Our Humble Beginnings

It is a story of why we even bother to exist among many others indie beauty brands in today’s world where the marketing intelligence is freely riding the beauty hypes. FridaSkincare, developed formulations in South Korea using French advanced molecular botanicals.

Back in 2012…

We were married and faced with the difficulty of falling pregnant, like most couples nowadays. Our friend who was doing in-vitro fertilization at that time told us that her Doctor would not allow her to apply any cosmetic products on her skin during the process, including a Body Lotion. A huge question mark popped into our heads, “What is wrong with cosmetics?” At the same time, we also noticed that the harsh weather and pollution in Korea, such as cold dry winters, hot rainy summers, yellow dust, microdust, cars and pervasive cigarette pollution made our skin and hair worsen year after year.

Becoming Health Conscious

Way back when I was just a customer who knew nothing about skin products. I wore them on my skin without checking what was truly inside the products, nor did I care about where the ingredients were outsourced from, or how the manufacturer made the products. I was simply an ignorant customer. Having a time-consuming job as a humanitarian agent in the field, I just didn’t have the time to study all those products. It wasn’t until I started building my own family and planning for a baby in the healthiest way, that I became aware of the importance of using natural and environmentally-friendly skincare products.

So, The Craft Begins…

At that point, I took a vow to keep my family free from toxins. I do not want harmful chemicals to enter my body through my food nor through my skin products, without my permission. It is just not worth the risk! I want to fully take charge of what goes onto my skin and into my body. I want to ensure the safety of my baby while I am holding her. I want to feel safe having any contact with my baby. I am awaiting the day when my baby grows up to be a ‘young lady’ and discovers cosmetics. I will have no worries of accidentally putting her skin at risk, ever.

I was thinking… for the wellbeing of my next generation, I have to create a line of skincare products suitable for pregnant women and breastfeeding moms which represented my condition at that time. And at the same time, I got a strike from within my gut and it told me, “if I have to jump right on this new bandwagon, I have to do it with my kid in mind”. So, I also wanted to create a line of products that also suitable for young teenagers and the elderly, for women and gentlemen of any age and condition… because I believe that there is no social order for taking care of our skin.

Healthy and High-Performance Skincare for Everyone

That day, after that final thought…

I take the meaning of Skincare very seriously. For me, only having a skincare regimen for our face and leaving out other parts of our body is similar to the idea of eating a green salad with a jug of soda drink. Skincare is not merely about taking care of our facial skin. It is a thorough, everyday routine to care for our bodies, from the crown of the head to the tips of the toes! It’s important because even hair products – which contain a lot of harmful chemicals nowadays – that have been rinsed, off and absorbed through our facial skin, are affecting other parts of our body skin too.

So, we put that thought into a visual video. It is a reminder video for us to answer the question of ‘why are we doing what we are doing’.

We Need More Than Just Natural and Organic

And so, without too much thinking, I jumped right in to continue a study in skin science and organic formulations. I spent an intensive 4 years formulating a range of skincare products with love and honesty by carefully selecting the ingredients and allowing the products to be tried by 100+ happy testers. I envisioned more than just ‘natural and organic’ skincare. I wanted something MORE!

‘High-performance’ skincare is one thing, while ‘ethically sourced’ ingredients is another thing. Still, I wanted MORE than just that. I need to give more than what already existed. I guess, something inside me wanted to secure a sustainable future for myself as well as my next generation. I wanted a line of products that will give long-term benefits for when I am aging. The line of skincare that could talk to my skin now and tomorrow, and to my younger me.

Healthy Pores

I was a scholarship hunter back then and I thought I was happy to finally put a stop in chasing for a school after meeting Samuel. I fasted it forward…

My study in organic cosmetics science has led me to master natural skincare formulation. I found that the skin’s real problem lies in maintaining HEALTHY PORES. I haven’t found any skincare line that cares so much about healthy pores. Skin with healthy pores does not need ‘pore pack strips’ to remove blackheads, and even whiteheads will think twice about popping up! As a result, I have formulated a range of complete skincare products that allow the skin to BREATHE!

