On the 8th of February, we hosted our first Skin Trust Club press launch event. We invited the leading influencers, beauty journalists, and bloggers in the UK for an exclusive behind-the-scenes experience at our world-class labs in York. The event was a huge success and we were delighted with the feedback from our attendees both in person and on their social channels.

We were so honoured to have some of the thought leaders in the beauty and skincare industry take time out of their busy schedules to attend our launch event.

First to arrive was Fleur Bell, also known as Fleur De Force (@fleurdeforce). Pioneering Fleur was one of the very first beauty bloggers and has been busy building her impressive following since 2009! If you are as into skincare as we are, you might also be one of Fleur’s nearly 800,000 Instagram followers.

We then welcomed influential beauty blogger Ree Lodge, better known as Really Ree (@reallyree). Since launching her blog in 2010, Ree has found success sharing beauty and skincare advice in an honest and accessible way. She keeps her followers up to date on the very latest exciting skincare, makeup and beauty launches.

We also invited some of the industry’s leading journalists: Beauty and Lifestyle Writer Siobhan O’Connor from Fabulous magazine, at The Sun (@siobhancoconnor @fabulousmag), and Associate Head of Content at the Daily Express Hannah Britt (@hannahrbritt @dailyexpress). Hannah also shares our passion for beauty and wellbeing, and regularly speaks to other industry experts in her Instagram live series: “Talk Beauty To Me”.

To kick off the event, our special guests had an exclusive briefing with our science experts and our marketing team. We introduced Skin Trust Club as the first at-home skin microbiome test that uses AI and bioinformatics to offer truly personalised skincare recommendations.

We presented the microbiome science and AI technology that powers us and the mission that drives everything we do; to help people understand their skin better so that they can look and feel their best.

“New beauty service Skin Trust Club creates at home swab kits to test your skin’s unique microbiome and work out exactly what products and ingredients will and won’t work for you. Genius.” – Hannah Britt, Daily Express.

With our scientific expertise at our core, we were excited to give our guests a tour of our lab facilities and show them some of our state-of-the-art equipment. First, we visited the testing facilities where they saw real-life Labskin: the living lab-grown human skin equivalent that we have been creating for over 15 years.

Skin Trust Club is powered by Labskin. Labskin has over 15 years of experience in testing products and their effect on the microbiome for the world’s leading skincare brands. Labskin is what allows us to provide Skin Trust Club members with personal recommendations of scientifically validated microbiome-friendly products, perfectly tailored to each individual’s skin type!

Next on the tour was our Skin Trust Club facility where members’ at-home microbiome test swabs are analysed by our scientists every week. This is an essential part of the process of working out which skincare products would benefit a member’s skin health, and which ingredients they should avoid.

“This service is fascinating and different to anything I have come across before… there’s more and more talk of ‘the skin microbiome’ in product marketing, so it was great to learn a bit more about what it actually means and the effect it can have on your skin!” – Fleur De Force

We gave our VIP guests the unique opportunity to put their hero products to the test. We wanted to see if their favourite product was actually beneficial for their unique skin microbiome. To do this, we had to replicate their skin microbiome onto our lab-grown human skin model.

We extracted their microbiome by placing a ring on our guest’s skin (to contain the liquid) and added a special solution. The area inside the ring was then gently scrubbed to loosen the tiny microorganisms that make up the skin microbiome and extract them into the liquid.

The liquid was then collected and the process repeated to make sure we collected as many microbes as possible. The microbes that were extracted were applied to Labskin and we replicated each of our guests’ unique skin composition right before their eyes!

Once the collected microbiomes were established, we applied each of the guests’ chosen hero product to test whether it is right for their individual skin type. Our scientists are now busy working on the analysis and we will share the results with our guests as soon as possible.

This was the first time we had offered anyone the chance to have their microbiome extracted and replicated for hero product testing and we were thrilled with the success!

Before the event, we had sent each of our invitees our at-home microbiome swab test. Once we received their swabs back at the lab, our scientists identified the different types of bacteria in each skin microbiome. This allows our skincare experts to create truly personalised skincare routine recommendations and reports based on science, not guesswork.

Our guests were really impressed with the results in their reports and enjoyed the chance to have one-to-one consultations with our Head of R&D, Dr David Caballero-Lima, and our Scientific Skincare Advisor Tracey Ryan, to really get to know their skin!

“Thanks so much for having me, the whole experience was absolutely fascinating!” – Really Ree

For the goodie bag, our generous partners gifted each of our guests with one of their hero products listed below:

• Aurelia London Brightening Anti-Pollution Mask
• Nunaia Superfood Cleansing Balm
• Gallinée Hydrating Face Cream
• Tula Beauty Sleep Overnight Repair Treatment

As an extra special thanks to our influencers and journalists, we offered each of them 100 complimentary at-home microbiome test kits to offer to their followers which sold out in record time!

To see more content from the event, you can watch the Press Launch highlight on our Instagram page @skintrustclub.

For a limited time only, we are offering a free Skin Trust Club trial. This includes our at-home skin microbiome test kit, analysis at our lab, a skin report containing personalised skincare product and routine recommendations, and access to our skin health tracking app!

“If you’re interested in your skin health, or have an issue you can’t get to the bottom of… it’s so interesting to learn about, and a service like this is a FIRST in the UK” – Fleur de Force

Sign up for your free trial here: https://www.skintrustclub.com/skin-microbiome-kit-offer/