Courtney Baber and Nancy Pellegrino met as patient and aesthetic provider, which quickly grew into an incredible friendship based on mutual respect and admiration for each other and a passion for happiness and beauty. Pellegrino had been a nurse practitioner for 30 years and spent the last 20 solely dedicating her practice to medical aesthetics. Baber worked on both the brand and retailer side of the prestige beauty industry for almost 30 years, helping build brands for Sephora, Estee Lauder, L’Oreal, and more.

“My passion for skin care, makeup, and fragrance has led me around the world to help evolve the face of beauty,” says Baber. “My biggest accomplishments include pioneering a path to debut up-and-coming beauty brands for Sephora internationally, and I was behind the global roll-out of Urban Decay to 30+ countries after assisting with the sale to L’Oreal. Starting my own brand with Nurse Nancy has certainly had its set of rewards and challenges; however, I feel like I have a decent toolkit to conquer what is ahead of us!”

When Baber and Pellegrino discovered they each wanted more from their own skin care regimen, they decided to make it themselves, which led to the development of THE ROUTE—a line of professional, aesthetic skin care with a smile and a nurse’s caring touch. The comprehensive, multi-tasking product range addresses the many reasons skin ages, and all of their formulas are backed by science, road-tested by experts, and proven to work.

“I have treated thousands of women over my career and I hopefully bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to our customers at THE ROUTE,” adds Pellegrino. “I have been an industry trainer for over a decade, which means I have taught hundreds of nurse, nurse practitioner, physician, and physician assistant colleagues the art, science, and technical skills of the aesthetic practice. I have such a passion for this space that it was only natural for me to be a part of creating THE ROUTE in order to take some of my expertise outside of the office and into the hands of those who do not frequent such practices. It's a natural extension of what I love and I couldn't be more grateful I get to do it!”

We chatted with Baber and Pellegrino, who shared the inspiration behind the brand, favorite products, future plans, and more.

When was THE ROUTE founded and what’s the meaning behind the name?

THE ROUTE was officially launched and founded on September 22, 2019. Courtney and Nurse Nancy had been working on the brand several years prior, but this was the official reveal to the world!

Courtney and Nurse Nancy are happily in their fifties and have experienced quite a journey in both their personal and professional lives as a nurse, a business executive, and moms. The roads they have taken were each unique and filled with much success. In the early creation of the brand, the twosome realized they both had paper routes when they were in their pre-teens, which was so rare and unique. As a nod to their first jobs and a way to share and inspire others with their own personal routes in life and deliver happy, healthy, beautiful skin…THE ROUTE was born!

Tell us more about your products and what makes them special.

THE ROUTE is unique in that it is medical grade, luxury beauty. It is probably the most thoughtful brand in skin care available today (that is why our customers are seeing transformative results!) When you combine a nurse practitioner with over 20 years of experience treating skin with a beauty industry executive with global expertise—you can make skin care magic!

From concept to development, to education and more, THE ROUTE delivers the highest quality ingredients at their most efficacious levels with a smile and a nurse’s caring touch. THE ROUTE addresses all the ways your skin ages, utilizing the day/night skin rhythm as the guide with skin-identical ingredients to deliver immediate and long-term results.

Do you have a hero product?

THE PARTY PEEL is our hero product! Nurse Nancy was inspired to create this product from her decades of experience utilizing chemical peels as a way to beautify the skin of her patients in her medical aesthetics practice. She realized superficial peels (meaning “no downtime peels”) were attractive to her patients. Her patients are on-the-go, busy people who don't have time for a “big peel,” but still want beautiful, fresh, glowing skin and maybe don’t want to stop by the office once a month to get it.

Welcome…THE PARTY PEEL! It is a customer, editor, and personal favorite of the team! Everyone loves the gorgeous gold color, the scrubbing bubble action of the oxygen delivery system, and of course, the baby soft, smooth, and pretty skin they see after only 15 minutes! The best part is all the golden god/goddess selfies we are sent—it's just that type of product!

What’s your favorite product from the line?

Courtney: I love the entire line, of course! Initially, my favorite was THE GIRLFRIEND for so many reasons. It illuminates, lifts, and imparts a beautiful glow and canvas for makeup perfection! Honestly, this product gives me a forcefield for my face to take on each day! Equal to this now is THE SUNNY EYES! It lifts, camouflages, hydrates, and leaves me beautifully primed for makeup (or not). Both of these products are such unique multi-taskers, I don’t know how I ever survived without them.

Nancy: I truly love them all and use them religiously, but I am incredibly proud of THE GOLDEN RULE, our "Next Generation Retinoid.” Finally, I have the "queen" of medical grade skin care that I can confidently recommend to everyone to do the job without the side effects of most Rx and over-the-counter retinols. After almost a decade of trying to get Courtney on one, we simply had to make it ourselves (and we did!)

Where are your products sold?

THE ROUTE is sold on our website, at ULTA in 400 stores and online, dermstore.com, and at select nurse's offices around the country.

What's next for the brand?

THE ROUTE is thrilled to have launched at dermstore.com in November 2020 and have lots of other terrific plans in the making for 2021. We are so happy about our trajectory and hope to soon become a household name!

For more information and to purchase, visit the website and follow on Instagram: @theroutebeauty

[Images courtesy of THE ROUTE]

Kamala Kirk is a University of Southern California graduate and has been an editor/writer for more than a decade. She has written for E! Online, Total Beauty, TravelAge West, Malibu Times Magazine, and many more. She resides in Los Angeles and is a proud pug mom. Follow her on Instagram: @kamalakirk