Helena Youhana

I've always been a big beauty lover and Sephora shopper, really into all of the developments that were happening in skincare in the 2010s, with the rise of K-beauty and new technology in the field. I started my beauty career in fragrance at Scent Beauty, which was a fragrance brand incubator founded by the ex-CMO of Coty. We licensed and incubated fragrance and beauty brands for celebrities and existing lifestyle and fashion brands, developing their beauty and fragrance brand identities. I had the exciting opportunity to work across many different brands between mass market, celebrity, and all the way up to luxury, learning from some of the best people in the field, from ex-Coty executives. I became the digital leader at Scent Beauty, leading the D2C, e-commerce, and digital marketing strategy across all the brands I was working on, over 20 brands. That specialty led me to Topicals when they were starting to build out their digital team. Skincare was always my primary passion before working in the industry - I was always trying to be on the cutting edge of new developments in skincare and the globalization of skincare technology. Now I really like the clinical side of things when it comes to skincare, working with brands that are clinically backed and work closely with dermatologists and estheticians. Topicals is a skincare brand founded by a Black woman focused on filling this gap in the market, which is treating chronic skin conditions on skin of color. As a Middle Eastern woman with darker skin, I found myself represented in the brand. We create products for Fitzpatrick Scale shade 7 first, which is the darkest shade, and have found that products that work for darker skin are actually more effective for everyone. We've positioned ourselves as leaders in hyperpigmentation in skincare in America. We're a different company by nature of our philosophy and are not afraid to break boundaries. We try not to be like other skincare brands - we really try to lead with culture first, humility, and cultural resonance.