In 2018, a new kind of makeup tube arrived in Brooklyn. It was not for a specific gender or skin tone, but for anyone who wanted bold, metallic lipstick or glitter. The brand behind it, Fluide, was built on a clear technical specification: cruelty-free, vegan, and free of parabens, phthalates, and formaldehyde [Nylon, 2018-2020]. Its founders, Isabella Giancarlo and Laura Kraber, were not chasing the mass market. They were building for queer and gender-expansive consumers, a wedge into beauty defined by identity and ethics, not just aesthetics.
For four years, Fluide operated as a direct-to-consumer brand with a mission layered into its business model. It donated 5% of its profits to LGBTQ+ organizations like the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project [Wikipedia, ongoing]. The product line was compact, focused on expressive items like liquid lipsticks, nail polishes, and glitters, all manufactured in the United States [Nylon, 2018-2020]. This was a lifestyle business, funded by friends and family [PitchBook], aiming to prove that inclusive branding and clean ingredients could carve out a sustainable niche.
The operational wedge
Fluide's approach was a classic DTC playbook applied to a specific community. The founders handled creative direction and operations, launching with a curated line rather than a vast catalog. Their manufacturing choices and ingredient exclusions were a form of product differentiation, appealing to consumers for whom 'clean' and 'cruelty-free' were non-negotiable. The 5% donation was not just philanthropy, it was a core part of the brand's identity and customer value proposition, directly linking each purchase to support for LGBTQ+ health and legal services.
The brand garnered coverage in niche fashion and LGBTQ+ publications like Nylon and GO Magazine, which celebrated its mission to liberate makeup from patriarchal standards [Nylon, 2018-2020] [GO Magazine, 2022]. This press served as its primary marketing channel, building a community around shared values. However, the business remained small. No scale metrics, named enterprise customers, or subsequent funding rounds were ever disclosed in the public record.
A sober assessment of what went wrong
Fluide's closure around 2022 highlights the persistent challenges of scaling a values-first, niche DTC brand. The market for vegan and cruelty-free makeup has grown crowded, with large incumbents and well-funded startups all competing on similar claims. Fluide's technical differentiators,its specific ingredient exclusions and U.S. manufacturing,likely increased unit costs, squeezing margins in a price-sensitive online retail environment.
Without venture capital to fund customer acquisition or expand inventory, the brand was reliant on organic community growth and press hits. When those streams proved insufficient to achieve breakout scale, the path forward narrowed. The founders' backgrounds, while passionate, are not noted in sources to include prior experience in scaling a cosmetics brand or managing complex supply chains, which are critical for navigating the capital-intensive beauty industry.
The legacy of a four-year run
Fluide's story is less about a failed startup and more about the real-world constraints on mission-driven commerce. It successfully served a community and delivered on its product promises for four years. Its closure, announced in a bittersweet note in GO Magazine, was framed not as a failure but as the end of a chapter [GO Magazine, 2022]. The brand demonstrated that there is a demand for explicitly gender-inclusive beauty, a segment larger brands have since begun to court more actively.
The technical breakdown of its shutdown is straightforward: the unit economics of a small-batch, ethically-manufactured product line, combined with a limited marketing budget and a reliance on a narrow customer base, could not generate the revenue needed for long-term viability. The bet was that community and values would be enough to drive sustainable growth. For four years, it was enough to exist. To go further would have required a different kind of engine.
Sources
- [Nylon, 2018-2020] Meet Fluide, The Brand Breaking The Beauty Industry's Gender Norms | https://www.nylon.com/articles/fluide-genderless-beauty-profile
- [Wikipedia, ongoing] Fluide - Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluide
- [GO Magazine, 2022] Bidding A Bittersweet Goodbye To Fluide, The Queer-Owned Cosmetics Company | https://gomag.com/article/bidding-a-bittersweet-goodbye-to-fluide-the-queer-owned-cosmetics-company/
- [PitchBook] We Are Fluide Company Profile: Valuation & Investors | https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/267828-22