Crowned Skin Founder on Turning Men’s Grooming Trends Into a $15 Million Scalable Business in Two Years

Small business takeaway:

• After Crowned Skin’s “Shark Tank” spotlight, Darrell Spencer’s body butters and oils — built to combine fragrance and skincare in one step — highlight three strategic lessons: One, the men’s aisle is increasingly demographic cohort-driven, with younger self-care shoppers trading up for clean claims and scent; two, multifunctional products create premium differentiation by cutting grooming routine friction; three, social commerce can become a repeatable growth engine before retail expansion.

The investors on “Shark Tank” were stunned when Crowned Skin Founder Darrell Spencer revealed his brand had generated $2 million — in just one month.

In the episode that aired on April 15, 2026, multiple sharks showed interest in Spencer, who ultimately secured a $500,000 deal with guest shark Rashaun L. Williams, Chief Information Officer of Harbinger Sports Partners, in exchange for a 10% stake.

In just two years, Spencer has built a brand of fragranced body products that hit $15 million in 2025 — a mark even multinational companies can take years to achieve.

The success of Crowned Skin is proof that not only is the men’s grooming boom real, but that there are untapped segments that will accelerate growth.

Men’s grooming sales surged 6.9% last year to more than $7 billion, according to NielsenIQ. The report pinpointed the biggest brand growth opportunities in multifunctional products and clean ingredient claims. Millennial and Gen Z men are the main drivers of sales expansion.

Spencer’s Crowned Skin taps into those key levers, combining clean-ingredient skincare and fragrances into one product while capturing how younger men approach grooming differently than previous generations. Scented skin products are having a moment, as exemplified by Sol de Janeiro and Tree Hut.

Spencer’s Crown is leaning into that trend but differentiating itself by targeting men as its main audience.

“The younger generation is driving the shift when it comes to [men’s] skincare,” Spencer told CO—. “There was a point in time when men’s care wasn’t discussed. Men didn’t have opportunities to talk about grooming regimens. We’ve seen a huge shift in those conversations.”

Social media created a powerful platform for male influencers to share their grooming routines and personal care tips, helping normalize and popularize men’s self-care. The rapid growth of the men’s grooming industry became especially clear last June when Unilever bought Dr. Squatch for $1.5 billion — highlighting the market’s massive potential.

[Read more: Targeting Him: How Men Became the Next Frontier in Beauty Brand Expansion]

Unlocking the marketing-to-men code: ‘I looked to create something that was an issue for me that I wanted to solve’

Prior to starting Crowned Skin, Spencer worked in advertising sales for big tech firms, including Meta, Google, and LinkedIn. “I ran the corporate rat race,” he recalled. “I learned a lot about digital ads and e-commerce.”

It was during that time that he saw the opportunities of selling direct to consumers. “I realized it was a new market, a new way of selling. I took what I learned about digital ads and knew I wanted to create something,” he said.

The first launch on his entrepreneurial journey was King’s Crowning, which debuted when he was only 23. The line of satin bonnets for men to protect their hair from breakage answered a need Spencer himself experienced.

“I looked to create something that was an issue for me that I wanted to solve,” he said.

He grew that into a multimillion-dollar company. Emboldened by success, he looked for another category he could innovate.

[Read more: Less Is More: How Simplicity Is Reshaping — and Driving — Beauty Sales]

Men don’t want complicated routines — but they do want fragrance and skincare — booming segments of the male grooming industry

“What is a problem in the market I can solve? How can I make men’s lives easier?” he questioned. “I love to smell amazing. I love fragrance, but I also love body care and moisturizing my skin. What if I can combine the two with a cologne-grade fragrance in a body butter that doesn’t dry skin like traditional fragrances?”

Both men’s skincare and fragrance are among the fastest growing in the men’s grooming industry. The U.S. men’s skincare category is expected to post 7.2% gains per year through 2033 to reach $9.2 billion, according to Verified Market Reports. U.S. men’s fragrance sales will exceed $3 billion in the next seven years, a compound annual growth rate of 6.4%.

Spencer hit on a friction point for male grooming: complicated steps. “Men like simplicity, so we cut down what would normally be three products into one,” he said of the brand he launched with $10,000 of his own money in 2024. By the end of Year 1, Crowned Skin reached about $7 million in sales. His strategy aligns with recent research from Alvarez and Marshal that found 43% of those surveyed are streamlining their grooming and beauty routines, using fewer steps and products.

Crowned Skin includes body butter cologne and body oils in five varieties starting at $31.99. A newly added discovery set retails for $34.99.

“This isn’t your grandmother’s cocoa butter. Since launching, we’ve created a cult following online,” he said. This isn’t the Old Spice demographic but rather a core of men ages 19 to 34 who are trading up from mass market brands or who prefer higher-end scents.

Spencer needed to launch the line without the budgets available to legacy men’s brands, so he mostly bought ads on Facebook and Instagram. Then TikTok clicked. 

“We found success on TikTok,” Spencer said, adding that the platform opened the door to sell on TikTok Shop, where he said it is a top-selling personal care brand, and on Amazon. About 60% of Crowned Skin’s sales are sold directly to consumers, and 40% are through Amazon. Physical retail is now on his radar.

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