Beautycounter officially rebranded to Counter in June 2025. You can no longer buy products through independent consultants or at retail stores like Ulta and Target. The brand now operates exclusively direct-to-consumer, and authentic products can only be purchased through the official Counter.com website or their verified Amazon storefront.
For nearly a decade, finding your favorite clean beauty products was as simple as texting a friend who happened to be a brand consultant. However, following a tumultuous period of corporate restructuring, the landscape of clean skincare has shifted dramatically. If you have been searching online or wandering the aisles of major beauty retailers wondering where the familiar teal and gold packaging went, you are not alone.
The company has undergone a massive transformation, shedding its old name and business model to emerge as a streamlined, direct-to-consumer entity. This guide breaks down exactly where you can find the remaining inventory, which legacy products have survived the transition, and how the new shopping experience works for long-time fans.
To understand why your shopping habits have to change, it is helpful to look at the timeline of the brand's recent corporate history. The company is indeed still in business, but it looks very different today than it did a few years ago.
Beautycounter operated as a massive Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) company. Customers primarily purchased products through a network of thousands of independent consultants who earned commissions on sales. The brand was highly visible and frequently praised for its strict ingredient safety standards.
Under the ownership of the Carlyle Group, the company faced severe financial difficulties. This culminated in a sudden shutdown and a foreclosure sale, leaving both customers and consultants without access to the platform or products.
Founder Gregg Renfrew reacquired the brand through her new holding company, G2G. She officially relaunched the company under the simplified name Counter. This relaunch completely eliminated the MLM consultant model in favor of a traditional e-commerce approach.
Today, Counter operates with a highly curated, limited catalog of roughly 19 core products, focusing on stabilizing formulas and rebuilding consumer trust through direct online sales.
According to industry analysis of the rebrand, the shift away from the consultant model was necessary to reduce overhead costs and allow the company to focus entirely on product formulation and direct customer relationships.
Because the brand is currently in a rebuilding phase, the points of purchase are strictly limited. Attempting to buy from unauthorized third-party sellers often results in receiving expired products from the pre-2024 production runs.
The primary and most reliable place to purchase products is the official website, Counter.com. If you attempt to visit the old Beautycounter URL, you will automatically be redirected to this new digital storefront.
Shopping directly through the site ensures that you are receiving freshly manufactured batches of the newly stabilized formulas. Furthermore, the official site is the only place where customers can take advantage of the new tiered pricing structures that replaced the old consultant discounts.
For those who prefer the convenience of fast shipping, Counter does maintain an official presence on Amazon. However, inventory here is notoriously spotty. You can typically find core items like the Countertime Tripeptide Radiance Serum or the Countermatch Adaptive Moisture Lotion, but stock levels fluctuate daily.
In the years leading up to the 2024 restructuring, Beautycounter made headlines by partnering with major brick-and-mortar retailers. Limited-time pop-ups at Target and a more permanent shelf presence at Ulta Beauty were major steps toward mainstream accessibility.
As of 2026, those partnerships are entirely inactive. If you search the Ulta Beauty website, you may still see the brand name appear in search filters as a "dead end," but clicking it will reveal zero available inventory. The same applies to Target's online catalog.
The decision to pull out of retail stores aligns with the brand's current strategy of tightly controlling its supply chain. Producing enough volume to stock thousands of retail shelves requires massive capital. By keeping operations strictly direct-to-consumer, Counter can manage its limited 19-product catalog without overextending its manufacturing capabilities.
When Gregg Renfrew relaunched the brand, she did not bring back the entire catalog. Instead, the company focused on its highest-performing, most requested items. The current roadmap aims to eventually expand to 50 products, but as of mid-2026, the selection remains highly curated.
