Pacifica Beauty began when Brooke Harvey Taylor decided to try mixing up perfumes in her kitchen—and has grown into a global brand worth an estimated $250 million. "I was super inspired by scent and by the magic of experiencing beauty in a new way," she told Jamie Matusow in our Beauty Company of the Year story, when she spoke about how she founded the company in Portland, Oregon in 1996.

Pacifica Beauty is now multimillion dollar, global company that still operates as an indie brand in many ways—but it is embracing change to implement new strategies and setting its sights on international growth.

“For the last 25 years we have pushed to democratize clean, vegan and more sustainable beauty with our accessible price points," says Harvey-Taylor. Pacifica's eco-friendly messaging and clean ingredients are finally a mass trend—not a niche demand.

Harvey-Taylor is sometimes referred to as "the godmother of clean beauty." When Stellar Gaze Mascara launched in 2013, it was one of the first clean mascaras on the market.

Harvey-Taylor says that no matter how big the company becomes, she won't ever lose sight of her mission to create beauty products crafted with compassion for people and the planet.

Now with over 300 skus, Pacifica Beauty keeps its dedicated consumer base interested with a continuous flow of new product launches. Makeup, skincare, hair care, and perfumes draw consumers in with packaging that conveys a "beachy" West Coast vibe—and most products have an alluring scent that keeps consumers hooked.

Harvey-Taylor Talks About the Power of Scent

Pacifica's first products were fragrances before the brand pivoted to focus on other products, but scent is still a huge part of the brand's allure. Its Pineapple Curls Shampoo and Coconut Vanilla Moisturizing Conditioner, for example, smell good enough to eat. You may even find yourself thinking of a tropical island getaway while you're in the shower—and that's the intent.

Harvey-Taylor is a big believer in the power of scent and its link to emotions.This is evident in the brand's new "functional fragrance" collection. Harvey-Taylor says every note has a purpose. "I have a hidden aromatherapy agenda," she says.

The 7 New Scents

The line includes seven scents, each with an "AromaPower," a term coined by the brand. "AromaPower is the power of scent to transcend time and space, bringing us back to memories and places while inspiring us forward," Harvey-Tayler states. "These invisible, powerful mood-lifters will positively impact your mind and mood."

Each fragrance in the line serves a purpose—whether it's calming, mood-boosting, or grounding—and the formulations are backed by neuroscience, the brand says.  

The collection includes Montana Sky, a grounding unisex scent with cedarwood, elderflower, earthy sage, and pepper.

Beach Day blends salt, sandalwood, orange flower, and smoke notes; Island Vanilla mixes sugar, vanilla, and jasmine with vetiver and white cacao to "inspire euphoria." Passion Fruit is "energetic," with passion fruit, pineapple, and vanilla.

Indian Coconut Nectar includes coconut, vanilla, sugar crystals, and resinous amber to inspire calmness. Silver Moon is a unisex earthy blend of vanilla, tonka, almond, woody santal, and cardamom.

Dream Moon is designed to "evokes feelings of love and gratitude" with sandalwood, patchouli, and pink rose.

Colorful Glass & Aluminum Bottles

The collection's perfumes are in colorful glass bottles, and body sprays are in aluminum cans. "We wanted to make sure the colorful packaging conveyed positivity," says Harvey-Taylor.

The glass bottle design is inspired by 1960s milk glass. "The bottles are colorful, but have a milky transparency. We worked really hard to percect this 'vintage vibe,'" she says.

The bottles have a screw-on atomizer. "If you crimp this component, you can't recycle the bottle—so we spend extra money to create custom bottles with the screw-on type," she says.

Pacifica's Roots in Fragrance—& Its Explosive Growth

Pacifica's backstory explains why Harvey-Taylor is so passionate about fragrance. She moved from Montana, where she grew up, to Oregon in the early 1990s to study aromatherapy—and met her husband, Billy Taylor.

Harvey-Taylor created her first seven fragrances in her kitchen when she founded the brand, and then, along with her husband, took them to a trade show in San Francisco. She also made eco-friendly candles infused with her essential-oil-based scents.

"Pacifica" would become a cruelty-free, 100% vegan brand, she decided, where the source of every ingredient would be researched and confirmed that it was vegan. After hearing amazing feedback at her first trade show, the husband-and-wife team set up a factory—and in 1997, Whole Foods was one of the first retailers on board to carry Pacifica's products.

Fast-forward ten years to 2007, and Pacifica had now branched out into making cosmetics with clean ingredient lists. By 2008, Pacifica grew to earn  $12 million in revenue—and by 2014, that number doubled.

Then in 2016, Pacifica accepted its first investment, selling a minority stake in the company to Alliance Consumer Growth. The private equity firm remains an investor today.

Pacifica kept its manufacturing local until 2019, operating out of a factory and warehouse in Portland since the company began.

Now, production and shipping are outsourced, which was a difficult decision Harvey-Taylor says, but necessary to keep up with growth and focus on expansion.

Setting its sights on becoming a global brand, Pacifica partnered with a new investor in 2022, Brentwood Associates, which excels in helping brands scale. Nathalie Kristo, formerly of Huda Beauty, took the reins as Pacifica's CEO.

Together with Harvey-Taylor as company president, Kristo began to implement changes to take the company to the next level. This month, Pacifica named Andres Sosa as its chief marketing offer.

We can't wait to see what's next.