Ryan Turner, a Harvard-trained dermatologist who’s practiced for 15 years and runs a thriving medical office in New York City, has long dreamed of combining his dermatology know-how with his biochemistry and molecular biology degree to develop a skincare range.

And he’s long heard from his patients that they’re looking for skincare products with plant-based active ingredients that avoid certain preservatives that can cause irritation. Still, he didn’t believe he could make the leap into skincare. Turner says, “I was like, ‘There’s no way I can do this by myself.'”

Carrie Pickett made sure he didn’t have to do it by himself. She approached Turner about starting a brand after she became his patient. Prior to seeing him for her dermatology care, she patronized a number of dermatologists who she says “just didn’t understand my skin and my skincare needs.” “Dr. T,” as she calls Turner, couldn’t have been more different from her previous dermatologists. Pickett says, “Primarily because I’m African American with freckles, I’d walk into the doctor’s office, they’d want to biopsy things. I found Dr. T, and I really felt that he understood what I needed.”

Pickett decided Turner’s understanding could extend far beyond his practice with a skincare brand. Pickett, who spent two decades in finance, brought in her sister, Aimee Bailey, a designer, to become creative director of the brand they created with Turner called TRNR Skin. It’s launched with a three-product collection of essentials designed to appeal to skincare neophytes and veteran ingredient nerds alike. The collection includes $34 Glycolic Gel to Foam Cleanser, $55 Niacinamide 5% Restorative Serum and $48 Prebiotic Lipid Nourishing Moisturizer.

For TRNR Skin’s co-founders, it’s critical for the brand to be inclusive in every sense of the word. It’s formulated and branded to be non-gendered, beneficial for all skin tones, applicable to a variety of skin conditions and goals, easy to use, accessibly priced, vegan and sustainable. TRNR Skin’s products are housed in sugarcane-derived plastic tubes and biodegradable boxes.

It took over two years of tweaking TRNR Skin to make sure it achieved all those goals. Turner selects each ingredient in the brand’s products. The products marry skincare staples like niacinamide, green tea extract and bakuchiol with lesser known active ingredients like yacon root supplemented with inulin that Turner and scientific research have identified as helpful for skin health. Turner has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Nature Structural Biology, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Archives of Dermatology.

Even though there are many dermatologist-founded brands on the market, Turner underscores that TRNR Skin is confident there’s space for a brand helmed by a dermatologist that endorses “medicinally based plant-based skincare.” His endorsement can separate his brand’s products from the overwhelming amount of skincare merchandise on the market.

“There was very little from an MD standpoint that was fully endorsing plant-based skincare,” says Turner. “The thought was to use the research that we know—I know how to treat patients in the office—and put that into skincare. It was mindfully created to be effective. That was really important to me because a lot of things out there have the kitchen sink in it, and they’re not there for any reason. They’re just there to fill space or to make people feel good about having multiple different botanicals in a product.”

Scheduled for release in the spring, TRNR Skin’s next product will be a brightening serum that the brand describes as clinically effective at addressing melasma, a common skincare concern for people of color. A sun care product is in the pipeline. “We say cleanse, treat, moisturize. The last component of the TRNR method is protect,” says Turner. “So, a little further out on the horizon, in perhaps a year, we envision our SPF coming to market and are really excited about what that’s going to contain.”

TRNR Skin is currently available at Turner’s Manhattan practice and the brand’s website. Retail is on the distribution roadmap as are other doctor’s offices. “We really wanted to focus on accessibility, so we definitely would like to expand into big box drugstores and retailers over time, but we’ve been really thoughtful in terms of building this brand and taken our time,” says Pickett. “So, I do think we want to grow at an appropriate pace.”