Clarisonic, or Pacific Bioscience Laboratories, Inc., was a company based in

Redmond, Washington Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 73,256 at the 2020 census, up from 54,144 in 2010. Redmond is best known as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America. With an a ...

that produced the Clarisonic line of skin care devices. The company was sold to L'Oreal in 2011. In 2018, Clarisonic devices made up 14% of the skin care device market. In July 2020, L'Oréal announced it would discontinue the Clarisonic brand and products, choosing instead to focus on other core business offerings. It is speculated that the actual cause was increasing competition from cheaper alternatives as the skin care device market grew. As of September 30, 2020, the business and brand were discontinued.

Availability

During its peak days, Clarisonic products were available to spa owners, physicians and consumers, and the brand was available in over 50 countries.

Co-Founders

Clarisonic was founded by David Giuliani, Robb Akridge, Steve Meginniss, Ward Harris, and Ken Pilcher in 2000. Giuliani, Clarisonic's CEO, is the former co-founder and CEO of Optiva, which developed the

Sonicare Sonicare is the brand name of an electric toothbrush produced by Philips. Product and technology The brush head vibrates at hundreds of times per second, with the latest models at 31,000 strokes per minute or 62,000 movements per minute (517 ...

line of toothbrushes. Giuliani sold Optiva to

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

Oral Healthcare in 2000. Akridge was a scientist at Optiva Corporation before co-founding Clarisonic. He holds a bachelor's degree from University of Texas, a Master of Science degree in biology from

Texas State University–San Marcos Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...

and a doctorate in microbiology from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. Ken Pilcher is the lead inventor of Clarisonic's skin care systems. In the past, he has developed avionics for the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

, as well as medical electronics. Clarisonic was backed by angel groups including

Keiretsu Forum Keiretsu Forum, which was founded in 2000 by Randy Williams, is a private group of international members comprising an angel investor network. The network has 53 chapters in cities such as San Francisco California, Seattle Washington, New York C ...

who provided the seed capital for the company

Awards and recognition

2012 *

Glamour (magazine) ''Glamour'' is today an online women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. For many years a traditional hard-copy magazine, it was founded in 1939 and first published in April 1939 in the United States. It was originally called '' ...

Best Skin Device *

Allure (magazine) ''Allure'' is an American women's magazine focused on beauty, published monthly by Condé Nast in New York City. It was founded in 1991 by Linda Wells. Michelle Lee replaced Wells in 2015. A signature of the magazine is its annual Best of Beauty ...

Best of Beauty

References

{{L'Oreal Brands Companies based in Redmond, Washington Cosmetics companies of the United States Skin care L'Oréal brands 2011 mergers and acquisitions