THE FOUNDER BEHIND SKINSEI
WHY I CREATED SKINSEI LABS.
I grew up Indian at home and Japanese everywhere else. At home, it was Diwali lights, too much food, and my mom getting ready in front of the mirror. Outside, it was quiet trains and beauty aisles where even the click of a cap felt like someone had thought about it.
I was born in Yamanashi, in the shadow of Mt. Fuji, and spent my first eighteen years in Tokyo before leaving for university and work in the US. It took six years away to notice what I had been absorbing the whole time. The makeup never fit both halves of me. Japanese formulas were beautifully made, but the shades disappeared on my skin. Products made for Indian skin rarely felt made with the same care. So I started building the one I couldn't find.
Every Skinsei shade is named after a place in Japan that means something to me. Yamanashi Peach is home. Shibuya Sunkiss is the neighborhood I live in now. The rest are places I keep going back to.
SALONI AGARWAL / FOUNDER, SKINSEI LABS
WHY SPF 50
Not for fairness. For your skin.
So many of us grew up hearing that sunscreen was for staying fair. Stay out of the sun, don't get dark, put this on before the wedding photos. It took me years to see SPF as something other than a fairness product. Your skin color was never the problem. SPF is there to protect your skin from UV damage, the kind that shows up years later as lines, dark spots, and texture that no tan ever caused.
And the place most of us forget? Our lips. The skin there is thin and has almost no melanin to protect itself, yet they rarely get sunscreen. Those fine vertical lines we blame on dryness are often sun damage that built up over years, and no amount of lip balm will fix them.
The other problem is reapplying. No one wants to layer sunscreen over a finished face in the middle of the day. That's why every Skinsei duo has SPF 50 built in. When you touch up your lips and cheeks, you're topping up your protection at the same time. Keep your sunscreen in the morning. Let Skinsei take care of the touch-ups.
Stop wearing sunscreen just to avoid a tan.
