Franchesca Hashim on pleasure, failing fast, and building the SPF brand she couldn’t find
At the helm of Good Weather Skin, co-founder Franchesca Hashim is reimagining what it means to enjoy daily SPF. In an unsexy category typically dominated by function and fluorescent packaging, she’s building something different: skincare that feels joyful, tactile, and designed for real life.
“There was no launch strategy at the start,” she tells me. “We were just trying to make something that didn’t exist.”
What started as a personal need (finding a mineral sunscreen that actually worked) has turned into one of the most quietly buzzy launches of 2025 so far.
Before the launch, there wasn’t a business plan. No urgency. Franchesca couldn’t find a mineral sunscreen that worked for her. “Everything either left a weird cast, felt chalky, or dried me out,” she says. “I asked Alex, and she couldn’t recommend anything either.”
So they spent a year and a half tinkering—lab samples, different chemists, plenty of trial and error.
“Never in a million years would I have imagined that I was going to start a sunscreen brand,” she says. “But it was oddly the one thing pushing me to be like, can I do this? Can I crack this?”
The result? Good Weather Skin: a brand that’s turning SPF into something tactile, and joyful.
“It should feel as fun and indulgent as the rest of your skincare routine,” she says. “Pleasure is central to everything we’re building, from the whipped texture to the way the glass bottle feels in your hand.”
On Redefining SPF
That spirit shows up in every detail of the brand. It’s SPF, but make it fun. Skincare, but make it something you want to use.
“Skincare shouldn’t feel like a chore,” she says. “It should be a little moment you actually look forward to.”
But sunscreen is also a massive category and one that has traditionally been dry, clinical, and fear-based. Franchesca sees that as an opportunity.
“There’s so much white space in SPF,” she says. “Protection is essential, of course, but pleasure was totally missing from the SPF conversation,” Franchesca says. “Because it’s such a functional product, the category forgot to make it fun. And that completely misses the mark if you want people to make SPF part of their everyday lifestyle.”
For Franchesca and Alex, that disconnect was the wedge. “We saw this gap between how important SPF is and how uninspired most of the category feels. It’s all function, no joy. We wanted to flip that.”
By leaning into pleasure, aesthetics, and routine, Good Weather is aiming to make SPF something you don’t forget but actually reach for. “The best sunscreen,” she says, “is the one you actually want to wear.”
On Career Curves and Clean Beauty
The beauty industry, it turns out, wasn’t the original plan. Franchesca began in journalism, thinking she’d be a TV reporter. “But the second I got into a broadcast journalism class, I knew I didn’t want to be on camera,” she laughs. “I just loved the storytelling part.”
Her path twisted through PR and brand marketing at places like Airbnb and Everlane where she eventually met Alex, her co-founder. “We just clicked. We were obsessed with great storytelling. Alex had written a book on clean beauty years before, so she was always my skincare person.”
Still, they didn’t set out to start a company. “We were just scratching an itch,” Franchesca says. “But when people started lighting up over the product, we realized, okay, this is real.”
On Learning to Let Go
What’s kept her grounded is curiosity. “I love how much I don’t know,” she says. “There was a point in my career when everything started to feel like Groundhog Day. With this, I’m energized. I’m lit up.”
Still, being a founder comes with its own set of lessons.
For Franchesca, one of the biggest has been embracing the unknown and learning to trust the process. “I used to think I had to have all the answers,” she says. “Now I know that half the job is just figuring things out as you go.” There’s also the matter of speed. “We move fast,” she adds. “But I’ve learned that failing fast is actually a gift. It means we’re experimenting. It means we’re learning.”
“The hardest part? Learning what to let go of,” she admits. “I don’t come in with an iron fist. If anything, I default to ‘I don’t know.’ But then figuring out when to bring in help, that’s tricky.”
On Mindset and Momentum
“I hear from too many people who are waiting to start until they have the perfect idea or the thing they’ll love waking up to every day. I don’t align with that,” she says. “I don’t think that’s the best way to start something. Do it. Do it before you’re ready.”
Her mantra?
“Keep going. Even when you don’t want to. You can be exhausted and still not be ready to quit. That distinction really matters.”