CEO Shelagh Wong on Her Skincare Journey and Co-Founding Personal Day With Lili Reinhart
Ever since our first experience with Personal Day skincare, co-founded by actress Lili Reinhart and CEO Shelagh Wong, we've been positively hooked.
Personal Day has more than just celebrity approval, offering affordable skincare products featuring mindfully selected, dermatologist-backed ingredients that are effective, but not harsh, as well as acne support beyond your skin. They're innovators in acne education who take skincare seriously, because your skin can impact everything from confidence to mental health. They've made a big splash since launching in October, and we got the chance to chat with Shelagh Wong herself to learn more about what makes Personal Day one of a kind and her own skincare story in the interview below.
Name: Shelagh Wong
IG handle: @shelaghwong
Hometown: Hong Kong SAR
(via Personal Day)
1. Shelagh says she got into the world of beauty purely by chance.
"I spent 10 years as a management consultant for Fortune 500 companies and really enjoyed my project at a global beauty conglomerate, which led me to The Estée Lauder Companies, working across the portfolio of brands ranging from La Mer to Clinique and growing the emerging markets business under the International group. From there, I was in leadership roles at BECCA Cosmetics, Korres Skincare, Smith & Cult, Elaluz and KIKO Milano. My defining moment was really the day BECCA had a launch event for the Chrissy X BECCA collaboration. I stayed up for most of the night watching the Instagram Stories of our team hosting a sleepover with Chrissy and realized that beauty was so much more than about just the product itself—it's also about connecting with the consumer and cultivating a sense of community and brand love."
-Shelagh Wong
2. Her skin, and a lack of knowledge about the topic, led her on quite the skincare journey starting in her teens.
"When I was a teenager, I had no access to knowledge about skincare, and certainly no access to good skincare itself. I bought what I could at drugstores for my explosion of teenage acne and had no idea about even the basics about pores, acne-picking, skin health, etc.
We were also not in a position to find or pay for a dermatologist, so I had to figure out everything on my own.
I made some major mistakes—there is one big acne scar in the middle of my face that showed through layers of concealer and to this day is the biggest blemish that persists despite laser treatments.
I also had no idea what products were actually good for my skin! I didn't realize that clearing up my skin was not only about treating each spot, but actually also about healthy habits like gentle cleansing, getting rid of bacteria and dirt, unclogging pores, etc. I used two things—a very popular yellow moisturizer at the time and a mass brand cucumber face peeling mask—both of which ended up giving my skin a slew of bumps that took many years to heal after I switched to much more thoughtful, refined products with nourishing ingredients that my skin type really needed."
-Shelagh Wong
3. Shelagh co-founded Personal Day with beloved Riverdale actress Lili Reinhart.
"I've been following Lili's acne journey for awhile and was also a huge fan of Riverdale (binge-level viewer over here). We were working with the same network of folks in the beauty and investment space and they connected the two of us. We found huge alignment in the brand we wanted to create.
From a product standpoint, we both felt that we live in an age where everyone expects the ingredients and formulation power of luxury skincare—consumers of all age ranges expect formulas to hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, squalane, AHAs etc. as a baseline. Then, because of our own journeys with understanding how to prevent and treat acne, we knew we wanted a mix of the best skin-cleaning AHAs and BHAs and also the most innovative multi-faceted ingredients like azelaic acid and mevalonic acid.
It was then really important to us that our community is able to actually afford these great products that we want to put out there, so we really fought our board to keep everything under $40. We felt that access was a big pillar of what the brand stands for and we didn't want to be one of those brands that made it impossible to actually buy the products.We also acknowledged that not everyone has the privilege of access to skin education and medical professionals. This was especially poignant because of my own journey. We felt strongly that we needed to provide free access to as much professionally-backed skin health and acne education as possible—for both acne and mental health associated with acne."
-Shelagh Wong
(via Personal Day)
Also read about: This Is the Riverdale Character You Would NOT Get Along With, Based on Your Zodiac Sign
4. Above everything else, Personal Day aims to aid in customers' skincare journeys.
"Our mission is to be the ultimate partner for the acne and skin health journey, providing the tools to nourish and repair skin and support for mental health along the way.
Our brand is made to be 100% acne-safe, which means it's made without any acne-triggering ingredients, and we combine powerful acne-clearing and preventing ingredients with luxury skincare ingredients—all at an under $40 price point."
-Shelagh Wong
5. She has two favorite Personal Day products.
"I first fell in love with the Doing the Work Salicylic Acne Treatment because at first try, it flattened all my growing acne bumps overnight. Since then, I have been using it twice a day, every day. My second favorite product is the Even Keel Resurfacing Peel. Peels are a big part of Lili's routine with Sarah Ford, the celebrity esthetician on our advisory board, and we incorporated an at-home version in our line-up. I love it because I can feel the BHAs clearing out the oils in my pores and the AHAs breaking the bonds of my dead skin, bacteria and dirt cells on my face. Afterwards, my skin is unbelievably smooth and soft. I do this twice a week, sometimes more often if I'm doing a lot of traveling."
-Shelagh Wong
(via Personal Day)
6. The best piece of advice she ever received came from Bob DeBaker, who she worked for at previous brands including BECCA, Korres and Luxury Brand Partners.
"He always said to believe big, which I often remind myself to do."
-Shelagh Wong
7. Even in business, she's always considered kindness and respect to be key to success.
"I think it's become an underrated idea to treat people well, and to put people first, even if you're building a business together. The best teams I've ever worked on with the best accomplishments have always been the ones that respected each other as humans and loved achieving together. I've really tried to make sure I truly live by the people-first mantra which has so far led to great results every time."
-Shelagh Wong
8. Her biggest skincare tip is simple yet powerful.
"Good hydration and consistently removing garbage from your skin are two things that really change the game. Everyone looking for healthier skin should look at their moisturizer to make sure the hydration active in it works for their skin (I prefer squalane and hyaluronic acid) and that they are exfoliating gently at least once a week to get rid of dead skin, bacteria, etc. that form acne (I prefer lactic acid)."
-Shelagh Wong
(via Personal Day)
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9. She says the most rewarding thing about her work is seeing Personal Day work for people.
"I have a lot of friends in the beauty industry and the best thing to hear is that they love our products and that it worked for them!"
-Shelagh Wong
10. One thing about Shelagh is that she is obsessed with skin hydration.
"I cannot go more than three minutes a day where my skin is without serum and moisturizer. This means the clock starts ticking the minute I wash my face or step out of the shower—180 seconds to get something on!"
-Shelagh Wong
For more insights from the founders of skincare we love, click HERE to read our interview with Cool as a Cucumber founders Serra and Eda Levent.