The two makeup artists Emma Filipsson and Helena Amiley can now use their respective experiences from various positions within the beauty industry throughout the years, such as running e-commerce and developing new and existing brands. This week, the duo launches Minolei, aiming to find solutions to everyday makeup challenges with a focus on oily and combination skin.
— Many people experience skin that gets excessively greasy and shiny throughout the day which also causes makeup to dissolve quickly, they explain. And this is frustrating for many. After having worked in the beauty industry for a long time, we could see a lack of products on the market that actually worked and were long-lasting. So that became our mission.
Together, they’ve developed an innovative base makeup concept called The Uniset Effect, a combination of the words ”unifying” and ”setting”. It’s a 3-step routine consisting of a trio of products — primer, foundation, and powder.
— We wanted to establish and introduce something that really works and gives people with oily and combination skin the opportunity to be confident in their skin without having to worry about the makeup smudging or dissolving or having to touch up several times a day. So that’s what we set our minds to and created.
How does it work?
— The product trio uses formulas that are made to blend together and enhance each other when they are used in a 3-step routine for a long-lasting oil-free result. This result is what we call the Uniset Effect. They work their best magic when they are used together in unison, but we’ve also made sure each individual product is great to use on its own if you just want one of their specific functions for the day.
What was the hardest thing when creating the range?
— To create the perfect balance of highly oil-absorbing formulas that also feel lightweight on the skin and have a soft matte finish without looking dry, Filipsson and Amiley say. Even if you have oily skin, you can still have dryness in certain areas of the face due to different skin conditions. You can for example have a really oily T-zone but have parts that are very dry at the same time. We have been using test panels during our whole product development process and we’ve done some rigorous work together to get it exactly the way we want it. Our goal was to have people on the panel with oily skin completely happy with the absorption result and people on the panel with dry areas just as satisfied. Until that point, proceeding with the products was never an alternative. After years of testing, we finally succeeded!
All the testing conducted has secured a lot of know-how for the founders.
— For example, you would think that adding a lot of absorbing ingredients equals a super-absorbing product. But some samples that we tested had a much higher inclusion of absorbing ingredients than our final products ended up having today, and they weren’t even oil-absorbing, to begin with. So it really was a matter of testing and finding the right balance of ingredients and properties.
— And we’ve also understood how much time it takes to develop customized products, especially if you are very picky with the result. But we are also happy about the long development process as it has given us time to work with everything else that is important, such as pitching to our investors. But also going through all our claims with toxicologists, signing Lyko as one of our distributors, as well as building our own website which includes preparing a successful go-to-market strategy and all the content that goes with it. It’s been quite a ride!
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