Small Business Project: Cancer doctor's new skincare mission
Monday, 29 June 2026
The Small Business Project is a weekly series that shines the spotlight on Kiwi small businesses doing interesting and unusual things in their industries.
Healthy Skin Lab was founded by Auckland skin cancer doctor Dr Sharad Paul after years of creating formulations of products for international brands overseas. The scientist turned unexpected entrepreneur is about to embark on $4 million capital raise to hire a chief executive to take the mineral skincare business global.
Paul tells Aimee Shaw the company, which makes annual sales of $1 million, first started out developing skincare for brown skin and has since branched out considerably. It has a steep trajectory for growth, with new markets and hires on the horizon.
What has your venture set out to achieve?
I'm a skin cancer doctor, and I’ve been practising for over 30 years. I've also been a researcher, written on skincare and consulted to the sector, for a long time. International companies have been contacting me for 15 years, asking me to help them with formulation; I have travelled to Korea and all over the world, so formulation has been a big part of my research work.
Just before Covid, I was approached to do an international documentary on skin. It was going to go on Netflix and be directed by an Emmy Award-winning UK producer. We filmed a little pitch trailer and it was ready to go, and then we were locked down. At that time, we were going to film me formulating sunscreens, because globally there is an issue with many sunscreens that don't end up passing standards. As part of that we put together a company, which came out of the research lab, hence it was called Healthy Skin Lab. It was just conceptualised, and then the documentary didn't happen.
After that, I was speaking at a major cancer conference in the US in 2023 and saw an article about sunscreens not meeting standards. There was a controversy with a testing lab in America that was quite well known. And somebody said to me, ‘Hey, look, you have known to be expert at this. Why don't you make [a sunscreen]?“
So I ended up making one, and put it on Amazon in 2024. This our second full year now. Initially we were spending money making product and putting it up on Amazon, because we needed to have it in market before we could get the regulatory approvals.
In the US, slightly different to New Zealand, sunscreens are regulated as medications.
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The product started getting reviewed and went viral on a couple of occasions. We got organic growth, which meant we’ve struggled to meet demand. We’re constantly trying to produce more product to meet demand, and that’s been a challenge.
It's been a funny organic story from a research lab to a company which can't meet demand, so we need capital to take it to the next level, build a team, and to be led by people who are better than me at marketing and running a company. Because 95% of our sales are in the US, that means we have scope to expand other markets, but also we need scale to manufacture. Not getting enough inventory is holding us back.
Tell me about your capital raise, how much are you looking to raise and through which means?
We’re seeking to raise US$2.5 million ($4m). To get scale on sunscreen, ideally you need to manufacture 30,000 units, then you can buy components like tubes at a more affordable cost. Capital raised will fund inventory and operations, efforts to build a team, and take a New Zealand success story international. We want to close our raise within the next three months.
We make $1 million a year. We’ve had the business valued at $8m. It has outgrown where it came from as a research lab project, and it is at a critical stage where it needs the capital to take it to the next level.
What’s next for Healthy Skin Lab?
We want to be able to make key hires, firstly a CEO who understands the industry, who can drive the business forward, and hire people who can make the best decisions around how we grow and where we go next. One option is to go onto Amazon.com in other countries, but also open into other channels like pharmacies.
Healthy Skin Lab is a company focused largely on R&D, so we have other products coming out soon, some quite technical products, and also some different kinds of light therapy devices as well.
In three years’ time you will be …
I hope that we've solved all of these problems with inventory, and we have expanded into other markets. A New Zealand company like ours can be a big global brand and that's the plan. My real interest in this is about a pipeline of other innovative products, continuing R&D, leaving R&D here and creating a hub for it.
What’s one thing you wish you’d known before starting the business?
In retrospect I could have gone for funds much earlier, that would have probably made the journey so far a lot easier. I think had enough of a track record to be able to do that if I focused on that right at the start, but it was just a really organic growth thing, rather than planned.
I'm a scientist and academic, not a businessman, so I wasn't thinking from the start about how we were going to make money. Maybe if you started with that, then we would have already had these systems in place.
Most helpful piece of advice you have ever received?
Make your work your fun, and your fun your work. I’m more driven by the science behind this brand and helping people rather than wanting to be a billionaire. I see money as an accomplishment, not an aim.
If you would like your business to feature in The Small Business Project, email Aimee Shaw at aimee.shaw@stuff.co.nz