Meet James Jardella, founder of Skin Sapiens

James Jardella set up Skin Sapiens, an independent, natural and sustainably-made skincare brand after he had just become a new father to his baby son, Alex. From working at a major beauty conglomerate to establishing supporting start-ups – James discusses how he transformed his kitchen table-run beauty venture into an award-winning business.

My career has largely been in product innovation. I graduated from university with a Master’s degree in Medical Engineering and have had a decade’s experience working in consumer goods. I got my break in the beauty industry with L’Oreal, the world’s largest beauty company, where I learnt the ropes from the very best in the business. However, I’ve always been interested in startups. Some of today’s best innovations come from such ventures, and I knew that I wanted to eventually be a part of that world. 

At the same time, I could tell pretty early that conglomerates were beginning to look towards smaller beauty businesses to drive innovation and complement their portfolios. They were wisening up to a new consumer desire for independent brands that are transparent about the provenance of their products as well as their sustainability credentials. Startup businesses of this kind seem to offer a refreshing alternative to the soullessness of mass-produced goods. They identify with today’s ever-wary consumer – those who seek purer, more earnest expressions of quality, craftsmanship and individuality.

Perhaps because of my first-hand insights into the beauty industry, but also personally as a lifelong sufferer of eczema, I’ve grown wary of brands that use unnecessary, irritating ingredients that masquerade as innovation but only serve to confuse. 

It was with the birth of our son, Alex, that actually prompted me to experiment with making homemade formulations using nature’s best botanical ingredients, many of which I found close to home. This experimentation led me on the path to setting up, what would eventually become, my skincare brand – Skin Sapiens.

What inspired you to launch your business? 

I wanted to create a skincare solution that was natural, gentle on sensitive skin and incredibly transparent about its ingredients. Having managed my own skin care problems, I wasn’t prepared to take any risks with my son’s delicate new born skin using products that were on the market. 

My kitchen in many ways became my lab. I’ve ruined more pots and pans than I’d care to admit in the process. But my wife – a pharmacist – and I, were intent on putting formulations on our baby’s skin that were authentically natural, beneficial for his skin and made with ingredients that we knew and trusted. 

This period really fuelled a curiosity in me to see if other people felt the same way about skincare on the market, and frustration around the lack of transparency in the ingredients. So I ran some consumer research and found that the frustrations and confusions were not uncommon. I used my network to push a survey to 405 people, most of whom I didn’t know. It was these responses which really proved to me the size of the problem we were tackling. After the initial survey, we ran some focus groups where we recruited people to tell us their opinions on the products and solutions we wanted to create. Most people have no idea what’s in their skincare, and yet in order to judge how a product will react with your skin, you have to know first what’s inside it. It’s impossible to control your relationship with your skin if you have no idea what you put on your face and body every day.

In my kitchen, I kept things simple. I started experimenting with various oil blends and wax combinations using plant-powered active ingredients with scientific benefits to create a nappy balm that would also be able to help calm my own eczema-prone skin. Testing first on myself, then my wife, and then on our son Alex, I ended up producing a multi-purpose baby balm made from cold-pressed avocado, olive and calendula oils, which we thickened with berry wax. It worked really well on Alex’s bottom and did wonders for my eczema too. This early process proved to me that natural, simple, effective products can be made. And often they are more effective and kinder to the skin than mass-produced products from large brands. 

I began to make more products that my family could use but it wasn’t long before friends started requesting these too. I realised that if I really wanted to change the way in which skincare products are made and sold – starting with me, my wife and our son – I would need a business plan and, crucially, help.

Working at L’Oreal with small businesses and startups, I learnt that today you cannot create anything worth creating, alone.

How do you set yourself apart from other businesses in your industry?

Transparency. We’re entering an age where everyone has all the information they want on just about anything all the time. We expect it, yet, unlike food brands, beauty has a long way to go to lift the lid on what’s inside a product and its packaging, and where those ingredients come from. That’s what we do best. We run a no-secrets policy, keep our ingredients list short, only working with the best materials, and share the origin of absolutely everything we work with on pack, in plain English.

Keeping an eye on the numbers in any business is important. How do you ensure that you’re always up to date?

It’s tricky. Coming from data-rich environments, I understand that where there’s information, there’s insight; and where there’s insight there’s value. For indie start-ups, it’s a question of choosing where to invest your time and resources to track the right things. Above and beyond always closing our books each month, we focus our efforts on understanding the performance metrics which underpin our business plan.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far as an entrepreneur? 

It’s important to seek partnerships with those who are experts in their field, especially if you’re a startup, in order to make this a success. 

