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When Scarlett Johansson first launched The Outset in 2022, she explained that she wanted her affordable plant-based brand to be “the white T-shirt of skin care.” Clean beauty buffs can now get the same speedy shipping on The Outset (while adding actual tees and other essentials to cart) with the brand’s launch on Amazon — and its best-sellers are on sale right now for up to 25 percent off for Black Friday.
The Outset launched its Amazon Beauty store in April, when Johansson and co-founder Kate Foster gave an up-close-and-personal look at each product — including which ones are beloved by the star’s comedian husband, Colin Jost — during a QVC-style Amazon Live stream.
“I started The Outset because it really came from a need. I struggled with acne and sensitive skin forever, and I was looking for a line that could really return my skin to its best self. I was looking for products that would just simplify my routine,” she says.
Regularly from $32 to $54, The Outset comprises cruelty-free and vegan skin care products ranging from cleansers and serums to moisturizers and balms, all formulated specifically for those with sensitive skin. The line comprises a micellar cleanser, a firming serum, a lightweight face oil, a vitamin C-infused eye and “expression lines” cream, a niacinamide night cream, a clay mask, an exfoliating face scrub and a multi-tasking balm.
Check out the best skin care from The Outset to shop at Amazon’s Black Friday sale below, plus read on to learn more about the brand and what its co-founders love about each product.
The Outset Gentle Micellar Antioxidant Cleanser
“It doesn’t get too foamy, it gets nice and slick,” explains Johansson of the Gentle Micellar Antioxidant Cleanser, the first step in The Outset’s signature three-step routine.
Adds Foster, “Even with a gentle formulation like this, it actually is super effective at removing makeup [like eyeliner]. You can see this gel-to-foam texture. … There’s no harsh sulfates or surfactants inside this that’s going to strip your skin out.”
“It does not leave your skin with that tight feeling that you can often get from cleansing all of your makeup off,” continues the actress. “It’s really so wonderful your skin feels so soft and supple afterward.”
The Outset Firming Vegan Collagen Prep Serum
Johansson calls the Firming Vegan Collagen Prep Serum her “desert island product” and uses it in place of a toner.
“My skin does not feel the same without it. [Unlike a] toner, it doesn’t strip. We want to give moisture back into the skin, help protect your skin barrier and nourish [it]. You’re getting hydration from the cleanser, and from the serum. It’s perfect under makeup, it doesn’t pill, it’s not tacky.
It is game-changing. I’m telling you, my skin does not look or feel the same without it, I put it on several times a day, you can mix a little bit of foundation or concealer in there if you want a tinted moisturizer.
My husband Colin and I can just share our bathroom counter and use the same products so it really is meant for everyone. We use the same products. The serum is the one we seem to be refilling the most. It’s really soothing, fortifying, firming. It brightens, it hydrates, firms and plumps, all without irritation.”
The Outset Nourishing Squalane Daily Moisturizer
Designed as the third product in the three-step routine, the Outset’s Nourishing Squalane Daily Moisturizer is what Johansson uses to achieve a natural-looking glow.
“I honestly wanted a moisturizer that I could put under makeup, I wanted it to feel like that ‘lit from within’ [look], but not because it has glitter inside it. but it’s really because it’s giving you that bounceback skin, that ultra-hydrated skin.”
The Outset Ultralight Moisture Boosting Face Oil
“I’ve heard from some of our makeup artist friends that they add a drop of the oil to a concealer brush and it helps prevent concealer from going into the fine lines,” says Foster of the Ultralight Moisture Boosting Face Oil. “Mixing the serum with concealer or foundation is chef’s kiss.”
The Outset Purifying Blue Clay Mask
Of the Purifying Blue Clay Mask, Johansson says, “it doesn’t dry with that cracking … that we associate with other clay masks. it really stays hydrated the entire time you use it, it’s so creamy to go on, it doesn’t have any weird tingling [feeling] before you go out for an event. I put it on in the bath, Colin loves to use it, it’s great for redness reduction.”