Breathable and Smart Skincare

Although ‘dermatology tested’ and formulated with anti-pore-clogging ingredients aka ‘non- comedogenic’, some skin products out there are too advanced in their formulations and thus make the skin difficult to catch up on regenerating its own skin tissue. And some other skin products totally neglect the needs of skin regeneration with their simple formulas. Both lead to skin problems such as milia and blackheads, i.e. the trapped specks of dirt beneath the layer of skin.

In 2013…

I am picturing a future trend where women will be confident enough to walk outside with bare beauty facial skin, without a thick coating of makeup. I want women to feel proud of having healthy, glowing, natural skin. I want to help women feel happy with their ‘true’ skin, not hiding it under concealers or thick foundations. I want to make more women happy by offering them a BREATHABLE SKINCARE line. I want to live simply, with only the essential products occupying my beauty cabinet, yet still look amazingly fresh when I go outside.

The funny part is, this early vision comes from someone who wore foundation, mascara, blush on, eyeliner and lip blush on a daily basis. I loved everything that could cover up any flaws on my skin, ignoring my pores that need to breathe.

With that simple vision…

I was asked to teach two times Summer class ‘making natural products’ at KAIST University in Daejeon Metropolitan City. What an honour!

Our First Shop

All the Necessary and Only the Necessary

And, in that shop, I formulated the same skincare that I, with dry to normal skin type, can share with my husband, with oily to acne-prone skin type. So when we travel, it is so much easier to carry just one type of product to give our skin the nutrients it needs with:

1. The QUICKEST practical method of use
2. A super LIGHTWEIGHT feel on the skin
3. NONTOXIC ‘breathable’ ingredients
4. EFFECTIVE direct results all year round
5. High-end skincare at reasonable prices

End of 2016…

I was satisfied with my head-to-toe formulations. Until one day I felt those five points above were less punchy over time. I said to myself that this is a journey that I freely take. Now, that I am in, I have to be fully in. I needed to find out what this missing feeling was and what was beyond those five points.

In the Magazines

Our starting journey in Korea attracted few local medias. What made two foreigners like us ran a business in Daejeon city. The story was very well captured in Hangeul -korean alphabets-:

And right a year after, in April 2015, Daejeon’s Metropolitan Magazine covered about us too!

We were also in a nationwide online magazine in Indonesia, in 2017:

Our Next Shop

In 2018…

Early Stage of FridaSkincare.com

With Samuel’s greatest help in website development, I launched 23 products under facial care, body care, and hair care categories under FridaSkincare’s

BRAND MISSION:

“To produce skincare that is ethically sourced with the best quality of sustainably sourced natural ingredients.”

We aim to create products that perform at the highest standards because “natural and organic cosmetics” are not enough anymore! We want to live a life free from toxins and harmful chemicals as a gift to our precious next generation, offering them an option for healthier skin treatment. We formulate each product with love and honesty. We believe that there is no social order for taking care of our skin. We want all people to get access to elite-style skincare at reasonable prices. FridaSkincare.

COMPANY INTRODUCTION

FridaSkincare – High-performance Molecular Skincare: It is a line of head-to-toe, toxin-free, personal care products with a unique family-friendly formula. Each product has multipurpose functions and blending ability to provide more benefits, as well as being able to upgrade its function. This is a range of ‘all the necessary and only the necessary’ ultimate natural personal care products which can be shared among family members to promote lean living that covers the needs of multi-concerned groups of people:

Our Purpose: “To contribute to healthy family well-being through personal care products worldwide.”

Our Goal: “To supply a complete line of toxin-free, worry-free, personal care products that help improve health and family well-being to the global market, using sustainably sourced and effective natural and organic ingredients.”

Our Company Values: “To support lean living, be accommodating, be honest, build a direct relationship with the end-customers, to promote family beauty, have a commitment to protecting the universe, and to create beauty with logic.”

Our Concept of Beauty: Beauty with Logic. Our beauty value is beyond more than just the hype of ‘natural and organic’ products. We want natural, yet sustainable products. We want organic, yet high-performance. We want cruelty-free and waste-free products. We want to inject more ‘logic’ into the worldwide beauty concept… because for us… when pieces of Wax Comb or Beeswax are often discarded, and Lanolin is secreted by sheep when they are shorn, it is cruel and sinful to dispose of an existing resource to allow it to become waste.

