HAPPY SKIN FOR A HAPPY SOUL
Staying ahead in a lucrative business is more than just staving off competition, says Happy Skin's RISSA MANANQUIL TRILLO
“Even before Happy Skin was launched in 2013, it was always a dream of mine to create a makeup line that I could swear my life on,” says Rissa Mananquil Trillo. She shares that in more than a decade of experience as a model and columnist in the beauty industry, she hadn’t yet been able to find a makeup brand that could take care of her skin and wouldn’t leave it feeling and looking worse at the end of the day. “I learned that while makeup can instantly prettify you, the biggest beauty woe is still going home with ruined skin.”
Rissa also wanted products that were well suited to the country’s tropical climes; with shades that would fit the variety of skin colors in the Philippines. “There were so many makeup brands in the market but no one catered to what the Filipina really needed,” she says. “Filipinas were scared to use makeup because they were afraid it would ruin their skin. This was the number one barrier that discouraged Filipinas from buying makeup.”
Instead of waiting for anyone else to create what she wanted, Rissa took the initiative and did it herself. Nowadays, the country is booming with a market saturated with local brands, but a few years ago, it was a risk. “It was a challenge to create a beauty brand in an environment where the word ‘local’ was yet to be embraced by consumers attracted to anything ‘ imported,’” says Rissa. She mentions that when Happy Skin first launched, 90% of brands in the cosmetics industry were foreign. With aspirations of becoming a global Filipino brand, Rissa notes it was critical that the initial release of the brand would feature innovative products of good quality, and launched in the proper retail channels that would ensure credibility as a legitimate cosmetics brand. “Before coming up with our own stores, we entered department stores and beauty hubs first, where we could stand alongside global beauty brands,” she says. “Given the beauty landscape we were facing then, Happy Skin wouldn’t have been received the same way had we taken a different path when it was launched.”
In 2015, Ayala Malls named Happy Skin as the Most Promising Retailer for 2015 and 2016, and garnered Watsons Philippines’ award as the Most Promising New Cosmetic Brand for 2016 and People’s Choice Award for Cosmetics in 2017. Today, the brand has 13 freestanding stores and close to 100 beauty counters in the Philippines, winning 40 beauty awards from respected fashion and beauty publications, and is the first local cosmetics brand to collaborate with Disney. All the hard work and risk-taking Rissa and her team put behind the scenes have clearly paid off.
According to Rissa, the biggest selling point of Happy Skin is its emphasis on skin. “It’s all about skin-caring makeup—it’s the first makeup brand to actively embrace and offer this proposition and the first one to position itself as dual citizens of makeup and skincare,” she says. “Any makeup brand would naturally love to be on your skin, but not every brand can claim and prove they can actually care for it.”
As Chief Brand Officer, she is keyed into what Filipina users want out of the brand, and in their makeup, in general. “Filipinas want products that give them the most out of every peso they spend,” says Rissa. In Happy Skin’s arsenal are multi-use products that are easily used in a gamut of ways. They have tints that work equally well on lips and cheeks, and concealers that correct and cover. Part of the store experience are salesladies who can explain how each item can be used simultaneously ways. “Pinays also want, quite simply, products that work. They’re willing to pay for new additions to their beauty arsenal when they see that products deliver what they promise and when products are so easy to use and offer a variety of uses, that it allows them to devote their precious time to other things in their lives apart from their beauty routine.”
In it for the long haul, Rissa is cognizant of other local competitors in the industry, but this was something she was prepared for. “Riding a wave requires excellent timing and developed skill, which Happy Skin was and is still equipped with, but both in business and in life, sometimes it’s just staying afloat that will really put you to the test,” she says, “this requires formidable patience and a willingness to endure.” Their goal is not to outlast the competition, but to constantly improve what they are known for: makeup and skincare that works in tandem to improve your skin and confidence. “That’s what keeps us relevant and needed in the lives of our customers, and what keeps them coming back to us,” she says. “You don’t succeed by killing competition. You succeed by creating value.”
As with any successful business, there are things Rissa wishes she had learned and done earlier. The most important thing, she knows now, is to invest more and earlier in human resources. “This department, though often taken for granted, is what oversees the most important asset in any company— the people. Struggles and hardship are inevitable because starting a business is never easy,” she says. For anyone looking to get a slice of the pie, Rissa says it’s important that beauty entrepreneurs know how to communicate their vision, commitment and passion for their products to their consumers. “Profit is easy to attain and it is important, but it loses its value when it becomes the end goal and you’re no longer solving the big problems of the world,” she says. “If you want to “make it” and leave a legacy, you can’t just be looking at numbers—you also need to be changing the lives of people for the better.”
Rissa learned to perfect her makeup on shoots and shows during her years as a model, and mentions that she has mastered the art of doing a full face anywhere, “including applying false eyelashes in a moving car.” Her favorite Happy Skin products are the Ready to Glow liquid foundation, formulated to protect against the effect of digital blue light, the Lip Mallow, which lasts on the lips without the cloying, cracking feeling of the usual long-lasting lip products, and the At Long Lash bristle-free mascara. Most of all, she advocates having a suncare routine: “Sunscreen is the closest thing we have to a vaccine for aging skin,” she says.
A meaningful life for Rissa is one that is a life lived beyond herself. All the work she has put into breaking the glass ceiling in her multiple roles as wife, mother, and entrepreneur, she says, is not just for her but for the generations of Filipinas after her, including her daughters. “I want my daughters and their contemporaries to be able to grow up in a kind and compassionate world, where they can express and become who they want to be,” she says, proudly.