After suffering from acne and subsequent hyperpigmentation for four years and spending nearly $11,500 on treatments for them, Hani Hassan decided to dig into why nothing she tried was working.
A medical student at King’s College London at the time in 2018, Hassan looked into skin health research and noticed most of it didn’t incorporate darker skin like hers. To explore the matter more and deliver information to people as curious about it as her, she started a YouTube channel dedicated to skin topics related to people of color. Hassan describes the channel as “a pilot study to see, does this idea have legs? Do people want to know the specific insights into POC skincare?”
Turns out, they did. A video posted in 2020 entitled “How To Get Rid Of Hyperpigmentation!” has racked up over 1 million views. Hassan says the virality made her realize that “people do want skincare that works for them, that they can trust implicitly. It’s not just this one-size-fits-all solution and everyone can use the same thing, because the evidence is clear that you can’t.”
The interest in her YouTube channel also gave Hassan the confidence to develop a skincare brand. In December last year, she introduced Supra-Fade, a dark spot night serum that retails for 52 pounds or about $66 at the current exchange rate, the first product from her London-based brand HUE. Hassan characterizes the brand, which gets its name for an acronym for “Here U Exist,” as not exclusive to POC, but POC-focused.
She says, “All of our innovation and development is going to be around ethnic skin or melanin rich skin, but everyone can use it and everyone can benefit from the really great formulation and the really great actives.”
Active ingredients in Supra-Fade include azelaic acid, licorice extract, alpha arbutin, centella, kojic acid and allantoin. Hassan selected ingredients shown in scientific research to be effective at addressing hyperpigmentation experienced by POC. She avoided ingredients such as vitamin C and niacinamide that she says haven’t been shown in scientific research to be effective at addressing hyperpigmentation experienced by POC.
HUE conducted a six-week user trial for Supra-Fade with a 67-member participant group that was 80% POC. After six weeks of applying the product, they reported their complexion was significantly more even.
Hassan, who recently departed her position as a doctor in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service to concentrate on Hue, brought on friend and architect Mona Haidar as her co-founder at HUE to leverage Haidar’s creative talents. “Mona brought this lens of, no, it’s not enough to give them skincare that works, it should be skincare that is really thought through, really considered and every element of the packaging is super beautifully designed,” says Hassan. “We want them to have as full of an experience if they were a white consumer or a consumer that is at the forefront of these conversations.”
Haider designed an egg-shaped decorative case for Supra-Egg that’s produced in Istanbul and multipurpose tool The Fang, which is a nod to Arabic perfumes and incense holders that her mother and grandmother used. “Many of these cultural ornamental objects felt so much richer in contrast to the current industry standard,” says Haider. “I really wanted to produce something that honored that and doesn’t feel as disposable.”
Accessibility is at the core of HUE. The co-founders assembled focus groups involving and issued questionnaires to 100 people with access needs. Their concerns steered the vacuum pump jar that houses Supra-Fade. HUE’s website is being redesigned to meet accessibility guidelines pertaining to legibility of content, contrast levels and video captions.
Out of the gate, HUE had community stemming from Hassan’s YouTube channel as well as her Twitter and Instagram accounts. The brand had amassed 8,000-person waitlist prior to going live. Hassan says, “We’ve been quite lucky in the sense that, while we get our ducks in a row and figure everything out, we already had a really committed responsive audience.”
Hassan and Haidar raised 250,000 pounds or around $318,400 prior to Hue’s launch from Matteo Bozzo, founder and CEO of HeidiPay and former director at private equity firm KKR, and other angel investors. The funds are being dedicated to research and development and marketing. Customer responses to Supra-Fade will direct Hue’s future products.
“There are so many layers to our intentions and our branding that we really wanted to make sure that we’re slow in the communication. We didn’t really want to fall into the hamster wheel that can happen when it comes to content curation,” says Haidar. “We also just want to make sure that this is not an ego-driven kind of pursuit that the way we’re communicating feels right for our community and feels conscious and accessible to everyone.”
