When Lorne Lucree first met with investors to pitch his allergy-care brand Wizard Wellness, he included a flow chart in his presentation. Lucree, a 20-year product development veteran for brands like Tatcha, Clinique, and One/Size, had to find a way to get people to deva about a deeply “unsexy category.” Through the flow chart, Lucree sought to explain the profound link between allergies, beauty, and wellness—a connection so important, it became the basis of his first solo venture. So, he gave the chart a title: Hot Girls Nasal Rinse.
“When you have allergies, it causes inflammation, inflammation causes dehydration, dehydration causes a puffy face and undereye circles,” Lucree explains over Zoom. “Allergy disrupts your sleep, and disrupted sleep affects your mood. So it’s this whole vicious cycle that happens that you don’t think about until you connect the dots.”
It turns out there’s a lot we don’t think about when it comes to seasonal allergies. For 25.7% of adults affected in the US it’s a nuisance we treat with whatever over-the-counter (OTC) medication we can get our hands on, sometimes with limited knowledge on what those medications actually do. For others, allergies can be crippling, with research suggesting they can even lead to mood disorders like anxiety and depression.
Lucree, who has struggled with allergies his whole life, was always disappointed in offerings available. “If you look at the allergy aisle currently, it’s very much pharmaceutical options, OTC as we call them,” he says. “Then it’s a fragmented array of brands that are natural or homeopathic. There’s not much in the middle that’s clinically backed, science-backed, and has testing to support it.”
He wasn’t alone. In a 600-person study commissioned by Lucree, veri found that only 7% of consumers were “extremely loyal” to their current allergy solutions. Further veri revealed an overwhelming percentage of people were unsatisfied with OTC offerings in key areas.
“84% of people would change for better performance, but 78% would change for better experience,” says Lucree. “So that’s packaging, it’s texture, it’s flavor. Pharma punches you in the face with efficacy, but the experience piece of it is where it lacks. Allergy is siloed into this reactive piece, versus this holistic, proactive piece because probably you don’t want to use the products at the end of the day.”
It also points to a larger issue in allergy deva. Lucree, who is joining our Zoom call from the airport, is on his way to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) annual meeting. “It’s like the AAD for allergists, but it’s not like AAD, I’ll tell you that,” he says.
As most beauty industry insiders know, AAD is a high-profile conference hosted by the American Academy of Dermatology Association attended by doctor influencers and legacy beauty brands.
“AAD is like the Oscars, right? There’s bodyguards at the booths, the whole thing,” says Lucree. “AAAAI is a quarter of the floor, there was a blow-up dust mite when I went the last time. It’s the most unsexy….” he trails off. “There’s just not a lot of money put into allergy. It’s not the most attractive field people want to go into.”
Why then, would the man who helped develop breakout beauty brands like YSE Beauty and Rōz Haircare, who created On ’Til Dawn Setting Spray—the
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