Skin Health Magazine Issue #11 / Spring 2019 | Page 26

My Skin Journey
ANNICA FORSGREN KJELLMAN
A
fter opening its digital doors in 2011,
Skincity have become the go-to online
retailer of professional skin care and
beauty in Europe. After starting life in Sweden,
it finally launched its unique approach to
shopping for skin care in the UK in February, so
we spoke to co-founder Annica Forsgren Kjellman
about running a multinational company, learning
to say ‘no’ more often and which skin care trends
are worth paying attention to.
As a mother of two, I no longer had the time to
visit a skin care clinic, but I still wanted to shop
for professional products. I had been working
in the skin care industry since 2000, when I
graduated as a Skincare Therapist, and I started
to notice how online businesses had grown in
popularity, but I couldn't find any online stores
that offered professional skin care that I felt
secure enough to shop from. No sites offered
customers the service, quality and knowledge
that I believe is essential when buying profes-
sional skin care.
I saw how my passion for professional skin care
and high-quality service could fill this gap in
the online market. My husband, Mikael
Kjellman, had worked in ecommerce and had
experience building a company, so we decided
to do this project together. We would offer skin
care products handpicked by skin therapists who
would also educate and help the customer to
find the best products for their skin type and
needs, and Skincity was born.
When it comes to running a multinational
company, I don’t see challenges, I only see
opportunities. I have put my life into Skincity
because it is my passion. Yes, it is hard work
but nothing comes for free. The hardest thing
I have had to learn since we started is to say no.
So many exciting things are happening all the
time and things move so quickly that you have
to be confident and stick to your plan, your
concept and your business ideals. Nowadays,
people tend to put so much focus on what every-
one else is doing that they forget to focus on
their business and their own ideals. And, maybe
most important, is listening to your customers.
Although I am inspired by other companies,
our customers inspire me the most and I prefer
to listen to them and turn their wishes to new
business ideas.
There are lots of skin tests out there and I think
I have tried them all! With our Skincity Skin
Tests, I wanted to do something different and
make sure our customers receive professional
advice not just an auto-generated answer. Our
original Skin Test has around 25 questions and
uses the same type of questions that a skin
therapist at a clinic would ask when doing a
skin analysis before a treatment. You can also
upload a picture of your face which helps our
Skin Therapists out a lot when it comes to
building a suitable skin care regime. All our
Skin Tests are handled manually by a Skin
Therapist to ensure the best and most appropri-
ate recommendations. I don’t believe a machine
can do that.
Everyone is different, so what you want and expect
from skin care is very personal. People have dif-
ferent skin types and different lifestyles, so we
make sure that any brand we stock is approved
by our team of Skin Therapists. For me, I like
very different brands that you can mix and match
to find the perfect routine. I am totally in love
ISSUE #11 | 2019 | SkinHealthMagazine.com 26