Last 12 months – after seemingly defying age for the past 20 years – Pharrell Williams launched his own skincare range, Humanrace. Revealing the secrets to his glowing complexion, the musician, designer, and artist teamed up along with his long-time dermatologist, Dr Elena Jones MD, to release a cleanser, enzyme exfoliator, and humidifying cream. With vegan formulas and sustainable designs, the road was intended to simplify skin-care right into a manageable “three-minute facial” ritual. 

Now, Pharrell has added to the offering – dropping Humanrace’s first bodycare collection. “We’ve spent the last 12 months encouraging you to look after your face, but there must be some form of distinction between the time you spend in your body and the time you spend in your face, you possibly can’t lump all of it together,” Pharrell tells us. “You need to handle your body too.”

Akin to the skincare range, the bodycare products are simplified and easy. Approaching the gathering with “the planet in mind”, the drop features a Reenergizing Whiteclay Body Bar with kaolin, snow mushroom extract, and shea butter and an Energy Channeling Charcoal Body Bar with charcoal, rice powder, and jojoba seed oil – each packaged in FSC-certified paper cartons with vegetable ink, to make sure non-harmful packaging.

The bars – besides being vegan, fragrance-free, and cruelty-free – are designed to “balance, hydrate, and smooth” skin while balancing your body’s pH levels and maintaining a healthy dermal barrier. In line with the Humanrace website, the ‘Whiteclay’ bar provides a each day cleanse and the ‘Charcoal’ bar needs to be used two to thrice per week, for a practical routine.

Each product can also be fastidiously crafted with character and performance in mind. “The body bars are a custom shape that matches within the palm of your hand nicely,” he notes. Pharrell – who has previously noted his interests in Japanese culture – also released a ceramic dish to rest the products on, made in Arita, Japan. “We would like it to look beautiful in your house but in addition be functional for you.”

Celebrating the products, Humanrace has unveiled a latest campaign – created by visual artist Harley Weir – which features Pharrell lying naked in a marble bathtub. “I spend every morning taking a shower, it’s an element of my morning ritual and it’s where I get a whole lot of my inspiration and concepts from,” he says. “It was a natural decision to indicate the body bars in the bathtub with me in these images.”

Beyond the products, Humanrace hopes to encourage shifts in skincare’s usual monolithic standards – encouraging people of all races and genders to interact confidently with skincare and self-care. “The matrix is changing,” says Pharrell, explaining that he hopes to depart the skincare category higher than the best way he found it. “It’s changing daily. As time changes and things evolve, so do people’s horizons.”

“We will only get there by having one conversation at a time,” he adds.

Shop the bodycare products now here.