Scarlett Johansson launches The Outset skincare for sensitive skin

Scarlett Johansson is turning the credibility of a long beauty résumé into a skincare brand built around one of the market’s most crowded promises: products for sensitive skin. The Tony winner and two-time Oscar nominee said she had struggled with acne and sensitivity for years, and she framed The Outset as an answer to the complicated routines that dominate much of the category.

The brand launched on March 1, 2022, with an initial lineup reported at five products, later described as six. Early prices ran from about $32 to $54, putting the line squarely in prestige skincare territory even as it leaned on a minimalist pitch. The Outset expanded to Sephora in April 2022 after first selling through its own website, a rollout that gave Johansson both a direct-to-consumer test and access to one of beauty retail’s most influential shelves.

Johansson co-founded the company with beauty executive Kate Foster Lengyel, signaling that the venture was built with industry experience, not celebrity endorsement alone. The Outset describes itself as clean, effective, accessible skincare, and says its formulas are designed for sensitive skin and dermatologist-tested. Its current assortment spans a gentle micellar antioxidant cleanser, a firming vegan collagen prep serum, a nourishing squalane daily moisturizer, a restorative niacinamide night cream, an eye cream and a lip treatment, covering the basic steps of a streamlined routine.

That positioning matters because Johansson entered beauty after years as the face of luxury houses including L’Oréal, Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana. The move suggests a familiar celebrity-founder playbook, in which personal story becomes consumer trust and fame becomes a substitute for years of brand-building. But The Outset tries to separate itself from the usual endorsement model by tying the pitch to Johansson’s own skin concerns and by focusing on a narrow problem set rather than a sprawling product universe.

Sephora’s listing reinforces that message by identifying The Outset as founded by Scarlett Johansson and presenting the line as a simplified, clean option. In a market crowded with celebrity skin care, the brand’s test is not whether Johansson can attract attention. It is whether a star name, paired with a sensitive-skin promise, can persuade shoppers that this is more than another famous face entering an already saturated aisle.