Clean beauty brand Tower 28 will launch exclusively at Sephora Middle East this month, marking the California-based company’s entry into one of the world’s most lucrative beauty markets. The brand, which specializes in products for sensitive skin, will roll out across all 55 Sephora stores in the Gulf Cooperation Council region starting Aug. 26 online and Sept. 8 in stores.

“We’re so excited to introduce Tower 28 to the Middle East through Sephora,” said founder and chief executive officer Amy Liu.

The Middle East launch represents a significant milestone, bringing its sensitive skin-focused philosophy to a region known for its sophisticated beauty consumers and strong appetite for high-performance products.

Bringing Tower 28’s signature “good clean fun” philosophy to one of the world’s most beauty-savvy markets is a natural step for the brand, explained Liu. “We want to give customers products that are not only clean for super-sensitive skin, but what we like to call ‘good clean fun’ — high-performance products that are safe and clean, but also fun.”

Tower 28 is the only beauty brand that is 100 percent compliant with the National Eczema Association’s ingredient guidelines across both skin care and makeup. The brand has also expanded to include approvals from the National Rosacea Society and National Psoriasis Foundation.

The Sephora partnership dates back to the brand’s early days. Liu launched Tower 28 in March 2019 and was in Sephora stores by September of that same year, eventually rolling out to all U.S. locations by March 2020. “Sephora has been such an amazing partner for us,” Liu explained. “For us they are not just a distributor, but really strong brand brokers. I am not famous, not a creator or influencer, not even an expert. So it was really important since the beginning for me to partner with a retailer that could help me build the brand.”

She shared that today Tower 28 is one of “the most productive brands” in the U.S. based on an index determined by how well the brand earns its space in stores. “We are doing about 2.3 times the average at Sephora.”

She attributes a large part of that success to the assortment of products they have on offer. Unlike many beauty brands that focus solely on either skin care or color cosmetics, Tower 28 launched with both categories from Day One, training customers to see the brand’s expertise as centered on an approach to sensitive skin rather than a specific product category.

Liu sees the Middle Eastern market as an ideal fit for Tower 28’s unique positioning. The brand’s Middle Eastern launch will include its full assortment across skin care, complexion and color categories. “The Middle East customer is a really savvy customer,” she said. “They really care about ingredient skin care, but they also care about makeup, which is exciting for us.”

This aligns with Tower 28’s performance-driven approach. “There’s such an insatiable kind of desire for products that really work. The beauty community wants the next and best.”

Liu highlighted Sephora Dubai Mall as being particularly important for the brand’s international footprint. “Sephora Middle East today is iconic, the number-one store for Sephora globally is Dubai. It represents the epitome of glamour.”

Tower 28’s hero product, the SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray featuring hypochlorous acid, will likely resonate particularly well in the Middle Eastern market, she added. The antibacterial, anti-inflammatory spray, which sells one unit every 11 seconds globally, addresses concerns around heat, pollution and skin protection that are especially relevant in the region.

“Given environmental factors there I think that is something that our products are able to play really well to there,” Liu noted. “It’s an antibacterial, anti-inflammatory product. So I think the idea that this product can really help protect, not only bring down inflammation, but keep your skin clean.”

The founder has also noted strong consumer demand from the region even before the official launch. “We’ve had interest from the consumer — the consumer has told us on social. When we would put up polls and say, ‘where should we launch next?’ we always hear Middle East.”

Currently, Tower 28 is available through Sephora in Canada, the U.K., and now the Middle East, plus Mecca in Australia and New Zealand.

Looking ahead, Liu emphasized the importance of learning from each new market while maintaining the brand’s core positioning around accessible luxury in prestige environments.

“One thing I really believe in is that assortment-wise, you have to kind of adapt to the market too, and learn from the market,” she said. “So I think that’s something that’s really exciting, is for us to go there, launch the products that we have today, but then also kind of listen to the customer and figure out what innovation looks like for a particular market.”