Pepsi Just Got Into The Skin Care Business With The Most Outrageous Product Yet
Gisselle Hernandez started Glamlite Cosmetics with a $1,900 credit card loan and no investors, packing orders from her kitchen counter. Five years later, Pepsi came knocking – not to sell soda, but to put its most iconic flavors in your shower.
The Pepsi x Glamlite skincare collection, which launched on July 31, 2026, through a TikTok Shop Mega Live event, is one of the more unexpected brand pivots in recent memory. Two $12 products – a Wild Cherry Body Wash and a Vanilla Slushie Body Scrub – carry full-on skincare credentials: niacinamide, fruit AHAs, shea butter, glycerin, and mineral exfoliants. Pepsi belongs in your bathroom, at least according to the ingredient decks on both bottles – and the science behind those ingredients holds up better than the novelty branding might lead you to expect.
Glamlite has built its reputation on exactly this kind of crossover – food and entertainment brands translated into collectible beauty products, formulated more seriously than the packaging suggests. What makes the Pepsi partnership worth paying attention to is how deliberately it fits into a larger commercial strategy.
Why Pepsi entered beauty
Miami-based sunscreen brand Vacation launched a collaboration with Pepsi earlier in 2026, creating a tinted lip gel inspired by Pepsi Wild Cherry. That product, the Vacation x Pepsi Wild Cherry SPF 30 Lip Gel, was part of a wave of beverage-brand crossovers into lip care and sun protection. The Glamlite body care collection is the next step in that same direction – and the fact that Pepsi is licensing its brand across multiple beauty categories in a single year suggests deliberate strategy, not opportunism.
The food-and-beverage-to-beauty pipeline is well established; other brands have similarly moved into personal care with vegan, cruelty-free formulations that lean on nostalgia. For Pepsi, the move makes commercial sense. Iconic consumer brands entering cosmetics can translate existing fandom into collectible, limited-run products that blur category boundaries. A $12 body wash is a low-commitment way for a Pepsi fan to engage with a brand they already love – and it opens the door to a much wider retail footprint.
The food-based cosmetics market was valued at $3.42 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $6.15 billion by 2034, according to Intel Market Research. Pepsi’s timing, straddling lip care in February and body care by July 2026, positions it squarely inside this growth curve before it peaks.
Gisselle Hernandez is an undocumented Afro-Caribbean immigrant who launched Glamlite with just a $1,900 credit card loan, packing orders from her bedroom with no investors, no bank loans, and no formal business experience. The brand’s origin story is unusual for a company that now partners with global corporations, but it’s central to understanding why Glamlite kept landing major deals.
Glamlite has created collections in collaboration with Kellogg’s, Hershey’s, Universal Studios, Barbie, Warner Bros., and Nickelodeon, among others. The model is consistent: take a beloved food or entertainment brand, translate its sensory identity into makeup or body care, and sell it to fans who want something collectible. Pepsi x Glamlite skincare follows the same playbook, but the product formulations are more sophisticated than what the novelty branding might suggest.
Hernandez revealed the collaboration on Instagram, saying it was something she had been dreaming about for years and that she tested more than 300 samples before deciding on the final lineup, according to Dexerto. The TikTok-first rollout strategy is deliberate: product demos, founder-led storytelling, and purchasing all happen on one platform, making the launch itself a retail event and a content moment simultaneously.
Niacinamide in the Wild Cherry Body Wash
The Wild Cherry Body Wash includes niacinamide, shea butter moisturizers, and a fruit AHA complex, according to KTLA. Niacinamide has become one of the most talked-about skincare actives in recent years, and the science behind it is solid enough to hold up to scrutiny.
Niacinamide is a type of vitamin B3 that supports many aspects of health and promises brighter, smoother, and younger-looking skin. It helps regulate oil production by supporting the skin’s natural balance and calms inflammation, making skin less reactive, according to Cleveland Clinic. In body care specifically, that oil-regulating quality matters on areas prone to congestion – upper arms, back, and chest.
Concentration is where things get more specific. Using niacinamide at a concentration below 5% is recommended for treating skin inflammation due to acne and other skin conditions, according to researchers at Baylor College of Medicine. Since the Wild Cherry Body Wash is a rinse-off product rather than a leave-on serum, the contact time with skin is shorter. The benefits are real, but they’ll be more modest than what you’d see from a dedicated niacinamide serum applied after showering.
