Crowning Confidence

Entrepreneur Darrell Spencer ’18 is redefining men’s skincare—one TikTok at a time.

By Amy Martin

hen Darrell Spencer ’18 walked onto the Tamron Hall Show stage in September, the live studio audience cheered so loudly and for so long, it prompted Hall to joke, “We’re never gonna be able to get through this interview!”

Smartly dressed in a lavender cable-knit sweater accented with a silver chain necklace, the Crowned Skin founder and CEO exudes confidence and charisma. And there’s no doubt—even through a television screen—that he smells great, too.

Holding up one of Crowned Skin’s innovative cologne-infused body butters for men, Hall tells her audience, “This is one of the most amazing things I have ever smelled. I want to run home and slather this on my husband!”

A few more minutes into the seven-minute segment, as Spencer is telling his story of founding the “TikTok Shop powerhouse making millions in sales,” Hall seems a bit distracted—in the best way—by both the scent and the feel of the product. “It just smells so good,” she mouths to the audience as she rubs the body butter farther up her arm, before joking that her friends call her “‘Ash’ley Simpson” when her skin is dry.

“It’s very masculine, it’s very musky, it’s very manly. But it also has this universal, just, pleasantness to it,” Hall says to Spencer. “That’s why it’s so popular on TikTok, and you’ve been crowned the ‘King of Men’s Care’!”

The appearance capped a whirlwind year for the young entrepreneur. Since its launch in 2024, Crowned Skin has generated eight figures in sales, achieved top placements on Amazon’s marketplace and became the first Black male-founded brand to rank No. 1 on TikTok Shop. Between the rave product reviews and the company’s innovative social media marketing techniques—with the savvy CEO as the face of the brand—Crowned Skin has caught the attention of industry leaders and media alike, earning placements in and praise from Essence Magazine, Insider and BET, to name a few.

And while the old adage may be, “Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” it’s clear when Spencer and I connect via video chat in December that he is poised and ready to expand his burgeoning skincare kingdom into a men’s grooming empire.

“I want to redefine what men’s personal care looks and feels like,” Spencer says. “We’re a confidence company. We offer confidence in the jar. Whenever any man puts our products on, he walks with a whole different pep in his step, and he feels that much more confident.”

Skin Is the Game

Driven in large part by influencer culture and social media trends, the global skincare market is exploding. Valued at $115.65 billion in 2024, it is projected to grow to $194 billion by 2032, according to Fortune Business Insights. But as the masks came off post-COVID and skincare became all the rage, Spencer noticed that the industry was largely ignoring a huge potential market: men.

“I’d be in Target or Walmart and I’d walk down the aisles and I’d see so many amazing products for women. But the personal care options for men were very boring, just the same old traditional products. I didn’t see anything innovative,” he says. “So I started to think, ‘How can I shake up the men’s personal care space and make it sexy again?’”

Spencer began by thinking about what he, as a consumer, would want.

“I love to smell amazing, and I’m also huge on moisture and taking care of my skin,” he explains. “So I thought, ‘What if I can combine the world of fine fragrances and put them into a body butter for men?’”

Crowned Skin first launched in March of 2024 with two different scents—King, a “sensual and commanding” combination of “mandarin, patchouli, dark vanilla and musk that unfolds in rich, warm waves,” and Reign, a “breezy yet refined” blend that layers peppery bergamot and jasmine bloom over cool eucalyptus and amber mist “for a scent that feels like ocean air at dusk.” The product line has since expanded to five different fragrances that are “formulated to attract”—the company’s tagline—with the additions of the “spicy and bold” Monarch, the “smoky santal” Prince and the “smoky citrus” Empire. In addition to the body butter cologne, which retails for about $44, each fragrance is also available in a body oil.

In October, Crowned Skin was awarded a “Golden Ticket” at Walmart’s 12th annual Open Call, a competition-style program that offers suppliers the chance to sell their products in Walmart and Sam’s Club stores and has helped launch some of the nation’s biggest brands. Crowned Skin successfully scaled its presence onto Walmart’s e-commerce sites and can soon be found on shelves around the country.

