The Center, the company led by Ben Bennett, is reported to have teamed up with board-certified dermatologist Mamina Turegano to acquire skincare brand Boscia from Fancl Corp, according to WWD. The two parties are said to be planning to relaunch the brand next year. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Launched in the United States in 2002, Boscia made its debut at Henri Bendel with 18 SKUs. The brand, based in Irvine, Californie, later expanded into Sephora stores. In 2024, a report indicated it was closing down, before another report, a year later, indicated it was preparing to make its comeback.
According to Bennett, the project is said to have been born out of this announced closure. « We discovered that Boscia was closing up shop, and the conversation went to 'what if?' », he explained. Negotiations with Fancl, a cosmetics company based in Yokohama, Japon, reportedly took about a year. « It took us about a year. After a year, they finally said, 'OK, we get it. You're not going to stop calling until we sell you the asset.' We ended up, you know, getting it done, and we're super excited », he continued.
A shared cultural grounding
Bennett spoke of the blend of heritages between him and Turegano, as well as the interest in Asian beauty: « She has a Japanese background. I'm Thai, and while K-beauty is a phenomenon and experiencing its second and more prominent wave, there have been waves of J-beauty interest. » For her part, Turegano recalled a family memory: « My Japanese grandmother sold skin care in Japan for 40 years, and I did skin care with her whenever we would visit in the summer. » She also says she is drawn to fermented ingredients, rice and green tea, in addition to the more traditional ingredients popular in the United States.
Boscia is expected to be reinvented through the lens of modern dermatology, while preserving the Japanese skincare philosophy, ingredients and rituals that have long defined its identity.
Launch without a retail partner
The brand is expected to debut in the first quarter of next year, without a distribution partner. Bennett believes, in fact, that a brand must first build itself up through direct-to-consumer sales. « We hope to find a retail partner and the right retail partner when the time's right », he said.
This deal comes after a series of transactions for The Center. In July, private equity firm TSG Consumer had signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in Saltair, the body care brand founded by Iskra Lawrence, a British model and influencer based in the United States.
