Daisy Jing

 

Daisy Jing, CEO and Founder of the indie skincare company Banish, glows. That, however, was not always a given. Jing started her battle with acne in the third grade: it clung to her, plaguing her from her formative years until early adulthood. Growing up, she went through a slew of intensive treatments that only exacerbated her skin’s condition. Jing wore black turtlenecks to school to hide more of herself, only to despair when “blizzards of skin flakes” showed on her clothes. “I remember waking up as a teenager to bloody cracks on my face because it was so dry,” she tells me. “My towels and sheets had streaks of white in them because of the bleaching agents in my skincare. I suffered decades of that! It was awful.”

 

Chinese American

 

As a first-generation Chinese American who immigrated to the Midwest at the age of three, Jing is no stranger to struggle. She lived in the basement of someone else’s home while her mother worked paycheck to paycheck at McDonald’s. Jing was often ostracized by her peers. As a “depressed and acne-stricken girl,” she experienced a twofold type of suffocation, whether it be through the acrid Neutrogena gel that her mother slathered onto her nose, or through the bullying that she endured. Despite the Zoom-distorted quality of Jing’s voice, she sounds confident. There is poise to her relaxed posture when she speaks, and it is almost difficult to reconcile Jing as she is now with how she speaks of herself as a growing adolescent.

 

“Growing Up ‘Ugly’”

 

There is no need to imagine that younger, more unconfident permutation of herself: Jing’s foray into skincare started on YouTube with a candid video that she uploaded titled “Growing Up ‘Ugly.’” That video went viral, after which she used her channel to review skincare products to people who were drawn in by her frankness and relatability. While pursuing a pre-med track at Duke University with the intention to become a dermatologist, she found herself quickly growing disenchanted with the cosmetics and skincare industry. “I was learning that unnecessary ingredients in skincare were making my skin break out.”

 

Acne Positivity

 

Impassioned by her discoveries, Jing began concocting her own skincare regimens at home, documenting her processes online. When her skin cleared up, Jing realized that she had never stopped her tendency to berate herself. With that revelation, Jing redoubled her efforts to emphasize “acne positivity,” a movement that she is a pioneer of, working to destigmatize skin-deep imperfections. “It’s not the way you look,” she emphasizes. “It’s the way you feel about yourself that matters.” Her social media presence has been marked by not only treating her skin better but also the gradual molting of her insecurities. Jing’s audience on YouTube quickly took notice of her skin improving through her uploads, and fans received samples of her skincare mixtures. That was how her company, Banish, was born––entirely by accident.

 

 

Making her Business Work

 

Once Daisy created her skincare products solely to use on herself, Daisy’s YouTube audience kept asking, “What products are you using?” and “What happened to your acne?” Daisy’s friends and family, too, commented positively on her skin. “For once, someone wasn’t giving me unsolicited acne advice, but instead they said my skin looked great. I realized it was because I completely changed my skincare and used what I was making!” She would create her products at night and bring them to the post office as they opened to ship them out, creating YouTube videos in the daytime. Two years later, she crossed $1M in revenue, and by the eight-year mark of her business opening, Banish had grown into a multimillion-dollar business. “I still pinch myself that we’ve grown and have been in business for so long, having bootstrapped the business.” Because the business started by accident, Jing has no intention of moving as many products as possible for profit gain. “What motivates me is seeing people’s lives change through our products. More importantly than the skin issue acne causes, is the effects of someone’s confidence.” banish.com