Brand Highlight: IMAGE Skincare

There's a good chance you've already used IMAGE without knowing it, because it's one of those brands that's been in treatment rooms and back bars for years, quietly doing the work while flashier brands got all the attention, and that's a big part of why we ended up carrying 75 of their products.

Where IMAGE Skincare started

IMAGE Skincare was founded in Florida in 2003 by Janna Ronert, a licensed esthetician who tested her way through the professional market and couldn't find anything that was both effective and free of parabens. She was dealing with rosacea herself at the time, and most of what she tried either irritated her skin or simply didn't deliver on its promises, so she started working with chemists from a small apartment to make her own. The first collection to come out of that was VITAL C, formulated for skin that's dry, sensitive, and easily irritated, and more than twenty years later it's still the range most people encounter first.

The people behind IMAGE Skincare

Janna is now Founder and Chairwoman of the Board and a recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Her husband and co-founder, Dr. Marc Ronert, is a board-certified plastic surgeon who leads the clinical side of the formulation work. He guided the development of VOL.U.LIFT, the range launched in 2025 for the facial changes that can follow rapid weight loss on a GLP-1. In 2011, the two founded the Care for Skin Foundation, a non-profit that funds reconstructive surgery and skin replacement for people who have lost skin to burns, accidents, tumours and genetic conditions.

What does clean clinical skincare mean?

Janna coined the term “clean clinical skincare” to describe what IMAGE does, pairing proven active ingredients with active botanicals while omitting the parabens and filler chemistry that were standard in professional lines at the time. The brand is certified cruelty-free by PETA. There are now 13 collections, and the products are sold through spas, clinics and treatment centres in more than 60 countries. A number of the formulas use the brand’s proprietary XOSM delivery technology, a capsule designed to keep antioxidants stable and potent for longer.

The professional side of the business runs alongside the retail side, so IMAGE also develops the in-clinic treatment protocols estheticians use, including enzyme and oxygenating peels. The home-care collections are designed to complement those treatments. The collections are organized by concern rather than by season, so nothing in the line is chasing a trend, and a routine you build today still makes sense to you in two years.

The IMAGE Skincare collections, explained

VITAL C is the original, built for dull, dehydrated, and reactive skin. AGELESS+ is the retinol range, and it’s stepped by strength, from AGELESS+ Retinol Pure Liquid Retinol 0.1% through AGELESS+ Retinol Pure Liquid Retinol 0.3% and AGELESS+ Retinol Pure Liquid Retinol 0.75%, with cream formats in the AGELESS+ Retinol Repair Cream 0.3% and the AGELESS+ Retinol Treatment Cream 1.2%, plus the AGELESS+ Retinol Overnight Mask 0.5%.

BIOME+ is the barrier and microbiome range, comprising the BIOME+ Cleansing Comfort Balm, the BIOME+ Dew Bright Serum, and the BIOME+ Smoothing Cloud Crème. The mineral sun care is DAILY PREVENTION, comprising the DAILY PREVENTION advanced smartblend mineral moisturizer SPF 50+ and the DAILY PREVENTION Pure Mineral Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30. CLEAR CELL addresses oilier, breakout-prone skin with the Clear Cell Clarifying Repair Creme.

IMAGE MD is the professional tier, home to the IMAGE MD® Restoring Power-C serum, the IMAGE MD® Restoring Youth Serum, the IMAGE MD® Restoring Overnight Retinol Masque, and the IMAGE MD® Restoring Eye Masks. VOL.U.LIFT is the newest, centred on the VOL.U.LIFT GLP-1 4D Skin Rebound Complex. Two recent additions sit outside the main collections: the Barrier Repair Recovery Balm, for skin that has been through a treatment or a cold snap, and the Biotech Longevity Cream.

Where to start with IMAGE Skincare

The brand builds its collections into sets, which is the easiest way in, and we carry them from the smallest commitment up:

• Clear Skin Solutions for breakout-prone skin

• Microbiome Essentials for skin that is easily irritated

• Vital Hydration for dryness and dullness

• VITAL C Brightening Boost for the full brightening routine

• Vital C Trio Hydration Kit for the full VITAL C routine

Shop all 75 IMAGE Skincare products, and if you’re not sure which collection your skin belongs in, please ask us before you order.

Until next time,

Beate von Huene