Preventative ageing: Aussie clinic to capitalise on academic partnerships to develop more home skin care products

Australia-s-Skin-Club-seeks-academic-partnerships-for-NPD.jpg
Australia's Skin Club's launch of its skin care regime marks shift towards preventative skin care © Skin Club

Australian clinic Skin Club has made its first foray into the preventative skin sector with products designed to be an adjunct to Botox treatments, and has outlined plans for partnerships with universities to expand its product range.

Established in 2015, Skin Club is a cosmetic surgery clinic specialising dermal fillers and non-invasive treatments.

The brand rolled out its first range of at-home use skin care in mid-2022 – ranging from serums to a moisturizer for the general skin type.

We thought about preventative angles to help our patients – before they even come into our waiting rooms. What’s the most ethical and scientifically backed way to help our patients? So, we toyed with different formulas. Obviously, we can't use the actual ingredient of Botox, botulinum toxin, in our skincare. Although that may change in the future. We thought: What mimics the results of Botox the best?

“We worked with our chemist and found organic, vegan, fair trade products made in Australia, that are also medical grade and backed by science. What was most important was in its [imitation] of the effects of Botox, that they can help to remove fine lines, bolster, and improve the thickness of the dermis.” Skin Club’s founder, Dr. Vihang Sharma, told CosmeticsDesign-Asia in an exclusive interview.

The products optimise hero natural ingredients which include Kakadu plum, green tea extract, witch hazel, manuka honey and jojoba amongst cosmeceutical ingredients like hyaluronic acid, granactive retinoids and lactic acid.

Its products are currently distributed online on its website, and made available to Australia and New Zealand via shipping.

Why now?

The firm hopes the dual business strategy will be mutually beneficial, and make its preventative ageing ambitions more accessible.

After 10 years, we kind of found it's hard to train more doctors to do cosmetic surgery. Whereas building a skincare product, we've been building it in the background for a while and perfecting it for about five years. It's now coming to fruition.

“We want to get our global mission out there, which is helping people look and feel good and think about preventative ageing, which is important in [cosmetic] medicine. There's now a big shift towards that.” he explained.

Upcoming plans

Moving forward, the brand is looking to diversify its skin care range – from general skin type to targeted skin concerns, such as for acne and combination skin.

It also want to stretch the possibilities of its product formats to include facial wash, facial oils, essential oils, hair products and even LED light therapy at home.

On how to get there, Dr. Sharma emphasised that Skin Club is on the lookout for partnerships and wants leverage upon existing customer base from the clinic side to hone its products:

We want to make our own skincare product and come up with our own patented formula that has a research background. So, we're going to be talking to the biochemistry departments of certain universities.

We’re staying away from therapeutics. This is purely from a skincare biochemist approach. We want to create the right type of skincare product and then use our data from our patient feedback to make it better.

On whether there are any plans for Asia, Dr. Sharma said that the current priority for the region is to raise more awareness about preventative skin care on social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram.

People of colour, of Asian heritage, are becoming more aware of preventative treatments. Botox is just taking off in Asia. So, we may be a little bit behind the Western civilization. But now that we are taking off, it's about educating the demographic about preventative skin care and anti-ageing.”

Skin Club added that they would be capitalising on collaborations with social media influencers and medical experts, especially cosmetic doctors, in the region, to spread the word and advocate for the products.