UK skin care brand This is Silk has been relaunched for 2025.
The brand overhaul includes revamped artwork and packaging, upcoming products, a more streamlined offering and newly established supply chains.
In addition to a new website and a focus on its hero product, the Power Up Silk Concentrate, the brand will also be seeking funding in 2025.
However, the relaunch presented the brand with an opportunity to renew focus on its inspiration, silk, Sonal Keay, founder and CEO of This is Silk, told Cosmetics Business.
“We wanted to draw upon its rich history and all it represents – desire, luxury and a sense of adventure – and based around the Old Silk Roads in China,” said Keay.
This is Silk launched in 2018 with Keay, who is also allergic to sunlight, having spent the prior 15 years as a criminal barrister.
“At the time, I had no experience of branding or business, but the overlap between that world and this one is evidence,” Keay added.
“I am obsessed with an evidence-based approach to the decisions I make, and my previous career was a very meaningful part of my life.”
Keay wanted more integration between the two worlds – blending a “sense of rich history, evidence, research” with “human desire and accomplishment”.
The new packaging uses a glossy black design, which both protects the formulations from sunlight but also reflects the “authority of the black legal gowns”.
The ‘S’ on the bottles and jars has also been drawn in a way to reflect the curvature of the Old Silk Roads winding around the Steppe mountains.
The outer packaging is made from recyclable textured paper, and the ivory colour and rough texture represent the colour of silk and the feel of the cocoon.
“I think the design studio has wonderfully combined the ancient and the innovative in a bold and beautiful way,” said Keay.
In terms of formulation, This is Silk is built around a proprietary silk peptide, SF-VII, developed in collaboration with a Professor in Wound Healing and Cellular Regeneration.
Keay claimed silk and SF-VII are important ingredients as they excel at supporting the skin’s own cellular regeneration processes.
While the current formulations are “known and loved”, Keay said consumers can expect new ingredient formulations.
This includes a sku using pomegranate extract, as well as the brand’s debut oil-in-water formulation making an appearance later this year.
Rebranding the business has also come with challenges, particularly streamlining the brand's product range.
This meant moving away from all silk accessories, to “focus on the science”.
“We are well known for our silk hair accessories and they sell very well,” Keay continued.
“But my obsession is the science of silk and the clinical trials we have done for SF-VII on skin.
“So it makes sense, from a resource allocation point of view, to align the brand with my interests, so I decided to discontinue everything that does not serve the science of silk for skin.”
The rebrand also resulted in increased costs and part of the “elevated positioning” meant higher prices, but Keay is confident the changes will pay off.
“Silk to me has such a wonderful history to it, with the Old Silk Roads representing human adventure and endeavour, linking East with West, and combined with the science of this new peptide, I wanted to bring that to life with elevated branding and positioning,” Keay added.