Entrepreneur
Why less is more when it comes to skincare
How multi-use products could simplify skincare and tackle over-consumption
The skin is a direct mirror of how our body feels. Why not simplify our skincare routine and reduce waste, asks Pontine Paus, investor and entrepreneur.
Skincare products have the largest market share of all beauty industry segments and reports have shown that ‘skinimalism’ has various benefits.
Pontine Paus, entrepreneur and founder of Dr Lipp, says: “Indeed, the focus and knowledge we have today on how to live a healthy life has increased. It’s definitely good that we have this knowledgeable and know how to look after our skin, but I think it’s bad that we’re still using too many products that are not necessarily making a big a difference, but cause a lot of pollution in the world.”
Paus has launched her skincare brand 18 years ago when the multitude of brands and social media platforms we have today did not exist.
She started off with the original nipple balm that later became the signature product of the brand. “I used to have a lot of dry skin and a lot of eczema myself and I couldn’t find anything that worked until somebody said ‘why don’t you try some nipple balm’”, Paus remembers.
“I started doing a lot of research and there was just one ingredient, that’s been around since ancient Greek times and that is lanolin. So, I had this idea of taking the nipple balm out of the breastfeeding market and introducing it into the beauty market,” the founder explains.
Her main aim was to build a brand in which every product was multi-use with a maximum of 10 ingredients. “The average is 30 to 40 ingredients. So, we’ve reduced that massively. That’s probably the most effective and most important contribution that we can make when it comes to reducing our carbon footprint and helping with the biodiversity. I think if we can all consume more consciously, then that will have a big long-term impact.”
The nipple balm was just the start of her commitment to offer multi-use products in order to simplify people’s skincare routine and encourage a minimalistic approach.
“There are some great creams to help reduce wrinkles and pigmentation, for example, but the basic daily products, like hand cream, body lotion or any other cream, could all be one. In terms of washing, your makeup remover, your shampoo, your body wash, your shaving cream gel could all be one,” she says.
“I feel very strongly about the waste we’re creating and the big floating islands of plastic in the ocean,” she continues. “I’m horrified by how much rubbish every household produces every week, and where that goes and equally horrified about how polluted our food and water systems are. So, as a brand owner, I really looked at how to really make a difference.”
Statistics report that 120 billion units of packaging are produced every year by the global cosmetics industry, including lids, multi-layered boxes and cellophane that are most of the time non-recyclable.
“Everybody’s getting becoming more aware [of the environmental impacts], but we’ve got to think differently,” the founder insists. “Brands have got to offer products that reduce our waste rather than just recycling them. Nobody’s going to make it perfect, but we can improve on where we are at.”
With Latin words governing long ingredient lists, simple multi-use products can also give consumers a better understanding of what they are putting on their skin, the entrepreneur tells me. “I wanted something simple and 100 per cent natural,” she says. “A lot of brands do natural, but there’s no real big brands out there that do 100 per cent natural. But I think when it comes to these basic steps in our daily life, it’s much easier to make things simple.”
Paus’ hope is that more companies will come up with compostable packaging in the future.
“It would really make a huge difference, but sadly, the technology isn’t there yet. I hope at least we at Dr Lipp could make everything much simpler for both the people and the environment.”
Shop: The best-selling multi-use products from Dr Lipp
Dr Lipp Original Nipple Balm £12
Dr Lipp Superfood Tint Pack for Lips Cheeks and Eyelids £18
In countries where the gender playing field still steeply tilts toward male advantage, women-led businesses that participated in accelerators showed no financial improvement, or even did worse, compared to ventures that applied but weren’t accepted, a study revealed.
The researchers drew on data for more than 1,400 ventures across 65 countries that had applied to 33 different accelerators between 2013 and 2015.
The study built on data from the Global Accelerator Learning Initiative, which tracks follow-on impacts of accelerator programmes around the world, including comparative information between applicants admitted and rejected from programmes.
Sarah Kaplan is professor emerita in strategic management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management as well as founding director for its Institute for Gender and the Economy.
She said: “Ironically, this was especially true for those that participated in accelerators focused on women’s empowerment.”
Prof. Kaplan wanted to know whether promises that accelerators could help narrow the gender divide in entrepreneurial success were bearing out.
Joined by Nilanjana Dutt of Bocconi University, the researchers honed in on social innovation accelerators because these tend to attract more women over more Silicon Valley-style programmes.
At first glance, the researchers found that women-led businesses did not benefit as much from accelerator participation as male-led businesses did.
But a more nuanced picture emerged once they layered in other information about the contexts in which accelerators were operating, including a World Economic Forum index on gender equality and surveys to get at details about the accelerator programs.
