On a brisk Thursday morning in SoHo, the windows of RENO’s Lafayette Street pop-up glow with soft, blush-pink light. Inside, Raneen Awad, the brand’s founder and CEO, fields questions from a small crowd of beauty editors and Gen Z fans. Awad, a Palestinian-American entrepreneur who cut her teeth as a content creator on TikTok and Instagram, has transformed RENO from a single lip oil—launched quietly from her Brooklyn apartment six years ago—into a formidable name in skincare, with a cult following stretching from Manhattan to the Middle East.

“I never wanted RENO to be just another influencer brand,” Awad tells Made in NYC, glancing at the rows of minimalist glass bottles lining the shelves. “New York is where we test, refine, and get brutally honest feedback—this city’s energy keeps me sharp. But my vision is for every skin tone, every background. That’s why we’re here, and why we’re in Dubai, Paris, and Toronto.”

RENO’s rise mirrors a broader shift in the city’s beauty industry. This fall season, as retailers like Sephora and niche boutiques in Williamsburg lean into indie skincare brands, RENO’s direct-to-consumer model stands out for its transparency and community focus. Prices hover in the approachable $22-$38 range, a deliberate choice, says Awad, to make quality formulas accessible to young New Yorkers handling sky-high rents and relentless schedules.

The brand’s latest product—a serum designed to combat the city’s famous late-night fatigue—sold out within hours at a recent Saturday launch event in the Lower East Side. Awad attributes the response to her frank engagement with customers, both online and in-person. “People here want products that work, and they want to know the story behind them,” she says. “That’s the New York way, no hype, just results.”

Looking ahead, RENO is set to open a permanent flagship in Manhattan later this season, with international shipping expanding before the holidays. For Awad, the city remains the ultimate testing ground: “If you can win over New Yorkers, you can go anywhere. But NYC is always home base.”

Editorial Transparency. A first draft of this story was produced with AI-assisted writing tools, then reviewed for accuracy and tone by the named editor before publication. More on our process: Editorial Policy.