Meghan Markle's As Ever Brand Just Validated What Small Luxury Makers Have Known for Years

When Meghan Markle launched As Ever in early 2025, the beauty world braced for think-pieces about celebrity brands and market saturation. What nobody expected? The loudest response came from small independent makers — and it wasn't criticism.

It was recognition.

The sentiment rippling through indie maker communities went something like: "She's finally saying out loud what we've built our entire businesses around."
That's not a small thing. When a global figure with Markle's reach builds a brand on the same principles you've been quietly living by for years — fewer products, made with intention, designed to earn a permanent place in someone's daily life — it signals something bigger than a trend. It signals a turning point.

The beauty industry spent two decades selling you more. Something is breaking.
For twenty years, prestige beauty's entire growth strategy was anxiety. Buy the 12-step routine. You need the serum and the essence and the barrier repair cream. The SKUs multiplied. The bathroom shelves collapsed under the weight of half-used products that promised transformation and delivered clutter.

Then 2024 happened.

The most viral beauty content of the last two years has been a correction. The "your skin is actually fine" counter-narrative. The "5 ingredients or fewer" formulation movement. The quiet resurgence of the multi-use product — one thing, done exceptionally well. People aren't just simplifying their routines. They're rejecting the premise that more ingredients, more steps, and more products means better results.
This is the world Kasandy.com was built for. Not because we saw it coming, but because we've always believed it: fewer ingredients, chosen with rigour, outperform more ingredients chosen carelessly. Every time.

The real difference in a $75 face oil — and it's not the price tag.

Here's a question worth sitting with: a $75 face oil from a small Vancouver studio and a $75 face oil from a mass-market brand look identical on paper. Same price. Sometimes the same hero ingredient. But they are not the same product.

The small studio batch is made in smaller quantities — which means fresher, more potent formulations with a shorter chain from ingredient to shelf. The sourcing is personal. The maker's name is attached to every single bottle. That last part matters more than people realize. Accountability at scale is a PR strategy. Accountability at the small-maker level is existential — your reputation is the product.

When people reach for small luxury over mass luxury, they're not chasing a status marker. They're choosing a relationship. They want to know that someone actually made this, actually tested it, and actually cares whether it works for you.
Meghan Markle's As Ever is making this aspiration mainstream. We think that's worth celebrating — for customers who deserve better, and for makers who've been building better all along.

The slow luxury wave isn't new. It's actually very old. And it's finally arriving.