Skins: Bringing New Choices to Familiar Shopping Streets

“give personal advice, see what the customer likes.”

Philip Hillege

Introducing unfamiliar perfumes requires more than putting new bottles on a shelf. It means asking what a person likes, explaining the creator’s thinking, and giving them time to try a fragrance on their skin. Skins, the Dutch fragrance and beauty specialist, has placed that whole process at the heart of its shops.

In 2000, just seven brands came together in a small Amsterdam shop. From its former name, Skins Cosmetics, to today’s Skins, the retailer grew into a connection between creators abroad and consumers in the Netherlands, offering skincare and makeup as well as perfume.

Essential Information
The Founders and the Origins of the Shop
Communicating Perfume’s Background Through Selection and Service
Experiences in Amsterdam and Connections Beyond the Shop
References

Essential Information

Name: Skins
Former name: Skins Cosmetics; renamed Skins in 2024
Founded and first shop opened: 2000, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Co-founders: Philip Hillege and Michiel Poelmans
Business: Specialist fragrance and beauty retail, online sales, and brand distribution
Official website: Skins

The Founders and the Origins of the Shop

Experience in Cosmetics Marketing and Restaurants

Hillege worked in marketing at Herome Cosmetics, the Dutch company known for nail care. Through product development and opportunities to hear consumers’ views, he became increasingly interested in why people buy cosmetics. His friend from student days, Poelmans, meanwhile ran the restaurant Jean Jean with his brother in Amsterdam’s Jordaan district.

What motivated them was a question: why did every shop seem to sell the same things? Hillege drew inspiration from Colette in Paris and from the Mecca stores Jo Horgan was developing in Australia. Abroad, brands were emerging with different ideas about both products and presentation. There was room to introduce them to the Netherlands.

“We simply wanted to do everything differently.”

Philip Hillege (translated from Dutch)

Convincing the brands they wanted to stock did not, however, immediately bring in the money to open a shop. Banks advised them to open a conventional drugstore. With a loan from a businessman who was a friend of Hillege’s mother, the pair fitted out a property on Runstraat themselves, helped by family and friends. They put large “FINALLY……” lettering on the window. Preparing the sales floor became the first way of announcing the new shop.

A Shop That Began with Seven Brands in 2000

The first shop opened in November 2000. The official 25th-anniversary announcement identifies November 11, 2025, as the milestone. It stood in Amsterdam’s Negen Straatjes, or Nine Streets, an area of small shops between the canals.

The earliest brands named in the official history include Aesop and Laura Mercier, followed by Diptyque and Creed. Skins did not begin as a perfume-only specialist. It was a place to introduce the different ideas of small brands across countries and categories. Later, Le Labo, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, and Byredo also reached the Dutch market through Skins.

Runstraat, known as the founding location, should be distinguished from the shop’s current address. The official shop page explains that it moved to its present premises at number 11 as the range grew. Today’s size and interior cannot simply be projected back onto the small shop of 2000.

A New Management Structure in 2019 and Investment in 2024

As the number of shops increased, the founder’s eye for products alone could no longer keep the business running. In 2019, Claudia Pouw-Dullaart became CEO, while Hillege took responsibility for brands and store concepts as creative director.

In 2024, Vendis Capital, an investment company specializing in consumer businesses, acquired a majority stake. Five early individual investors exited, while Hillege and Pouw-Dullaart remained shareholders and continued in their respective roles. It was not merely the year of a name change: the capital and management framework supporting growth also changed.

New shops require upfront investment in interiors and stock. OC&C, which carried out commercial due diligence for the investment, also described Skins as a business encompassing physical and online retail as well as distribution. Behind the work of recommending perfume at the counter lies the business of importing brands, carrying inventory, and developing retail spaces.

Dropping “Cosmetics” from the Name and Establishing Overseas Locations

In 2024, the name was shortened from Skins Cosmetics to Skins. A report on its packaging that year dates the change to May. The official explanation associates the new name with skin, whose shape, color, texture, and sensitivity differ from one person to another. The focus shifted from a name describing a product category to the people who touch and feel.

International expansion also involves different operating models. In South Africa, the first shop opened at Sandton City in Johannesburg in August 2017 under a franchise arrangement with African Sales Company. It was Skins’ first shop outside Europe, and the South African business operates as a separate legal entity from the European business.

Architect Roy de Scheemaker, who designed the original shop, made use of the roughly 4.4-meter height of the long, narrow space, creating individual brand displays along extended shelving. He adapted design ideas developed in the European stores while selecting colors suited to the local setting. In 2022, this Sandton City flagship was renovated and expanded.

As of October 2026, the official shop directory lists locations in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and South Africa. In Germany, it identifies Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Düsseldorf, with Wiesbaden distinguished as forthcoming. Even after expanding from a single founding shop, the business provides a way to check each location and its status before visiting.

