Plasma power for radiant skin
Glim Skin, the cosmetic skin care innovation.
Glim Skin
Glim Skin has developed an electronic beauty device that deploys innovative non-thermal plasma technology to help users combat skin impurities and rashes. What’s more, it doesn’t use any chemical additives. As a result, consumers retain complete control over their skin care routines.
The Team
The operational team behind Glim Skin consists of Benita Botterhuis and Dr. Friederike Kogelheide. Benita Botterhuis joined the team in September 2023 and has been an active member ever since. Building on her Design and Project Management degree course, she’s responsible for all marketing activities connected with the project. After graduating in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Friederike Kogelheide completed her PhD on the subject of biomedical applications for plasma technology. Glim Skin was developed on the basis of the results from her doctoral thesis.
The brainwave
Friederike spent considerable time researching plasma medicine and completed her doctoral thesis in this field. She was able to prove that plasma treatment can be highly effective in combating unwanted bacteria. This triggered the idea of creating a product based on plasma technology to help treat inflamed skin and rashes.
The USP
The advantage of Glim Skin lies in its proven efficacy. In addition, its patented production process was specially developed to keep production costs lower than those for competitors’ products. Our aim is to make plasma technology accessible to everyone who wants to use it in their skin care routine. We attach a high level of importance to esthetic design and high functionality in our beauty tech product. From the start, we also focused on sustainability. This is reflected in our decision to plan and implement the electronics and production in Germany.
Unlike other products that are used for skin purification purposes, our product does not use any external chemicals, antibiotics, or hormones (such as contraceptive pills) or other additives that could trigger allergic reactions, drug resistances, or other side effects. Glim Skin allows users to take full control of their skin care. In turn, this improves their quality of life and their personal well-being.
The challenges
Miniaturizing a large laboratory structure was a huge but crucial challenge on the journey to developing a beauty device for consumers. One big obstacle was understanding how to transfer extremely complex technology into an appealing, user-friendly beauty device in such a way that consumers would enjoy using it and feel better for doing so. We successfully mastered various challenges and were thus able to meet the EU standards and legal requirements needed for CE certification. Another obstacle we faced along the way was finding a production site in Germany that was willing to work with a start-up.
What we learned
Building a team that works together well is the biggest challenge.
Challenges we mastered
We succeeded in gaining CE certification for our product, which means we can now sell Glim Skin throughout Europe.
What we achieved
We succeeded in developing a product to the point that it’s now ready for serial production, and in establishing a production line in Ostwestfalen-Lippe, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany – meaning we can now prepare for our market launch!
The status quo
We’re actively preparing our market launch for the summer of 2024. We’ve set up production lines in Germany and are currently developing an injection molding tool for the casing. In addition, we’re developing a marketing and advertising campaign to make sure our product becomes the latest “love brand” in our target group.
Good reasons for cooperating with a university for young founders
The functional structures of the WSC consolidate RUB’s reputation as a start-up-friendly university. Thanks to its extensive experience in supporting start-ups and its wide network of contacts, academics with an entrepreneurial spirit will always find constructive advice – as well as constructive criticism. They’ll also find a network of contacts to fill any remaining gaps in the advice and support they need.
Tips for aspiring entrepreneurs
If you’re struggling with a challenge or not making headway on account of some hitch, it’s very important to seek advice sooner rather than later. To this end, it’s helpful to build a good network of contacts so that you always have someone to ask for advice when faced with a challenge you can’t resolve alone.
