Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Celebrity | September 29, 2026
Bad news for fans of celebrity skincare lines. The Outset, the skincare brand launched by Scarlett Johansson, is shutting down operations after four years of business. The announcement was made on their website:
After an incredible journey, The Outset has made the decision to wind down operations. We're so grateful to everyone who welcomed us into their routines and supported us along the way.Online shopping at theoutset.com has now ended, but all existing orders will continue to be processed as usual.
Admit it, you probably didn't know that Scarlett Johansson had a skincare line. But believe it or not, The Outset was considered by many to be one of the better celebrity beauty brands. It was a vegan-friendly line that wasn't hugely expensive and whose minimalist design felt very of the "Clean Girl Aesthetic" moment. Johansson was heavily used in marketing, of course, but she wasn't ubiquitous with The Outset in the same way that, say, Rihanna is with Fenty Beauty/Skin. The plan was to make it a long-term brand that didn't need her name or presence to keep it afloat. As early as this year, Johansson was giving interviews to Forbes talking up the brand and her plans to grow it. That doesn't seem to have worked.
Skincare is a very crowded field, and it's an expensive one to get a foothold in. Much like seemingly every celebrity had a make-up line in the early 2010s, celeb-fronted skincare is everywhere in the mid-2020s. Johansson and co-founder Kate Foster described their desire to create what they called the "white t-shirt" of skincare: simple, versatile, universal. It makes sense on paper but that was also an already popular subset of the biz. Look at Hailey Bieber and Rhode, which is astonishingly popular.
With Bieber, she is also inextricably entwined with her brand's success, being its most prominent face and an embodiment of its cool factor. Rhode fans are devoted to her and the company, often in weird parasocial ways, but it sells! To her demographic, she is Rhode, and the aspirational aura she embodies is highly appealing. It also helps that the products have a good reputation and Bieber has proven willing to listen to feedback, such as when her blushes were criticized for not suiting darker skin. With Johansson, I never heard any complaint about the products themselves, and I get why she wanted them to stand independent of her name, but that's not how the market works these days. Johansson is not on social media (jealous) so she didn't have a captive audience to push The Outset onto. I don't blame her for not wanting to be an influencer, but you have to use what you've got.
I also have to say that I have never associated Scarlett Johansson with amazing skin. Sure, she is astonishingly beautiful, but I'm not sure she was ever viewed as a clean skin idol. Skincare is a tough product to put your face to, especially if you're famous. Customers are willing to believe that you would wear your own lipstick, but in the age of Botox, fillers, facelifts, and threads, it's tougher to sell the illusion that a woman in her 50s with poreless porcelain skin achieved that with a serum. It feels fake most of the time, right?
Johansson will be fine. She's got two major sequels in her future, for The Exorcist and The Batman. And she's used to failed business ventures, like her Paris popcorn shop or her Sodastream endorsement, which she chose over an ambassadorship with Oxfam because the company's factory is on occupied land in the West Bank. Maybe Colin Jost can buy up all her unsold stock.
