From the Outside In

The U.S. skincare market revenues exceeded $9 billion in 2011, according to Market Research.

Celeste Hilling, founder and CEO of Skin Authority, is taking her piece of the pie.

Last year her natural skin care line grossed over $8 million in revenue.

An experienced entrepreneur, with a background product technology and research, Hilling’s first software company was acquired by Compaq.

“We just put a bunch of money on credit cards and said let’s go,” says Hilling of her first venture. “We just wanted to make a difference, and it turned out to be relatively successful.”

Following the acquisition, she became the first female officer in the history of Compaq.

After being assigned to the company’s lowest performing division, consumer products, and, within a year, making it number one in the world, Hilling decided to embark on another venture.

She remembers listening in on a focus group and the feedback from people on their appearances.

“In every language, people weren’t completely happy with how they looked,” she says.

Hilling, who lost a friend to skin cancer, spent two years doing a global feasibility study; immersing herself into everything from nutritional supplements to plastic surgery.

“I saw firsthand that skin was much more than something you shave or peel,” Hilling tells PINK. “It is an important organ to overall health.”

Hilling’s advice to budding entrepreneurs?

Don’t underestimate yourself.

With the assistance of immunologists, oncologists, physicians and extensive independent research, she formulates new products without chemists.

“I feel like I’ve earned my PhD on the ground,” she says.

With no outside investors, Hilling started testing products and treatments on friends in her garage.

Today, her products are sold around the world, carried in high end resorts and spas and boutiques.

She has never run an ad.

This month she’s rolling out a new line of nutri-topicals products co-branded with Dole in GNC stores.

“It’s the first time they have co-branded with anyone,” says Hilling.

Bonus PINK Link: How to organize and market your business online for free.

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By L. Nicole Williams

Nicole is the Editor at Little PINK Book. Follow her on Twitter @iamnicwill.

“Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes; work never begun.” Christina Rossetti