Here is a mapping of popular legacy products to their current availability status under the new Counter brand:
| Legacy Product Name | Current "Counter" Name | Key Ingredient Focus | Availability Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Countertime Tripeptide Radiance Serum | Countertime Radiance Serum | Retinatural Complex (Bakuchiol) | In Stock |
| Countermatch Adaptive Moisture Lotion | Countermatch Moisture Lotion | Squalane & Plum Oil | In Stock |
| Skin Twin Featherlight Foundation | Skin Twin Foundation | Hyaluronic Acid | In Stock |
| Sheer Genius Conditioning Lipstick | Sheer Genius Lipstick | Jojoba Esters | In Stock |
| All Bright C Serum | TBD (Pending Reformulation) | Vitamin C (Various forms) | Missing |
| Overnight Resurfacing Peel | TBD (Pending Reformulation) | AHA/BHA Botanical Acids | Missing |
The absence of certain cult-favorite products has created a noticeable gap in many skincare routines. Formulating clean beauty products without traditional synthetic stabilizers is notoriously difficult, which is why some items have not yet returned to the market.
Based on extensive discussions within clean beauty community forums, users have identified several highly capable alternatives that match the ingredient profiles of the missing items.
Why it's missing: Vitamin C is highly unstable and prone to rapid oxidation. Counter is likely taking extra time to ensure the new formula remains potent without relying on banned preservatives.
Top Alternative 1: Mad Hippie Vitamin C Serum. This is widely regarded as a strong budget-friendly replacement. It uses Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, a highly stable form of Vitamin C that is less irritating to sensitive skin, much like the original Beautycounter formula.
Top Alternative 2: Pai Skincare Vitamin C Oil. For those who loved the moisturizing aspect of the All Bright serum, Pai uses Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate, an oil-soluble form of Vitamin C that penetrates deeply while nourishing the skin barrier.
Why it's missing: Balancing active botanical acids (AHAs and BHAs) while maintaining a strict pH level requires precise manufacturing controls that are currently being scaled up.
Top Alternative 1: Herbivore Prism AHA + BHA Exfoliating Glow Serum. This serum ranks among the top clean alternatives, utilizing a blend of natural fruit acids and willow bark extract to provide a similar overnight smoothing effect without harsh synthetic chemicals.
Top Alternative 2: Alpyn Beauty Wild Huckleberry 8-Acid Polishing Peel. A popular choice for those seeking a robust exfoliant. It combines eight different acids with bamboo powder, offering a slightly more physical exfoliation alongside the chemical peel.
For years, the Beautycounter community was built on personal relationships. Customers bought products through friends or acquaintances who served as consultants, often receiving personalized routine advice and a 25% consultant discount.
The transition to a standard direct-to-consumer model has fundamentally changed how customers interact with the brand and how they save money. According to guides from former top sellers like A Lady Goes West, the old "Band of Beauty" paid membership and consultant commissions are permanently gone.
In their place, Counter has introduced two new mechanisms for customer savings:
This shift requires customers to be more self-directed in their shopping, relying on the website's digital quizzes rather than a human consultant to build their skincare regimens.
One of the primary reasons customers remain loyal to the brand, despite the corporate turbulence, is its unwavering commitment to ingredient safety. In fact, since rebranding to Counter, the company has actually increased its safety standards.
The United States FDA currently bans or restricts only 11 chemicals in cosmetics. The European Union bans over 1,400. Counter's proprietary "Never List"—the roster of ingredients they refuse to formulate with—has expanded from 1,800 under the old Beautycounter name to over 2,800 under the new Counter brand.
This rigorous standard is why many of their core products, including the Countertime and Countermatch lines, continue to carry the EWG Verified seal. This third-party certification requires total transparency regarding fragrance components and manufacturing processes.
However, it is worth noting a specific nuance in their formulation strategy. Counter continues to use phenoxyethanol as a preservative in certain water-based products. While some ultra-purist clean beauty brands avoid it, Counter's chemists maintain that it is a necessary, safe synthetic used at very low concentrations (typically under 1%) to prevent dangerous mold and bacterial growth in products that sit in warm, humid bathrooms.
Navigating the transition from Beautycounter to Counter requires a few adjustments to your normal shopping habits. Keep these essential points in mind before you restock your bathroom cabinet: