In Conversation: Wrinkles Schminkles’ Founder, Gabrielle
min read
We hand the mic to our CEO and Founder Gabrielle Requena to talk about the challenge of pioneering a new skincare category, her ‘super- f*&^%$ scary’ Shark Tank experience and why she thinks the term ‘anti-aging’ needs to go.
Q: How did you first land on the name ‘Wrinkles Schminkles’?
A: Nearly ten years ago when I first started experimenting with Medical-Grade Silicone, ‘anti-aging’ was a marketing term that was on high rotation and frankly it gave me the ick! While we were workshopping a brand name, we were talking to a lot of women (92 to be exact) about how they felt about aging and skincare marketing. These women talked a lot about anti-aging messaging; they were tired of being made to feel fearful and insecure about aging which is, let’s face it, a totally natural process and something none of us can avoid.
Though we’re (very) serious about what we do and the results we deliver, we decided to come up with a fun, light-hearted brand name; something that was memorable, that could make someone smile and that showed that we were a little bit…different. If a brand could be a hybrid of an eye roll and a cheeky wink, then that’s Wrinkles Schminkles!
Q: How did you first discover the benefits of medical-grade silicone?
A: I started to notice changes in my skin texture and sun damage on my chest – courtesy of a childhood in Queensl