“I just thought,” says Remi Brixton, the CEO and founder of cult LA-based beauty brand Freck, “wouldn’t it be incredible if you could just put on freckles? If you look at my childhood drawings the dog has freckles, the sun has freckles, the plants have freckles. I just always thought that they were beautiful.”

And so, ten years ago, whilst still in college, she came up with the idea to create a beauty product which allows you to draw on your own freckles. “My girlfriends were like, ‘Yeah, that’d be cool!’ But apart from them everyone I told was like, ‘No! What a completely horrible idea!’”

Nevertheless, in 2017, after a chance meeting with a cosmetics manufacturer in New York, Freck OG was born – a little tube of reddish-brown liquid pigment that you dab over your cheeks to create artificial freckles.



“I just created Freck for me and my friends, my little community in LA,” Brixton explains, “I NEVER expected it to blow up as much.”

This morning she and her COO, Des Wilson, are sat in a hotel café celebrating their Instagram reaching 85,000 followers.

“Actually though,” says Brixton, “when we started I did a Kickstarter that went very viral and very much failed. It was embarrassing and I went into my little depression hole for a couple of months.”

“But,” she continues, “it was actually a huge blessing in disguise because this is a waay better product and then Des came on board in early 2018.”



It was then that the pair began formulating a skincare range, what has since become their Cactus Collection. “We were hanging out in my pool,” (the most LA thing) explains Wilson, “just playing around with ideas and there were cacti everywhere. And it is so good for you - in LA it’s really a thing to have a prickly pear margarita.”

And it is so good for your skin,” she continues. “So we met with our labs and did a lot more research and realised that there are anti-inflammatory properties in cactus, it is super hydrating, it has loads of antioxidants… And we were surprised that there was nothing on the market at the time.” So, they decided to develop a group of five products all infused with cacti.



The Foreclay clay mask “is great,” explains Brixton, “because a lot of clay masks dry out your skin, but because this one is infused with cactus it is actually very hydrating.” The moisturiser, Rich Bitch,  is “loaded up with vitamin C!” And Lil Prick, a cactus seed dry serum, is “designed to seep into the skin and not lay on the surface causing breakouts and clogging pores”. Their Cactus Water toner is one percent lactic acid making it “really effective but also super gentle”. And Brixton’s personal favourite, So Jelly, is an eye gel infused with plant collagen.

“I think,” says Wilson, “people can overthink things when creating a product. But sometimes it is just like: 'Calm down!' You know? I feel like everything we’ve put out has always started as a fun floaty idea…”

“Yeah,” interjects Brixton, “I think that is just how it all came into being - all just pretty natural and easy.”


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