Jon Shanahan and Devir Kahan and the wedding day breakout

They just happen to be a cosmetic product. That line from Jon Shanahan explains Stryx better than any launch deck.

“They just happen to be a cosmetic product,” Jon Shanahan said. It sounds like a throwaway, but it is the whole strategy in one sentence.

Stryx was started by Devir Kahan and Shanahan after Kahan noticed a breakout on his wedding morning during his final year at Yeshiva University. He asked around, heard other men were borrowing a partner’s makeup, and decided there was room for cover designed for men from the start. The tagline on the site still carries that wink. You do not need perfect skin to have perfect skin.

What the brand is now is concealer led and deliberately plain spoken. Black twist sticks, finger blending, no brushes, copy that says leave no trace. By 2022 it was in 2,000 CVS doors, 650 Target stores moving toward 900, plus Nordstrom Men’s in New York and Urban Outfitters. About 70 percent of buyers had never bought cosmetics before. That is the number Gloss Report keeps coming back to.

What others miss is how retail literate the restraint is. Stryx refused the cosmetic aisle, asked to sit with razors and shaving cream, kept shade count tight, and talked about reorders and undertone shift instead of transformation. This conversation is about what sold, what that placement cost, and why four shades had to do the work of twelve.

Every customer we have ever surveyed said the reason they have not bought a concealer is they are intimidated by the cosmetic aisle. You found that before you had scale, then you asked CVS and Target to put Stryx with razors instead. What did that placement change in who picked it up?

We learned that fast. Guys told us they would sneak into the women’s aisle at drugstores or steal cosmetics from their girlfriends, then never go back because the aisle made them feel like outsiders. Every customer we have ever surveyed said the reason they have not bought a concealer is they are intimidated by the cosmetic aisle. So we stopped asking them to be brave and changed the shelf.

At CVS we went into around 2,000 stores in the shaving aisle. At Target we sat with razors and shaving creams. That told a first timer this sits next to products you already buy. It reads as a grooming essential you can use alongside your other products. They just happen to be a cosmetic product. Sell through followed because the barrier was location as much as formula.

Your origin is specific, a breakout on Devir’s wedding morning in his final year at Yeshiva, then recruiting a former Apple marketer who called himself class clown in high school. How did that pairing set what Stryx would and would not do?

I was the breakout, Devir was the wedding. He noticed it that morning and started asking friends if they had ever used a partner’s makeup. A lot of them had. That is where the idea started. Since 2017 is how we count it internally, even if press dates the public launch to 2019. It began as one problem on one face.

Jon came from Apple and First Insight and YouTube, so he knew how to explain a product without lecturing. From the start we said Stryx is the first company to conceive, from start to finish, what cosmetic and skincare products would be if they were made for guys. Our mission is to help men embrace the skin they are in and feel confident enough for self care, even if they do not know how yet. That meant easy, accessible, applicable. No brushes. Just dab a small amount onto the area and blend in with your fingers.

You say your biggest competition has always been stigma. With 70 percent of buyers new to cosmetics, what actually moved a skeptic from watching a TikTok to buying a twist stick?

Our biggest competition has always been stigma, and we are still fighting the fight. Price helps. Education helps more. I answer comments myself, including the one about what tinted actually means that did 18.2 million views. Guys want a direct connection, not a joke at their expense. We want to feel like we are having a direct connection in a way versus trying to be too funny.

The format is simple. Uncap, twist the bottom, apply a small amount to subtly conceal the problem area. Dab with fingers until blended in. No kit, no mirror routine. Leave no trace and be kind to your face is how we talk about finish. When a broker or an actor or a model sees redness or razor burn disappear in ten seconds, and no one can tell, that is the conversion. Then the reorder tells us if the shade and wear time were right.

The Concealer Tool comes in four shades, Light Cognac, Medium Mahogany, Dark Eclipse and Deep Java, in a 1.8g stick that claims to adapt rather than sit on top of skin. Four shades for the US market is a tight call. How do you defend that count, and where does it stop working?

Four shades was a retail and formula decision. We formulate with adaptable natural pigments, titanium dioxide and iron oxides, plus mica and silica, so the shade shifts a little with how much you apply. A little goes a long way, and sheer coverage forgives more than full coverage. For a first time buyer, four clear options beat a wall of thirty with confusing undertones.

I will say plainly where it strains. Very fair cool skin and very deep warm skin need more nuance than adapt can give. Payoff, which is how much color transfers in one swipe, and finish, which is whether skin looks matte or dewy, both read differently across undertones. Undertone is the warm, cool or neutral cast beneath the surface. If your undertone sits outside our middle range, you will work harder to blend. Shade extension, meaning adding lighter, deeper and more nuanced options, is the obvious next lever if reorders support it.

They just happen to be a cosmetic product, so we put them where grooming already lives.

