Key Takeaways:

• By combining curation, early-stage brand incubation, and experiential retail, Skins Cosmetics has positioned itself as a long-term brand builder.
• After decades of deliberate expansion, the Vendis Capital partnership unlocked operational scale without compromising creative control.
• From South Africa to Germany, Skins Cosmetics targets markets lacking strong niche beauty infrastructure.

When Philip Hillege co-founded Skins Cosmetics in Amsterdam in 2000, much of the European beauty retail landscape was defined by homogeneity. Department stores, independent perfumeries, and chain retailers largely stocked the same global fragrance and cosmetics brands, offering little differentiation for consumers seeking discovery or depth. More than two decades later, Skins has grown into one of Europe’s most influential luxury beauty retailers, and a quiet force in shaping the trajectory of niche beauty brands globally.

Now 26 years into its journey, Skins operates more than 20 stores across the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and South Africa, alongside a growing e-commerce business. Its evolution, however, has been anything but conventional. From the outset, the company was built on a contrarian belief that luxury beauty retail could be driven by curation, storytelling, and trust rather than scale, discounts, or promotional pressure. In 2024 and 2025 respectively, the retail business made €52 million ($61.8 million) and €71 million ($84.4 million), excluding VAT. Hillege revealed that Skins Cosmetics’ forecast for 2026 is €86 million ($102.3 million).

Disrupting a Stagnant Market

Hillege entered the beauty industry almost by accident. After graduating university, he joined a Dutch cosmetics company, where he spent five years working across marketing and product development. “I always wanted to work in consumer goods because I always found it interesting how you build brands, why consumers are choosing specific brands,” he said to BeautyMatter.

But what he observed in the Dutch market during the late 1990s revealed a clear gap. “Especially in the Netherlands, retailers were all selling the same brands,” Hillege recalled. “They’re all well-known perfume and cosmetic brands.” Meanwhile, cities like Paris and London were already embracing a new wave of niche and creator-led beauty brands. “If you went to Paris, and went to Colette, you saw brands like Aesop coming up,” he said.

Skins Cosmetics was conceived as a response to that disparity. It was built as a way to bring innovative, design-led, and creatively driven brands into a market that hadn’t yet caught up. “We thought, okay let’s be a disruptor, bring new brands to the Dutch market, and bring them together in an environment which is also different in design than a classic perfume store,” Hillege said.

Equally radical was Skins Cosmetics’ approach to service. “I knew that when a consumer went to a cosmetic store, they basically did not always get honest advice,” Hillege said, describing a commission-driven sales culture common at the time. Skins set out to do the opposite: always give honest advice, never push something on a customer for the wrong reasons, and no pressure on buying.

What then began as a single store with just seven brands has since grown into a portfolio of more than 200. However, its role quickly expanded beyond retail. Early on, brands began approaching the company to represent them more broadly in the Dutch market. “We said, we’re not only a retailer, we are brand builders,” Hillege explained. The company took on distribution responsibilities, offering training, merchandising, marketing support, and storytelling, effectively incubating brands within its ecosystem. This dual retail-distribution model became foundational to its growth.

Skins has also played an early role in the international journeys of brands such as Aesop, Byredo, and Kilian. “In most cases we were their first points of sale outside their own city or own land or territory,” Hillege said. “These companies have grown to billion [dollar] companies in valuation.”

That instinct for identifying future category leaders remains central to its strategy. “There’s 500 brands you can choose from. Which brands do we think are the future stars?” Hillege asked. One example he mentioned is Fugazzi, a Dutch fragrance brand that launched with a single scent. “We said okay, we believe in your vision, let’s start with your brand. Six years later now he’s selling in 40 countries.”

Curation Without Compromise

Despite the scale of its portfolio, Skins’ merchandising philosophy remains uncompromising. “We never do discounts. Never,” Hillege said. “I’m very proud that in 26 years’ time, there’s never been a discount in our shops,” he continued. Fragrance continues to anchor the business, accounting for roughly 50%-60% of sales, but skincare, makeup, haircare, and home fragrance are all integral to the assortment.

Brand selection is guided less by metrics than by conviction. “[We sometimes] have to look the founder in the eyes to see if there's a certain passion,” Hillege explained. “Sometimes, when we are sitting with brand owners, they’re not even officially in business.”

Skins’ international footprint has grown steadily but selectively. Belgium followed naturally. Germany, despite being Europe’s largest beauty market, came later. “Germany was always on the map, but we only did it last year because it’s a bit more difficult,” Hillege said, citing higher rents and a market dominated by mass perfume chains.

South Africa, however, was never part of the plan, according to Hillege. Instead, it emerged from a partnership opportunity with an established local distributor, after Hillege found that the country lacked product variety at the time. “I was like, wow, this is the Netherlands [again] in 2000—all beauty retailers selling the same brands.” Today, South Africa is Skins’ strongest market by share, and its Johannesburg flagship is now the company’s highest-turnover store. “That’s quite crazy,” Hillege said.

A New Growth Chapter with Vendis Capital

After more than two decades of measured expansion, Skins Cosmetics reached an inflection point. “If I wait another 20 years for another 20 shops, it will be a long time,” Hillege said. In 2024, the company partnered with Vendis Capital to accelerate growth.

Contrary to common perceptions around private equity, the partnership has been deeply operational. “They’re adding so many people to our structure. They see it’s an investment for the long term,” Hillege said. With Vendis Capital’s support, Skins Cosmetics opened 10 stores in a single year—a pace previously unimaginable.

“They helped us to be a bit more ambitious. We were never able to build 10 stores without their help,” Hillege said. Importantly, creative control remains intact. “They never said ‘You must have this brand in your portfolio.’”

As Skins enters new markets, its approach to marketing has evolved. “For the first time in our life, we spent money on an outdoor campaign [in Germany], brought influencers, [and took] guerrilla marketing actions,” Hillege said. The goal is to accelerate awareness and shorten the ramp-up period while leveraging Skins’ proven loyalty curve. “Retail is a business for the long term,” he added. “As soon as we hit the turnover from year one, year two is always 25% growth.”

With significant white space still across Europe, Skins’ ambitions remain measured but expansive. “There’s a lot of room for growth,” Hillege said. “Most interesting for us is countries where there are no similar concepts to find.” More than 25 years on, Skins’ success lies not in chasing trends but in trusting instinct, and building a business that gives brands and consumers room to breathe.