Molly Sims YSE Beauty is the story of a model and actress who could not find skincare that spoke to her, spent three years building it herself and then took it from her own website to every Sephora in the United States. Sims is the founder of the skincare brand YSE Beauty, now called YISE Beauty, which launched in April 2023 for women over 35 who want results without a 15-step routine. In December 2025, the company closed a $15 million Series A led by Silas Capital, with L Catterton participating. Here is how Sims got there, what the brand sells, who backs it and what the name change means.
Molly Sims YSE Beauty: Who Is the Founder?
Molly Sims is a model, actress, author, podcast host and entrepreneur. According to Forbes, she is both the founder and chief creative officer of the brand, and she co-hosts the podcast Lipstick on the Rim with her close friend Emese Gormley. Entrepreneur’s profile notes that she grew up in Kentucky, and New Beauty reported that at 52 she is a mother of three who describes running a brand as the hardest thing she has ever done.
What sets her apart from many celebrity founders is how she positions the business. Sims has been clear that the brand is not a vanity project. Forbes quotes her calling it deeply personal, and she told a retail audience in 2026 that she resisted building a “Molly Sims brand” so the company could stand on its own. That discipline is the core of the Molly Sims YSE Beauty story.
From Modeling to Founder
Sims spent more than 25 years in modeling and acting, a career that, as she told Forbes, made her a student of skincare. Traveling constantly for work meant trying products from around the world and learning what worked on her own face. Entrepreneur reported that her love of beauty came partly from her mother and partly from modeling, and that her skin problems resurfaced in her 40s.
That experience gave her two assets most beauty founders lack: a large, engaged audience and a long list of products she had already tested. Her podcast and social presence supplied the community, while her routine supplied the starting point for the product line. As she told Entrepreneur, she put one product together, then another, and that routine became the brand.
Her Marie Claire interview adds the earliest chapter. After her first baby in 2012, Sims said her skin changed dramatically, and she began testing products obsessively. That turned a personal problem into years of informal research that later fed the brand. That journey is why Molly Sims YSE Beauty began as a routine before it was ever a company.
The Problem: Skincare Built for Someone Else
Sims describes the gap she saw in simple terms. In her Triple Whale keynote, she said that no one was talking to the 35-plus woman. Many brands targeted either very young shoppers or anti-aging buyers, and women in their 30s, 40s and 50s felt overlooked. Forbes quotes her saying that more is not necessarily better, and that she wanted women to get their glow back without working so hard at it.
The company’s tagline captures the pitch: skincare for women too busy for skincare. Cosmetics Business reported that the brand is aimed at women 35 and older who want simplified, effective solutions. Its story is also rooted in Sims’ own experience with hyperpigmentation, according to the Series A announcement.
The concept came down to three steps, as Sims explained to Forbes: exfoliation, brightening and glow. That clarity is the problem Molly Sims YSE Beauty set out to solve.
Building YSE Beauty: Incubator, Formulas and Hero Products
Sims did not build the products alone. Marie Claire reported that she took her methodology and her pile of tested products to SOS Beauty Group, a Los Angeles incubator that specializes in product development. SOS president and co-founder Charlene Valledor said the team distilled Sims’ learnings and ran a deep dive with its R&D group on the most common causes of uneven pigmentation.
Sims served as what she calls the guinea pig for three years. The company’s launch materials say she tested hundreds of formulas before settling on the final line. Her criteria, according to Marie Claire, were simple and practical: products had to work, feel lightweight and not pill under makeup.
The launch lineup was small, which was deliberate. WWD reported that the brand debuted with six products priced between $45 and $88 on its own website. Sims calls the company “hero-driven,” avoiding unnecessary SKUs so customers do not face a long routine.
