The ambition. The expectation. The countless highs, lows, setbacks and celebrations. The triumphs and the F-bombs. And wow, the result. Here we are, 4 years later, with a balm that makes Caroline Hirons the proud parent of her 11th—and most desperately anticipated — Skin Rocks child. Here’s what it took to get there.
You waited. We created.
The Queen of the Double Cleanse is a moniker I am more than happy to take. I’m obsessed, you know I’m obsessed, and it was only a matter of time before a balm so sublime, so sensorial, and so efficacious would become a Skin Rocks reality. It was always first on my list, but was the hardest to make, and now it’s finally here, it’s literally everything I adore in a cleanser distilled into one glorious pink jar. I bow my head in reverence to this balm: it’s been 4 years of hard graft and it is absolutely spectacular.
Will it ever be good enough?
I don’t need to tell you what it takes to put my name to a cleansing balm. The bar was set high. There isn't a product I love more than a balm, and this one had to blow them ALL out of the water. The lab and my NPD team had a mother of a brief: The best balm ever created, and one I would choose every single time over any of the industry legends I already use and love. If it couldn’t be better than anything else I’ve ever used, I wouldn’t be launching it, end of.
No pressure then.
With expectations beyond anything we’d attempted before, this was so much more than the sum of its parts.
Yet, it was always more than this. A double cleanse done well is a ritual that can transport you somewhere else. The sensorial slip of luxurious oils, the intoxicating scent, the incredible depth of cleanse that a balm delivers. That feeling is something else. And how do you bottle that?
Turns out you can. If you’re patient. Like, 4 years patient. And willing to twist, adapt, and pivot quicker than a YouTuber with a Rubik’s Cube. Even when the efficacy was nailed, we continually played with the oil and wax levels to obtain a faultless texture: working on multiple rounds to perfect the after-feel and make sure the skin felt beautifully nourished without any residue. To create a balance where the balm would break down in the hands at room temperature but retain its solidity in pack. Refining a post-pour ‘set’ that would leave a smooth, even surface finish that would deliver the most divine crunch and ripple as fingers ‘broke the seal’. Now we were talking: incredible, incomparable, and impossible to dupe.
Sensory Joy
After multiple ‘fingers-in-the jar’ moments and repeating ‘how’s the crunch?’ 3,000 times, the tactility was sublime. But what about scent and sight? I didn’t want an ordinary level of scent. I wanted something that made you gasp when you inhaled—literally an ‘ahhh’ in a jar. A scent that would greet you with bold intensity the moment the lid was off. This was of course our divine signature Skin Rocks scent, but on steroids: instantly, unforgettably present. My team gradually increased the percentage until we said “right, just dial up to full volume”. We knew we had the fragrance free version for those who wanted that, so we only stopped when we were confident that the fragranced version was fantastically full-on. It needed to create that moment when you inhale and your eyes automatically close in olfactory rapture. Amen.
Then the colour.
I wanted a balm that was visually arresting against the fuchsia pink jar. A colour that sparked joy.
First it was orange, then purple. Nope, not taking my breath away. Then a whole new curveball: discolouration. The culprit? An antioxidant that offered great free-radical efficacy, but simultaneously changed the bulk colour. Rude. Let’s switch the antioxidant, and incorporate tocopherol. Test again, this time with the most beautiful, vivid yellow hue derived from natural beta carotene. Pure joy. The first filled pink jar was met with gasps as it was so pretty: a vibrant citrus shock against a gorgeous, paperweight-heavy pink glass jar. Eureka.
Melting Moments
I didn’t think I would become an expert on melting points. Always a school day. Choosing a glass jar undoubtedly complicated matters, as the balm needs to be heated and poured hot—a risk in glass compared to plastic, and a more technical methodology during production. It also needed to set evenly —which entailed adjusting multiple variables to achieve, and required trial production runs to perfect. Poured at the wrong temperature or cooled too quickly/slowly and the texture would transform completely—and not in a good way. The required degree of precision was uncompromising. I am surprised I’ve kept my hair/sanity and that my NPD team still speaks to me.
So, here we are folks, with me writing this on the very day of mass production. A professional dream realised, decades of cleansing love and skincare expertise condensed into one exceptional product, and a future skincare icon heading your way. I couldn’t love it more, and hope you feel the same way.
