The hassle of packing all of her toiletries for overseas travel often lingered in Fyra Hisham’s mind. She loves to travel, but laws and restrictions made flying with beauty products difficult. But one night, right when Fyra Hisham was tucking herself in, an idea struck.
Fyra had to share the late-night inspiration with her friend, Sarah Kajani, an ex-pat who moved to Malaysia five years ago. The idea is based on a beauty hack. Both Fyra and Sarah knew they had something special. They dove into the endeavour of making their idea into reality head first. Neither had any experience.
She grew up in Damansara playing football, racing Tamiya cars, and drumming in a band with her two sisters. “My sisters and I often did gigs and joined battle bands,“ said Fyra. ”She also sings and sings very well,” added Sara. But when the Fyra and her sisters went to college, they each went their separate ways.
Fyra graduated in Creative Multimedia in Animation & Advertising. And when she got the idea for the product, she was looking to get out of her comfort zone.
Sarah on the other hand moved to Malaysia on a whim to get away from it all. She grew up in a family where each child had to have a five-year plan. “I had to make a presentation about what I wanted to do when I was 13. The plan was to become a physician. Being from an Indian family, I had limited options,” said Sarah. However, that all changed when she fell in love with communications and marketing.
Her parents didn’t approve. “I suddenly found myself on this journey alone stitching different life experiences together and slowly unravelling who I was and the dreams I had when I was a child,” she recalled. In time, Sarah’s parents embraced her nomadic lifestyle.
When Fyra shared her idea, “the tingles shot just across my body and I just knew we had to do it!” exclaimed Sarah.
The very next day the two friends came out with the name ‘Skinfuel Beauty’ and registered it. It would take them over a year and all their saving to perfect the formula for the ‘Double Cleansing Pad’.
They did not know it would cost them a lot, however, they wanted to do it right. They made sure each ingredient is natural, halal, responsibly sourced, and safe. ”We wanted to make the product for everyone, all genders, all ethnicities, all skin types,” noted Sarah.
“To achieve that, they source their ingredients from all over the world but have them manufactured here in Malaysia.
It’s completely self-funded and we didn’t know how much certain things would cost. We were sourcing our jars, pads, packaging. We didn’t have much leftover to market and we launched our product during MCO,” shared Sarah.
SkinFuel Beauty launched in August with two products: ‘Squeaky Clean’ – Double Cleansing Pad and its travel sampler version ‘Squeaks’.
“The idea is similar to having a product that can do multiple things: removes makeup, exfoliates, and cleanse. A 3-in-1. But we did it in a pad form because there are so many restrictions to travelling on a plane with liquids,” explained Fyra.
When they first unveiled their products, a lot of Malaysians were asking them if they were the official distributors of Korean beauty products. People didn’t think that it could be something that is developed and made in Malaysia by these two women.
They market their product to a diverse audience. One of their challenges is to introduce this product to men, whom they observed, are often sold to on the basis of attracting women. In contrast, the two want to promote the product based on their strengths.
“I think what helps us the most with this experience is our need to want to create honest products and a brand that we believe in, one that is built on speaking the truth genuinely, and beautifully unfiltered,” concluded Sarah.
As for future plans, both women are excited about their new products coming next year. “It is still in the research phase, but we expect to release it in 2021,” revealed Fyra.
Azizul Rahman Ismail 