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The founder and managing director of the award-winning face spa, which has been nominated to be part of Tatler's Best of Singapore 2020, shares how much Porcelain has grown over the years
Anyone familiar with the local beauty industry would undoubtedly have heard of Porcelain, whether it's because of the spa Pauline Ng (who's also our 2017 Gen.T honouree) and her mother, Jenny Teng, co-founded together, or the elegantly packaged and effective skincare products Porcelain has developed over the years.
We speak to the 33-year-old entrepreneur about her journey with beauty and being a successful entrepreneur:
Tell us a little bit about your journey with Porcelain Skin Spa
Pauline Ng (PN) Porcelain’s beginnings were truly humble and memorable. I somehow stumbled into it when helping my mum re-start her business and I had just graduated from SMU. At the start, we set out pretty clear roles; she would jump on board as the Director of Aestheticians while I took care of business operations. One thing led to another, and fast forward, I fell in love with the skincare industry myself, inspired by my mother’s passion. I’ve never looked back since and it is the same passion that has kept me going the last 10 years.
By 2013, Porcelain became GST-registered and hit $1 million in revenue, and in the same year, we were named Best Luxury Spa in Asia at the World Luxury Spa Awards (and proudly keeping the title for seven years). We now have a team of over 50 people and opened our fourth store, Porcelain Origins, at Paragon. We’re really proud of it as it’s Singapore’s first smart spa (also our first concept store), and really embodies our vision of Porcelain becoming the birthplace of new, innovative concepts beyond just skincare.
From the start when we literally shared an Ikea desk and shelf, spending on things that mattered while paying ourselves peanuts, we’ve been very blessed to have been able to grow from that to what we are today, and still advocating the same values since Day 1: Transparency, delivering exceptional value and standards to clients, two-way communication, and the combination of craftsmanship with state-of-art technology for holistic skincare.