Inside Retail, Samimi reflects on the challenges of launching the business, its early retail success and the lessons she has learned along the way. Inside Retail: How did you first come up with the idea for Banu Skin? Roz Samimi: Banu was born from my own journey with chronic acne. I started breaking out as a teenager and never grew out of it. For years, I did everything I thought I was supposed to do: prescriptions, antibiotics, dietary changes, extractions and topical treatments – and I still kept breaking out. The turning point was realizing that some of the skincare products I was using every day contained highly pore-clogging ingredients. I was putting so much effort into treating my acne without realizing that parts of my own routine were working against me. When I tried to rebuild my routine, it was almost impossible to find products actually designed with acne-prone skin in mind. I had to do so much research just to figure out whether a moisturizer, serum, or cleanser might break me out. That was really the aha moment. I didn’t think acne care needed another brand focused only on getting rid of pimples. I wanted to build a brand that treated acne-prone skin as the starting point, so you could address breakouts but also hydration, dark spots, texture, barrier support and all the other things you care about when it comes to your skin, without constantly worrying that the products you’re using could trigger new breakouts. I think about acne-prone skin the way the industry now thinks about sensitive skin. It should be a consideration from the very beginning of product development, not an afterthought. My mission is to help make acne-safe a baseline standard in skincare, and that’s what we’re building at Banu. IR: What were the toughest challenges you faced in the initial stages of launching and running the brand? What strategies did you incorporate to overcome these issues? RS: One of the hardest parts has been learning how to trust my gut, especially when I didn’t have a track record or any experience in beauty to fall back on. I’ve been incredibly lucky to be surrounded by smart, experienced people – retailers, advisors, agencies and other founders – but sometimes the advice you get directly contradicts itself. Early on, I thought the answer was to find the person who knew more than I did and follow their recommendation. What I’ve learned is that my job is actually to listen to all of it, understand the reasoning behind it and then decide what is right for Banu. No one knows the brand, the customer or the vision as intimately as I do, and learning to trust that has been a huge part of becoming a founder. There have also been very practical challenges. Product development takes time, manufacturing rarely goes exactly according to plan, and as an independent brand, you have to be incredibly thoughtful about where every dollar goes. The way I’ve tried to navigate all of that is by staying very close to the details, moving quickly when something isn’t working and being very clear about what is non-negotiable. For us, that’s product quality, clinical rigor and staying focused on the consumer we’re here to serve. IR: What have been the biggest highlights of running the business thus far? RS: I’m terrible at pausing to celebrate wins, so I appreciate this question. There have been some major milestones that I’m incredibly proud of: being selected for Sephora Accelerate before we had even launched, launching on Sephora.com and our own website in Now 2025 and selling out within the first week, and now seeing Banu physically on shelves in Sephora stores. But as meaningful as those moments are, what really keeps me going day to day is hearing from people who connect with the brand emotionally and are seeing real results from the products. It’s seeing the before-and-afters. It’s meeting someone at an event who tells me they finally feel understood by a beauty brand. It’s hearing that someone feels more confident in their skin because of something we created. To me, that kind of feedback is even more meaningful than retail validation, because ultimately we’re here to serve the acne-prone consumer. If the people we built this brand for feel seen, understood and supported and are getting results from what we’re creating, that’s the strongest confirmation that we’re onto something. IR: What is one piece of advice you would give the day-one version of yourself about your journey as a brand founder? RS: Don’t let every low convince you that you’re failing. That’s probably one of the biggest things I’ve learned. Building a company is such an emotional rollercoaster. You can have the best meeting of your life in the morning and receive terrible production news that afternoon. I would tell myself to zoom out more often. Some of the things that felt catastrophic in the moment ended up being tiny chapters in a much longer story. As a founder, you’re so close to every problem that it can feel enormous when you’re in it. Perspective is everything. I’d also remind myself to pause and acknowledge the progress more often. You spend so much time chasing the next milestone that it’s easy to forget how far you’ve come. IR: What is your current favorite SKU from the brand? RS: What a hard question. It’s like asking someone who their favorite child is!! I genuinely use our entire routine every single day, and it has given me the smoothest, clearest skin of my life, which still feels crazy to say. But right now, I’d have to choose our Deep Drench Moisturizer. It really is my dream moisturizer. It’s lightweight, but still gives my skin deep, lasting hydration without ever feeling greasy or heavy. We spent more than three years and went through 18 versions to get the formula exactly right, so seeing it come to life and become one of our top sellers so quickly has been so cool. Further reading: ‘We are building this brand together’: Matilda Djerf on the power of community