Building a brand often starts with a personal story, and Charlotte Winter has hers written all over her skin.
The model and social media personality has turned her struggles with complexion into something bigger: a skincare line inspired by the ingredients she discovered while living in Thailand.
Charlotte admits her fascination began during her stay in the country, where she noticed how locals swore by natural products. That curiosity grew into what she now calls Skintessential.
Inspired by her own experience, she said skincare doesn’t have to be about chasing impossible standards.
“Just cherish your puberty stage,” she tells young women who feel the pressure to fit in. “Your glow-up will come. You don’t need to spend so much or run to a glutathione drip right away just to feel beautiful.”
Charlotte says she learned the hard way that rushing the process only harms the skin further. Her mantra now? Trust the routine, not the quick fix.
And yes, she’s heard it all online. “When I go live on TikTok, some people comment, ‘Remove your filter,’ even when I don’t actually use one,” she says with a laugh. “When I finally achieved the skin I wanted, that’s when I realized we don’t need filters to feel beautiful.”
Still, breaking into the beauty industry hasn’t been as effortless as her glossy Instagram feed. Charlotte describes the market as “competitive and saturated,” and admits juggling her career as a model and influencer with running a business has been tricky. Mentorship from friends in business, she says, gave her the push to take entrepreneurship seriously.
But her heart remains in the same place it began, with girls who look in the mirror and wish for better skin.
“I’ve experienced what it’s like to feel insecure about my skin, and I know many girls go through the same thing,” she says. “When I discovered skincare secrets in Thailand that worked for me, I knew I had to share them.”
Her products, she explains, are designed for all skin types, with one key Thai ingredient at the core of the formulas. She even sought expert advice before adding it in.
