epreneur looks like and her frustrations with the beauty industry. I haven’t heard of many people in the beauty industry that have come from a medical background. How has that background shaped the way you operate your business and your product development process? I guess being used to a science-based industry makes me very focused on using evidence-based formulations and ingredients. Coming from a highly regulated industry makes me tend to be very risk-averse and also systems-driven. Why did you want to do direct-to-consumer retail rather than enter wholesale? We do have really big, global ambitions for the brand, so we’re hoping to partner with a luxury beauty retailer as an international partnership. That’s the direction that we want to go down.  What do you think are some of the skills and knowledge that a  modern beauty entrepreneur requires? You need creativity, stamina, grit and fearlessness. I personally work on surrounding myself with the highest quality team, suppliers and customers. You need to take risks and not be too perfectionistic, making it more about action and executing well designed  plans. How has the beauty and skincare landscape evolved in the time that you’ve been in the industry? The industry is wildly different from when I started in the business in 1999. It was tiny back then, there were less patients, less clinics, less brands, less customers. The beauty achievement mentality has exploded in society in the last two decades. What are some of the interesting trends in the beauty and skincare market that you’re most interested in? Beauty-wise, we love looking at all of the emerging trends all over the world. In the cosmetic field in Australia we are heavily influenced by Asia, so we love all of the new information on for example energy based devices and threads. We are always working towards reaching the beauty holy grail of procedures which are low risk, natural results, highly effective and with a great satisfaction rate. For skincare, we are always looking at the latest ingredients, for Dr Naomi Skin we’re looking at what actually works to improve pigmentation and pores and wrinkles, and how it can be best delivered to achieve the most efficient results. You’re quite vocal on social media when it comes to calling out beauty myths. What are some of your biggest frustrations with the industry right now?  Lol. Fake before-and-afters annoy me, fear mongering annoys me. In skincare, there are too many to list, but a few include the one about wipes being effective enough, people not needing sunscreen “because I work in an office all day”, and the ridiculous one that “skincare doesn’t work”. Who inspires you? My all-time favourite hero is Karl Lagerfeld. He was just one in a billion. He ran his own race, a leader in everything with a creative brain, always on the pulse, ahead of his time. He never never slacked. He was always bringing it every time, until he was 80-something. Amazing. What stamina. Do you have any business mantras that you live by? Stop being a perfectionist. Imperfect action. Just get it out, say yes, ship it out, execute. Just keep it moving. Don’t wait.  If you hadn’t studied medicine, what would you have done instead? When I was 17, I put my name down for medicine, but my second choice was architecture.