Since Caitlin Clark arrived in Indiana, she has set up Lexie Hull’s shots, but the Fever teammates have shared greater off-court chemistry too, and Clark’s T-shirt bore witness to it. On Friday, Hull’s Forta Cosmetics made a post giving a peek into the development of its Lock & Go Setting Spray, and one picture was hard to slide without a second look. 

The post featured pictures with subtitles from Hull detailing how she struggled to keep her makeup intact after an intense workout. Eventually, the Fever star took it upon herself to find a way, creating Lock & Go Setting Spray. After 18 formula trials, the product received a green light from Hull, who revealed in the post that she had given Clark an earlier formula to test, but it was a disaster.

“Sooooo I had my teammate test the last formula. All of her makeup ended up on her shirt. RIP,” Hull wrote in the subtitle. 

The picture didn’t reveal Clark’s entire face, but enough to reveal that it was her. The snap showed Clark’s white T-shirt stained with makeup. It was the same experience that inspired Hull to take on the business venture with her Stanford roommate Sarah Guller.

“None of the products out there are really built for the level of activity I’m doing as a professional athlete,” Hull told Front Office Sports. “For a long time, I just accepted that I would spend 30 minutes getting ready for a game and then before warmups are even done, my makeup is all over my towel, or my jersey, or another person’s jersey.”

FORTA Cosmetics has branded itself as a performance-first beauty brand. Hull highlighted in the post that she and her team spent over two years developing Lock & Go Setting Spray, which uses only 10 ingredients. The Fever star also shared a picture of herself after the game showing that her makeup was still intact. 

Forta was officially launched in April, with Lock & Go Spray being its first flagship product. Within 24 hours of being launched, the product sold $10,000 worth of inventory online.

Hull had first intended to target professional athletes with the product, but quickly realized that the issue she and her cofounder were trying to address was not limited to just athletes. Guller is also not an athlete, and a lot of people like her struggled with the same issue after going through intense workouts in the gym.

“When we went into it, I was like, ‘This will be an athlete brand for people playing at the highest level’” Hull admitted.

“And at the end of the day, we’ve learned that it’s for people running around doing their normal busy days, going to get groceries, picking up kids, going on walks, going to Pilates, getting drinks. If they still feel like their face is falling off, that was something we felt like we could fix.”

While Hull might have found her way forward in business, it was also not an accident. Since she was in college, the Fever star wanted to do something outside the hardwood. Now she is excited about going back home from her game and shifting her focus away from basketball, at least while she is away from the court.

Forta is still being branded under the Indiana Fever star name. But Hull would still not consider it a success if it doesn’t create its own identity in the future.

“Hopefully, five years from now, FORTA is a company where people genuinely love the product, not just because they know that an athlete founded it,” Hull said. “I hope that it can stand alone in its own category with or without me.”

The brand partnered with Faves, an athlete marketing network where she was able to get her product tested by real-world athletes. Hull is now an official part of Faves’ roster, a testament to a growing number of female athletes ready to leave their mark in the beauty and skincare industry. Naomi Osaka’s KINLÒ and Serena Williams’ WYN Beauty have already established themselves in the market.

The success of Hull’s branding also bears witness to the exponential growth of women’s sports, especially the WNBA. 

The Fever are one of the top franchises in the league with the most passionate fanbase. Being a part of the team that features Caitlin Clark has helped Hull amass a large fan following. But she has also earned it with her defensive intensity and elite 3-point shooting. She is expected to return next season, while Indiana is expected to undergo big changes during this offseason.