SINGAPORE - The Covid-19 pandemic has been challenging for local beauty entrepreneurs.
Many start-ups faced supply chain disruptions and delayed product development, as well as difficulties in marketing and reaching out to customers in person given the restrictions around physical retail.
But the pandemic is not stopping them from launching their beauty brands and taking them beyond Singapore.
The Straits Times speaks to four under-the-radar skincare and bodycare brands on their milestones and growing a brand in a pandemic.
Bskin creates global buzz around bee-focused beauty
Ms Chia Su-Mae takes "home-grown" quite literally.
During the circuit breaker, the founder of local skincare label Bskin started experimenting with growing herbs and other edibles in her garden.
Her herbs died but the kangkong flourished. Her experiment snowballed and she now has more than 10 types of vegetables growing in her mini farm - along with a flock of nine chickens and a more recently purchased baby duck.
Skinlycious 'acne fighter' goes global in helping others
Self-confessed "science geek" Jasmine Kang is no beauty junkie.
Instead, the 38-year-old founder of skincare brand Skinlycious says it is her passion for science and wish to cure her lifelong acne that spurred her to create her brand in 2013.
Skinlycious offers products tailored specifically to acne-prone skin. While the brand got off to a slow start, it has gained global attention in recent years.
Two Halves mother-daughter duo make sensitive skincare
Mother knows best - and so beauty entrepreneur Ashley Yong roped hers in to start her beauty brand.
The 29-year-old founder of vegan skincare label Two Halves says growing up with a mother in the beauty industry nurtured her own love of skincare and cosmetics.
Mrs Jo Yong, 60, was formerly a brand manager for Estee Lauder and Tom Ford Beauty at Estee Lauder Companies and had worked in the beauty industry for more than 25 years.
Honest & Gentle offers homemade bodycare with heart
Twice a week, Ms Grace Lee blends lotions and potions by hand in a room in her extended family's spare flat.
In her makeshift laboratory, she makes body moisturisers and some face products, bottling them all herself to retail under her conscious bodycare brand, Honest & Gentle.
One batch takes up to four hours to make, but it is worthwhile labour for the 27-year-old.
