The Skinny on The Skinny Confidential
The Skinny Confidential's Lauryn Bosstick discusses the brand's new mouth tape and product innovation strategy.
is taking everyday routines to the next level.
With The Skinny Confidential brand, which launched at Nordstrom in October and is available on Revolve and Amazon, Bosstick is building out a business all about routines with products like the Hot Mess Ice Roller, $69; the Butter Brush, $79, and its latest item Mouth Tape, $35, which launched on Feb. 14 and sold out in 48 hours. Last week, a second smaller drop sold out in four minutes.
“We are a routine brand, anything to upgrade your routine. That could hit anything from your morning to your night to throughout your day,” Bosstick said. “We’re not a beauty line. We’re not a wellness line. It’s a routine brand.”
Considered a OG influencer, in 2010, Bosstick launched The Skinny Confidential blog, where she still posts her favorite products, routines, health tips, business advice and more. She and her husband Michael Bosstick, the founder and chief executive officer of podcast incubator
Dear Media, also host The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast, which has featured wellness experts like Dr. Andrew Huberman and Gabby Bernstein.
The Skinny Confidential product line, which raised a $1 million seed round in 2021, all started with the Hot Mess Ice Roller, $69, which is still a bestseller. After having double jaw surgery, Bosstick was struggling to combat the swelling and ended up trying a slew of ice rollers on the market. With this, she assessed all of the pain points and decided to create her own hot pink, aluminum version.
“The sales were out of control,” she said of the original launch. “We couldn’t even keep it in stock.”
Now, she uses the same approach to create new products, which include Bougie Driving Gloves, $35; the Hot Minute Planner, $35, and the Le Spoon Body Sculptor, $89.
“I will try every single product. I will try the cheap. I will try expensive. I’ll try what everyone’s talking about,” she said. “I will look at the reviews. I will go to Reddit. I will look on TikTok. I will literally look at every single thing that is wrong with the product and make it better.”
Bosstick’s not trying to reinvent the wheel, but she is trying to make it a bit cuter and more functional.
“Words that we live by at The Skinny Confidential are innovate, disrupt, fluff,” she said. “I love the word fluff because there’s so many things on the market that are not attractive.”
Mouth Tape, $35, the brand’s latest launch, is one such example. For the past two years, Bosstick has been testing a slew of mouth tapes, after having several podcast guests, including Huberman, tout the benefits of the practice, which advocates say improves sleep, increases energy, gives a more defined jaw line and reduces snoring and bad breath. In comparison to other mouth tapes on the market, Bosstick created a version that is larger, stickier and, of course, cuter than most.
While Bosstick is in the testing period of a soon-to-be product, she is simultaneously creating content around it, so that her followers are prepared for the brand’s next launch.
“What I try to do is slowly educate the audience without being overwhelming on a product that I’m launching,” she said. “When I first started mouth taping… I was like, ‘OK, I’m not just going to launch it right away. I need to take a minute and educate everyone on why it’s working.”
Due to Bosstick’s large following of 1.4 million Instagram followers combined with the virality of mouth tape right now — the hashtag #MouthTape on TikTok has nearly 200 million views — the launch was an immediate success. After Bosstick posted a selfie wearing the mouth tape with three emojis for a caption, her followers understood the product had launched — there wasn’t an official announcement or product link. According to Bosstick, Mouth Tape sales have reached seven figures.
Bosstick’s loyal following has been key to the brand’s success. Comments like, “You could sell radiator fluid and I’d still buy it” and “How you can take anything and make it aesthetic is my Roman Empire” are typical responses to her social media posts.
Expansion is on the horizon in 2024, especially as Nordstrom continues to place orders on the brand’s new inventory, according to Bosstick. In addition, she plans to launch five new products and triple The Skinny Confidential’s revenue this year.