At the start of the process when I felt ready to produce the products commercially, I identified and approached an expert laboratory with 25 years’ experience in vegan formulations and got them on board to make my vision happen. After 18 months’ collaboratively working on the formulations, we produced and launched six products – all made with fewer than 11 ingredients. These timelines were pretty standard for the industry. It normally takes at least 2 years to bring a brand to market from concept if you’re developing your own formula. The formulation development and certification was 12-month’s work, with the rest going into design, sustainable packaging and production lead times. When you have so few ingredients, you can share the plant origin of each and every ingredient on the pack, without secrets. Each formula is made with the best plant-powered natural actives, and nothing else. The whole range is 100% vegan, certified ECOCERT COSMOS Natural and Leaping Bunny Cruelty-Free.

Brand identity and design was another area where I knew I needed external support. It’s always surprising to learn how this can often be the first element to be economised, but it’s an essential tool for helping businesses bring their unique story to life. Craftsmanship, authenticity and provenance form the narrative for engagement and a platform for creating strong visual, physical and virtual assets that tell a brand story that emphasises a brand’s difference. In order to get cut through on shelf, I knew that design would have to be used effectively to make this happen.

Choosing such a partner to undertake this is a daunting task, particularly for a startup. So I chose to work with an independent but established design agency – Lewis Moberly – who have produced award-winning work for both startups and big brands, to give my product a distinctive and authentic identity. Although small, they’re stalwarts in the field. Both co-founders Robert Moberly and Mary Lewis are very much active in the business, and Mary, as Creative Director, is acknowledged as an industry leader. When you’re producing a physical product, such as mine, this becomes one of the most important partnerships you’ll ever make. Culturally the fit must work. Creative teams need to unpick your vision, your ethos, your dreams in order to develop the cornerstones of an effective brand: from its name to its logo, palette and brand language. It’s a revealing and exciting process. 

With the support of Lewis Moberly, I came up with a name that simply summarised the new proposition. Sapiens is Latin for the word, ‘wise’; thus Skin Sapiens ultimately translates as ‘skin-wise’. It works because it’s true to the product’s founding core values. Natural simplicity is empowering. Mary’s masterful design of the logo with its angled ‘I’ both distinguishes it, and leads the eye to the product. Edited and particular. When you remove all the unnecessary ingredients, bogus claims, and wasteful packaging and replace them with the best natural plant-based ingredients, you enable people to make great choices for their wellbeing and that of the planet too.

Importantly, the partnership also enabled me to negotiate the tricky challenges of sourcing sustainable packaging design that doesn’t negatively affect the colour palette. It’s technical issues such as this that are not often pre-empted by someone new to this process of developing a brand from scratch. I would never have been able to navigate this easily were it not for enlisting the help of people far smarter on the subject than me. 

The investment has paid off. Since inception two years ago, we’ve already picked up a Beauty Shortlist Award and we’ve also agreed our first retail partnership with one of Britain’s best retailers. When it comes to packaging and design, you really can’t cut corners. It’s an intrinsic part of business development and growth.

With all the success stories around entrepreneurship and how innovative people have to be to take the leap, how do you think you’ve innovated your sector and why?

I subscribe to C-K (concept – knowledge) theory; the idea that in order to innovate you either need to create new knowledge, find new applications for existing knowledge, or do both. 

While we have created bespoke IP for all of our formulations, brand-led launches tend to fall into the world concept innovation. As a natural brand with a minimalist approach, we look to Mother Nature for inspiration and pair the best scientifically proven, natural active ingredients she has to offer with common skin concerns for real benefits.

Our commitment to empowering conscious skincare choices through great formulations, transparent sourcing and sustainable packaging is what makes SKIN SAPIENS unique.

What are your thoughts on failure? 

Until you can rationalise failure, it’s scary! When I was first starting out, I had to do a lot of work to overcome my fears. 

To create an authentic brand with values that are true to your vision for the future you have to lead from the front. There’s no hiding. This makes the idea of failure personal. 

At the end of the day it’s well covered that the only guarantee of failure is not trying to succeed. So I try to embrace fear, take risks and grow.

Do you have a morning routine or ritual to get your day started on the right foot?

I do! My Monday to Friday routine is sacred. I like to wake up before my children do and get outdoors. I walk, run and listen to material on whatever I want to learn about while I’m outside. I find a spot to meditate, get my mind in the right place and set an intention for the day. Back at home, I take a cold shower, eat breakfast with my family and I’m 100% awake, alive and ready for the day.  Everyone is different and this is right for me.

If you could be in a room with 4 entrepreneurs, who would they be and why?

Tough question! Richard Branson is probably on every list and utterly unoriginal, but he’s the iconic British role model and is someone I looked up to as a teenager. I love his view on life. 

Yvon Chouinard, because he has a lot to teach in building a standout brand with ethical values. 

Sheryl Sandberg for her insight on how to deliver impact through scalable business in a digital age. 

Andrew Carnegie, for his rags to riches story and commitment to philanthropy. Carnegie emigrated from a village in Dunfermline, Scotland to the USA. His formal schooling stopped then, at the age of 12. Learning from hard work and heavy reading, the industrialist went on to open more than 2,500 libraries. Carnegie's gift to future generations was self-education and the opportunity it brings for social mobility. 

I’d love to see what Carnegie would make of the other three entrepreneurs I’ve just mentioned.

What are your top tips for entrepreneurs wanting to get their business out there?

Fail fast. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Get out there and make it happen. All much easier said than done!

What plans do you have for your business over the next two years?

What we have created to date is just a glimpse of our vision for a sustainable future in beauty retail. Our capsule launch range has been well received – our products have won several highly recognised industry awards in the short time we’ve been on the market. We’re also delighted to have just partnered with Selfridges on their landmark sustainability campaign, Project Earth.

Exploring new materials, models and mindsets for retail, the initiative is a perfect fit for the launch of SKIN SAPIENS, embracing the ideals of conscious beauty. Looking ahead, our focus for the next two years is all about working with our lab and also our design partners, Lewis Moberly, to expand our product offering, scaling up our marketing comms and developing carefully selected retail partnerships.

How important is company culture and what is your top tip to get it right?

From what I’ve seen in my career at companies of differing shapes and sizes, is that culture is fundamental to success. Beyond the clear business value of attracting and retaining talent, culture matters from a human perspective. 

We spend our lives at work. The leaders of a company have a responsibility to make their place of work somewhere people feel comfortable, supported and able to grow. 

In turn, everyone working in a business needs to be willing and able to take their share of responsibility for sustaining a positive culture too. Rather than dictating, or specifying what a culture should be like, I’m an advocate for creating a safe place, encouraging freedom of expression and placing shared ownership at the heart of what it means to be part of the team.

Any new product launches we should know about?

Yes! We’re busy working away on phase 2 of our brand launch. We have some really exciting products in the pipeline. True to our ethos, our new product launches will go further to deliver natural benefits to our skin and the planet, while continuing to put transparency at the heart of all that we do.

What’s the single most important decision that you made, that contributed to your business?

Being authentic with our green credentials is something I’m incredibly passionate about. Having the correct certifications in place help set the standard for high quality, met with someone else’s stamp of approval – now more than ever, given that greenwashing has become an unfortunate trend it matters. Companies often sell “honesty”, but really I think people just want honest behaviour from the brands they buy. COSMOS standard also ensures that our suppliers are audited for safe manufacturing processes and their own green credentials.

Sourcing sustainable packaging, however, has been a convoluted journey. Naturally, we knew our ethos and values needed to be manifested on, and be part of, the actual pack and core touchpoints. We decided to make our packs from recycled material, and design for recyclability to support a circular economy, but sourcing consumer recycled plastics was a nightmare. Electing to use virgin plastic could have kept costs down further and brought the product to consumers’ homes earlier. It’s a tempting solution for a startup with limited budgets, but I knew that compromises couldn’t be made on that front. If you want to make great skincare and sustainable choices, you have to go beyond the formula and close the loop with your packaging. And besides, when you’re a start-up, if you don’t stand for positive change, you might as well not start-up at all.

How did you fund the launch of your business and what creative strategies did you use to execute a minimal cash flow?

I started the business using all of my own savings. Quite quickly I convinced a former colleague to put in all of his savings too, but it wasn’t enough. I sold my 2-bed flat in Lewisham to make sure I could get our first product to market without giving over control of Skin Sapiens. I just wasn’t willing to do that while what we were creating was still in its infancy.

How did you conquer those moments of doubt that so often affect entrepreneurs or stop many with great ideas – what pushes you through?

Passion and a clear vision is critical to managing and overcoming doubt. If what you’re doing stays true to what motivates you, then you’ll find a way to make things happen. Adapting is also a key part of a startup - but, when it matters, don’t be tempted to compromise.

Accept that you’re not an expert in everything and that, in order to do things properly, you need to enlist expert help. Working together is the only way to create something which is bigger than all of us, as individuals. The quality of such partnerships will ensure the journey you endure is as rewarding as the end result. And, finally, trust your gut instinct. It’s good to make data-driven decisions and of course, we do, but sometimes in a start-up, reliable information can be hard to come by, and you’ve just got to do what feels right to get things over the line.

What’s the most important question entrepreneurs should be asking themselves? 

Once you’ve committed to a strategy, it’s all about checking where you are against your business plan regularly. We need to acknowledge whether we’re on the right path, ahead, or behind, and be ready to explore options to course-correct wherever needed. Without a focus on where you’re going and what’s needed to get there, it’s far too easy to let your actions be led by a bursting inbox and external demands.