Jon Shanahan

The Tinted Moisturizer has three shades against the concealer’s four, and it adds a small amount of salicylic acid while promising sweat, water and oil resistance. What is it for in a real routine, and what should buyers not expect?

Tinted Moisturizer is the everyday step. It hydrates, reduces the appearance of redness, and evens the look of skin tone and texture. It contains a small amount of salicylic acid, which can help with acne prone looks, but this is makeup with a skincare assist, not treatment. We have not clinically tested it as an acne product, and we do not talk about it that way.

Wear time is the honest test. Wear time is how long coverage still looks right before it fades, creases or transfers. Transfer is what rubs onto collars, phones or hands. We formulated concealer and tinted moisturizer to hold up through sweat, water and natural facial oils, which matters because men’s skin often reads oilier and rougher and thicker. Use a pea size amount, blend with fingers, build only where you need it. If you want full cover or a matte mask that lasts twelve hours, this is not that product.

By 2021 sales were up 250 percent, then Shark Tank in May 2022 brought a 600,000 dollar offer from Robert Herjavec on a 600,000 for 5 percent ask. What did that television moment do to doors and to inventory planning?

Television compressed a year of education into eight minutes. We pitched in New York seeking 600,000 dollars for 5 percent, and we left with a 600,000 dollar offer from Robert Herjavec. Total prior sales cited around that time were near 2 million dollars. After air, traffic spiked, shade selectors got hammered, and the Starter Kit at 40 dollars did a lot of work. It pairs concealer and tinted moisturizer to give clear looking skin on day one and better looking skin by day 30.

Doors are the count of stores that stock you, and sell through is what actually scans at the register. We were already in 2,000 CVS doors, with Target at 650 stores expanding toward 900, plus Nordstrom Men’s in New York City and Urban Outfitters. The show helped velocity, which helps reorders. It also punished any shade that was thin on stock. If we had all those venture dollars, we would enter a ton of different categories, but we stayed tight. Cover first, then eyes, shine, lips.

You refused hyper masculine posturing when a louder look might have earned quicker clicks. How did that choice show up in packaging and copy, and did it cost you attention?

If we were a little more in your face or if we were a little more hyper masculine, it might be easier to get attention from guys, but that never spoke to us from a product perspective or from a brand perspective. We kept sticks black and discreet, white text, pocketable, with what we call an addictive click on the twist. Solid and scratch resistant, because it lives in a bag next to keys.

Copy stayed calm. Treat your skin like it is for life. Leave no trace. Be kind to your face. We formulate 100 percent cruelty free with leading cosmetic chemists, no animal testing at any stage, full INCI on the site. No harsh ingredients is our line, and we mean no intimidation either. Did it cost us some attention. Probably. Every five years, guys are getting new ways to groom, and loud brands spike first. We wanted the second purchase, not just the first view. Women use the products too, which tells us the restraint reads as inclusive rather than coded.

Last question from the buyer side. The Starter Kit pairs your two bestsellers for 40 dollars. If someone buys one thing to test the idea, which shade and formula should they start with, and how do you know when it is right?

Start with the Concealer Tool. Choose by jawline in daylight, not by wrist. Light Cognac if you burn fast and redness shows pink, Medium Mahogany for the middle, Dark Eclipse deeper, Deep Java deepest. Twist once, tap less than you think, blend with a clean finger until the edge disappears. The right match vanishes at arm’s length. That is the leave no trace check.

If redness is diffuse across cheeks or you want tone evened everywhere, go to Tinted Moisturizer in the closest of its three shades. Same test. Check at hour four and hour eight in office light. Good wear still looks like skin, just calmer. If it grays, goes orange or gathers around the nose, the shade or amount is off. Keep the receipt logic we respect. If a product sold as universal does not include you, return it and tell us. That feedback is how shade extension gets funded.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is how clearly Stryx understands its first timer. The brand did not ask men to learn the cosmetic aisle. It moved the product, shrank the routine to fingers, and let reorders grade the work.

Stryx set out to make cover that reads as grooming, made for oilier, thicker looking skin, in packaging that disappears into a pocket. It is not the loudest idea in men’s beauty. On sell through and on second purchases, it may be one of the more honest.

Product spotlight

Concealer Tool, 25 dollars for 1.8g. A twist stick concealer in Light Cognac, Medium Mahogany, Dark Eclipse and Deep Java for acne, redness, razor burn and scars. Uncap, twist, tap a small amount and blend with fingers until the edge disappears. Sheer and adaptable by design.

Tinted Moisturizer, 25 dollars for 1.75 oz. A sheer tint in Light Cognac, Medium Mahogany and Dark Eclipse that hydrates and evens the appearance of tone and texture. Contains a small amount of salicylic acid. Use a pea size amount over clean skin, build only where needed, check wear at hour eight.