“In more gender-egalitarian countries, accelerators were doing a great job of supporting women entrepreneurs and especially when they focused on women’s empowerment,” said Prof. Kaplan.
In financial terms, “it was a pretty dramatic difference and one that should make everyone pause.”
In less gender egalitarian settings, accelerators may not be benefitting women-led ventures because, the researchers wrote, they may not have delivered programming women could really use, given the context in which they would be operating.
In countries with starker gender inequality, “oftentimes women can’t even get a loan without their husband signing,” said Prof. Kaplan.
“When accelerators go in, they can’t treat it like a one-off intervention but need to also work on the ecosystems that surround the ventures.”
Still, even in more egalitarian contexts, women entrepreneurs had lower acceptance rates into accelerators than men and that was true even when the accelerator prioritised women’s empowerment, or where it had higher numbers of women on selection committees.
Whether the selection criteria were biased or the female selectors were better at identifying which women entrepreneurs would benefit most is an open question for future research, Prof Kaplan said.
As for women entrepreneurs, her advice is to treat accelerator applications as a two-way street: be just as choosy about which programs to commit to:
“Focus on what specifically this accelerator would help me achieve and whether it’s a match from your side too.”
The women’s health sector is no longer just building a case for itself.
Capital is moving, consolidation is accelerating, and the companies that understood the opportunity early are now focused on one thing: scale.
The conversations happening at Women’s Health Week USA on May 13-14 at the New York Academy of Medicine reflect exactly that shift.
Three sessions in particular cut to the heart of where the industry is right now, and where it’s going next. Here’s a closer look at what’s on the full programme.
Key Panel Discussions
Who’s Backing the Boom: Inside the Capital Surge in Women’s Health
Capital is flowing into women’s health at record levels.
The question is no longer whether the sector will attract institutional investment, but where that capital is coming from, who it’s going to, and what it takes to unlock the next wave of commercial growth.
This session puts those questions to a panel with direct experience of deploying and raising capital in the sector.
Nicole Mooljee Damani (EY-Parthenon) moderates a conversation between Tara Bishop (Black Opal Ventures), Trish Costello (Portfolia), and Ramiz Khan (Wellcome Leap), three investors with distinct mandates and a shared focus on what actually moves the needle.
For founders and operators in the room, this session is a direct window into how the people writing the cheques are thinking.
What they’re backing, what they’re passing on, and what the current capital environment means for the companies building in women’s health right now.
Mergers & Acquisitions: Who’s Buying, Who’s Building, and Why
The M&A landscape in women’s health is heating up. Strategic acquisitions, consolidation plays, and corporate partnerships are reshaping the competitive map, and the decisions being made now will define the structure of the industry for years to come.
This panel examines the logic behind who’s acquiring and who’s holding, from the perspective of people operating at the sharp end of those decisions.
Oriana Papin-Zoghbi (AOA Dx), Monica Cepak (Wisp), Gabrielle de Briey (Hologic), and Johanna Grossman (New York Stock Exchange) bring a combined view that spans diagnostics, digital health, medtech and the capital markets infrastructure that underpins it all.
For anyone building a company with an eye on strategic exits, partnerships or acquisitions, this is the session that maps the terrain.
The Economics of Equity: How Inclusion Equals Growth Strategy
Inclusion isn’t a tickbox. It’s a growth lever. And the data increasingly backs that up.
This session makes the commercial case for equity in women’s health, examining how addressing underserved populations and closing health disparities doesn’t just serve social goals, it creates the biggest commercial opportunities in the sector.
The shift from impact metric to market strategy is already underway. This panel is where that argument gets made in full.
Annie Theriault (Cross Border Impact Ventures) moderates a conversation between Sharon Meers (Midi Health), Lauren Makler (Cofertility), Tanvi Patel (Amazon Pharmacy), and Julia Berenson (World Health Organisation). The breadth of that panel, spanning venture, fertility, pharma and global health policy, is itself a signal of how far the conversation has moved.
These three sessions are part of a broader two-day programme bringing together 700+ senior decision makers across investment, innovation, policy and medtech.
The event is built around curated 1:1 matchmaking, with introductions structured around each attendee’s commercial priorities.
Early Bird Pricing for Women’s Health Week USA is ending Friday April 17, to save up to $600 on your ticket to the Global Stage for Scale, book now!
Secure your place at Women’s Health Week USA
The women’s health sector is no longer just building a case for itself.
Capital is moving, consolidation is accelerating, and the companies that understood the opportunity early are now focused on one thing: scale.
The conversations happening at Women’s Health Week USA on May 13-14 at the New York Academy of Medicine reflect exactly that shift.
Three sessions in particular cut to the heart of where the industry is right now, and where it’s going next. Here’s a closer look at what’s on the full programme.
