By Zsarlene B. Chua
Reporter

HAPPY SKIN, the Filipino brand known for its color cosmetics, has finally branched out into skin care — a plan that has been in the works for a couple of years, said Jacque Yuengtian-Guttierez, one of its founders during its launch, as one of the brand’s ideals is to promote good skin while making the entire process simple.

“My background was originally with skincare, [before Happy Skin] I was with Unilever,” explained Ms. Yuengtian-Guttierez vernacular during the launch on Feb. 26 at the Harlan+Holden Glasshouse in Makati City. “[With Happy Skin] I really wanted to do skin care because that’s my passion but [when we were starting the brand] it was very hard to create new skin care products because it has to have a lot of research and testing… it takes years to do that.”

It turns out that for much of the four years since the brand launched its makeup line, it had been working on expanding in to skin care.

“For the past two to three years we have been developing the products on the back-end,” said Ms. Yuengtian-Guttierez before adding, “If you have bad skin, it’s hard to apply makeup so in Happy Skin we really believe that you have to have good skin so from start to finish, you can have a good canvas.”

Called Happy Skin Beauty, the company’s skin care products are categorized into two lines: an Anti-aging series and an Oil-control series.

The Anti-aging series, sourced from Japan, is recommended for those with dry, normal, and combination skin while the Oil-control series products, sourced from Korea, are for those with normal, oily, and combination skin.

“The Korean suppliers gave a better oil control solution and the Japanese supplier gave a better anti-aging solution,” Ms. Yuengtian-Guttierez said of the decision to source the products from two different countries.

Among the ingredients used in the anti-aging line are Chardonnay extract, Umbrella Pine extract, and Citrus Jabara extract. All of these are said to help promote newer, brighter skin and promote collagen production.

The oil-control line’s ingredients include salicylic acid, Vitamin C and Centella Asiatica extract, all of which are said to help shed dead skin cells while healing the skin and promoting collagen production.

Each line is made up of three products — a face wash, a serum or ampoule, and a moisturizer. Unlike the Koreans who have promoted a seven- to 10-skin care product routine, the founders of Happy Skin felt that condensing the laborious multi-step process down to three would make it easier for users to sustain the skin care routine.

“We wanted to crash the steps because we realized Filipinos don’t like putting 10 products on our faces like the Koreans. We have neither the time nor patience to do so,” Ms. Yuengtian-Guttierez said.

“We also wanted it to be sustainable, and for it to be sustainable, you shouldn’t be spending an hour every day applying skin care. What we did was we turn the seven steps into three,” she further explained.

The sustainability was also a factor in the pricing as none of the products are over P1,000.

Happy Skin Beauty products are available at all Happy Skin branches and online.

Happy Skin 2

Product Review

THIS WRITER was given a chance to take Happy Skin’s new three-step anti-aging line for a spin, mostly because it’s the line dedicated for dry skin and, well, getting into an anti-aging regimen at 24 doesn’t seem to be a bad idea.

It has been almost two weeks since the day of the launch, and I have been using the anti-aging line consistently.

The brand promises almost immediate results in two days.

As with all skin care products I get try for the first time, the first hurdle was to see if it would cause me to break out because the moment I see clogged pores or other blemishes, that’s the death knell for a product. I won’t ever use it again, though my heart breaks.

The good thing is, Happy Skin Beauty passed that crucial first step, and so I continued using them.

I had committed to using just the brand’s three steps but my skin is really very dry so I had to go back to using my regular moisturizers along with the Happy Skin products — for the record, I use three moisturizers. That’s how dry my skin is.

The Happy Skin moisturizer is really decent. The consistency reminded me of Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream which can set one back at least P2,000 for a 50-gm bottle while the 30-gm bottle of Happy Skin Regenerating Moisturizer is P999, making it a value-for-money product.

The facial wash didn’t dry me out, something I have been quite particular about in recent years. Kiehl’s Calendula Deep Cleansing Foaming Face Wash (P2,455 for 230 ml) is a favorite of mine and while I won’t throw it out and replace it with Happy Skin’s Hydrating Facial Wash (P599 for 100 ml), it’s a close fight.

Finally, the serum. I’m such a Kiehl’s girl (obviously) that I won’t ever throw out my Midnight Recovery Concentrate (P3,220 for 30 ml). Still, the Happy Skin serum is a nice addition to my daytime skincare routine — it is light and is absorbed really well.

Adding the three products to my already extensive skin care routine — I use around six products at a minimum — helped my skin be a bit more moisturized, which I am currently loving.

I would love it if the brand came out with an SPF day cream because sun protection is a non-negotiable part of my daytime routine (and should also be yours), but Rissa Mananquil-Trillo, Happy Skin cofounder, mentioned that they didn’t introduce an SPF-laden product because they wanted the cream to be used for day and night.

Oh, a toner would also be appreciated.

But all in all, Happy Skin Beauty is an affordable option for those who want to get better skin. The packaging is nice too, a definite plus.

(All quoted Kiehl’s prices are from Lazada.) — Z. B. Chua

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR