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Claudia Sulewski’s shower is lined with countless little sample bottles of formulas and fragrances — and she’s constantly asking her boyfriend, singer-songwriter Finneas O’Connell, for feedback on which ones he likes best.
“I’m always like, ‘Okay, babe, can you scrub this one on your back? Try this one. Try that one,'” Sulewski, who rose to fame after her YouTube career under the name BeyondBeautyStar took off in 2009 when she was just 13, tells PEOPLE over Zoom, laughing. “It’s wonderful. Having a masculine nose, you know what I mean? Just being able to say, ‘Would you wear this? Does this smell gender-neutral to you?’ Stuff like that.”
The products Sulewski is referring to are all part of her body care brand, Cyklar, which she founded in October 2023. The beauty guru tells PEOPLE she embarked on launching the brand after she found herself reflecting on her own self-care journey.
“I am a self-confessed people pleaser who was crippled with people-pleasing for much of my early adult years,” she says. “When I look back, ‘no’ was just not in my vocabulary. Whether it was a product of the chaos in my household growing up or just being a woman in this world, I think that was my default for so long — putting others before me and spreading myself too thin.”
As the idea for Cyklar began to take shape, it became clear to Sulewski that, despite the chaos in her life from living in the public eye, body care had always been her way of connecting with her body on a personal and immediate level. With her brand, she was determined to help make self-care a priority — not just for herself, but for her community as well.
Through her products, including her signature “Crescent” and “Vanilla Verve” scented body washes and creams, she aimed to create high-quality, effective products that would empower and nurture people’s skin and self-care routines. All the products are made with sustainable packaging and they’re also vegan.
“It’s about learning to put yourself first and nurture yourself, something I wish I had done earlier in my life,” she says. “You have to fill your own well,” she adds. “You can’t just continue to give so much of yourself.”
“The brand is all about taking care of yourself so that you can show up as a better friend, a better entrepreneur, a better daughter, a better partner — all these things,” she adds.
Since launching Cyklar, Sulewski says it’s been amazing to hear both offline and online, the number of people who say, “I used to not care or give a s— about showering ever, and now I’m excited for it,” or, “Your body wash changed the way I think of showers.”
“That means so, so much to me because it’s a product that we’re using every single day, and so it should be worth it,” she says. “We should be able to maximize the experience both physically and emotionally.”
She’s also grateful for the love and support she’s received from O’Connell, whom she began dating in 2018. “He wants me to just dive into any single interest and avenue that I could ever dream of…and it’s just wonderful,” she says. “It’s been so wonderful to be with someone who just gets it, and is in a similar space, and so he helps me with self tapes and I help him with self tapes and things like that.”
“We both just want the best for each other,” she continues.
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Sulewski adds that, having been a creator for some time, she feels incredibly lucky to have had a front-row seat to watch so many of her favorite brands and fellow creators grow and evolve. Now, with Cyklar, she’s both grateful and honored to be part of that conversation moving forward.
“I talk about this all the time as a content creator… it’s so exciting living in Los Angeles,” she says. “There are so many other creators here, and there’s this whole network of us who go to each other’s events. We talk about things like, ‘What have been your struggles this month? What are you watching next?’ I’ve found that the founder community here, especially in the beauty space, is incredibly supportive. I think it’s because we all understand what it takes, how lonely it can feel, and how terrifying it can be.”
Looking five years down the road, Sulewski sees herself still excited and motivated to continue building Cyklar and creating products that truly make a difference in people’s lives. She’s also excited to continue her self-care journey and pursue other passions, including acting and content creation.
“Sharing my life is also a big part of what I do,” she says. “I’ve been doing this for so long, and I’m constantly finding new ways to share my life that feel appropriate for the time. Right now, I’m uploading these monthly videos at the end of each month, and it feels like the right balance — showing enough of my life while maintaining a more pulled-back approach.”
“But I imagine, if I’m still tackling the same things in five years from a different place in my life, I’ll be happy. I feel so lucky to be doing so many different little things,” she adds.
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