The Clean Beauty Brand Meghan Won't Stop Talking About

Ask a beauty editor to name one clean beauty brand with genuine staying power, and Tatcha comes up more often than most. Ask the same question of Meghan Markle, and the answer has been consistent for over a decade. Long before she was the Duchess of Sussex, before the wedding and the Netflix documentary, Meghan was naming her skincare essentials in print, and Tatcha was already on the list.

It is a loyalty that predates the title, which is precisely what makes it interesting. Celebrity beauty endorsements tend to arrive and vanish with a campaign cycle. This one has run, largely unprompted, since 2014.

Here is the story of the clean beauty house Meghan keeps returning to, the two products she named herself, and the friend-turned-executive who now sits inside the brand.

Naming names, a decade ago

In August 2014, Glamour asked Meghan, then an actress known chiefly for Suits, to name a favourite beauty treatment. Her answer was specific: the Tatcha Face Moisture Mask. The same year, in an interview with Allure, she went further, describing the brand’s signature cleansing powder in her own words: “I really love the Tatcha Rice Enzyme Powder. It just sort of foams on your face and gives you a really subtle exfoliation.”

Neither answer reads like a paid placement. They read like exactly what they were: a private beauty routine, offered up when a magazine asked what she actually used. Meghan was, at the time, promoting a television series rather than a beauty line, and Tatcha itself was a relatively young company, still years from the mainstream household name it has since become. That pre-fame candour is the foundation of everything that followed, and it is why the Tatcha connection has always felt more like genuine habit than endorsement.

What “clean” means at Tatcha

Tatcha describes itself as a clean-formula, Japanese-inspired beauty house, and the distinction matters. Founder Vicky Tsai has been candid that her definition of “clean” is not a marketing checklist but a simple physiological test: if a product stings, itches or upsets the skin, it fails, regardless of how natural or synthetic its ingredients are. Efficacy and gentleness, in her formulation philosophy, are not meant to be a trade-off.

The brand’s origins trace to a trip Tsai took to Kyoto, where she was introduced to traditional Japanese beauty rituals by a modern-day geisha, drawing on ingredients and techniques refined over centuries. That heritage (unhurried, ingredient-led, ritual-based) sits at the heart of what is now called J-beauty, and it is the sensibility that first caught Meghan’s attention years before the term was fashionable.

The Rice Enzyme Powder

The product Meghan singled out to Allure remains one of Tatcha’s most recognisable: a foaming enzyme powder built around rice bran, which activates on contact with water for a gentle, powder-to-foam exfoliation rather than an abrasive scrub. It is designed for regular use rather than an occasional treatment, which fits neatly with a skincare philosophy built on consistency over quick fixes.

It is also, more than a decade on, still in Tatcha’s core range, a rare thing in an industry that reformulates and discontinues constantly. The powder’s longevity mirrors Meghan’s own relationship with it: a product named once, in 2014, that has simply never needed replacing in either the range or the routine.

The Face Moisture Mask

Meghan’s Glamour answer pointed to the brand’s hydrating mask, formulated to be worn for a short treatment or layered as an overnight step for thirsty skin. Where the Rice Enzyme Powder does the work of gentle exfoliation, the mask is about replenishment, the kind of restorative step that suits a working actress’s schedule as easily as a public role’s.

Together, the two 2014 answers sketch a coherent, sensible routine rather than a scattered list of gifted products: clean away gently, then hydrate deeply. It is the same two-step logic that still underpins clean beauty routines built around active ingredients rather than heavy layering.

Daniel Martin moves from the kit bag to the boardroom

The Tatcha connection deepened considerably in June 2020, when Meghan’s long-time makeup artist and friend, Daniel Martin, joined the brand as its first-ever Global Director of Artistry and Education, becoming, notably, the first Asian American to hold such a role at a beauty house. After years backstage with Dior Beauty and Honest Beauty, Martin moved to a seat at the table, working directly with Tsai on product development, education and the brand’s artistic direction.

It is an unusually direct line between a celebrity’s personal makeup artist and a brand’s executive suite, and it means the Tatcha relationship now runs two ways: Meghan as a documented, decade-long customer, and her own artist shaping the brand from the inside.

A loyalty that predates the trend

What makes the Tatcha story notable is timing. Meghan named these products in 2014, years before “clean beauty” and “J-beauty” became retail-shelf categories with their own marketing language. Tsai herself has said that while the current trend toward Japanese beauty and clean formulas is welcome, it was never the brand’s starting motivation. The philosophy came first, and the fashion followed.

That sequencing gives the Meghan connection more credibility than a typical brand partnership. It was not built by a campaign chasing a movement; the movement arrived around a habit that already existed. Where many celebrity beauty tie-ins are announced, priced and promoted within a single news cycle, this one simply surfaces again whenever a journalist asks the right question, most recently around red-carpet appearances, where Daniel Martin has continued to credit Tatcha in her pre-event skin preparation.

Why it still matters

The appeal of a story like this one is not the products themselves, useful as they are, but what the choice says about taste that holds steady under scrutiny. A skincare answer given at twenty-something, before any of the attention that followed, has aged into a genuine decade-long thread, through a magazine feature, a role that changed everything, and a friend’s rise inside the very brand that started it. For the fuller edit of Meghan’s Tatcha favourites and the products behind her wedding-day glow, see our companion piece on her beauty routine. It is a small, telling example of the wider Court & Capital pillar we return to again and again: the most enduring style choices are rarely the loudest ones.

Frequently asked questions

What clean beauty brand does Meghan Markle love?

Meghan Markle has repeatedly named Tatcha, a Japanese-inspired, clean-formula skincare brand, as a favourite. She named specific products in interviews with Allure and Glamour back in 2014, long before her royal profile began.

What is the Tatcha Rice Enzyme Powder?

It is a foaming cleansing powder built around rice bran that activates with water for a gentle, powder-to-foam exfoliation. Meghan described it to Allure in 2014 as giving “a really subtle exfoliation.”

What is the Tatcha Face Moisture Mask?

It is a hydrating treatment mask designed to replenish and soften the skin, either as a short treatment or an overnight step. Meghan named it as a favourite beauty treatment in a 2014 Glamour interview.

Why is Tatcha considered a clean beauty brand?

Founder Vicky Tsai defines “clean” by how a formula behaves on skin rather than by an ingredient checklist alone: if a product stings or irritates, it is reformulated, regardless of whether its ingredients are natural or synthetic.

What is Daniel Martin’s role at Tatcha?

Daniel Martin, Meghan’s long-time makeup artist and friend, became Tatcha’s first-ever Global Director of Artistry and Education in June 2020, working on product development and education alongside founder Vicky Tsai.

Is Tatcha a Japanese brand?

Tatcha is an American-founded company built on Japanese beauty traditions. Founder Vicky Tsai developed the brand’s philosophy after being introduced to time-tested rituals and ingredients during a trip to Kyoto.

Did Meghan Markle name these products before she was famous?

Yes. Both the Allure and Glamour interviews were given in 2014, when Meghan was known primarily for her role in Suits, years before her engagement was announced.

Where can I try Tatcha products?

A selection of Tatcha’s range, including the Rice Enzyme Powder, is available through Tatcha on Amazon, alongside the brand’s own website and major beauty retailers.

Quotes and product details are drawn from Meghan Markle’s 2014 interviews with Allure and Glamour and from public reporting on Daniel Martin’s appointment at Tatcha; only documented statements and roles are described.