Razor maker Billie moves beyond shave with 15 new products

Gaining popularity among consumers with its DTC razors and advertising emphasizing female body hair—a rarity for shave brands marketed to women—Billie is now ushering in what it calls “a new era in body care.”

A lineup of 15 new products across body wash, body lotion, and deodorant—the brand’s first major moves outside of the shave category—hits shelves at Walmart nationwide today. The roll out is supported by a new ad spot paying homage to an iconic scene from the 1999 romantic comedy 10 Things I Hate About You.

Billie started off in 2017 as a direct-to-consumer razor brand, but that channel strategy shifted after Shick maker Edgewell acquired it for $310 million at the end of 2021. The brand entered Walmart in 2022, and now is in 30,000 stores nationwide, the start of its vision to become “a body brand for womankind,” co-founder Georgina Gooley told Retail Brew. Gooley shared the details of its new launch and how it’s standing out from other body care brands on the shelf.

Cutting edge: With Walmart as its exclusive partner, the brand is expanding into different aisles of the store nationwide with these new products, a move that will allow Billie to “live within women’s daily routines,” outside of shaving, Gooley said.

Gooley said the brand chose to roll out a slew of products at once (which is “a big undertaking,” she noted, with product development taking two years) to establish an “entire regimen” for consumers. And while Gooley said she feels Billie has built up a strong reputation with consumers, when entering a new category, “you have to earn your stripes.”

“You have to work hard…to earn that trust, and that’s the challenge for any brands that are moving into a new category,” she said.

The lotion ($10), body wash ($8), All Day deodorant ($9), and AHA deodorant ($13) were a “natural progression” after debuting products like shaving cream. They’re also designed to offer function beyond a nice scent, with lotion and body wash featuring ingredients like Vitamin C and hyaluronic acid, while the deodorant features a pH-adjusting multi-acid blend, according to the brand.

“You're seeing a lot of prestige skincare brands or body care brands do this at a higher price,” Gooley noted. “They have lovely products, but not everyone wants to spend $30 on a body wash, right?”

Thick skin: Billie is introducing the product launch with a new ad referencing a fan-favorite scene from the film 10 Things I Hate About You. The ad, entitled “10 Things I Hate About Body Care” sees actress Jameela Jamil taking over the Julia Stiles role, reading aloud a poem in front of students in a classroom.

“I hate how you made me compare myself to every woman I saw. I hate how you turned our differences into glaring flaws,” Jamil begins, closing out with a riff on the poem’s original line: “You can’t make me hate my body, not even close, to even a little bit, not even at all.”

The ad is intended to push back against criticism of women’s natural bodies, Gooley explained, emphasizing “honoring” and “caring for” your body. It’s a message the brand has long been supporting, most recently on TikTok with its pro-body hair stance. Some of its videos feature women showing off leg, armpit, and even toe hair—something surprisingly unique for the shave category, whose ads often feature already-shaven body parts. Billie even had a viral TikTok noting that other brands have followed embracing body hair.

“A brand coming out and putting their customer ahead of their product and saying, ‘No, this is about you feeling great about yourself and making choices that make you feel good, regardless if you buy our product or not’—I think that has resonated with people,” Gooley said.