Growing up, Hayley Teo struggled with sensitive skin that was often covered in red patches. It was only after a lot of trial and error that she discovered the root cause.
“It turned out that my skin didn’t like the products on the shelves, which were often filled with ineffective, mediocre ingredients. Neither did it appreciate the luxury products I used to swipe from my mum’s dresser,” says the 30-year-old.
Her experience made her want to start a skincare line that was “effective, clean and pure”, and in 2019, she launched Rooki Beauty, which retails clean beauty products. She tells us about why they are game-changers, how she grew the brand from a one-woman show and the challenges she has encountered in her entrepreneurial journey so far.
Hayley is fascinated by ingredients, in particular Japanese ingredients, and spent about a year testing, trying and learning about them before launching Rooki Beauty.
“The reason why we chose Japan as our country of production is because we know that Japan puts out some of the highest quality skincare ingredients. We wanted to be able to tap into this uniquely Japanese eco-system. For our latest collection of products, we even replaced the water with onsen water from Yubara Onsen in Japan, one of the purest natural hot spring in Western Japan,” says explains.
“We work really closely with their chief formulator and have a really good rapport with them. The lab that Rooki is created in is actually older than Singapore and is known for innovation and skin-friendly formulas.”
She adds that the most unique aspect about the brand is that they use “extremely nutritious Japanese superfoods” in all their formulas.
“For example, our upcoming Onsen Eye Gel contains sake-kasu that is obtained from the production of Kinokuniya Bunzaemon, a pure rice sake made from 100% Gohyakumangoku Rice. You won’t find this level of attention to detail towards skincare ingredients easily elsewhere.”
Not that she plays favourites, but if she could only choose one go-to product, it would be the Camelina Omega-C Brightening Fluid, a brightening oil made with camelina oil and yuzu and that contains omega fatty acids essential for fighting visible signs of ageing and pigmentation.
Hayley handled everything from marketing and operations to packing and customer relations during the first year but now has a team of five.
“We grew mostly digitally and through word-of-mouth, apart from our official website, one of the platforms that has helped us gain a footing in Singapore was Shopee — we love how hyperlocal it is and how it pushes local brands like ours to the forefront. Plus, it offers campaigns nearly all year-round that are tailored to our brand needs. During the 11.11 last year, we saw a percentage growth of 30 per cent in revenue thanks to Shopee,” she says.
She lets on that she spent close to a six-figure sum to start Rooki Beauty and that “maintaining a positive cashflow is absolutely vital”.
“It’s easy to get carried away with the R&D, but working on too many projects and products in one go can really drain your reserves and lead to excess stock. You’ve got to keep an eye on payroll, marketing and the hidden costs of business. Don’t let it sap you dry.”
It can be tricky knowing where to invest one’s time, energy and money when they first start out as an entrepreneur and this is something Hayley struggled with.
“There is no perfect blueprint for success and I had to learn to trust my instincts. Like most brand founders, I’ve made less-than-stellar decisions and jumped into things that I was not properly equipped to deal with. One of the biggest challenges of running a business is learning how to bounce back from these mistakes,” she muses.
“Another big challenge was adapting to the Covid-19 pandemic. Skincare is a sensorial experience, so one of the things that the pandemic robbed consumers of was the ability to try and test skincare in stores. At that point, we were already in several physical stores, but could no longer let consumers experience how amazing our textures really are, so we invested heavily into giving sample sachets and creating trial-sized versions of our product.”
Want more hits than misses when shopping for skincare products? Hayley says that the best way is to learn how to read the ingredients list, also known as the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredient (INCI).
“Make sure it’s full of goodies. Some of our favourite skincare ingredients include ceramides, hyaluronic acid and niacinamide. Our website has an ingredients glossary that explains all the ingredients we use but you can also check out reputable sites like INCIDecoder,” she suggests.
She also has a piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: “Don’t cut corners because it’ll always come back to bite you. If you do it right, you only have to do it once.”