But Spencer has no plans to stop there.

“2026 is going to be an absolutely amazing year for Crowned Skin,” he says. “The goal is for Crowned Skin to ultimately be a one-stop shop for everything men’s grooming. We want to be part of every part of your morning ritual—think body washes to deodorant to colognes, just layering Crowned Skin fragrances throughout your routine.”

I started to think, ‘How can I shake up the men’s personal care space and make it sexy again?’

— Darrell Spencer ’18

Birth of a Salesman

While Spencer has always been interested in fashion and self-presentation—“My dad raised me from a very young age to keep up with my hair, my skin, my face, and my mom always kept me in nice clothes,” he says—young Spencer didn’t exactly set out to change the world one well-groomed man at a time.

In fact, the Posse scholar and Chicago native came to Connecticut College from Chicago Bulls College Prep—a top-ranked charter school on the city’s Near West Side—to study economics.

“I knew Conn had one of the best pre-business programs, so that was exciting. I did an internship at a Fortune 500 company, and my first job out of college was at one of the best actively managed investment firms, as an investment sales associate. Very quickly, I learned: I hate finance,” he says with a laugh. “But I also learned I enjoy sales. I love talking to people. I love understanding pain points and finding solutions.”

At the time, Spencer had a friend working in large customer sales at Meta, where he helped major companies develop their digital advertising strategies, and he convinced Spencer to apply.

“I knew nothing about ads. Zero,” he says. “But they were looking for people with a sales background, and in one of my first interviews, they picked up a pen and said, ‘Here. Sell us this pen.’ They fell in love with my sales pitch of a pen, and that was my entry way into tech.”

At Meta, Spencer leaned into advertising and helped some of the largest companies generate millions of dollars in ad revenue. He then moved to Google, where he worked with some of the company’s biggest customers, followed by a stint at LinkedIn.

“Ultimately, I realized, ‘Darrell, you have the secret sauce. You’re literally helping all of these companies make millions and millions of dollars; you are essentially coaching them on how to do this. You can do this for yourself,’” he recalls. “That’s what got the wheels in my head spinning and inspired me to begin creating.”

Spencer’s first business idea was to create a satin-lined cap to protect the curly or textured hair of men. “Many women wear satin bonnets or satin scarves at night, because they reduce frizz and minimize breakage. I had long hair at the time, so I went looking for a similar product for men, and I couldn’t find one.”

But Spencer didn’t have a roadmap for how to turn his idea into a business. “I had no parents who were CEOs, no uncles, no cousins. I had no one around me who did this, who were entrepreneurs. I’m first generation,” he says. Ever the problem-solver, Spencer turned to YouTube University to learn about manufacturing. That led him to Alibaba.com, a leading e-commerce platform for global trade, through which he was able to vet and source manufacturers and create a line of satin-lined hats for men called Kings Crowning, which launched in 2020.

“Men fell in love with it. We took it to Facebook, Google and TikTok, and I was able to scale the company up to seven figures,” he says. “I realized my superpower is that I’m a creator, and marketing creatively is my sweet spot.”

I had no parents who were CEOs, no uncles, no cousins. I had no one around me who did this, who were entrepreneurs. I’m first generation.

— Darrell Spencer ’18

TikTok Savant

It wasn’t until Spencer was ready to launch Crowned Skin that he made the transition from tech to full-time entrepreneur. He was confident in his product and now had some experience running his own company, but he faced a new challenge: selling scent on the internet.

“Any selling you do, especially across social, it’s about attention. And in the digital advertising space, creative is your biggest lever to sell. When somebody’s scrolling on their phones on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok—what’s going to make them pause and stop scrolling to look at your ad? Your first three to five seconds is your biggest moment to grab attention,” Spencer explains. “But this was really a learning process, because initially we didn’t get it right.”