Fruit AHAs: The exfoliation science hiding in your cherry scent
The fruit AHA complex in the Wild Cherry Body Wash is doing real chemical work, not just adding a label claim. Alpha hydroxy acids are a group of acids that occur naturally in fruits, sugar cane, and milk, according to Medical News Today. The “fruit” designation in Glamlite’s formula signals that these are naturally derived – typically from sources like citrus, bilberry, or sugar cane.
AHAs work by loosening the top layer of old skin cells, breaking down the substance that keeps skin cells joined together, Medical News Today explains. The result is smoother texture, more even tone, and improved absorption of whatever moisturizer follows. On body skin – which tends to be thicker and more resistant to active ingredients than facial skin – AHAs are a well-suited tool.
One technical consideration: for an AHA to exfoliate effectively, a product must have a pH between 3 and 5, according to a 2025 overview from Skins.nl. Body washes often sit in a higher pH range designed for gentle cleansing, which can limit how aggressively the acids exfoliate. That’s not necessarily a drawback – it just means this product delivers a milder, daily-use exfoliation rather than the intensive peel you’d get from a targeted treatment.
Shea butter: The moisturizing backbone
Shea butter has appeared in body care formulations for decades, and its reputation isn’t overstated. Shea butter contains fatty acids that lubricate the skin and create a barrier that keeps moisture in, according to Cleveland Clinic. For a body wash – a product category typically associated with stripping moisture from skin – including shea butter helps counteract the drying effect of cleansing agents.
As the skin’s lipid (fat) layer naturally thins over time, it becomes easier for moisture to escape. An emollient (skin-softening agent) like shea butter in a wash formula doesn’t replace a post-shower moisturizer, but it can reduce the skin’s water loss during the time between showering and applying one. The Wild Cherry Body Wash is essentially delivering cleansing, mild exfoliation, and skin-barrier support in a single step – a meaningful combination for people who want an efficient routine.
The Vanilla Slushie Body Scrub: Glycerin and sugar science
The Vanilla Slushie Body Scrub is a foaming sugar scrub inspired by Pepsi Vanilla that features mineral exfoliation and glycerin, according to KTLA. Each of those three elements – sugar, mineral exfoliants, and glycerin – brings something distinct to the formula.
Sugar is a physical exfoliant, meaning it mechanically buffs away dead skin cells through friction rather than dissolving them chemically the way AHAs do. Sugar scrubs are one of the most natural forms of exfoliation and come with many skin benefits, according to skincare formulators at Epicuren. The mineral exfoliants in this formula – likely silica or similar fine-grained minerals – add a secondary layer of physical buffing, giving the scrub more texture and effectiveness than sugar alone. Medical evidence supports gentle, limited exfoliation rather than harsh scrubbing, especially for people with sensitive skin, according to guidance from Acibadem International. Two to three uses per week is the general recommendation for most skin types.
Glycerin is the hydration anchor of the scrub. Glycerin is a humectant, meaning it attracts moisture from the environment and draws it to the skin. A 2016 study published in Skin Pharmacology and Physiology found glycerin to be the most effective humectant for increasing hydration in the outer skin layer, outperforming hyaluronic acid, lactic acid, glycolic acid, and urea, according to The INKEY List. In a scrub formula, glycerin’s role is critical: physical exfoliation removes skin cells, and glycerin immediately draws moisture back to the freshly exposed surface, reducing the risk of the skin feeling raw or tight after use.
Put it to work
The Pepsi x Glamlite skincare collection is genuinely more than a gimmick. At $12 per product, both the Wild Cherry Body Wash and the Vanilla Slushie Body Scrub are priced accessibly for what they contain. Niacinamide, fruit AHAs, shea butter, glycerin, and mineral exfoliants are all credible, evidence-backed ingredients – the kind you’d find in products from brands charging two to three times as much. The difference here is that they’re wrapped in a Pepsi can aesthetic and marketed through TikTok, which may make them easier to dismiss than they deserve.
Routine placement determines how much you get out of both products. The body wash delivers mild AHA exfoliation plus niacinamide in every shower – use it as a daily cleanser, and the cumulative effect on skin tone and texture can be real, even in a rinse-off format. The scrub is better used two or three times per week, not daily. Physical exfoliation done too frequently on the same area can irritate the skin barrier rather than improve it. Apply the scrub to damp skin, work in gentle circular motions, and follow with a leave-on moisturizer to seal in glycerin’s moisture-drawing effect. Pepsi launched these products with TikTok virality in mind – but used correctly, they hold up on the bathroom shelf on their own merit.
AI Disclaimer: This article was created with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by a human editor.
