Behind the Brand
Sarah Kugelman
FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, skyn ICELAND®
Like many of us, Sarah Kugelman has been trying to manage her stress for 25 years. But unlike many of us, in 1995 Sarah's doctor told her that if she didn't learn to de-compress, she would not to live to see her fortieth birthday. And to add insult to injury, Sarah's stress was not only making her critically ill but also wreaking havoc on her skin. "I had cystic acne, scars and incredible dehydration," she notes, which is no surprise considering the link between stress and skin has been documented in many studies.
Sarah took a leave of absence from corporate life and spent the next 18 months researching the impacts of stress on skin so she could create a line that would counteract them. While in the midst of the line's developmental stages, Sarah traveled to Iceland where she was struck by the country's purity, cleanliness, abundance of natural resources and immaculately complected inhabitants. "Iceland presented the ideal landscape for stress- free living," she says. And so skyn ICELAND®, the only skin care line designed to treat the physiological effects of stress on skin, was born.
But skyn ICELAND® isn't just the product of Kugelman's personal experiences and research. Before creating the line, she put together an advisory board of health and wellness experts in the areas of nutrition, dermatology, psychology, cardiology and holistic medicine, to truly understand stress' far-reaching effects. In addition to having some of the industry's finest chemists behind the line, which incorporates many natural ingredients native to Iceland, skyn ICELAND® draws from Kugelman's prodigious product development, marketing and retail experience as well as her expertise in meeting consumer demand. Not content to have skyn ICELAND® just deal with surface issues, Sarah has made it a lifestyle brand that addresses beauty and health from the inside out. A key mission of the company is to inform and educate people on the causes, signs and effects of stress, while giving them tips on how to manage it.
Sarah revolutionized the beauty industry in 1999 by creating gloss.com, a multimedia beauty brand for which she raised $25 million in venture capital and grew to over 100 employees with offices in New York and San Francisco. Sarah sold gloss.com to The Estée Lauder Companies in 2000 and then spent three years with the company in senior management positions.
Sarah has also held senior marketing positions at prominent companies such as Banana Republic (fragrance), Bath & Body Works, L'Oréal and Bloomingdale's. She has made frequent television appearances and has been a guest speaker at leading universities and industry conferences. In 2000, Columbia Business School wrote a case study on gloss.com, which is still being used in its business curriculum. In 2006, Sarah was a finalist in the FGI Rising Star Awards. In 2007, skyn ICELAND® won the CEW Indie Beauty Award. Sarah has an M.B.A. in Marketing and International Business from Columbia University and a B.A. from Tufts University. She sits on the Advisory Board for the Columbia Business School Entrepreneurship Program. Sarah also is actively involved with the American Cancer Society and Sanctuary for Families. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.