The Outset Restorative Niacinimide and Bakuchiol Night Cream
“This night cream is so ‘yum.’ When you open it, it’s so creamy, I wanted that night cream that when you put it on your skin, in the morning you still feel the benefits of it, so if you didn’t want to wash your skin in the morning you would still have that juicy, hydrated skin,” says Johansson. “I’m rubbing [it] into my cuticles because I cannot waste a single drop. It has niacinamide so your skin is working overnight to reduce those fine lines, when you wake up in the morning you have that juicy glow. It’s like a $300 cream but it’s $54.”
Notes Foster, “the best skin-care products are the ones that you use. We’ve all had that $250 cream from somebody…and you put it on your shelf…”
“… And over two years later you’re still doing little drops of it. No. You want to be scraping the bottom of this, because you use it every day,” Johansson adds.
“Inside every single product we have our botanical alternative to hyaluronic acid, Hyaluroset Complex,” says Foster. “This is a better botanical alternative [to that] game-changing, gold standard in hydration in beauty products these days.”
What you won’t find in The Outset? More than 2,700 other potentially irritating ingredients the brand has banned from its products, such as sulfates, phthalates, plastic microbeads, talc, triclosan, synthetic dyes, toluene, petrolatum, parabens, mineral oil, gluten, aluminum powder and more. The Outset is also tested by dermatologists for allergens, and it’s a member of 1% for the Planet and works with nonprofits including One Tree Planted and Dress for Success.
Johansson asked one thing of Amazon shoppers: “Please give us all of your reviews, we want all of your feedback, that’s how we learn, that’s how we make new stuff for you guys … Here at the Outset, we have set very high clean standards for ourselves and we’re constantly going back in and really take a lot of feedback from our customers, so please, please, please review us on Amazon.”
Amid the latest “Sephora tweens” trend, the 39-year-old Black Widow star and Foster explained why they encourage their own daughters’ interest in skin care.
“My daughter is 9 and she’s just starting to get into skin care because it’s so popular with young people now, which is wonderful because I wish I had a gentle skincare routine when I was a pre-adolescent,” she explains in the Amazon stream. “I’m totally comfortable with her using these products; we tested them when I was pregnant.”
Adds Foster, “My 12-year-old daughter, my 40-something-year-old husband and my 80-year-old mother all use The Outset, and it works for them because we’re focusing in on the skin and giving it the hydration and the balance that it needs which is super age-appropriate, whether you’re 12 or 102.”
Following her latest Saturday Night Live appearance, Johansson recently fronted in a Prada campaign, stars in the upcoming rom-com Fly Me to the Moon alongside Channing Tatum, lends her voice to the animated Transformers One and is in talks to lead Jurassic Park 4.
In the Amazon Live video, she reveals exactly why it’s important for her to keep a “baseline” three-step skin care routine amid her whirlwind schedule. “I will say one thing because I am extremely busy and I also have very sensitive [and] acne-prone skin, I find comfort in my trusted, tried and true products. Using them every single day, twice a day, that it how I stay on top [of it]. And then if I have time of course, I’m going to add our Blue Purifying Clay Mask or Boosting Oil.
I’m one of those people, I get sent a lot of products … I can’t use any of them because this is my holy grail. I can’t stray from them — it’s the Outset effect! If you are using a whole bunch of different products and you love to test and try everything which is fun, again, you can always return to your best self with The Outset products.”
Johansson also shared her favorite — and super-simple — beauty hack: “Honestly, putting the serum in the fridge is game-changing. And using the boosting oil with your gua sha tool.”
Keep reading to find out more of Johannson’s favorite clean beauty products from The Outset, and shop them below and at Amazon Beauty online.
The Outset Exfoliating Caffeine Micro Polish
The Outset Botanical Barrier Rescue Balm
“We created this as a lip treatment, it was so good I asked Kate if we could make it giant for you guys,” explains the actress. “You can put [the Botanial Barrier Rescue Balm] on your lips, flyaways, cuticles, heels, anywhere where you have dry skin. And it’s so cute to put in your purse.”
The Outset Vitamin C Smoothing Eye + Expression Lines Cream
“This is Colin’s personal favorite, our Smoothing Eye + Expression Lines Cream. He’s the first man I’ve ever known to use an eye cream, he got me on the eye cream train.”
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