Skins Timeline

Year	Event
2000	Hillege and Poelmans establish the business. In November, the first shop opens on Amsterdam’s Runstraat with seven brands.
August 2017	A local partner opens the first shop outside Europe at Sandton City in South Africa.
2019	Pouw-Dullaart becomes CEO. Hillege takes the role of creative director.
2024	Vendis Capital invests and acquires a majority stake. The name changes from Skins Cosmetics to Skins.
2025	The business celebrates its 25th anniversary, launches a collaboration with Juliette has a Gun, and announces its own Layer+ fragrance concept.
October 2026	The official shop directory lists locations in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and South Africa.

Communicating Perfume’s Background Through Selection and Service

Looking at the Founder’s Thinking and Long-Term Relationships

Skins’ official introduction emphasizes the knowledge, vision, and personal inspirations of the people at the center of a brand. It does not select brands merely because they are small: it looks at who is behind a product and the thinking that shapes it.

Stocking a brand is not a relationship that ends with buying finished products. Skins offers wholesale distribution to other retailers and proposes ways for hotels and restaurants to use fragrance and care products. The sales floor for individual customers is connected to the work of bringing brands to other settings. For a small creator, a shop can be both a point of contact with customers and a partner in expanding the reach of their work.

Knowledgeable Advice Without Rushing a Purchase

At the outset, Hillege questioned service in which brand-specific targets and promotions determined what staff recommended. Skins adopted a policy of giving samples to people who wanted to try a fragrance first, rather than pressing them to buy immediately.

“no pressure to buy”

Philip Hillege

As the range of choices expands, the people giving advice also need to learn. In a 2023 training case study, education manager Jannita Jáuregui explained that a broad selection could be paradise for customers but a maze for employees. The business combined short online courses, which could be taken during quiet moments on the sales floor, with face-to-face learning, covering everything from service and advice to brands and products.

“Human contact is essential in this.”

Jannita Jáuregui (translated from Dutch)

Face-to-face training remains even when product knowledge can be learned on a screen. That decision suggests that listening to customers’ preferences and guiding them is a task that cannot be completed through memorizing information alone.

Relationships with Creators That Grow into Collaborative Perfumes

A concrete example of the relationship between shop and brand is the perfume Skins x Juliette has a Gun, created with Juliette has a Gun. The official account presents it as a product of roughly 20 years of friendship and shared passion between Romano Ricci and Hillege.

Its subject is skin. The brightness of lychee and ginger is layered with Akigalawood, papyrus, tonka bean, and other notes in a woody composition, while bottle colors inspired by different skin tones express the same theme. More than a limited edition bearing the shop’s name, it turns a relationship cultivated on the sales floor into an actual perfume.

With its own Layer+ brand, Skins also proposes fragrance enhancers to layer with existing perfumes or wear alone. The official explanation describes development with fragrance companies including Givaudan, IFF, and Takasago. It can be understood as extending the search for an individual scent, which the shop has long observed, into products that create change through layering.

Experiences in Amsterdam and Connections Beyond the Shop

From Runstraat to Different Points of Entry Around the City

The present Negen Straatjes shop at Runstraat 11 provides a starting point for tracing the business’s origins. Following renovation, it offers individual makeup sessions as well as consultations on fragrance and beauty products. Skins also has locations at the Conservatorium and Gelderlandplein in Amsterdam, offering different settings within the same city.

The founders’ early intention to remain open into the evening and on Sundays should be distinguished from current opening hours. Visitors should check each official shop page for operating days and services. Exploring the history also means considering the distance between the sales floor of today’s large chain and its beginnings with seven brands.

Events with Creators and Classes About Fragrance

At Skins, opportunities to meet creators directly extend the work of customer service. Meet the Creators, scheduled for November 8, 2026, at the Gelderlandplein shop, brings together founders from 12 brands, including Chris Collins, D’Orsay, and BIBBI Parfum. The event offers the chance to compare perfumes, ask their creators about their origins and making, and discuss choices with staff.

Masterclasses include in-store sessions and on-demand online courses. The official course listings include Story of Oud, focused on oud. Beyond the opportunity to buy a perfume, these classes provide time to learn about ingredients and expression, adding points of reference for the next encounter with a fragrance.

Samples to Try at Home and Online Advice

The official sample service offers sets of five selections from fragrance and skincare. Online advice from staff is also available, combining physical shops, small quantities for testing, and conversation-based guidance. Products and conditions differ by service, so this does not mean every perfume can be tried in exactly the same way.

There is something to learn from Skins’ history even without traveling to a shop. Introducing an unfamiliar brand requires knowledgeable staff, time to try it, and opportunities to learn about its creators. Skins has expanded both the shelves that hold perfume and the points of contact through which a person comes to understand that perfume as their own.