20 years in and still fresh as ever.

When partners in business and life, Matthew Malin and Andrew Goetz, launched Malin + Goetz in 2004, it was with $150,000 of non-public savings and a single door, an internet site within the nascent days of the web and now-defunct Barneys Latest York as its retailer.

Between the appearance of digital sales and the golden age of beauty specialty retail, the market dynamics have shifted dramatically. But what’s kept Malin + Goetz on the expansion path is doubling down on its value proposition as a design-led, no-nonsense brand focused on fewer, simpler products — marketed to each end of the gender spectrum.

In its 20-year history, those tenets have led it to broaden its footprint to 18 freestanding stores, 44 countries and 1,200 hotel and amenity partners globally.

“We began at a time when every brand had hundreds of over-packaged products. Other than Bliss, nobody was doing anything modern or minimal when it comes to packaging,” Malin added. “We actually took advantage of that.”

“We were the one ones doing gender-neutral products on the time,” Malin continued. “Fresh had gone to LVMH, Stila went to Estée Lauder and Kiehl’s to L’Oréal. We thought we could possibly be a part of the subsequent generation of independent brands.”

True to that ethos, the brand has been restrained in its product development, slowly constructing out key franchises without flooding an already saturated beauty market. In June, it is going to be introducing two recent Eucalyptus products for body — a hand and body scrub, in addition to a body gel — that may respectively retail for $36 and $44.

Though the pair see value in newness, grapefruit cleanser and vitamin E moisturizer, Malin + Goetz’s heroes it launched with, are still its bestsellers. Though each declined to comment on sales, industry sources place last yr’s global revenues around $50 million.

Here, the duo describes what’s given the business its endurance, the strategy for the a long time to come back and the spaces they plan on disrupting next.

How have you ever seen the sweetness landscape evolve in 20 years of business?

Andrew Goetz: It’s modified enormously. We used to say our distribution strategy was the Army, the Air Force and the Marines. We were very recent, but additionally very unique. The barrier to entry was harder, though, because stepping into malls was so difficult.

We also began in a world before social media, which was fortunate. I don’t know that we were that strategic, it was a matter of fate. So many brands now launch direct-to-consumer, which wasn’t even remotely an option for us. We wanted to the touch our customer, which is why the shop was so essential.

Matthew Malin: Men were just starting to take a look at luxury grooming products, it wasn’t a spotlight in the way in which that it’s today. There was this moment in time where we could capture a male customer in a way that today’s competition wouldn’t allow.

You now have a sturdy fleet of stores. How has your distribution strategy evolved?

A.G.: Our hospitality business has been an enormous aspect when it comes to exposure, because we never had much national exposure. There have been only 4 Barneys doors on this planet.

M.M.: We never assumed the supermarket mentality of beauty retailers now. We wish you to walk right into a store, we would like it to feel like a special experience. It’s not a simple model to scale, and it definitely hasn’t been easy for us, and it’s taken an extended time. But we’re the beneficiaries of that, as are our customers because they get a singular experience of their neighborhood. But that’s not a rocketship approach, it’s the tortoise beating the hare.

What’s been effective in driving customer acquisition?

M.M.: Last yr was our biggest yr, and digital was driving a number of the brand new customer acquisition. Our stores and digital are about 50/50. Within the U.S., and particularly as we globalize, it’s more women impulsively, for the very first time.

A.G.: I feel that’s also due to where we’re distributed. However the corny answer is that it’s because we’re doing what we’ve all the time done and we’re doing it well. We’ve never really wavered from our raison d’être.

How are you evaluating which geographies to enter, and which markets do you see essentially the most opportunity in?

M.M.: The U.S. is pretty split between men and ladies in urban, metropolitan areas. The shopper has grown up a bit of bit with us, but generally, it’s an entry-level skincare consumer around 35. But now, we’re expanding outside of major metropolitan areas to higher net-worth suburban markets.

A.G.: Once you get to more suburban areas, it’s a trickle-down from the people in Latest York and Los Angeles driving a number of the trends. They follow suit, and so they’re also traveling.

You currently play across personal fragrance, home fragrance, hair care, skincare and body care. How are you fascinated about product development?

M.M.: We launched with face, body and hair because the thought was to make skincare easy and uncomplicated. We made an amazing facial cleanser, we made an amazing peppermint shampoo, after which it’s about finding methods to complement that for the client. That’s enabled us to fill whitespace throughout the assortment without it feeling overwhelming.

A.G.: We’re adding more body products in our Eucalyptus franchise because people love that deodorant, and it’s very easy for people to enter with body. They’re possibly a bit more conscientious with what they placed on their faces, and possibly less adventurous. Considered one of the explanations our hotel program has been so successful is since it’s body and hair. Once they’re comfortable with the body products, they migrate to facial skincare.

That said, our grapefruit cleanser and our vitamin E moisturizer have been our bestsellers since we launched 20 years ago. When people find them, they love them and so they all the time come back. They’re easy to make use of and so they’re accessible. We’ve never chased the most recent ingredient, we’ve been about this slow, methodical development that creates one of the best product possible, and a number of the times, customers will see that a trend is nearly hype and so they come back to products with integrity.