Led by Duke University senior Sarah Houston, Aurganics is a skincare-based wellness startup, focused on products that treat the needs of underrepresented skin tones of Black and Brown people. The Durham-based startup is founded on the belief that skin is worth more than gold. The name “Aurganics” combines Au—the symbol for gold on the periodic table—with “organics,” since the company uses herbal and plant-based ingredients.
Houston and Aurganics are participating in the 2023-24 cohort of Duke’s year-long Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs Accelerator. [We have also written about cohort members Alleviate Health, Hayha Bots, SaveOr, College To Climate and Infinity Portal.]
Houston has always had an entrepreneurial spark since she was 7, from selling frappuccinos in her own home “cafe” to starting her own online bakery in high school. In 2020, as a passion project during the pandemic, she started creating all-natural bath and body care products such as body scrubs, bath salts and lip scrubs from kitchen ingredients for her friends and family.
From that experience, she realized she had the potential to create a genuine skincare product that would not only fuel her own entrepreneurial spirit, but would also help people understand and take better care of their skin.
Aurganics strives to create skincare products that treat the specific needs of black and brown skin tones, since those complexions are more likely to be affected by hyperpigmentation, which are dark spots that appear after a breakout or acne scarring. Hyperpigmentation is usually worse in darker skin tones because they have more melanin.
Houston said that as her own target customer, she wanted the opportunity to help other Black and Brown women feel valued, empowered and beautiful in their natural skin, using products made specifically for their skin types.
“As a dark-skinned Black woman, I’ve never really felt seen in the beauty industry,” Houston said. “A lot of skin care advertisements today don’t address deeply melanated skin types.”
According to the National Psoriasis Foundation, white individuals make up 75% of dermatological clinical trials, furthering an important challenge that people of color face, as they could react differently to treatments and medicines. With an additional incredibly low percentage of Black dermatologists, the representation for addressing black and brown skin issues is even more sparse.
That’s why Houston took it upon herself to earn a diploma in organic skincare formulation from U.K.-based Formula Botanica and learned how to create her own formula best fit for her products and target demographics.
Aurganics initially partnered with a private label cosmetic manufacturer, where they provided an unbranded formula for Houston to then customize and put her brand on it. The company’s first product initially used the private label formula, but Houston is reverse formulating it to be completely custom, so that her product feels like her own contribution to herself and the people she strives to help.
Aurganics soft-launched its first product, the Alpha Glow Serum, in early 2023 on its site but most of the sales came from in-person tabling events on Duke’s campus. Houston said the product received tons of great reviews and no reported irritation while using the product.
By altering the formula to later call her own, Houston hopes to launch the new serum and other skincare products to contribute to the growing $18B skincare market. Currently, there isn’t really an established market for hyperpigmentation care because it’s still an emerging category, so Aurganics is first targeting the $2.7B acne care market to reach its target demographic of 18-28 non-white women, which is a $680M market. Houston believes her company can capture 5-10% of that market in the next five years.
Houston’s dedication to expanding inclusive skincare is what got her and Aurganics into this year’s cohort of the Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs Accelerator, a year-long intensive program designed for Duke students who are committed to launching and growing their companies. She said that since being a part of this cohort, she finds it comforting to be around other student-founders who are just as dedicated to their work on top of their academics.
“Being a student founder is not for the weak,” Houston said. “Being surrounded by a group of people who are also going through the same thing as you is really refreshing because we’re all in it together.”
Houston believes that everyone should feel worthy in not just their skin, but in their whole body. She wants to eventually incorporate self-care events sponsored by Aurganics, such as yoga, meditation, journaling, affirmation exercises and more. Even within her own team, they start their meetings with meditation and affirmation exercises.
“I see skincare as a form of meditation,” she said. “When you’re doing your skincare routine, you’re probably looking at a mirror and staring at yourself, touching your face. In meditation, it’s also just you sitting with yourself and your thoughts and I feel that the skincare experience is as important for you to feel at peace with yourself.”