Today, the lineup on the YISE Beauty website includes Your Favorite Ex Exfoliating Pads at $75, Skin Glow Illuminating 3-in-1 SPF 30 Sunscreen Primer at $54, Morning Cocktail Vitamin C Brightening Serum at $85 and Xtreme Glow Dewy Peptide Plumping Serum at $68. New Beauty counts 14 products in total, including eye care, lip products and a new hydrogel sheet mask. The product design is the technical backbone of Molly Sims YSE Beauty.
Launching in April 2023
The brand launched on April 25, 2023, according to Entrepreneur, after three years of development. It was direct to consumer only, selling through its own e-commerce site and building a community through Sims’ podcast, Instagram and email.
That start mattered. In her Triple Whale keynote, Sims said the team was privileged to begin at the DTC level, because it gave them first-party data on who was buying and why. Customer feedback came directly from the community. Her bestselling eye cream, for example, came after the team asked customers what they wanted next and the answer was eye cream.
By the time the brand reached Sephora, it had two years of purchase data behind it. The slow, direct launch is a major reason Molly Sims YSE Beauty entered retail with proof instead of hope.
What the Name Means, and Why It Became YISE
The original name carries a personal story. Sims named the brand after her mother, Dorothy, known as Dottie, who died about five years before the Sephora launch and who always encouraged her daughter to be wise and to listen. YSE is pronounced “wise,” as Forbes explained. Sims told the magazine that her mother still lives through the brand every day.
The spelling has since changed. The company’s website now says YISE Beauty, and the brand’s own site plays on the pronunciation with a dictionary-style line: “wise, adj: having good judgment… most of the time.” Trade coverage describes YISE as previously known as YSE Beauty. According to a Beauty Independent profile, a trademark opposition from Yves Saint Laurent Parfums led the brand, legally MSS Beauty LLC, to rebrand to YISE in late 2025 and 2026. Because that detail comes from a single trade profile, treat it as reported rather than confirmed by the company.
The old domain, ysebeauty.com, now redirects to yisebeauty.com, so existing customers and search traffic carry over. The name change is a lesson in brand risk, and it does not change the story of Molly Sims YSE Beauty.
Going to Sephora in 2025
The brand’s biggest milestone came in 2025. As Forbes reported on May 21, 2025, the brand would launch on Sephora.com on June 3 and in 361 Sephora stores nationwide beginning June 13, becoming its first move into retail. Sims called Sephora “the mothership” and said the launch was a “pinch me moment.”
Sims explained the logic plainly: Sephora is where many of her customers already shop, and she needed to meet them there. The first in-store products were Your Favorite Ex Exfoliating Pads, Skin Glow SPF 30 Primer, Morning Cocktail Vitamin C Serum and Xtremely Rich Moisturizer.
Forbes also reported projections that Sims shared at the time. She said the brand’s growth was projected to triple that year, that its customer return rate was 43% and that she expected $2 million to $4 million in sales at Sephora over the next six months. Those are founder projections, not audited results.
Sephora’s SVP of skincare merchandising, Brooke Banwart, said the retailer was thrilled to partner with the brand as it grew its skincare offerings for clients of all ages. The Sephora launch gave Molly Sims YSE Beauty the retail reach that her own audience could not.
Inside the $15 Million Series A
On December 16, 2025, the company announced a $15 million Series A. The round was led by Silas Capital, with participation from L Catterton and existing investors Willow Growth Partners and Halogen Ventures, according to FashionNetwork. Willow Growth Partners founder Deborah Benton confirmed the news on LinkedIn.
The company said it would use the funding to expand across all Sephora doors in the United States, invest in product development and scale its direct-to-consumer business. In WWD, Sims described the spending priorities as marketing, awareness drivers, team and the Sephora build-out.
The numbers shared with the announcement were ambitious. FashionNetwork reported that the company had 120% revenue growth in 2025 and expected more than 80% growth in 2026. WWD reported that the brand was on track for nearly $30 million in revenue in 2026, according to Sims, and Pulse 2.0 noted that the company expected to more than double its Sephora business. These are company-reported figures.
