Before she launched face and body care brand Mil Usos in August 2023, Becky Williams was a Spanish court interpreter and skincare hobbyist.
“I became a skincare nerd in high school in the early aughts when I found Paula Begoun’s book, ‘Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me,’” the Los Angeles-based founder recalls. “It absolutely blew my mind. Nothing was the same after that. I spent the next 20 years researching skincare ingredients and cataloging all of the information in my mind. Over the years, I became quite opinionated, to say the least, and I could never find the perfect skincare line.”
Although she couldn’t find the perfect skincare line, Williams resorted to what was available, particularly once she started doing jiu-jitsu in 2014 and taking multiple showers daily as a result. “Hygiene is really important with jiu jitsu or you risk serious skin infections like staph and MRSA,” she says. “All of the showering and the skin infection vulnerability required that I pay more attention to my skin, but the parade of complicated skincare routines was annoying, and one day I was standing in my bathroom, and I thought, ‘Well, damn it, maybe I’ll just do this myself.’”
Mil Usos, which means a “thousand uses” in Spanish, is Williams doing it by herself. Designed for athletes, the brand has three versatile products that constitute a streamlined three-step skincare routine: $32 Char Goals Everything Bar Cleanser, a bar that can function as a face cleanser, shampoo, shave cream, makeup remover and body wash, $22 Exfoliating Glove, which is billed as a replacement for face, body and lip scrubs, and $52 Total Cranarchy Multi-Use Balm, a moisturizer that can be used as a face serum, body lotion, hand cream, deodorant, and hair and scalp oil. Cranberry seed oil is a hero ingredient.
“As a brand founder, being an outsider has served me well,” says Williams, a yogi and dancer as well as a jiu-jitsu practitioner. “I simply do not accept most skincare lore that would have been indoctrinated into me had I formally worked or studied in this industry. I used to be afraid that not being a chemist would work against me because on paper I would be ‘less qualified’ to launch a skincare brand, nut it turns out that being a chemist does not automatically make you an innovator. I came in from left field with Mil Usos, and I fought with more than one chemist who did not like my concept. It’s not that the products couldn’t be made, it just wasn’t something they wanted to make.”
Formulation house Malibu Labs understood Williams’ vision that she describes as simplifying “the way no brand had simplified before.” She elaborates, “There are plenty of quality, Clydesdale ingredients in skincare that can be used for more than one ultra-specialized purpose. What if we combined the best of the best and just used them everywhere? We wouldn’t need multiple face products anymore. Hell, we wouldn’t even need to distinguish between face and body products anymore.”
“These are premium-quality products that address multiple skin concerns for the entire body, all in only three simple steps.”
Williams classifies Mil Usos as a minimalist skincare brand for people with athletic lifestyles. Its customers may stow its products in their gym bags to transition from a workout to date night. “They want to look great, but don’t have time for multi-step skincare in the gym locker room,” she says. “I know plenty of attorneys who go surfing before they come to the courthouse. They wash the sand out of their hair on the beach and need one effective cleansing product that works head to toe.”
The brand sponsors athletes, including ultramarathon runner Don Reichelt and jiu-jitsu athlete Kendall Reusing. “Athletes put their skin through the ringer, but they also have better things to do than obsess over skincare,” says Williams. “Mil Usos fills that void for them. These are premium-quality products that address multiple skin concerns for the entire body, all in only three simple steps.”
It cost Williams about $85,000 to launch self-funded Mil Usos. The process from concept to launch took about a year and a half. The process kicked off slowly, and Williams turned to Aimee Majoros, founder of the agency Aimee is Beauty, to help accelerate it. Majoros introduced Williams to Jesse Tyree, founder of Black Dog Designs, to work with her to nail down the look and feel of Mil Usos. Its color palette is heavy on bright blue, white, black and neon yellow. Williams recently quit her full-time job to focus on Mil Usos. She declines to share a sales projection for the brand.
Mil Usos is available in direct-to-consumer distribution. New products are on the horizon, and they will keep with the multitasking, all-body product theme. Williams doesn’t plan for Mil Usos to sell more than a single product in any particular category.
“If the product can’t be used by everyone from head to toe, then it’s not good enough,” she says. “So far, we have one kick-ass cleansing bar, one powerful moisturizer and one silk exfoliating glove. Once we are ready for retail, finding the right partners is going to be super fun because we can fit into so many unique spaces heretofore untouched by traditional skincare lines.”
