Glow Recipe co-founders Sarah Lee and Christine Chang just might have their grannies to thank for inspiring them to create no fewer than nine watermelon-spiked beautifiers. As young girls apparently in need of hydration, each had their mugs rubbed with the fruity rinds by their grandmothers, instilling a life-long love of the ingredient.
Today, Glow Recipe’s Watermelon Glow product patch is filled with everything from Ultra-Fine Mist and Pink Dream Body Cream to PHA + BHA Pore-Tight Toner. For two of the products in the Watermelon Glow lineup — AHA Night Treatment and Niacinamide Dew Drops — one of each is sold globally every 12 seconds.
“Watermelon is an amazing ingredient for hydration, without being too heavy or pore-clogging, which it makes it suitable for all skin types,” says Lee. “The watermelon extract in Glow Recipe products hydrates, delivers essential vitamins and amino acids and visibly brightens skin.”
From face masks (Bliss What A Melon Reviving & Destressing Overnight Mask), to a makeup sealant (Urban Decay All Nighter Hyaluronic Acid + Watermelon Extract Long Lasting Makeup Setting Spray) and a chic, vacation-in-a-bottle fragrance (Badgley Mischka Château Vizcaya), watermelon is finding its way into all facets of beauty.
And as with Glow Recipe’s battalion of watermelon workhorses, there’s also a family connection behind Bella Skin Beauty’s Watermelon Probiotic Underarm Toner.
The organic beauty brand, co-founded by mother-daughter duo Diana Shneider and Alex Bella, tapped the latter’s experience as a sports-obsessed teen to develop the popular problem-solver.
“Alex had a major sweat and smell issue growing up,” says Shneider. “She played junior professional tennis, and having to deal with deodorants and anti-perspirants that didn’t work was extremely frustrating.”
Resorting to double applications to keep odor at bay, Alex developed irritation and itching from bacteria build-up. That’s when the proverbial aha moment went down. “I thought, if people are having an issue with hundreds of deodorants, maybe it isn’t the deodorant,” says Shneider. “Maybe it’s the way we use it.”
Enter the patented underarm toner, which is layered beneath deodorant, blocks bacteria, and, per Shneider, benefits all. “People sweat and smell for all different kinds of reasons,” she says. “It could be hormonal, stress-related, menopausal, postpartum, detoxing. We always have something going on that will cause our body to sweat and produce odor.”
Blessed with potent anti-bacterial properties that naturally blocks odor, watermelon was a slam dunk for the innovative confidence-builder, says Shneider. “It was our very first OG scent.”