"I was born in NY as the fourth generation of living Italian women who chose NY as a home, for it was Rich with Mediterranean cultural influences on every street. See the picture to the right holding my daughter - 5 generations!
"They weren’t rich. They made most of their own clothes, grew their own vegetables and herbs. We never dined out, we ate home as a family, cooking and laughing together. Some of those same ingredients we used in food we also used on our skin.
"My great-grandmother had dewy smooth skin into her 90s! She ate whole foods and used natural ingredients on her skin. “Healthy inside gives you healthy outside” she’d say.
"There was always a little jar of olive oil in the medicine cabinet to be used as a makeup remover, facial moisturizer, and body lotion. She used lemon juice for my acne and for her dark spots.
"My single hippie mom worked multiple jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads since I was 9 (she got zero help from my dad) and all the while she taught me how to read labels and the importance of putting things in and on our bodies that are healthy, because we couldn't afford to be sick! Lessons I use everyday in my personal life and in this company.
"This passion has resulted in the supercharged, toxin-free, botanically rich recipes of all the IN YOUR FACE products. Good skin comes from eating plenty of veggies, avoiding processed foods, drinking more water, and having people in your life who encourage your dreams! Consume less. Walk more. Let go of the past. Sever unhealthy relationships. Drink green tea. Sweat every day. Shut off the TV. Help someone. Smile at strangers…and use IN YOUR FACE SKINCARE!
"I think they're all proud of the products and help we're providing at IN YOUR FACE SKINCARE. ❤️"
XOXO, Denice
Denice continues, "As I grew up and lived on my own I became an actress. The idea of paying half my paycheck for a designer face cream filled with chemicals just didn’t make sense. But working in front of the camera demanded great skincare. I would get great DIY tips from top Hollywood makeup artists and Beverly Hills dermatologists. I continued my family's tradition and started making my own facial elixirs in my kitchen from crushed herbs, teas, oils, even fermenting my own fruits!
"As I moved behind the camera as a professional photographer/director, I stared at skin all day through the microscope of telephoto lenses and bright lights. I became even more determined to find out what was keeping certain women's skin dewy and bright while other women, even younger, had skin that was wrinkled, blotchy, and dull.
"I had been managed by the Hollywood legend Jay Bernstein and he and my agent recommended that I take Acutane® to get rid of the few Italian blemishes I would get. This was pre-internet and I had no way of researching the long-term effects it would have on my skin. I thought the dried plams, chapped lips and overall dryness would subside. It did not, but it did lead me on the journey to search for real answers to my new dry-skin dilema.
"This image is a shot with me and the amazing actress and stuntwoman Julie Michaels (Roadhouse, Point Break and others) in a vampire film I starred in and directed, originally called "Song of the Vampire" and now called "Vampire Resurrection.""
Denice spent a number of years searching for a moisturizer that would help her damaged skin, the way that she wanted to get help = without fillers or plastics. When she wasn't able to find that, she found a botanical chemist and asked if they could work on something just for her.
Denice recalls "For the next few years I would use it on myself and I started to make smaller jars to give as gifts to my closest friends in Los Angeles. They loved it!"
With every Mother's Day gifting or Birthday for her circle of close friends in LA, the questions of "This stuff is amazing. What are you doing with it?" grew.
"I never intended on selling it." Denice said "But when we moved to Manhattan in 2016 the idea became more real. I had some friends who were selling products on Amazon and they kept telling me I should sell something. Especially since I had a bit more time on my hands as I'm not a Broadway actor and flying to LA to do photography was more than I wanted to do.
"I told them the only thing I would want to sell is this moisturizer I've had made for me, but I have no idea how I'd do that." she said.
After a series of conversations with people who sell "things" she and Michael made the decision to give it a try. Things changed in 2017.
THE CREAM was launched from the Duff's apartment in Chelsea, NY on Black Friday of 2017 from a "funnel" Michael had built and using photos Denice shot - just like this.
Michael said "We arranged to have 350 jars filled as "a trial" to see if anyone would buy them, and they sold out in a single weekend from just a few posts on Denice's Facebook. We were pretty floored."
"Over the next 2 years we would fill the orders from this same apartment and would walk them every day to the Post Office at Madison Square Garden. It was a magical time!" remembers Denice.
Once people got a taste of THE CREAM, the raves and reorders began, but so did the questions: "This is SO good. What else do you have?" "When are you going to make a serum... a wash... an eye cream...?" etc., etc.
