00:00We planned so hard for a grand opening, and that same week, the pandemic hit the U.S.
00:06Now, from a business standpoint, this was incredibly disheartening,
00:09but we knew we had to do our part to help flatten the curve.
00:12I'm the co-founder of Skin Supply, a service-based skincare and company.
00:15Michelle is actually a full-time nurse in New York City, but she's always had a creative side to her,
00:20and the flexibility that her work allows gives her the opportunity to use Skin Supply as a creative outlet.
00:26As Korean-Americans, skincare has always been a part of our Asian culture, and we've always known how important it
00:33is.
00:33We wanted to bridge the gap between professional facial treatments and their at-home skincare routine,
00:38and our facials are super simple.
00:40They're 30 minutes long, they're completely non-invasive, and they require absolutely zero downtime.
00:46I'm Michelle.
00:46I'm Walter.
00:47We're here with Refinery29.
00:49COVID-19 has definitely brought a lot of changes in our lives.
00:52I used to live with my mom, but once this pandemic hit, I basically traded places with Walter's doc, Penny.
00:58I still work as a nurse in New York City, and I moved out to protect my mom.
01:02And our little fur baby, Penny, moved in with my mom to keep her company and to make it a
01:07little less lonely during this quarantine.
01:09As a nurse, I still had to go into work.
01:11And I'm not going to lie, in the beginning, it was really difficult and scary.
01:15Safe. Protect yourself.
01:18The critical shortage of PPEs in the beginning was a real threat, and I knew this was a concern for
01:24everyone in the U.S.
01:26So when I brought this concern back to Walter, that's when we decided to use SkinSupply as a platform to
01:32help somehow.
01:33And it was truly by the grace of God that we were able to purchase and donate thousands of these
01:39KN95 masks to individual healthcare workers all over the country.
01:43As the weeks progressed, what we realized was that there was a nationwide shortage of hand sanitizers as well.
01:49We acted fast and worked with our partner lab in South Korea to make our very own SkinSupply hand sanitizers.
01:55In the beginning, we were completely unprepared for the demand.
01:58We could not keep up with the orders that were coming in.
02:01It was literally just Michelle and me, at home, making boxes and shipping them out from our home garage.
02:09That's when we decided to repurpose our brand new store into a shipping and distribution center for our online products.
02:16And we were also incredibly happy to hire back our estheticians to help with the process.
02:22Michelle and I are college sweethearts, and we've been together for about 10 years now.
02:27And it was really about two years ago when we started this new chapter with SkinSupply.
02:31We had our first pop-up shop in a beauty store called JJ Eyelashes.
02:36And when that proved to be a success, that's when we built out our first retail store in Fort Lee,
02:41New Jersey.
02:42The process was incredibly hard and challenging, and it took almost a full year to complete construction.
02:48But even after all our hardships, we finally had our dream store ready.
02:53And as a nurse, Michelle really knew how bad this virus was from the beginning.
02:57And it was really with her persistence and her guidance that we had decided to shut down our store,
03:03probably a week before the state had mandated closures of all businesses.
03:07We may not be able to provide you with our facials at this moment,
03:10but we thankfully have our own SkinSupply products to sell online,
03:14including our serums and best-selling cloud cream moisturizers.
03:18And using these profits online, we were then able to donate more masks and more hand sanitizers
03:24to other essential workforce heroes.
03:27And thankfully, we've already been getting some great feedback on them as well.
03:31And what this experience has taught us is that even as a small business, we can make a big change.
03:38And our message out there to everyone is that no contribution is insignificant or too small,
03:44and that everyone can help in some kind of way.
03:47And if you'd like to nominate anybody you know for a donation,
03:51please shoot us over an email at heroesatskinsupply.com.
03:55We're looking to donate as much as we can for as long as we can.
03:59Follow our journey at theskinsupply on Instagram and visit us online at skinsupply.com.
