’s Remedy Is Ready for Primetime

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Welcome back to Full Coverage. Thanks as always for reading.

I still can’t believe that the Knicks came back to beat the Spurs after that disastrous first half last night! It was incredible. Thank you, I love you, OG Anunoby!

Now back to beauty, Italian makeup label Kiko Milano was lucky to land Madonna as its global brand ambassador ahead of its much anticipated US launch. The Queen of Pop has been everywhere lately promoting her upcoming album, from spilling horny tea on Grindr to sharing the stage with Sabrina Carpenter at Coachella. I’m here for it. Have you watched “Confessions II - The Film” yet? It’s sexy, retro and weird — in a great way.

The debut of Bread Beauty Supply’s Slick-Hold Gel, on the other hand, was a miss. Topicals founder Olamide Olowe, who bought the haircare brand in 2025 via her holding company Cost of Doing Business, took to TikTok to share that the launch flopped and subsequently ask shoppers for feedback. The responses were interesting: Some commenters said the product looked like a skincare SKU and others didn’t believe it would work on 4C hair types. The whole thing felt haphazard. The product itself didn’t feel particularly innovative, nor did the very pastel pink packaging; it was giving a mix of Rhode’s clean girl with Glossier’s Instagram circa 2015.

I know Bread was in severe financial distress and had other interested parties when it was looking for buyers back in 2024. It reportedly went with Cost of Doing Business because of Topicals’ shared Black and brown community. If the label wants to survive it needs to give the customer something more than the same old thing.

Moving on, while looking at my last few columns, I realised I have been spending a lot of time on the skincare beat, specifically dermatological and clinical skincare. It’s one of the most exciting parts of the market, as shoppers have tired of prestige options that are heavy on branding but lacking in benefits. Now dermatological skincare can be found in the professional channel like Obagi, which I exclusively reported traded hands from Waldencast to Bridepoint last week. But it can also be found everywhere else: See Cerave and Cetaphil. So it makes sense that my main topic this week is an exciting piece of skincare funding news.

Remedy Skin Gets the L. Catterton Treatment

Dr. Muneeb Shah had plenty of options to monetise his expertise after breaking through as TikTok’s favourite dermatologist during the Covid-19 pandemic. Beyond the standard brand partnership fare, nearly every beauty incubator made a play for Shah, offering him substantial deals with several zeroes attached (I know this for a fact, I introduced him to one). So when Shah launched his label, Remedy Skin, in March 2024, without an attached incubator or retailer, he was making a point.

That’s changing today, as investment firm L Catterton exclusively told me it had taken a large $20 million minority stake in the line, along with participation from Norwest and Sonoma Brands Capital. Remedy Skin, which was online only until launching into Target five months ago, is expected to hit $50 million in sales this year. The funding will be used to fuel product and retail expansion, as well as build out the brand’s team.

Remedy Skin fills a Millennial- and Gen Z-shaped hole in the standard results-oriented skincare space. It is also part of a new class of doctor brands hoping to leverage their influence into brand authority. There’s some from the plastic surgery set, Dr. Jason B. Diamond’s Dr. Diamond’s Metacine and Dr. Yannis Alexandrides’ 111SKin, as well as the derm class: Dr. Shereene Idriss’s namesake label and Dr. Sam Ellis’s Prequel, which was created in partnership with accelerator The Center.

But Shah, of course, is also a mega-influencer, with a combined following of close to 23 million across channels. The founder is just the latest of creators who have scored investment from prestigious private equity and venture capital firms; Mikayla Nogueira’s POV Beauty and Alix Earle’s Reale Actives were backed by Imaginary Ventures from the get. As investors and retailers see influencers as the only straightforward way to break through in today’s cluttered beauty sector, it makes sense that Remedy had plenty of term sheets to look over. I’ve said before — influencer-founders might be beauty’s best bet right now. And there are proof points like Phlur’s Chriselle Lim, Naturium’s Susan Yara and most importantly, Hailey Bieber.

Tehmina Haider, partner at L Catterton, told me the company has had a “healthy amount of skepticism around influencer brands,” despite founders’ ability to use a very loud marketing megaphone.

“There is a question of whether you can build an enduring brand. Some will emerge as brands that have longevity behind them,” she said, noting Shah’s influencer status but also his very real medical credentials.

Top sellers reinforce that clinical expertise, including a dark spot serum, vitamin c brightening serum and KP body moisturiser. Upcoming summer launches continue on that problem-solution track, including a face and neck serum stick, firming serum and hydrating serum.

As more creators try to build brands, much like celebrity lines before it, only a select few will be successful. In my opinion, it comes down to flexing what they are actually good at and what is authentic. Bieber has become the most influential person in beauty mostly because of her big-picture marketing thinking.

There is also an aspect of timing, Shah broke out at exactly the right moment and had the exact right voice. Plenty of other influencers-turned-brand founders haven’t had nearly the amount of success or leverage to fuel a brand, much less six years after breaking out. This is what makes L. Catterton’s bet so smart.

While there have been questions around dermfluencers’ ability to balance the demands of TikTok with real life patients, Shah has stepped into his brand founder and chief executive role.

“I always need a new hill or challenge to climb, and I’ve been creating content now for almost six years,” he said. “The challenge is how do we make better products that really connect with consumers?”

But Shah isn’t naive about the value of celebrity.

“Investors see a zero CAC [consumer acquisition cost] to some extent as an asymmetric advantage an influencer can have, with a business like ours or Mikayala’s, because [of] an understanding of followers and the industry,” he said. “With me and the team of dermatologists … directionally, we know what the best formulas are going to be before we even go into our full clinicals. That’s a double asymmetric advantage.”

What You Should Be Reading

You should be tracking P-beauty, or at least investing in a Filipino setting spray. [The Business of Beauty]

Congratulations to Dua Lipa on her wedding — and for being the person everyone wants to be when they get dressed up. [Mashable]

In an industry where convenience is king, is the retailer exclusive on its way out? [The Business of Beauty]

Investors are no longer snoozing on sleep solutions, which could be a more lucrative opportunity than weight loss. [Financial Times]

Thanks y’all,

Priya

Editor's Note: This article was amended on June 11, 2026 to include Norwest and Sonoma Capital's involvement in L Catterton's minority investment.