For Tower 28 founder and CEO Amy Liu, launching the brand’s first foundation has been a long time coming. “This is literally the product that I was looking for,” Liu shared during a recent episode of The Beauty Authority. “This is the reason why I started the company.”
After years of dealing with eczema and reactive skin, Liu knew the dilemma of wanting makeup to cover redness and uneven texture while worrying it could make her skin worse. “I really wanted to cover up my face and make my skin look better,” she said. “But then I was so worried that I was putting something on my face that would make my skin worse.”
That experience helped shape Tower 28 from the beginning. Liu wanted products for sensitive skin that still delivered everything she loved about makeup: performance, color and fun.
The Foundation She Wanted All Along
The result is Tower 28 Swipe Serum Foundation ($36), a 36-shade, a 36-shade, medium-buildable formula made with 82-percent skin-care ingredients. It includes glycerin, squalane, fermented oat and portulaca extract and is the first and only foundation to receive the National Eczema Association Seal of Acceptance.
Liu was hands-on when it came to getting the formula right. During development, she bought foundations across Sephora and compared them directly with Tower 28’s. “Every day I would wear ours on one half of my face,” she said, with another foundation on the other.
The goal went beyond coverage and finish. “I try to think about not just myself, but the broader umbrella of sensitive skin,” Liu said, including those with acne-prone skin. It’s an approach that has defined Tower 28, from its sensitive-skin-friendly makeup to its popular SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray.
Perhaps the biggest endorsement comes from Liu herself. Despite founding a makeup brand, foundation had never been part of her routine. “I’ve never worn foundation until this,” she said.
Accessible Coverage
Accessibility has been part of Liu’s vision for Tower 28 from the beginning, including the price point. “One thing I set out to do was I really wanted to democratize product,” she said. The foundation comes in at $36, a price Liu was intentional about maintaining despite the testing involved. “Why is it that the things that are more clean or safer for sensitive skin or have been really tested, why is that something that is only for someone really wealthy?”
That accessibility is also about reach. Liu says Tower 28 is becoming more global than ever, including a launch at MECCA in Australia and New Zealand.
In the U.S., Swipe Serum Foundation launches August 19 exclusively on the Sephora app, August 20 on Sephora.com and August 24 more widely.
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