ReleaseWire

Filip Sedic: The Only Way Forward Is Through Innovation

The founder of FOREO discusses how frustration at his industry’s slow pace of change marked the catalyst for a beauty tech empire.

Posted: Monday, September 17, 2018 at 8:45 PM CDT

Pudong, Shanghai -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/17/2018 --From how we communicate to how we travel, recent years have seen technology dramatically transform multiple aspects of our lives. And yet, when it comes to skincare and oral care, change has been not just slow - but practically nonexistent. Now, an increasingly knowledgeable consumer base is demanding more, as brands finally wake up to the fact that when it comes to beauty, one size most definitely doesn't fit all.

Filip Sedic, founder of Swedish beauty-tech brand FOREO, understands this phenomenon. As he explains, it was precisely this drive to find smarter, more personalized alternatives to traditional or outdated solutions that inspired him to establish FOREO in 2013. More than five years later, his company continues to disrupt the beauty sector with innovative designs to make people feel their happiest, healthiest, most confident best.

"In 2012, my wife, Ivana, started using a well-known facial brush that was particularly popular in the market - but it made her skin worse! I took a look and realized that its design - conventional bristles and detachable brush heads - meant it was harboring dirt and bacteria. In other words, it was doing more harm than good. Ivana started researching a gentler, more hygienic alternative, but to her great surprise, it simply didn't exist. What started as frustration at a subpar "solution" became the catalyst for designing our own: the LUNA facial brush, FOREO's first product."

Quite unlike anything else available at that time, LUNA set itself apart from conventional brushes in several key ways. First, it was made of ultra-hygienic, medical-grade silicone, making the cleanser 35x more hygienic than nylon bristles. Secondly, instead of a rotating brush head, LUNA uses T-sonic pulsations to lift 99.5% of dirt and oil. Finally, unlike traditional models, LUNA never requires replacement brush heads, making it an all-round smarter skincare investment. Gentle enough for everyday use and radically different in design, LUNA changed everything.

More importantly, it set a precedent for FOREO in exceeding expectations while disrupting conventions. Filip explains, "Our only way forward is through innovation, imagination, and design. I think of myself as FOREO's CIO - Chief Imagination Officer."

Illustrating this approach is FOREO's ISSA, the world's first silicone sonic toothbrush. On its launch in 2014, the futuristic model represented the most significant oral care innovation in more than 70 years. More recently, the brand launched UFO, a smart mask device that places cutting-edge skincare technologies quite literally in the palm of consumers' hands. Featuring warming thermotherapy, cooling cryotherapy, signature T-sonic pulsations, as well as full-spectrum LED light therapy, the invention enhances the benefits of a range of custom-made, Korean-sourced masks, delivering a professional-level facial treatment in just 90 seconds.

FOREO's innovation has not gone unnoticed, and in just a few short years, the brand has been honored with more than 90 awards for its revolutionary approach to product design. Spearheaded by Filip himself, FOREO's visionaries, thinkers, engineers and creatives are now based across six continents, with the brand's beauty solutions winning fans globally. Constantly challenging its industry to do better, FOREO changes the game through innovation.