Our Family Beauty: ‘Young moms and families worldwide, including moms who want to protect their families from toxins in skin products; Dads who have skin or hair problems; Kids who need to use natural skin products from early on; People who are with health concerns; Women who want to simplify their skincare routine with a worry-free head-to-toe skincare line; Busy & Smart Women who want to focus on something else greater than spending time coating their faces on a daily basis.’

Our Beauty Chant: “If you want to SERIOUSLY COMMIT to wellness and to protecting your family’s health and at the same time achieve a naturopathic and minimalist lifestyle, then be everything Frida!”

In 2019…

First e-book

I wrote the very first e-book that took me 3-months to work on it. I still remember that I had to wake up at three in the morning, every single day during those months, so I could write peacefully before Axelle woke up. My daughter was three years old at that time and my daytime was super busy.

Brand Patented

After over a year battling with the Korean Patent Office, we finally got our brand logo patented. We marked our shift from “High-performance Handcrafted Skincare” to “High-performance Molecular Skincare“. I remember there was a moment where we had to defend against ‘Frida Kahlo’. Luckily, we have a slot within the industry to make this paperwork a memory:

Just If…

If I knew it would take me years to develop my skincare formulas, I would think a thousand times before dipping my feet on this journey.

But, I believe the odd is the clue. Things happen for a reason. I have no regret of 7+ years of personal sacrificing to develop FridaSkincare from basically nothing. However, I do have plenty of lows, outs, and bitterness throughout this journey.

Milestone

In April 2021…

During this Covid-19 world pandemic, Samuel and I have a lot of talk about our FridaSkincare’s rebirth plan. Two years ago, we had to move out from South Korea due to unbearable pollution that threatened our family health. It is a sentimental country for us, as a place where we met each other and developed our FridaSkincare’s formulations.

After tweaking the formulas, our five points above becomes a lot more sustainable in feeling:

·        The QUICKEST practical method of use

·        A super LIGHTWEIGHT feel on the skin

·        NONTOXIC ‘breathable’ ingredients

·        EFFECTIVE direct results all year round

·        TROUBLESHOOTING the skin issues at the molecular level

·        Cross-seasonal LEGENDARY formula with long-term benefits

This is the year where we are recrafting what we started in Korea, to instil a new fresh soul to our brand while still keeping the heart of FridaSkincare’s Brand Purpose:

To Simplify Your Skin Routine with Brutal Result,

We Formulate High-performance Molecular Skincare.

We Create Legendary Products.

FridaSkincare Rebirth 2021

Meet our Super Serums which formulas are free from colourant and fragrant. The Hydrabase Facial Serums have the power to crack the code within the skin’s molecular level to troubleshoot the skin problems effective immediately, where:

• You DO NOT need other products to complete the routine!
• You DO NOT need to seal in your serum with an extra layer of cream to enhance its revitalizing effects.

It will work on your skin’s molecular level to troubleshoot your skin problems with one focus at a time. Its instant efficacy works through your beauty sleep. After a one-month routine application, you will have healthier-looking skin. And the long-term benefits will be your treasure box for you to uncover.

Its ultra-sensitive skin’s formulations make our Super Serums suitable for skin post-surgery to balance the skin sebum.

FridaSkincare is the correct skincare to troubleshoot your skin dramas with our Super Serums with their NO BS Formulations!

MAGNIFYING ELIXIR: for the skin with inactive sebum, dry-skin symptoms including all its aging drama, such as brown spots, wrinkles, sagginess, depigmentation, inflamed, sensitivity.

CLARIFYING SOLUTION: for the skin with too active sebum, oily-skin symptoms including all its aging drama, includes pimples, blemishes, hyperpigmentation, big pores, shiny look, blackheads, whiteheads, clogged pores, hyper-keratinisation, hyper-seborrhea, inflamed, sensitivity.

Moral Story

Looking back at our journey of building FridaSkincare from scratch, none of them was easy. I remember the fun and the crazy moments. And I remember when the happy feeling got swapped by a bunch of paperwork after we submitted our dear-to-heart mission into a legal business.

But, one thing for sure…

To start is the only way to craft the future we desire.

WRITTEN BY: Frida Pigny