Denice said had never considered making a full line of products and it wasn't until they got this feedback that she started reaching out to other labs who could help her realize her on her vision of luxurious, healthy results-driven products.
After the untimely passing of Denice's Mom Phyllis, we decided to pack the whole lot (cats, plants, Harley and the rest) into a 26' Penske truck and drove south to the adorable little house just south of Clearwater Beach, Florida that Phyllis left us, which we still call home today.
The idea was to take the money we saved on rent for a Manhattan High Rise and put it into the new products Denice had already been working on. This was the end of 2019.
She was flying around the country to the hand-picked labs we found who could bring Denice's formula visions to life. We realized that sooner than later we would eventually have to do everything on our own but for now this would have to do.
By February 2020 we had three new products ready to go for our April 15th, 2020 launch date. They were:
MOISTURIZING WASH, DEEP ENZYME CLEANSE & VITAMIN C PLUMPING SERUM
As you can imagine we were very excited about the new products and website launch - and we had no idea what would be happening in March. Flights were cancelled, confusion reigned and lives were turned upside down, but we had fortunately dodged a bullet in moving months earlier. It would have been nearly impossible to do what we were planning to do from our high-rise apartment in Manhattan.
We launched the new site on April 15th 2020 anyway, and to our delight, you showed up!
By the Summer of 2021 both Denice and Michael were finally working full time on IN YOUR FACE SKINCARE. Michael had taken completed the last client job with his own Marketing & Design Firm (Duffweb), grabbed their lead designer and a developer and started building what has become a 3-time Inc. 5,000 Award Winning company who are obsessed with giving you Compliment-Worthy, Make-up Optional skin.
"2021 was the year we also got our first Clean Room and were now filling products in house that were being sent in bulk buckets to us from those hand-picked labs we spent months researching and did it all from our little 1200 sq/ft office with the red ceiling. It somehow matched the Tampa Bay Bucs colors, and with Tom Brady still being on the team, we were fans." said Michael.
This is also the year they hired their first formulator to help Denice create new products and they grew the product count from the original four in 2020 to eleven by the end of 2021.
"It was a crazy pace but so much fun! Michael and I never fought so much." smiled Denice.
This was also the year that the brand was catching the eye of some high-profile new fans. The likes of TV icon Jenna Elfman, SNL's Chloe Fineman, Marisol Nichols of Riverdale and more began spreading the word for free to their own followers. "It was surreal, humbling and such an honor to think that those whose face is such a huge part of their livelihood are trusting that asset with our products." said Michael.
Michael said "Denice doesn't care about awards. To me this was more of an acknowledgment of how good the products are and how well our tiny little team worked. We were the 3rd fastest growing private skincare company in the US and that was a great feeling."
Having tripled their footprint in 2023 by taking over a vacant store next door, they were able to add staff and production capabilities beginning to create products from the ground up for the first time. "Not having to wait on other labs' production schedules was kay for our small-batch ethos and not running out as often while trying to keep up with products continually selling out with the increasing demand." added Michael.
IN YOUR FACE SKINCARE is a small batch company by choice. Michael said "We’re a small, family-run company and pay more for our high-quality herbs and oils because we are not buying them in huge bulk quantities, because if they sit around, they lose their effectiveness. And without using inexpensive filler ingredients that increase the shelf life to 3 - 4 years, our formulas are filled only with high-quality, fresh botanicals and actives, so they have a best shelf life of approximately 18 months.
"That’s why you probably won’t see us in big retail stores. 😊
"Also, the processes we use to create our products (especially THE CREAM) take longer than most brands, and that’s so we can get the most from the active ingredients we use. We make only what we need and have almost zero waste.
"It is a more expensive way to produce, but we feel (and our customers seem to agree) that it's worth the investment."
While THE CREAM continues to be the Hero Product and not only the first product most customers try, it is also one of the most re-purchased products continually delighting thousands of customers. In keeping with that level of product quality, the last 18 months IN YOUR FACE SKINCARE released the most "Sciency" products in the BIO PEPTIDE EGF-6™ FIRMING SERUM and the 5X RESURFACING PEEL PADS (in multiple packaging versions).
There is no slowing down on the horizon as Denice has been very busy in the last couple of years creating one of the most asked-about products since the release of the customer favorite EXFOLIATING GLOW BODY POLISH. You can see a sneak peek of it here. That fragrance (yes, fragrance) will be released in August of 2026 as the first in a planned Aromatherapy line.
Also on the horizon are more proof that the award-winning, cult-following brand is not resting on its laurels and will be releasing a
