Elaine Gong of SIMPLY THIS On Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry
In-depth knowledge — brands are shaped by choices, and each choice must be based on a constant brand proposition, which requires in-depth knowledge to support.
As a part of our series about “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elaine Gong.
Elaine Gong is the CEO and co-founder of SIMPLY THIS, a trailblazing net-zero carbon skincare brand heralding a new era of sustainability in beauty industry. Armed with a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the Cambridge University, Elaine’s journey also includes co-founding UNISKIN as well as R&D professionals at Unilever Global Research Center. Her conviction that products serve as the connection between users and a brand, combined with a passion for refining this connection to an artistic level, underscores her exceptional leadership in the skincare realm.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My name is Elaine, and I co-founded the first ecological skincare brand in China, SIMPLY THIS, with my husband Bill. I’ve been in the skincare industry for 12 years, and before that I studied chemical engineering at university. I returned to China after graduating from the University of Cambridge with a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering to work for the Unilever global research and development center in Shanghai, China. With a wealth of experience in the entire product development process, I chose to leave my comfort zone and start my own business.
Prior to SIMPLY THIS, I engaged in the founding of two skincare brands and was in charge of from-0-to-1 processes of product development, market research, brand development, and marketing. The most recent company I co-founded, UNISKIN, focuses on offering anti-aging products to Chinese women. It is now having great success in China and expects to surpass 1 billion RMB in sales by the end of the year.
For me, establishing SIMPLY THIS is the most crucial step in my career. It borrows and develops my previous experience earned in the skincare sector while simultaneously presents me with a new challenge. I’m certain that this will be my LIFETIME career.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Yes, there is something that happened before I started my profession, but is extremely pertinent to what I’m doing today. It was almost miraculous.
In 2010, after graduating from university, I went on a trip with my friends. After a day’s tour on an island, we set up a bonfire party on the beach in the evening. Listening to the rhythm of the waves lapping, all of us sat around the fire, portraying our future lives and lamenting the coming separation.
The class president suggested that every one of us send a wish to ourselves in 10 years. When it was my turn, I said, “I hope that you will have your own skincare brand in 10 years.” At the time, I was actually heading to Cambridge to finish my Master's degree and hadn’t made up my mind about what I wanted to do with my life. But miraculously, I said something like this, which for a long time, I also forgot about.
Then, nine years later, in 2019, I had to choose whether to stay with the company I co-founded, UNISKIN, or quit to launch my own firm. I immediately remembered what I had said nine years before and was so moved by it that I made the decision to found my own business in order to fulfill my long-ago desire. Even though beginning my own business was challenging, I found inspiration whenever I felt like I was moving in the right direction.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Definitely Bill, my husband. Bill and I are both life partners and work partners. We met in elementary school and were in the same high school class, when we began a very inexperienced romance. At a random class reunion gathering after the university examination, we got involved and started a 10-year long-distance relationship. We had been studying in separate cities, meeting each other only in the summer and winter holidays. When I studied in Cambridge, we were exotic for some time. After which, I returned to Shanghai, while Bill worked in Nanjing, 300 kilometers distant. This status lasted for two years even after we married until we eventually met in Shanghai.
Since my graduation, I have been working in the skincare sector, from international corporations like Unilever to serial startups in China, whereas Bill has worked in sales, management, and investment in data centers, industrial real estate, and biological industries. We decided to create the SIMPLY THIS brand over 3 years ago, when the epidemic was just beginning. Coming from different professional backgrounds with our respective fields of expertise, we crafted this brand from scratch, hand in hand and little by little. While Bill worked on the complete construction of the brand, I focused on product development. Slowly, we attracted a group of like-minded partners. With everyone on our team, we become what we are today. Bill and I often joke that we now spend 24/7 together, making up for the ten years we were apart.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The global beauty industry today has grown to more than a half a trillion dollar business. Can you tell us about the innovations that you are bringing to the industry? How do you think that will help people?
With a focus on the matured skin, SIMPLY THIS aspires to be an advocate for the ecological view of skincare. It is inspired by the “systemic view” philosophy from the East and uses whole-cell fermentation technology in our self-research with the intention of regaining the intrinsic order and capability of the skin.
The brand’s genesis in the spirit of poetry and reason — the words “poetry” and “reason” are inscribed in the brand name — makes it stand out among other brands. With the grace of poetry, we seek to overcome mediocrity and with the spirit of reason, we withstand the turmoil of the outside world. This profound underlying philosophy informs every decision we make, which is inscribed in our perception of the skin as an ecosystem, the importance of efficacy and skin feel, and the notion that formulas are more significant than ingredients. Such a brand with a stable inner core is relatively rare in the current Chinese market.
Due to the fast expansion of the Chinese market, many brands are responding to market trends or simply “mimicking” certain well-known brands to create some inexpensive but similar products with very successful sales, but the brand itself does not convey more value. Simply This, as a new-generation Chinese brand, it has a strong Eastern philosophy, yet it is established by a team with an international vision. It is believed to earn a position in the world market as a Chinese pioneer in terms of technology, R&D, vision, and brand ideology.
In terms of product positioning, we focus on the skin concerns of those aged 25 and above, specifically sensitivity and aging. The solution idea behind the products is to take a balanced and dialectical stance to explore the principle of skin trait correlation. Based on the trait mapping, we develop skincare products with both efficacy and enjoyment, to reorganize the skin order in a balanced and upward way. All these principles are backed up by a lot of complicated science and dedicated research.
For example, in the case of sensitivity, we investigated the underlying target network and uncovered approximately 14,000+ connected targets. Based on these studies, we developed product formulations and created an ingredient network, which then supports the development of mild yet potent treatments to reverse sensitivity by tackling the core causes. This is why many customers re-purchase our products as they have improved their sensitivity dramatically. Our anti-aging products are designed through a similar methodology, based on the three dimensions of skin color, texture, and form, fulfilling customer demands in all aspects.
In addition to solid product development, I’m proud that SIMPLY THIS was one of the first brands to deploy replaceable packaging, which reduces the amount of plastic used in each refill by up to 55%. Additionally, we accomplished carbon footprint verification and certified all of our products as carbon neutral, establishing us to be the first company in the world to offer zero-carbon products to our customers.
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the modern beauty industry?
- Develop sound product insights
- Leverage technology/methodology from other fields to the beauty industry
- Understand skin truth through ever-deeper mechanism study
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to improve the industry, what would you suggest?
The first concern would be the misinterpretation of skin, which is being exacerbated by an increasing number of skincare brands. People treat skin carelessly and inhumanely, as a simple container. This is the same mistake we have made in the past when interacting with nature.
The second would be that skincare, which should be an exquisite industry that combines science with art, humanity, and craftsmanship, but there is now a strong tendency to pharmaceutical skincare. Skincare is designed as a cause-and-effect medicine that moves away from the everyday maintenance characteristics that skincare should possess.
Third, the advent of new ways of trading and communicating makes it easier for brands to be created and expanded. Each new idea is now provided with more options for growth. However, this leads to many opportunistic people taking advantage of the previous 2 points described for sales using anxiety-producing gimmicks amidst dubious claims and contradicting conceptions.
You are an expert about beauty. Can you share a few ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”?
Perhaps this is a philosophical question, but the most practical and thorough method can be found in Eastern philosophy. It is a “being in the moment” or “Tao” view of time, when we truly focus on the present instant in every moment, all situations around us will be the best arrangement.
Whether you are sitting quietly in front of your makeup mirror, or dealing with a difficult task, or taking care of a nursing baby, the best way to feel beautiful is to be in the present moment without distractions, and to take the experience of the moment seriously. This is the deepest meaning that runs through the Simply This brand, and it is also written into the brand name — simply this, as it is.
Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, Can you please share “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”. Please share a story or an example, for each.
Broad vision — Skincare is a field that straddles science and art, and requires a broad vision of humanities and technology.
In-depth knowledge — Brands are shaped by choices, and each choice must be based on a constant brand proposition, which requires in-depth knowledge to support.
Hardcore technology — based on skin mechanism and innovative ingredient research, to bring practical efficacy and experience to skincare products.
Humble stance — human knowledge of skin is still shallow, keeping reverence and humility will allow products to be updated and improved as technology iterates and knowledge deepens.
Patient business practice — there is no overnight success, good products and service experience need time to polish and correct.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I think that would be the elimination of stereotypes, the elimination of definitions and barriers between “us” and “them”. In this world of ever-increasing entropy, we may need more inward introspection and perseverance, and more outward understanding and tolerance. However, we often give understanding and tolerance to ourselves, and require others to introspect and persevere.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite motto is: “Persevere through worldly chaos with a spirit of reason, aspire beyond everyday banality with a spirit of poetry.
This motto is being faithfully practiced by us at SIMPLY THIS.
How can our readers follow you online?
Ins/Tiktok/Pinterest/Youtube: @simplythis_official
Website: www.simplythis-global.com
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