The round gives Molly Sims YSE Beauty room to move from a promising launch to a scaled business. It follows a pattern seen in other fast-growing consumer brands, such as Nopalera’s Series A, where early retail traction attracts growth investors. For more on how rounds like this shape consumer startups, see our Funding News section.
The Investors Backing Molly Sims
The investor list is a mix of consumer-focused growth funds. Silas Capital, an emerging growth equity and venture firm focused on next-generation consumer brands, led the round. Its partner Brian Thorne said Sims’ approachable yet authoritative voice has been a key driver in building the community behind the brand.
L Catterton, a major consumer-focused private equity firm, participated, which signals institutional confidence in the brand’s retail trajectory. Willow Growth Partners and Halogen Ventures, existing backers, continued their support.
Investors in consumer brands typically want proof of two things: that customers come back and that retail partners sell through. The brand’s second-purchase data and the Sephora results supplied both. That mix of capital and credibility strengthens Molly Sims YSE Beauty.
Customer Data and Retention
The most interesting part of the story may be how the team uses data. At Triple Whale’s 2026 conference, Sims was joined by Susan Keating, the company’s SVP of growth and digital commerce. According to the Triple Whale write-up, the brand reports a 70% retention rate on second purchases, up from the 43% return rate Sims cited at the time of the Sephora launch.
Keating described reviewing lifetime value by acquisition channel every Monday and tracking replenishment at 30, 60, 90 and 120 days by product. The team uses that information for pricing and bundle design, and to decide which products pair well together.
Community matters just as much. Keating said the brand invites customers to its offices, holds events and recently hosted a private Zoom session with more than 300 customers. Sims said the company leads with emotion first and then with products that match what customers say they want.
Sims summed up her approach as combining gut instinct with data, and she said the data usually wins. She also said disciplined growth is the focus for 2026, warning that chasing every trend can leave a brand with dozens of products and no clear identity. Those habits are why customer insight sits at the center of Molly Sims YSE Beauty.
Awards and Press
Recognition has helped the brand stand out from other celebrity lines. According to the YISE website, the Your Favorite Ex exfoliating pads won an Allure Best of Beauty Award in 2025, and the Xtreme Glow Dewy Peptide Plumping Serum carries a People Beauty Award badge for 2026. The site also lists coverage in ELLE’s 2025 Future of Beauty Awards, Harper’s Bazaar’s hyperpigmentation serum roundup and a Marie Claire review that calls the serum “glass skin in a jar.”
New Beauty counted 14 industry awards across the brand’s products in less than three years. Awards are not a substitute for sales, but they supply third-party validation, which matters in a category where skeptical shoppers often assume celebrity brands are marketing first and formulas second. The awards are another reason Molly Sims YSE Beauty is taken seriously beyond its founder’s fame.
Where YISE Beauty Stands in the Market
Prestige skincare is crowded, and celebrity founders are everywhere. The brand’s differentiation rests on four things. It targets a specific audience, women over 35, instead of every shopper. It keeps the range small and focused on exfoliation, brightening and glow. It prices products in an accessible range, between roughly $30 and $85 for most items on the site. And it pairs clinical testing claims with a founder who is visibly involved.
The risks are real. Celebrity skincare brands often struggle once the novelty fades, and prestige retail is expensive to support. Sephora is a powerful channel, but as Sims told the Triple Whale audience, the decisions that work for Sephora may not work for direct sales, so the company has to run two strategies at once. A single retail partner also concentrates risk.
The rename adds another variable. Changing a brand’s spelling takes time to build back into search and shelf recognition, though the redirect from the old domain helps. In a crowded field, Molly Sims YSE Beauty competes on focus, community and results.
Leadership Style and What’s Next
Sims describes herself as a hands-on founder. She says she is the brand’s tester and guinea pig, and Susan Keating says she is deeply involved in product and community decisions. She also stresses team culture, telling the Triple Whale audience that if one person wins, everyone wins.
Recent news shows how closely the founder is tied to the brand. In September 2026, Sims posted an emotional video after Bobbi Brown’s Jones Road Beauty launched a concealer named Wide Awake, the same name as YISE’s bestselling eye cream. Cosmetics Business reported that Brown apologized, said her team had not realized the overlap and announced that the concealer would be renamed. A law firm commentary noted that the episode shows the gap between trademark clearance and marketplace perception.
Looking ahead, the Series A priorities are clear: full Sephora expansion across the United States, new products such as the hydrogel sheet mask and the pump-serum launch Sims previewed to New Beauty, and continued growth online. The test is whether the brand can keep repeat purchase high while it scales. That discipline will define the next chapter of Molly Sims YSE Beauty.
Lessons From the Molly Sims YSE Beauty Journey
The Molly Sims YSE Beauty journey offers five practical lessons for founders.
First, solve a problem you have lived. Sims built the brand around her own hyperpigmentation and her frustration with products designed for other people.
Second, pick an underserved audience. Women over 35 were a white space in skincare, and speaking to them directly gave the brand a clear position.
Third, start direct and learn from data. Two years of DTC sales gave the company customer insight before it entered retail.
Fourth, keep the range small. Hero products and a short routine make the brand easy to understand and easy to repurchase.
Fifth, protect the name early. The move from YSE to YISE shows how trademark conflicts can force a rebrand even after a brand has gained momentum.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Molly Sims?
Molly Sims is a model, actress, author, podcast host and entrepreneur. She founded the skincare brand YSE Beauty, now YISE Beauty, in 2023.
What is the Molly Sims YSE Beauty story?
It is the story of a founder who spent three years developing a brightening skincare line after struggling with hyperpigmentation, launched it direct to consumer and grew it into a Sephora brand backed by a $15 million Series A.
What is YSE Beauty?
YSE Beauty, now called YISE Beauty, is a clinically tested skincare brand for women over 35, positioned as “skincare for women too busy for skincare.”
Why did YSE Beauty change its name to YISE Beauty?
According to a Beauty Independent profile, a trademark opposition from Yves Saint Laurent Parfums prompted the rebrand. The brand’s pronunciation, “wise,” is unchanged.
How much funding has YSE Beauty raised?
The company announced a $15 million Series A on December 16, 2025, led by Silas Capital with participation from L Catterton, Willow Growth Partners and Halogen Ventures.
When did YSE Beauty launch?
The brand launched on April 25, 2023, selling direct to consumer.
When did YSE Beauty launch at Sephora?
It launched on Sephora.com on June 3, 2025 and in 361 Sephora stores starting June 13, 2025.
What are the bestselling products?
Bestsellers include Your Favorite Ex Exfoliating Pads, Skin Glow Illuminating SPF 30 Primer, Morning Cocktail Vitamin C Serum and Xtreme Glow Dewy Peptide Plumping Serum.
Who developed the YSE Beauty formulas?
Sims worked with SOS Beauty Group, a Los Angeles brand incubator, and spent about three years testing formulas.
Where can I buy YISE Beauty?
The products are sold at yisebeauty.com and at Sephora.
Conclusion
Molly Sims YSE Beauty shows how a founder’s own frustration can become a focused brand. By building skincare for a group she says the industry overlooked, starting direct to consumer, learning from customer data and then moving into Sephora, Sims turned a personal routine into a company with a $15 million Series A and reported 120% revenue growth in 2025. The open question is whether the brand can keep repeat purchase high as it scales, and whether the new YISE name builds the same recognition as the old one. If it does, Sims may have shown that a celebrity founder can build a durable beauty brand.
For more founder journeys in consumer brands, see Freddie Martignetti’s Rosaluna, Jen Phan’s Passionfroot and Dorsia’s Series A on Denote Press, or browse all Founder Stories.
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