SkinB5: A clear direction

In 2006, SkinB5 launched in Australia. Today, it is one of the leading acne treatment products in Pharmacy. We spoke with founder and managing director, Judy Cheung-Wood, and invited her to share a little of the SkinB5 journey since we last spoke.

Editor: Please share a little of your story?

Judy: My grandfather was a chemist and manufacturer of natural skincare products in the 1950s. I immersed into the journey of creating SkinB5 upon discovering clinical studies that described how Vitamin B5 worked to clear acne.

After intensive research and experimenting with various ways to combine Vitamin B5 with other powerful skin health nutrients, SkinB5 was born.

As treating acne orally with a nutritional formula was such a revolutionary concept, it took almost a decade following our initial launch for mainstream retailers and buyers to embrace our range, clearing acne and supporting general health and wellbeing.

It has been a journey of ground-up, grassroots demand driving the ranging in community pharmacy banner groups over the past 18 months.

Increasingly, pharmacy groups are expressing interest in our range as it fills a large void in the acne skincare category, offering a genuine long-term solution for acne sufferers.

Five years ago, we decided the pharmacy channel would be our primary focus in Australia, although the challenge was convincing pharmacists to believe that a potent Vitamin B5 based multivitamin formulation could clear acne.

Our strategy was to visit individual pharmacies and offer products to employees who were acne sufferers, so they could see first-hand what SkinB5 could deliver.

After all, acne is a skin disease that has tremendous psychological impacts upon sufferers – depression and suicidal thoughts are commonly reported in clinical studies.

This same ‘put SkinB5 to test’ strategy continues to assist us start the conversation in Australia and overseas.

Editor: Training and development are two key pillars of the SkinB5 value proposition. How has this evolved?

Judy: Outside of Australia, SkinB5 supplies to dermatologists and we realised that there was very limited knowledge, even amongst health professionals regarding the use of Vitamin B5 and nutrition in general to treat acne.

It is a science of specific dosage and synergy between nutrients combined with a deep understanding of the complex, interrelated health issues that cause acne – we offer tailored training programs to assist health professionals assist acne sufferers by using SkinB5 products.

Continuous innovation and product improvements are our core values and drive. Acne is a very complex condition and each day we discover new insights into the condition.

We have numerous ideas on how to further develop our offerings, particularly meeting new consumer expectations and market trends.

Editor: What are the goals within the pharmacy channel over the coming 12 months?

Judy: We would like to become the leading go-to acne treatment brand in pharmacy, trusted by health professionals who can help acne sufferers who often walk into pharmacies desperate for a genuine solution.

A key and unique appeal of our products in the pharmacy channel is the ability to attract young people (and their mothers!), with millennials being our core customers.

We believe SkinB5 can assist pharmacies attract and engage younger customers and look forward to the future.