How a Homemade Skin Care Solution Gave This Entrepreneur a Second Lease on Life

Clark’s Botanicals began in 2009 out of necessity. Francesco Clark, founder of the namesake bioactive skin-care line, received a big promotion in Harper’s Bazaar’s fashion department, where he worked as a fashion assistant in 2002. A weekend later, Clark, then 24, misjudged the depth of a pool and dove headfirst into the shallow end. Fracturing his spine, he was given a less than 20 percent chance of surviving the night. His lungs failed; his vocal cords collapsed. He was told he’d never be able to move his arms or legs ever again, relegating his motor functions to the point that he would only be able to “watch soap operas in a hospital bed,” he says.

Clark remembers his Italian mother entering the hospital room where he was being treated. “Sposta qualcosa,” she said to her son. (Translation: Move something.) Clark twitched his shoulder. At that moment, he realized his drive to rebuff his diagnosis.

After working to regain some strength, Clark soon realized that an unexpected side effect of his paralysis was the loss of temperature regulation in his skin. “In the depths of hell, I still will not sweat,” Clark jokes as we boil in a conference room that is 110 in the shade. (He asks if we can crack a window so he’s more comfortable.) The trapped toxins wreaked total havoc not only on his face but also on his fractured ego. 

Face-to-face with this new reality, Clark wasn’t happy with what he saw. He tried everything under the sun to rectify his skin issues: $3 creams, $300 creams—everything. “You name the brand, I’ve used it. Nothing worked,” he tells me. With no intent to sell the creations, Clark and his father, a medical doctor as well as a homeopath, set out to cure his temperamental skin.

Face-to-face with this new reality, Clark wasn’t happy with what he saw. He tried everything under the sun to rectify his skin issues: $3 creams, $300 creams—everything. “You name the brand, I’ve used it. Nothing worked,” he tells me. With no intent to sell the creations, Clark and his father, a medical doctor as well as a homeopath, set out to cure his temperamental skin.

Four years and 78 versions later, jasmine absolute, the signature tincture base of every Clark’s Botanicals product, was born. A New York state grant of $2,000 fueled the beginning stages of the business. Glenda Bailey, editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar and Clark’s former boss, was an early adopter and debuted the products in the magazine. It was in a meeting with Bailey that Clark realized his personal solution could be a true business. As the company’s motto says, “Vanity saved my life.” Creating these products gave Clark a new reason to survive.

Since then, the brand has evolved from a homemade serum to a leader in the natural-but-effective beauty space. It boasts a 90 percent customer retention rate (if you try the products, you will see why), has generated interest from private equity funds and major beauty conglomerates, has sold out on QVC multiple times and has earned six Allure Best of Beauty awards.

The company is growing at an average rate of 59 percent year-over-year, relying on word of mouth and shying away from pay-to-play sponsorships or inauthentic partners. People trust the products; the products are divine.

As an entrepreneur who is also juggling his physical and mental well-being, Clark is a multitasker. In a converted garage-slash-home office in Bronxville, New York, he straps into a physical therapy machine to take conference calls. He pedals on a lie-down bike with his arms and legs while taking sales calls for two and a half hours daily. In the afternoon, he’s emailing in a car on the way to meetings and looking over budgets.

He’s now relearning how to move his fingers. He gleefully demonstrates a wiggle. On the business side, his company is hunkering down into the digital marketing space, working in a concise team of five. Clark sold his brand to Warburg Pincus–backed Glansaol in 2016, but after acquisition on February 6, 2019, Clark’s Botanicals is now an independent company once again, owned and operated by Clark. Industry sources estimate that the brand is on track to do between $5 million and $6 million in retail sales this year.

Clark still uses the products he created in the kitchen with his father years ago, citing the newly launched Dual Charcoal Detox and the original formulation of Smoothing Marine Cream as his skin saviors. Turning a kitchen concoction born of a bleak situation into a successful business, Clark is the epitome of perseverance in the (blemish-free) face of adversity.