Skin-care founder Angela Caglia on the stem cell technology that created 437% sales growth: 'It's transformed the business'

After more than seven years in business, Angela Caglia Skincare is having its hockey stick moment. 

“Our sales are up 437% in the past year,” founder Angela Caglia told Glossy. “We'll finish this year at close to $4 million [in sales] and around 90% of that will be the Cell Forté Serum; it’s all we're promoting.”

Since launching the hero product in October 2023, the brand’s Cell Forté Serum has garnered several beauty industry awards from publications like Elle, Byrdie, TZR and Essence, and sold out three times on Violet Grey. And it was the catalyst for the brand’s expansion into Nordstrom last month. 

Caglia’s focus now is keeping the serum in stock, and she hopes to expand the franchise next year with face and eye creams. The serum retails for $395 for 1 ounce.

The serum’s value proposition rests on its ability to replace antioxidant and hydrating serums, like those focused on vitamin C and hyaluronic acid, as well as exfoliating products and retinols, Caglia told Glossy. 

The brand leads marketing materials with results from a 28-day clinical study where nearly all participants (87-91%) reported less hyperpigmentation, increased luminosity, improved skin elasticity and a more youthful appearance. 

The serum is powered by "human-derived adipose mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) conditioned media," a technology Caglia discovered when researching treatment options for her mother’s ongoing treatment of dementia. Today, she sources the material from a stem cell research lab based in Texas that specializes in stem cell banking and FDA-cleared clinical trials, she told Glossy.

MSC-conditioned media is sourced from fat, called adipose tissue, which is donated by young and healthy plastic surgery patients and then processed in a lab. As Caglia explained in the latest Glossy Podcast episode, the stem cells are removed from the tissue and placed in a human-like environment where they excrete growth factors, cytokines and proteins, which are then used in the serum. The stem cells, which hold the patient’s DNA, are removed before the broth goes into the serum. 

Growth factors are a bit like little emails: They tell the other cells how to regenerate and act younger, which we don’t fully understand yet. 

Caglia is only one of very few brands playing in this space. Whereas there are many brands — like Eighth Day and Dr Diamond Metacine — that offer "bio-identical copies" of growth factors, few brands offer human-derived versions of growth factors. 

According to market research company Spate, growth factors are a rising trend in online searches alongside skin care, with an average of more than 32,000 Google searches per month over the past year, marking a notable +202.7% surge.

Coglia joins the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss her new hero product, Cell Forté, as wll as her journey to the brand's hockey stick moment.