| Cult-favorite brand Supergoop launched in 2007 with a mission to create SPF-based skincare that feels so comfortable on the skin people want to wear it every day for broad-spectrum sun protection. If you’ve never heard of Supergoop, you may think it is part of Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle company, Goop, but it’s not. Supergoop is a sunscreen-based skincare and cosmetics line founded by former teacher and harpist Holly Thaggard one year before Paltrow’s Goop. Thaggard started Supergoop to help end the skin cancer epidemic after receiving her close friend’s melanoma diagnosis at 29. She didn't even intend for Supergoop to be a retail brand, but an effort to put sunscreen pumps in every school across her home state of Texas. While researching, Thaggard learned that skin cancer is by far the number one cancer in the world, yet largely preventable with daily SPF use. As a former teacher, she wanted to protect school-aged children from the sun’s harmful rays during recess and outside activities. However, Thaggard experienced more governmental regulation and bureaucratic red tape than anticipated; almost every state prohibits sunscreen in public schools because it classifies as an over-the-counter drug. Left with only private schools to sell to, Thaggard feared her startup was doomed to fail and had to rethink her business model. Pivoting to retail, Thaggard began attending trade shows. She referred to her SPF-based formulations the chemists were working on as “goop,” and the one that finally worked was “super,” and just like that, Supergoop was born. Thaggard printed her phone number on the Supergoop packaging, which resulted in a call from a skincare buyer with Sephora, who advised her to seek press. In a bold move, Thaggard spent double the brand’s annual sales to hire a publicist. This move paid off when Supergoop was subsequently featured in magazines like People and Redbook and got pitch meetings with Sephora and Nordstrom, both of which started stocking Supergoop in the summer of 2011. Thaggard built her company with a commitment to product transparency and skin cancer prevention education. Her goal is for the products to be clean, effortless to apply, and comfortable on the skin, making them a hassle-free and desirable addition to skincare routines year-round, and not just in the summertime. For clean ingredients, Supergoop was the first SPF brand to avoid oxybenzone in any of its formulas. The entire line is free of synthetic fragrances and parabens, as well as more than 1,600 other questionable ingredients from their “no list.” In addition to being reef-safe and cruelty-free, all Supergoop boxes and shipping materials are 100% recyclable, and the brand is constantly identifying and implementing new and innovative ways to make the company greener and lessen its carbon footprint. When doing her initial research, Thaggard found that the number one reason people don’t use sunscreen daily is because of the way it feels on the skin. She realized that a feel-good formula had to be an essential part of the brand to motivate people to wear it every day. All Supergoop products have a luxurious, refreshing, indulgent feel on the skin, rather than the sticky, greasy, smelly formulations of traditional sunscreens. Finally, product innovation. Supergoop takes SPF to new, unique, and unexpected places by infusing it into products people already use every day, such as primer, eyeshadow, setting spray, and dry shampoo. This revolutionary move is meant to change how people think about sunscreen and to promote its habitual, daily, year-round use. | 
