Kide MSCHIC
Helsinki-based MSCHIC cosmetics are sold everywhere from Paris to The United Arab Emirates and online from Hanko to Utsjoki. The packaging for Kide MSCHIC is a keeper for design-oriented people.
”MSCHIC,” says a sign alongside Mannerheimintie, in the newest part of Forum shopping center. There lies a tiny store between Swedish and British clothing giants and a sporting goods store. ”Another clothing label,” thinks many a by-passer who hasn’t popped in.
Wrong. MSCHIC isn’t a clothing label, nor is it Swedish or British. It’s a Helsinki-based cosmetics company started only three years ago. Some of its products are made in the same Italian and US factories as Chanel cosmetics, and you can find them for example in the renowned Parisian luxury department store Galerie Lafayette. Oh, and also online, which is where the company got started.
Many people are thinking about starting their own company, but very few think of cosmetics. “It’s a little bit like starting your own car manufacturing plant – it might seem impossible, but it really isn’t,” says MSCHIC founder MARIKA SNELLMAN-SÖDERSTRÖM.
Kide MSCHIC.
Starting online
Snellman-Söderström dove into the cosmetics business without any background in chemistry or the beauty business. Instead, she had a business degree and a long career in large corporations.
It took her a year to figure out how a cosmetics company functions. “I got the right people together, and MSCHIC was born in May 2007. I’m a firm believer in the web, so I launched my brand online. After that, we just waited anxiously whether anyone would show up,” she recounts. “Everyone thought the concept was impossible, because MSCHIC doesn’t import cosmetics. Instead, we have our own brand with 400 products.”
Nowadays the average online order is worth 70 euros, and part of the clientele places almost 20 orders a year. The MSCHIC store, opened in downtown Helsinki in November 2008, sees smaller but more frequent purchases. Some customers buy a larger batch of mineral cosmetics at a time, others – mostly young girls – look for bright colors.
Even though Snellman-Söderström doesn’t have a cosmetics-related education, she has a strong background in fashion through her father. She designs all new colors herself and tells the chemists what she wants or doesn’t want in her products. Any new products are prototyped at the factory and sent to Finland for testing. Some are approved, and some sent back with suggestions for improvements.
At the moment, Snellman-Söderström is hiring agents and expanding MSCHIC worldwide. The next step is Middle East and Asia. She’s also looking to have more franchising stores and shop-in-shops in Finland.
Pure luxury
Kide MSCHIC.
In addition to their signature line of color cosmetics, MSCHIC has also designed and realized a line of cosmetics for Seppälä, and combated smoking with their Skunk Girl by MSCHIC make-up line. Their latest innovation is Kide MSCHIC, made for the design and luxury-oriented. This series of ecological luxury mineral make-up packed in sleek wooden boxes is sold for example at Galerie Lafayette. “That tells you something about our vision,” Snellman-Söderström notes.
Kide MSCHIC products are manufactured in Italy and packed in Finland into wooden containers designed in co-operation with Helsinki and Tokio-based design agency Musuta Ltd’s JOPSU RAMU and TIMO HUHTALA. Kide MSCHIC will expand in fall 2010 to include care products with packaging made from wood and stone.
“The Kide series contains pure materials, diamonds and green and white tea,” Snellman-Söderström lists. “The most important thing is ecological luxury. People who like beautiful things think of Kide products as ornaments, not just cosmetics.”
Who knows – hopefully we’ll soon see MSCHIC products on the shelves of Tokyo’s avantgarde luxury boutiques. †
MSCHIC Store, Forum, Mannerheimintie 14, 00100 Helsinki
www.mshic.com, www.kidemschic.com
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