Natassia & Emily: Co-Founders of SKNEDIT
For this month's Woman To Woman Spotify series, we sat down with Emily Yiu and Natassia Siu from SKNEDIT. Their 15-year friendship has led them to start an online skincare retail platform selling products they truly believe in. They chatted with us about their friendship and shared a playlist of old-school classics that keeps them happy and productive.
Interviewed by Maria & Felicia
15-20 mins read
How did you girls meet?
Natassia (N): Emily has been my best friend since I was 13 years old. We are 29 now, so it’s been like 13 years?
Emily (E): 15 years.
N: Right! Now you know who handles the accounts for the company! Anyway, Emily and I went to school together in Singapore together and then the US subsequently for college. I was studying in Boston and Emily in LA. So we travelled between Boston to LA quite a bit to visit each other. It’s fun to work with friends, you know. Makes work feel less like work!
How do you spend time outside of work as friends?
N: When we decided to do SKNEDIT together, people would ask us if we were sure and if we were worried that something might happen and ruin our friendship. Honestly, we had concerns and we couldn’t imagine losing each other as friends.
We try to aim for work-life balance by communicating on two different platforms - Whatsapp for mostly friends’ stuff and Telegram for work stuff.
E: We realised it’s important to make clear distinctions between work and personal life because sometimes things might get jumbled up.
N: Because of the current situation, we work from home - Emily’s home to be exact. We spend 6 days a week together, Monday to Saturday. Having our own business gives us flexibility in our schedule. There are days that either one of us will not be in ‘office’ but still, we spend a lot of time together. I probably spend more time with her than with my husband and it’s likely the same for her with her boyfriend. It’s fun though. We try to keep to the working hours as well. I will come in at like 10 in the morning and end my workday at about 5 or 6 pm.
E: If you talk about outside of the work we definitely still do things together like shopping, having tea or indulge in a nice meal.
N: My husband still complains about my ‘date nights’ with Emily. He can’t understand why we would still want to spend time with each other when we work together. But it’s different. It’s absolutely necessary to spend time together just as friends outside of work and having to talk about work all the time.
What were you doing before the SKNEDIT?
N: After graduating in 2015, I worked in New York and Singapore in the PR sector and Emily was in corporate finance. We then decided to do something of our own.
E: We really want something that belongs to us. The kind of fulfilment and gratification we experience is very different from a job well done while working for others. It’s almost like watching your baby develop and grow, hitting milestone after milestone.
What were some of the most important things you learned from your previous career experiences that can be shared with other women?
N: I was in PR for the fashion industry and I always saw people neglect their skincare because of their busy schedules or using too many products which are not suitable for them. I believe in less is more. Our hormones and periods affect our skin. A lot of people would tell me that their skincare products don’t work for them anymore but honestly, there is no such thing. We just have to take time to learn what our skin needs. With SKNEDIT, we hope to educate our consumers on what is the right thing to put on their skin and get them to listen to their skin for its needs.
Why and how did you two started SKNEDIT?
N: It all started from my wedding, which was supposed to happen last year but Covid-19 restrictions put a huge dent in my plans. I had no choice but to postpone it. I always want a rustic theme for my wedding so when it couldn’t happen. I channelled a lot of what I wanted, aesthetic wise, into SKNEDIT. Emily and I have many conversations on various ideas, offering feedback and generating new ideas from the original ideas.
How do you select your products?
N: First we put ourselves in the shoes of the consumer when we shop online. Secondly, as business owners, we are very particular with the things that we put on SKNEDIT. If we don’t even like the product in the first place, it will be very hard for us to sell it. For example, when we first spoke about the tea with Ying Yi, we were very honest about the quantity of tea in one box. We felt that 21 teabags is a commitment, and we wanted to sell something that we ourselves would drink. It’s great that YY Wellness came up with the petite version because we love it and people will see that we truly like the products we sell when we talk about them.
Natassia (right) and Emily (left)
Natassia & Emily
How do you support your friends during difficult times?
N: I always believe over-communicating is better than under communicating. Emily is more quiet, so as her best friend (self-proclaiming haha) I can get her to communicate with me. I encourage her to be open and talk about everything and anything without caring whether it is stupid or not. It’s important to have an open and non-judgemental communication channel to keep a healthy friendship going. Some retail therapy doesn’t hurt either. Of course with the entrepreneur life, there are good days and bad days, so when we have bad days we are very thankful that we can rely on our friendship to support each other. And we like to celebrate all wins, even the little wins, together.
E: To be honest, on a bad day, we just lie down on the couch.
N: Yes, sometimes we just need a little cry, to preserve our sanity and state of mind. Some form of release is always helpful.
What is your approach to beauty and wellness? And has it evolved over the years?
N: My beauty icon is my mother and my grandmother. My mom and my grandmother are two very strong and scary women. I both admire and fear them. Since young, they have educated me to have a proper skincare routine. Everything I’ve learnt translates to everything that I am now.
E: We don’t spend much time following or doing any research on celebrities, It’s just not our personality. We think our time can be spent more productively. Many things are just temporary. We are also naturally optimistic people.
N: Yeah, although I do complain a lot. We have a saying: fake it until you make it. If you don’t feel good, you need to tell yourself to feel good.
E: I don’t think you fake it till you make it, you just always feel it.
N: I just feel like a queen, and be like a queen. It’s all about confidence. And acknowledge the bad times and know that they will pass. This gives us the confidence to feel beautiful and be who we are.
What do you think are the differences between Eastern and Western approaches to managing periods?
E: When I was studying in LA. I experienced cramps almost every period. Being away from family, I would just go right for the panadol. Before, I would take all kinds of weird Chinese medicine that my mom prepared for me every month. She would buy the ingredients in bulk. If I had never gone to LA, I would never have taken a painkiller to help ease the cramps. Now that I’m back in Singapore, I still take painkillers, because it’s fast and convenient. However, I also drink YY wellness tea and take some vitamins sold by one of our friends. To me, both Eastern and Western approaches have their pros and cons, there is no right or wrong.
N: Western medicine gives a quick fix. But I also notice how people would prefer organic and natural remedies. My period feels like it does not exist. My cycle is like every 40-50 days, and when my flow is very very light. I don’t know, maybe I’m just lucky or unhealthy with this period stuff. Emily has a heavier flow, so she is the one who introduced YY Wellness to me. I do love the tea and it’s the first TCM tea that I’ve ever had. My family is not really into TCM but I really like the taste of the YY teas.
E: Yes, I would try everything.
What kind of music do you listen to?
N: Emily and I do not usually listen to music much. But when we do, we like the old school stuff, like the early 90s’ music. Much like the guardians of the galaxy vibe, upbeat songs match our personalities, positive and happy. We hope the playlist gives positive and happy vibes to anyone who listens to it!
