Shannon Dougall: Meet the Female Entrepreneur Revolutionising Skincare
In 2016, disillusioned with the lack of effective, transparent and affordable skincare products in South Africa, Shannon Dougall decided to do something about it. With 20 years of experience in the skincare industry and a cosmetic science degree, she decided to establish a brand that genuinely delivers on its promises. Skin Functional was born in 2019 after three years of research and development. The result: A skincare range that focuses on ethical, transparent and customer-centric practices, with products formulated with high-quality ingredients that are clinically proven to deliver results. The brand has seen year-on-year success ever since and has even penetrated markets in Canada, USA, Europe and a number of other African countries.
We recently sat down with Shannon at Cape Grace’s Heirloom Restaurant to hear more about her inspiring journey.
What inspired you to start Skin Functional?
“It really stemmed from my own journey with hyperpigmentation. At the time, I tried many brands that were really expensive and they had promises of grandeur. Unfortunately, I was left with nothing but shattered hopes and dreams.
Having worked in the skincare industry for 20 years, I knew some of the brands and how they worked. I felt that a lot of the brands were able to lie to customers about what was in the products. In fact, if they were on a cost-cutting mission, they would just cut a few active ingredients here and there. I could see that customers were getting the raw end of the deal. I wanted to create a brand that was truly transparent about what went into a product. One that was effective, that would do what it said it could do and deliver on its promises.
I also wanted to empower customers. At that time, there was a big gap in the market. People knew nothing about skincare, and I wanted to empower them to make their own informed decisions.
In South Africa, there were obviously lots of brands available, but there weren’t any that offered superior skincare at an accessible price point for the mass market.
After three years of research and development, Skin Functional came to be. Now it’s about a deep passion that I have for transforming customers’ lives. We get lots of feedback about how we’ve helped customers and succeeded in giving them skin confidence. And for me, that’s the reason we do what we do. The number of lives we’ve positively impacted and our hope to impact more are really our key drivers.”
Is it true that you do all the formulations yourself?
I do. After my marketing degree, when I started pursuing this passion in skincare, I went and did a cosmetic science degree. So, all formulations come from me, which I feel is also really special, because the dream and the passion come through in the formulations as well.
How do you decide on which products to launch?
I’m very close to customer service. I go through a lot of customer questions, the feedback, the things that they’re looking for, and I look for gaps in our portfolio. One of the biggest gaps that we had at the end of last year was dry skin. We had some products, but I didn’t feel we were adequately able to really give customers solutions. So, we launched our Barrier Balm, which is for mild eczema and that really filled the gap. I really have an ear close to the ground with customers. It’s mainly about what the customers are asking for, what their needs are and where in our portfolio we can’t service them.
How long does testing usually take?
Some formulations on paper look like they’re going to work, but when I run the samples, they split and then I have to go back and find out why; what’s not compatible. So, formulations typically take up to a year, and our testing takes anywhere between three and six months, depending on whether we’ve had a stability issue. Then, we have to go back, tweak the formula and retest. It can take up to a year.
Is Skin Functional purely an e-commerce business?
We have been available online and in Woolworths but, in order to reach the mass market, we are now available in Dis-Chem too.
Any exciting developments you’d like people to know about?
I don’t want to give too much away, but we do have a really amazing launch coming up in March. I’m really passionate about Vitamin A and I think that it is a phenomenal ingredient. We have a new generation retinoid that we are incorporating into this product.
We also have a product that we’ve recently launched for breakouts. We know that 80% of adults suffer from breakouts and we really wanted a hero breakout management product for our customers. So, we’ve incorporated a trademarked ingredient at Skin Functional and it’s all about plant extracts and helping to shorten the life cycle of breakouts.
