Clarisonic, or Pacific Bioscience Laboratories, Inc., was a company based in Redmond, Washington that produced the Clarisonic line of skin care devices. The company was sold to L'Oreal in 2011. In 2018, Clarisonic devices made up 14% of the skin care device market. In July 2020, L'Oréal announced it would discontinue the Clarisonic brand and products, choosing instead to focus on other core business offerings. It is speculated that the actual cause was increasing competition from cheaper alternatives as the skin care device market grew. As of September 30, 2020, the business and brand were discontinued.

Availability

During its peak days, Clarisonic products were available to spa owners, physicians and consumers, and the brand was available in over 50 countries.

Co-Founders

Clarisonic was founded by David Giuliani, Robb Akridge, Steve Meginniss, Ward Harris, and Ken Pilcher in 2000. Giuliani, Clarisonic's CEO, is the former co-founder and CEO of Optiva, which developed the

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line of toothbrushes. Giuliani sold Optiva to

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

Oral Healthcare in 2000. Akridge was a scientist at Optiva Corporation before co-founding Clarisonic. He holds a bachelor's degree from University of Texas, a Master of Science degree in biology from

Texas State University–San Marcos Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...

and a doctorate in microbiology from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. Ken Pilcher is the lead inventor of Clarisonic's skin care systems. In the past, he has developed avionics for the

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, as well as medical electronics. Clarisonic was backed by angel groups including Keiretsu Forum who provided the seed capital for the company

Awards and recognition

2012 * Glamour (magazine) Best Skin Device *

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Best of Beauty

References

{{L'Oreal Brands Companies based in Redmond, Washington Cosmetics companies of the United States Skin care L'Oréal brands 2011 mergers and acquisitions