Skin Inc and Esqa make a pretty penny from making you look like a million dollars

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Consumers are tightening their belts amid uncertain economic times, but many are still willing to spend on personal care and beauty. I speak with some experience: I’ve cut back on fancy meals but not on skincare products, facials, and toiletries.

In this edition’s first featured story, my colleague Melissa takes a closer look at Skin Inc, a Singapore-based company that specializes in personalized skincare products.

Apart from customized serums, the startup also offers an IoT device that can perform LED facials and use AI to analyze your skin’s health so it can recommend products that suit you.

That might seem a bit excessive to the average consumer, but Skin Inc is hoping to ride on this technology – along with its success in the US market – to a successful IPO on the Nasdaq.

The second featured story by Jofie this week is also beauty-related.

Cindy Angelina and Kezia Trihatmanto, best friends who studied in the US, returned to Indonesia and started beauty brand Esqa, which is based on the vegan cosmetics trend they observed in the States.

From Esqa’s first product in 2015, the company now offers 120 items and says it has been profitable since 2017, even before raising any external funding.

Beauty can be big business. Earlier this month, French cosmetics giant L’Oreal snapped up Aesop, an Australian brand known for its luxury botanical skincare products, for US$2.5 billion. So who knows? The next wave of multibillion dollar brands may come from Southeast Asia.

Finally, in this week’s Hot Take, I delve into the recently announced partnership between food delivery platforms Foodpanda and ride-hailer Tada, the benefits of integrating the two verticals, and what this could mean for the parties involved going forward.

— Simon

THE BIG STORIES

1️⃣ Blending skincare, AI, and tech: Skin Inc charts path to US growth and a Nasdaq IPO

Image credit: Timmy Loen

THE HOT TAKE

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