Key Panel Discussions
Who’s Backing the Boom: Inside the Capital Surge in Women’s Health
Capital is flowing into women’s health at record levels.
The question is no longer whether the sector will attract institutional investment, but where that capital is coming from, who it’s going to, and what it takes to unlock the next wave of commercial growth.
This session puts those questions to a panel with direct experience of deploying and raising capital in the sector.
Nicole Mooljee Damani (EY-Parthenon) moderates a conversation between Tara Bishop (Black Opal Ventures), Trish Costello (Portfolia), and Ramiz Khan (Wellcome Leap), three investors with distinct mandates and a shared focus on what actually moves the needle.
For founders and operators in the room, this session is a direct window into how the people writing the cheques are thinking.
What they’re backing, what they’re passing on, and what the current capital environment means for the companies building in women’s health right now.
Mergers & Acquisitions: Who’s Buying, Who’s Building, and Why
The M&A landscape in women’s health is heating up. Strategic acquisitions, consolidation plays, and corporate partnerships are reshaping the competitive map, and the decisions being made now will define the structure of the industry for years to come.
This panel examines the logic behind who’s acquiring and who’s holding, from the perspective of people operating at the sharp end of those decisions.
Oriana Papin-Zoghbi (AOA Dx), Monica Cepak (Wisp), Gabrielle de Briey (Hologic), and Johanna Grossman (New York Stock Exchange) bring a combined view that spans diagnostics, digital health, medtech and the capital markets infrastructure that underpins it all.
For anyone building a company with an eye on strategic exits, partnerships or acquisitions, this is the session that maps the terrain.
The Economics of Equity: How Inclusion Equals Growth Strategy
Inclusion isn’t a tickbox. It’s a growth lever. And the data increasingly backs that up.
This session makes the commercial case for equity in women’s health, examining how addressing underserved populations and closing health disparities doesn’t just serve social goals, it creates the biggest commercial opportunities in the sector.
The shift from impact metric to market strategy is already underway. This panel is where that argument gets made in full.
Annie Theriault (Cross Border Impact Ventures) moderates a conversation between Sharon Meers (Midi Health), Lauren Makler (Cofertility), Tanvi Patel (Amazon Pharmacy), and Julia Berenson (World Health Organisation). The breadth of that panel, spanning venture, fertility, pharma and global health policy, is itself a signal of how far the conversation has moved.
These three sessions are part of a broader two-day programme bringing together 700+ senior decision makers across investment, innovation, policy and medtech.
The event is built around curated 1:1 matchmaking, with introductions structured around each attendee’s commercial priorities.
Early Bird Pricing for Women’s Health Week USA is ending Friday April 17, to save up to $600 on your ticket to the Global Stage for Scale, book now!
Secure your place at Women’s Health Week USA
Female-led startups are growing despite a support gap and limited structured help, according to new research.
Research from Small Business Britain, in partnership with Starling Bank, found that more than eight in 10 women, or 82 per cent, aim to grow their business in the next 12 months.
More than half, 53 per cent, said revenue had increased since 2025.
However, the findings also point to weaker income security.
Just over half, 51 per cent, do not plan to hire in the next year, while 51 per cent said their household income is lower than before starting their business.
Some 44 per cent said they had never received financial education, while more than half, 56 per cent, rated themselves as beginner or intermediate in financial confidence.
Many female entrepreneurs are turning to different sources for financial advice, with 26 per cent relying on accountants, 15 per cent on Google, 12 per cent on AI tools such as ChatGPT and six per cent solely on their own judgement.
Two in five, or 40 per cent, are unaware of or have not used government support systems to help grow their business, the research found.
The findings also point to the role female entrepreneurs play in the UK economy, where they lead many of the country’s 5.6 million small businesses.
However, with just over half, 52 per cent, of female solo entrepreneurs not planning to hire, the report says tailored support is needed to help turn ambition into scalable growth.
Based on the findings, Small Business Britain recommends prioritising financial education, introducing targeted support to help women move from sole trader to employer, and promoting digital financial tools to support productivity.
Michelle Ovens, CBE, founder and chief executive of Small Business Britain, said: “Female entrepreneurs play a vital role in the UK’s economic ecosystem and across the country, their ambition and contributions, often alongside significant caring responsibilities, do not go unnoticed.
“However, our research demonstrates a growth gap holding women back.
“There is a huge opportunity to support female entrepreneurs to scale their businesses with confidence and unlock financial success through clearer pathways to support.
“By providing women with the right tools and resources, we can level the playing field, boost entrepreneurship and enable more women to grow their businesses while continuing to benefit from flexibility and freedom taking the leap into entrepreneurship offers.”
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