At first, Spencer says, he and his team focused more on the functionality of the body butter—its properties and how it improved men’s skin.

“We quickly realized men didn’t really care about that. It didn’t stop them from scrolling, and it didn’t increase our sales,” Spencer says. “But what we learned is men do want to attract. So, our pivot was to focus on how our fragrances smell so good that you can catch the attention of anybody around you.”

With the new messaging, the team launched a new creative, cross-platform marketing strategy. Crowned Skin also jumped in early on TikTok Shop, an e-commerce feature launched in 2023 that allows users to buy products directly from the social media platform. Sales are driven largely by content creators—often called “influencers”—who will review or promote a product and drive followers to the shop with an affiliate link. When someone makes a purchase using that link, the influencer will receive a commission.

“TikTok Shop is on its way to becoming one of the biggest marketplaces in the world, and we caught that trend really early,” Spencer says. “We basically began seeding samples of our products to tons of great affiliates, and they began selling our products for us.”

A quick search of “Crowned Skin” on the platform yields hundreds of examples, like an August 2025 video by mrkrabskart—an influencer with 31,000 followers who proclaims to help others find the best bang for their buck on TikTok Shop. It starts with a quick clip of a woman sitting in a chair at a nail salon, with text above her that reads, “I can’t believe she did this,” before it cuts to a man—presumably mrkrabskart—sitting in his car.

“Fellas, before you buy this Crowned Skin [product], Reign, make sure you are ready for all of the problems that come with it. My girl’s getting her nails done … and she made me go sit in the car because two ladies came up to me and wanted my number,” he says directly to the camera. “If you get this stuff, make sure you’re with your lady at all times, because that stuff can get you in trouble!” he continues, before adding, “I’ll drop the link down below” and encouraging followers to use his affiliate code.

Across all platforms, Crowned Skin’s marketing is strategically designed to appeal to “every kind of king.”

“We intentionally showcase every type of man with our products,” Spencer says. “When someone comes to your home page, they want to see themselves, right? So if you go to CrownedSkin.com, you see an Asian man, a white man, a Black man, a Hispanic man. And I think that intentional inclusion absolutely bolsters sales.

“We want to be a company that creates products for all. If you’re a man with skin, our products are for you. If you’re a man who wants to smell amazing, our products are for you.”

I knew Conn had one of the best pre-business programs, so that was exciting. Very quickly, I learned: I hate finance, but I also learned I enjoy sales. I love talking to people.

— Darrell Spencer ’18

I’m a Business, Man

While the TikTok influencers have helped Crowned Skin beat out legacy brands like Dove, Axe and Old Spice, the company’s No. 1 brand ambassador is undoubtedly Spencer himself.

That’s intentional, too.

“I’m a shopper myself, so I understand the psychology of it. I love to know who I’m buying from. And many times, you are buying into the founder,” Spencer says. “Because I’m so forward-facing, people are buying into Darrell Spencer. They get to see me, they get to see that I care about my products, that I’m talking to my customers. I’m letting you know what I’m giving off.”

Spencer’s appeal is equal parts aspiration—scroll through his personal Instagram, and you might easily mistake him for a fashion model—and relatability. Whether he’s making a TikTok in his kitchen, attending major events like the 2025 Ebony Power 100 and the BET Awards, or presenting at conferences like Alibaba.com’s Co-Create and Ross Mac’s Maconomics Wealth Summit, Spencer seems right at home. That’s a skill he honed at Conn, he says.

“One of the things that I took away most from Connecticut College was being able to navigate any kind of space. I learned how to connect and relate to people who don’t look like me, and who have different experiences than me. And that’s what the real world is—you’ll be at a business meeting with someone you have nothing in common with, but you still have to be able to create relatable touch points,” he says.

“I’ve taken that into my career, and it has set me up well.”

Darrell Spencer ’18 at New York Fashion Week in September. Photo by Chance Michael.