The story of CheekyGlo from our founder, Xixi.

Hi. My name is Xixi and I am the founder of CheekyGlo. This is the story of how I founded my beauty brand during COVID lockdown, and how I'm working towards my goal of sharing a part of my culture with the world.

As a woman, I have always felt the pressure of fitting into society's beauty standards, and have struggled a lot with feeling confident in my own skin. I grew up with many skin concerns including acne, keratosis pilaris, dry skin, and sensitive skin. I remember that when I was young, I was so self-conscious about the keratosis pilaris on my legs that I would always wear long pants and tops to cover as much of it as possible. The worst thing about these skin conditions is that you can physically see them, and all I remember about growing up was feeling so helpless, that no matter what I tried to "fix" my skin, nothing would work.

My family and I are originally from Harbin, China, where it gets as cold as -30°C in winter. Because of this, it's a tradition there to regularly go to bathhouses to clean the body- because it's much warmer than showering at home. At these bathhouses, everyone used these exfoliating body gloves to scrub the dead skin off their bodies. You can even pay a professional scrubber to do it for you, and you often leave the session as red as a lobster, but with the softest and smoothest skin you've ever felt. 

 

After my family and I immigrated to Australia, we continued to use these gloves in our shower routines to achieve soft, smooth skin, With regular use of the glove, I saw that my keratosis pilaris smoothed out dramatically, and I no longer suffered from scaly, flaky, dry skin on my body. But, I was unable to find a similar product in Australia that gave me the amazing results that the gloves I grew up using provided. So, every time I visited Asia, I would stock up on these exfoliating gloves. One day during the COVID lockdown, I realised that if these gloves could transform my skin, they could probably also help a lot of other people. And as a result, I created my own version in my favourite colour, pink, and that's how the CheekyGlo Glove was born!

After launching the CheekyGlo Exfoliating Glove, we went viral on TikTok and the feedback was incredible. I was getting emails from women and men raving about how the product changed their skin, transforming the way their skin looked and felt, and most importantly, helped them feel more confident in their own skin. I've had so many customers tell me that they've regained the confidence to wear clothes that they normally wouldn't, because they felt so self-conscious about their skin.

As someone who has worked in the beauty industry for over 5 years, it has always been a passion of mine to help people look and feel their best, and I'm so lucky that I am now able to do that with my own brand. There's nothing more fulfilling than hearing about how something you created has impacted another person's life, and I am so grateful every day for it.

The biggest thing I have learnt in this journey of entrepreneurship is to take a chance on yourself. To ignore all the self doubt, negativity, and what-ifs. To give yourself a chance and pursue your dream. If I had listened to all those people who had told me how dumb my idea was, how hard it would be for me to start a business during COVID, how 90% of startups fail, then I would not be where I am today. I would not have been able to quit my day job that I hated, I would not have my own dream office, and I definitely would not have this story to share with you guys.

If you've read this far, thank you for dropping by to hear my story. My vision for CheekyGlo is to be a world-known brand that empowers women and men to feel their best in their own skin, and I would love for you to be a part of this journey.

Kindest,
Xixi