by Megan Moyer, corporate marketing manager, as appeared in Inside Beauty for Drug Store News
Pacifica has been creating products designed to be efficacious while protecting the planet from the beginning. Brook Harvey-Taylor, Pacifica founder with her husband Billy Taylor, says college is where her interest in plants, nature, and how scent can affect people started.
“I was kind of a scent nerd. I was into fragrance and blending fragrances in my kitchen, always mixing essential oils. I apprenticed with an aromatherapist. I became obsessed with how scent and nature could make people feel different and scent became this vehicle to feeling better and I really felt like I could do more with it.” Taylor’s husband encouraged her to start her own company.
By 2013, the brand launched in Ulta, and, in 2014, Target. “We always wanted to be very science-informed, rooted in nature, and create products that worked really well and were affordable. We’ve had these key tenants in everything we did and our goal really hasn’t changed. It’s always been to help people feel good inside and out.”
Taylor explained further, “I saw my mom, when I was a kid, and it felt like beauty marketing was about fear — fear of never being good enough. I always wanted beauty to be a change for good, and I felt if we could blend nature and emotional well-being to take care of people we serve, we could make beauty a force for happiness and not insecurity.”
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The first products produced by Pacifica were perfumes and their first big sale was at a Grateful Dead concert. The company quickly moved into skin care. “I’d been experimenting with skin care forever and I actually went to school to become an aesthetician.”
Taylor says a differentiator is value. “My goal has always been to create prestige products at a better value so more people have access.” She believes their use of plants is a big point of difference too. “I love plant alchemy and making sure we’re using plants that do things for your body and your mind.”
She notes Pacifica products are 100% vegan and adds, “We’re very community driven — we’ll never launch a product unless our community has given us permission to do so. We conduct consumer surveys and we always have a write-in box asking what they would like to see from Pacifica and we really listen. A great example of this was haircare, which we launched because we had so many people asking for it.”
Top products include Glow Baby Booster Serum, the Sea Foam Complete Face Wash, and their Bacne Warrior Acne Fighting Body Spray. Taylor lists their Wake Up Beautiful collection, which features a gentler retinoid, and their Dream Milk Magnesium Body Spray as other popular products. “Our magnesium body spray is popping off at Ulta right now. It has geranium in it and smells amazing. So not only is it delivering the magnesium, it also smells incredible. When you go to bed, it has this really beautiful aromatherapeutic scent.”
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The Pacifica loyalty program rewards points for every interaction including promotions and purchases. Members have early access to new product drops and may be chosen to test products in development.
While Taylor is excited about product launches coming in 2026, she says they are also focused on refining their current product lines, centering on their hero products and being intentional about the story behind them. “This is our 30th year. Our key categories are hair, skin, scent, and body, and that’s where we’ll continue to lean in. We’ve dabbled in other things in our history, but we’re really focusing and as we think about development, for me, it’s really much more about how we stay true to our heroes like we have.”
Taylor also is looking to make sure customers and consumers understand what Pacifica is about. “I want to spend more time educating our customers about why I created certain products and how amazing some of the ingredients are that we use.
That’s going to be a really big push for 2026 is getting that education out there through me.” She also wants to share how intentional they are about their formulas and efforts to use PCR (post consumer recyclable) packaging whenever possible. “We minimize virgin plastic and use a lot of glass. We really believe that to feel good shouldn’t come at the expense of animals or the planet. As we grow, we’re doubling down on our responsibility as a brand and taking accountability, which is really critical.”