It’s tough to imagine there was ever a time when baby oil was used by sun worshippers, hoping to boost their tans while lying out in the backyard or lounging poolside on vacation.
Sunscreen products also boasted a subversive and sexy vibe, as getting a suntan was not only once guilt-free, it was glamorized.
The cofounders of Vacation have tapped into this desire and cheekiness with their brand of sunscreen and sun care products, all under the umbrella of Leisure-Enhancing Sunscreen™.
Vacation is an award-winning sunscreen company from Miami on a mission to make sunscreen fun. Founded by former advertising execs Lach Hall and Dakota Green, as well as Poolsuite’s Marty Bell in June 2021, it quickly became a viral sensation, beloved for its lust-worthy products and nostalgic 360-degree brand world inspired by the sun-soaked days of 1980s beach culture.
And nostalgic 360-degree brand world is no exaggeration — from product development and packaging to social media, every touchpoint in the Vacation universe is fun and meant to “enhance leisure.”
“We looked at the history of sunscreen and realized that it was a lot more fun in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s,” Hall explains. “Once the conversation about the dangers of tanning became more frequent in the ‘90s, the whole category shifted to being more clinical. Everybody’s on board with wanting to protect their skin now and we know the dangers of skin cancer and sun exposure. So we reference ‘80s aesthetics to harken back to that time when sunscreen was more fun.”
Although the brand is all about enhancing leisure, the cofounders of Vacation are in it for the long game — and proving that their mission is serious business. In mid-May, they announced a Series A fundraising round, which is helping them reach their goal of being sold everywhere sunscreen is available (and delivering fun back into the sunscreen aisle, in the process).
(Since launching, the team has achieved a total fundraise upwards of $11.2 million.)
Lach Hall and Dakota Green met while working together in the branding agency world, where they learned first-hand that no idea was too wacky or off the wall.
“We’ve been so blown away to see that this crazy idea we had to make sunscreen fun has really moved units on the retail front too.”
Vacation can currently be found at retailers like Blue Mercury, Nordstrom and Ulta Beauty (in over 1,200 Ulta locations), as well as at “leisure” tastemaker destinations like Kith, The Standard and Ace Hotel Miami.
While the brand leans heavily into fun, the cofounders did not come here to play (function and performance are critical pillars of Vacation). The trio worked alongside Dr. Elizabeth Hale, Board Certified Dermatologist and an SVP of The Skin Cancer Foundation, as well as world-renowned perfumers Carlos Huber and Rodrigo Flores-Roux to create “Leisure-Enhancing” SPF products that are unique, always making the wearer look, feel and smell like they’ve been to paradise and back.
Vacation hit the ground running and first garnered attention with its Chardonnay Sunscreen and Classic Lotion, featuring an ‘80s retro aesthetic reminiscent of Club Med and Miami Vice.
More recent product launches, such as Super Spritz SPF 50 Face Mist (“sunscreen for business,” formulated for home, office and pool) and the whipped-cream inspired Classic Whip SPF 30 sunscreen have helped the brand become a cultural phenomenon.
The Classic Whip SPF was fueled by social media virality and continues to sell out and build waitlists in the thousands, thanks to (unpaid) viral videos on TikTok, with users drawn to its sensorial nature and how it perfectly mimics a can of whipped cream.
April saw its biggest launch of the year, the SPF 30 Baby Oil, which at first glance seems like risky business, but is actually a baby oil you should wear in the sun.
“Everyone seems to have a memory of someone they know who used to lay out and just cook themselves irresponsibly,” Hall explains. “We’ve taken the best elements of that — the indulgent side, and the shine and feel of putting that type of oil on. But we’ve made it safe to use in the sun with SPF 30 protection, and better quality oils.”
Customers have been flooding Vacation’s channels with their own memories of using baby oil in the ‘80s and ‘90s during the height of tanning culture — the cofounders are helping customers relive that experience, but this time safely.
“We’ve got all the safety credentials, so we 100% tick all the boxes and make sure that our products are ‘excessively good’. We go above and beyond to make them even better than industry standard. All brands in the market are talking about the importance of being natural and clean, while neglecting a whole other side of sunscreen that could be wildly fun and creative.”
Fragrance is also a key pillar for all Vacation products. So much so, its signature scent has been replicated to create a perfume (the “Eau de Toilette” has garnered awards and been a standout seller for the brand), candles and car air fresheners. It turns out, vacation has a distinct scent: mixing classic sunscreen notes of coconut, banana, pineapple, orange blossom, with classic poolside notes featuring pool water, pool toys and swimsuit lycra.
“It’s all designed to transport you to this happy place for vacation memories, and the company itself is a big part of that story. On our Instagram, we make it look as if we have this wild, enormous sunscreen company, with hundreds of thousands of employees, and departments and facilities all around the world, and our customers are all employees at that crazy place.”
The approachable, inclusive vibe of the brand can also be seen in the invitation for consumers and fans to fictitiously become part of the company, by providing feedback, becoming community members, and signing up for updates.
“We have a lot of fun with the brand internally — our customers and community are all part of the company too,” Hall adds. “We actually interact with them as if they are employees. For example, on our Instagram, we’re always communicating to our community as an ‘important company announcement’.”
Its Instagram account boasts nuances and “Easter eggs” that also point to vacation vibes, adding to the social feed’s identity as more of a character or personality, versus a marketing channel. (The feed follows one single account. Not the cofounders of the brand, not even its sister brand, Poolsuite. No. It follows Jimmy Buffett, the icon of sun-soaked getaways.)
The marketing speaks to the quintessential family vacation, as opposed to exclusive, aspirational resorts.
“We’re more about celebrating all-inclusive resorts rather than five-star luxury. It’s more about playing into the classic idea of what a nostalgic vacation looks like.”
After all, ‘vacation’ means so many different things and is subjective. As a result, Vacation’s cofounders are usually in the background, intentionally choosing for the brand itself to be at the forefront and the “hero.”
Lach continues: “Vacation mean its own thing to every single person. So if I, or my business partners, inject our version of vacation, then it changes the whole dynamic.”
“We had this idea to make sunscreen fun,” Hall shares. “We created a wild, crazy Willy Wonka-style brand of sunscreen with all sorts of weird concepts, but we had no idea whether it would resonate with people. We just wanted to do this and we knew it would be fun.”
Vacation is clearly here for a good time — and a long time.
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