Pharrell dials in from a car in Miami. He's driving, and we're talking about his next product release: Humanrace Bodybars.
"Can you hear me now?" he says. Even after nearly two years of doing video calls over Zoom, we're still navigating the same struggles. It makes me feel great knowing that even the biggest celebrities experience internet issues, too.
Following the success of Pharrell's first product release, the three-step skincare routine that launched in November 2020 and sold out immediately, the label's next release has been developed and perfected – and is now ready to enter the world.
"We got into the wellness space. That's where we wanted to be," Pharrell says. "Our main focus as a brand is to try to figure out how can we bring convenience to people." After having succeeded with the face-focused products, the body naturally came next.
"You know, soap is very personal," he explains. "When you question a person about soap [it's like] when you questioned who they voted for." "I've noticed, there [are] like a handful of things that you cannot question a person about, they get incredibly defensive."
With Humanrace's body bars, soap is out of the question, because the bars are notably soap-free. For me, it wasn't a term I was hugely familiar with prior to our conversation, but it undoubtedly changed the way I now view my shower routine.
"The body bar, which is not a soap, right? Soap strips the skin of natural oils and, and essentially, nutrients that you need. Our body bars to actually do what I think our soap should be doing."
The body bar comes in two versions, the Reenergizing Whiteclay Body Bar and the Energy Channeling Charcoal Body Bar, Pharrell's personal favorite. "When I get out [of the shower], my skin is incredibly, well, that sounds self-serving. Let me rephrase that. When I get out, my skin is a lot softer than it was before I got in."
The reason why he loves it so much? Exfoliation, famously also his worst-kept skincare secret. Sadly, no matter how much I've exfoliated, my skin will never look as glowing and perfect as Pharrell's, but I can live with that.
Our understanding of beauty and self-care has changed throughout the pandemic, and launching a brand in the midst of it all is a challenge, but Pharrell and the Humanrace team are big believers in that skincare has a spiritual connection, and that taking even three minutes to care for your face and body, is important.
"Your day starts with the very first thing you thought when you woke up. People don't realize that your days are bookended by the thoughts you wake up with and the ones before you go to sleep. That's where Humanrace can really play a strong part in your day," he says.
"Hopefully you are one of those people that shower before you go to bed," he says. Thankfully, I am.
"The other thing too, no disrespect, but there are people who just get up and roll up out of the bed. Like, 'oh, I took a shower last night, I'm good.' Well, no. If you are getting six to eight hours of sleep, you need to wash yourself. Okay. You need to shower. There are things that happen while you're sleeping, you need to get up and shower."
I will never ever skip a shower again. No matter what. If Pharrell says you need at least two showers a day, that's the truth.
"We have mantras on our products just to remind you to just take a moment to, to remind yourself that you are alive and, and that you matter. When you set yourself up to have a good day, you're nine times out of 10 gonna affect somebody else's day."
It may seem silly to think that taking care of our skin is directly tied to our mental health, but it really isn't. Spending those extra few minutes, taking time for yourself, can make a huge difference, and that's what Pharrell is all about.
When creating the skincare-focused part of the wider Humanrace universe, the brand tapped a handful of talent to star in its first-ever campaign. "You know, our bodies are just physical, like cases for our spirits. You could be the most beautiful corpse in the world, but if your spirit is rotten, no one's going to want to be around you," Pharrell explains. Each person just needed to be spiritually achieved. "The criteria was based on spiritual wellness and mental wellness, people that we thought were beautiful people."
That message echoes through the new release, because Humanrace is for everyone. That's at the core.
The products release online at the Humanrace website on November 22. The Reenergizing Whiteclay Body Bar features ingredients such as kaolin clay, snow mushroom extract, shea butter, and jojoba seed oil, and retails at $16. The Energy Channeling Charcoal Body Bar comes with charcoal powder, rice powder, shea butter, and jojoba seed oil, and retails at $18.
Before we wrap up our conversation, I ask Pharrell if there are any more products in the works. "There's some more expansion in the existing categories. There [are] a couple of new branches that we're going to go into. But of course, I can't tell you yet."
What it means, is that Humanrace is only just getting started, and that there's much more to come.
