Judy Cheung-Wood spent hours as a child in Hong Kong watching her grandfather, a qualified chemist, mixing natural ingredients to create lotions and potions. Judy developed acne. The condition plagued her through university and into her early career and battered her confidence. And when her partner took a job in the US and she didn’t have the right to work there, Judy filled her spare time devouring books on health and holistic medicine – until she found a cure.
ISB: What was the inspiration behind you ultimately launching your own business?
JC-W: I owe a lot to my grandfather, a chemist and serial entrepreneur who ran marketing agencies, made wooden toys (so ahead of his time!) and manufactured natural skincare products. I inherited his entrepreneurial spirit and his passion for traditional, nutritional medicine and creation of skincare products that work. As a young girl, I was always fascinated by his creations and was constantly learning from him. Upon having my own acne challenges, I was determined to find the solution in the way he would have done – by caring for the whole body.
“When you are working on something innovative, you need 10 times the ability to believe in your own vision.”
In 2005, I came across a medical hypothesis on the use of high-dose Vitamin B5 for acne that showed promising results. I didn’t believe in supplements then but was desperate for something beyond the same old acne creams and washes that didn’t work. I embarked on intensive research and started experimenting on myself with a combination of high-potency Vitamin B5 and other acne-fighting nutrients that are supported by scientific evidence, such as Vitamin B3. After two months, my skin completely cleared up and I decided that I needed to bring this real acne solution to other acne sufferers. Soon after, SkinB5 was created and launched, supported by Austrade and seed capital from a prominent doctor from Tasmania.
ISB: And why did you choose the skincare sector for your enterprise?
JC-W: As a child, I suffered from mysterious skin issues. As a young teen, acne emerged, and my skin continued to break out regularly well into my 20s. I was a shy teenager and having acne made me very self-conscious. Throughout university and the early years of employment, I continued to get pimples. Even as a student with limited resources, I would spend money on expensive Dermalogica and Clinique creams, thinking that these expensive ones would surely work better than cheap supermarket products. When they inevitably didn’t, I moved on to the next cream, my self-esteem dropping each time. So, when my own concoction with high-potency Vitamin B5 cleared my acne, I decided to bring it to the world, driven out of my own necessity and a desire to help other acne sufferers restore healthy skin and confidence.
ISB: How does your brand stand apart in such a competitive market?
JC-W: [Crafting my own combination that worked] was a lightbulb moment. I realised the whole acne industry is approaching treatment the wrong way! All of a sudden it made sense to me why a holistic, inside-out approach works, because our skin is the largest organ in our body. Conventional acne treatments typically lead to side effects because they are fighting with the body, rather than working with its own healing and restorative abilities.
Even today, many influencer-hyped acne products are still obsessed with targeting the symptoms with more creams and washes, rather than addressing the root causes. Treating acne effectively with lasting benefits has to be holistic and multi-faceted. SkinB5 supports the body at a cellular level by leveraging the restorative and healing powers of multiple synergistic nutrients to simultaneously address the main [functions related to] acne, which include regulating skin oil, supporting healthy hormones, strengthening immunity and promoting healing. Our range includes topical skincare products with Vitamin B5 and natural extracts to help restore and protect the skin barrier because a healthy skin barrier can resist acne breakouts – that is an innate ability of our skin.
ISB: I understand you envisaged SkinB5 being a global brand from the get-go. How did you strategise your marketing to achieve this?
JC-W: Having lived in Asia and the United States, I was keenly aware of the much bigger markets beyond Australia, and I have seen people from all walks of life suffering from acne. So, my go-to-market strategy has always been globally minded.
When I learnt about Austrade (the Australian Trade Commission) and told them that I was launching a nutraceutical-led acne treatment, they invited me to join their natural health delegation and launched SkinB5 at Cosmoprof Hong Kong. We signed up distributors from the Philippines and Singapore at our first trade show. Back in Australia, we didn’t have enough money to launch into the retail channel, so we launched skinb5.com – not .com.au – a global eCommerce website where we deployed low-cost online tactics, including posting on acne forums, which are mostly US-based, and leveraging SEO to reach people across the globe.
I had my doubts but orders started coming through our website from Australia, the US, Europe and Asia. This validated my suspicion that there are lots of desperate acne sufferers out there, like myself, who are willing to try new, unknown brands in the quest to find something that works.
ISB: What is the biggest lesson you’ve learnt on your business journey you’d share with other aspiring founders?
JC-W: Pioneering something that requires a paradigm shift takes a long time. It is only now, a decade since I came up with the patented technology, that mainstream customers are starting to understand more intuitively the SkinB5 Way, which is a wellness approach to effectively managing acne and related skin conditions. When you are working on something innovative, you need 10 times the ability to believe in your own vision, persist and not take no for an answer.
I also learnt from my father’s high-risk, short-sighted approach to business invariably leads to losing everything, and he did. Not only money – he lost our family businesses, properties and, most significantly, his business gambles cost him his own family. Because of this, I have always taken a calculated risk approach in my SkinB5 journey, as creating a completely new way to treat acne when I didn’t have a skincare industry background was very risky. I plan things out methodically to make sure that I walk this fine line between taking risks to innovate and being too fearful, which leads to inaction. Being passionate about what I do, because SkinB5 helps transform the lives of acne sufferers, is the magic ingredient that makes everything happen and keeps us on track.
I also credit my grandfather for instilling in me from a very young age to always take the long view, and my grandmother, who was always imparting her streetwise wisdom to me, telling me not to fall into ‘get rich quick’ traps.
ISB: How do you see SkinB5 growing and developing in the next few years?
JC-W: SkinB5 is in a rapid-growth phase, having just launched into Priceline Pharmacy in Australia, and overseas. Our reputation is as the holistic acne treatment that actually works, and sales are increasing. We plan to become a leading dermatologist-backed acne treatment in Australia, South-East Asia and the US.
This story first appeared in issue 41 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
