Celebrity makeup artist, green beauty expert, and global beauty advocate, Lina Hanson knew the importance of a clear canvas and a healthy complexion. She revealed her eponymous skincare range in 2012 with a single hero product, the Global Face Serum, with a specific mission: to embrace the skin you’re in.
Growing up in the Swedish countryside and being of mixed ethnicity, she felt different and didn’t identify physically with her peers. But over time, Lina learned to embrace her Pakistani culture. Her products feature some of the most precious and potent ingredients, inspired by beauty secrets and traditions from all over the world, to create a brand that melds inclusivity, empowerment & representation.
What is the essence of Lina Hanson Skincare?
The essence of Lina Hanson Skincare is the celebration of Global Beauty. From the beginning this has been our philosophy. It’s about looking at the whole, not just the ingredients, but also a broader way of looking at the world and finding the beauty that is all around us – from different races, faces and everything in between.
How has your philosophy & vision changed over time? In what ways has the brand grown?
Lina Hanson Skincare really started out as a desire to create a beautiful product. There was no business plan, no investors or media teams. It was just me, with a vision of creating the best skincare I could. The mission and philosophy were always the same, in fact, the vision of Global Beauty started before there was even a product.
Over the years, as our company has grown, my team and I have also grown and evolved. We’ve looked at all our formulas to see if and how we can improve them. We’ve expanded our assortment to be not just skincare but also fragrances. We’ve changed up our packaging to make it more in line with what we’ve always wanted to be. To constantly look to improve, evolve and change if necessary is so important, and I believe it’s our adaptability that has helped us stay in business for over 11 years.
Which Lina Hanson Skincare product would you consider your “holy grail”?
The holy grail of our line is still the Global Face Serum. It was the first product we launched over 10 years ago, and it’s still one of our bestsellers and editor’s favorites. It’s also the perfect introduction to our line, and it’s one of those products that clients keep coming back to year after year. With so much focus on newness and the latest trendy ingredients, I believe there is so much beauty in the time-honored products we keep coming back to time and time again. It’s a testament to that when you use the highest quality ingredients and don’t compromise on integrity, it becomes a mainstay that speaks for itself.
Which makeup brands are sitting on your bathroom shelves?
I love ILIA Beauty, Kjaer Weis, Vapour Beauty and Kosas.
What is your pro beauty tip?
Oh, I have so many little beauty tips but right now I’m really enjoying facial massage and using a Gua Sha nightly. I start by massaging Global Treasures into my skin and then use the Gua Sha to make sure the product gets into my skin. I’ve seen such a major change in my skin since I started regular facial massage and I’m now hooked. It does take a little extra time each night but it’s so worth it.
You launched 2 new perfumes this year, where did your inspiration come from?
After such challenging times in the world, I felt inspired to create scents that offer therapeutic benefits apart from just smelling good. Aromatherapy has been used for thousands of years to enhance both physical and emotional well-being.
When developing these fragrances, I picked essential oils depending on the mood I wanted to create. They are also inspired by different regions in the world.
For example, LAGOM – inspired by Scandinavia and thanks to essential oils like Juniper Berry, Spearmint, Eucalyptus – is about refreshing the mind, creating mental clarity and balance. It’s wonderful for brain fog or mental exhaustion. Think of it as a refreshing walk in the forest. It’s the fresh scent of clarity.
VIBE – inspired by the Middle East thanks to Oud, Sandalwood, and Black Pepper – is warming, grounding and relaxing, and thanks to Cardamom is even considered to be an aphrodisiac. It’s like that feeling when you’re in a hot, desert area exploring the spice markets. It’s comforting, a bit mysterious and a very sexy scent.
SATORI – inspired by Southeast Asia – features ingredients such as Ginger, Yuzu, and Grapefruit, which are known to energize and uplift our being when we feel tired or depressed. It’s the energy I feel when I’m in Southeast Asia: happy people and warm, sunny weather. It’s the happy scent.
I also made the perfumes so you can easily bring them with you everywhere you go, and used the rollerballs to make reapplying easy for whenever you need a little mood boost.
Which moments have been the most rewarding in Lina Hanson Skincare´s history as a company?
There have definitely been rewarding moments throughout the years, but I get small rewards all the time whenever I get an email from a customer who tells me how much our products have helped their skin, or when we get a wonderful review from an editor who I know who tries thousands of products. Those encouragements mean the world to me. Overall, I’ve learned that having a business is more about the small little steps we take, and that it’s more about the journey, than the destination.
In what ways does sustainability play a role in your overall process?
It plays a huge role in how I develop products and how we package them. We try to use & choose ingredients that are regenerative, and make the least impact on the environment. We package our products in glass and our outer packaging is FSC-certified.
The fact that all products are multi-purpose is also very intentional from a sustainability standpoint. Before we launch anything new, I always ask myself if it’s absolutely needed. One way we’ve been able to keep our line compact is that we focus more on improving the products we already have in our collection as opposed to just adding more products.
What lies in Lina Hanson Skincare´s near future?
I’m really excited to share that we’re working on a wonderful skincare product that will launch later this year. It has such an amazing story and it’s so unique. It’s been 6 years since we launched a skincare product but this one will definitely add something amazing to the collection.
Any final words for our Amazingy readers?
I’m just so excited to re-introduce the Amazingy readers to our mood-boosting scents! I’ve created what I call the “Espresso Meditation.” It’s about taking a 30-second timeout to apply the perfume oil to your pulse points. Then, taking your time to inhale the aroma. Taking deep breaths in and out. Staying present in the moment. This ritual has helped me a lot over the years.
Natural fragrances don’t last as long as conventional, and they’re not meant to. Reapplying scent throughout the day can be an enjoyable experience, a mindful practice, a reminder to be present. Our “Espresso Meditation” is really just an encouragement to carve out a little time for yourself throughout the day to be present in the moment as you’re applying the perfume. Creating a bit of a mindfulness ritual for yourself.
It took me years to develop these fragrances, because I wanted them to be as special and unique as possible. I hope the Amazingy readers find them to be all that and more.
Tags: Behind the Brand, Perfume, Skin Care
J. R. Thesis Smith is a mixed-race millenial in the dawn of their 30s & a wordsmith of sorts. They've spent most of their waking life in the U.S. – in the urban sprawl of NYC that is New Jersey, in the depths of its suburban echoes – but always dreamed of making their way across a bigger pond, to a place where opportunity would knock a little more often. After completing their training at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts (effectively spending three poor years in NYC) as a dance major, they gifted themselves a semester of studying abroad in Berlin, and in doing so kept a vow made in early adolescence – thereby inciting a metamorphosis of promise into full-bodied intention: to eventually fully emigrate to Berlin, the first space that had ever allowed them the freedom to find their own breath, their pace of existence. Now that they finally live there, they're learning how to breathe again – striving to become a more active member of the Undercommons as they continue on the odyssey that is their self-realization as an artistic being. Their most resonant hope is that they will be able to say what is true & necessary & kind; that people will find the time to listen, to themselves and each other; and that their voice will inspire other voices to speak out in turn.
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