Today, we sit down with Veera Brückler & Kati Partanen, co-founders of the Finnish natural beauty boutique Twistbe, recently recognized as Independent Retailer of the Year 2024. Twistbe has helped between 30,000 and 40,000 Finnish customers achieve lasting skincare results over the past 10 years. In this interview, we explore consumer trends, dive into market insights, and uncover the opportunities and challenges of running a natural retail business.
Could you introduce Twistbe to our readers and share about its journey?
Kati: “Twistbe is a natural beauty boutique focusing on a holistic approach to skincare. We offer a curated selection of products with an ingredients-first philosophy. We almost never carry entire product lines from a single brand – instead, we cherry-pick the best products from the best brands.
What makes us stand out is that we require our staff to be trained skin professionals who understand skin biology and ingredients, enabling them to help customers find the root causes of our customers’ skin concerns. We are not just product experts – we also consider lifestyle factors.”
What inspired the creation of Twistbe?
Veera: “The whole idea for Twistbe started forming after an encounter I had with a Finnish makeup artist, Natasha, during an interview at the Met Gala. She introduced me to clean beauty, and this was over 10 years ago. Back then, I thought, “What is clean beauty? Aren’t all beauty products good for you?” For me, beauty equales health, so it never even crossed my mind that there could be harmful ingredients in them.
Natasha told me about her friend, Rosemary Swift, a makeup artist in the US and the founder of RMS Beauty. Before she founded her brand, Rosemary had gotten very ill and had to stop working.
The reason for her illness was that she had so many cosmetic chemicals in her body that her liver had failed in the attempt to process all of them. Obviously, for her, working as a Hollywood makeup artist it was a big deal and career-crushing.
From that point on, I decided I would only buy organic and clean beauty products. This turned out to be much harder than I thought – the beauty market was full of greenwashing and misleading claims. Products would claim to be organic but weren’t, or say they contained aloe vera but when you look at the ingredient list, there was no mention of aloe vera. This was not only in the US – over the years I lived in four different countries – the US, Russia, Finland and Austria.
Kati and I both have a background in economics; we studied together at the Technical University of Lappeenranta. What truly sparked our interest in cosmetics was standing up for consumer rights after seeing so much greenwashing in the market. We became so passionate about it that we enrolled in online studies at a UK school, where we learned skin biology and cosmetic formulation.
Our vision was simple: create a shop where customers could truly trust what they were buying — clean, effective products with transparent ingredients, good quality, and fair pricing. It’s a bit like a restaurant where every dish is healthy, delicious, and honestly presented — exactly the way it’s supposed to be. That’s the story behind our name — Twistbe stands for the way it’s supposed to be.“
How do you curate the brands and products you carry?
Kati: “It’s a thorough process. We assess products based on how they affect your skin, your body, and the environment. For us, it’s very important to know the manufacturers personally and understand what kind of people run the company, because that tells us a lot about their values and how they are likely to do business in the future.
When it comes to the products, we have very strict requirements. Naturality is the minimum standard for our selection. However, we also evaluate products from a skin biology perspective to ensure that customers get the maximum benefit.
For us, the price-quality ratio must be strong – this way, we protect the interests of the consumer.”
From your perspective, are there specific ingredients or product categories that customers are increasingly looking for?
Kati: “I would say that usually, a customer comes to us with a problem and wants to find a solution, but they don’t know where to start. Customers turn to us because they know Twistbe stands for results.
If we had to name one main issue, it would be cleansing. Many people use harsh cleansers, believing that a foamy, deep clean is best, but it often disrupts the skin’s balance. The issue is that almost no one asks customers how they treat their skin or tries to find the root cause. This is something that we do really well, and it’s the reason we achieve visible, long-term results.
We also provide customers with a lot of knowledge through different channels. We launched Finland’s first skincare podcast with 101 episodes of educational content, created a holistic skincare online course, and offer various guides. Some customers just want us to tell them what to do, while others are eager to learn more.”
Veera: “When someone wants better results for their skin, there’s a lot to consider, and it can feel overwhelming. We want to take that burden off their shoulders, offering professional support they can trust, whether they visit us online or in person.”
What are some challenges you face as a natural beauty retailer?
Kati: “We’ve had our share of challenges. It’s never been an easy road.”
Veera: “But we like to think of them as learning. Even though we both had master’s degrees in business and backgrounds at multinational companies, starting Twistbe was like starting from scratch. We were just babies in this world, and like any growth journey, there were moments we fell flat on our faces. But every fall taught us something important.”
Kati: “In the beginning, there were three of us, but due to personal reasons, it soon became just the two of us. It was a tough moment, but it also pushed us to rethink everything. We refined our processes, and that became the real foundation of the Twistbe you see today.
Entrepreneurship demands resilience. There were so many times we could have given up, especially during the years we worked without paying ourselves salaries. But we believed in our mission and each other, and we are so proud that we kept going.”
How do you see consumers’ knowledge of certifications and green claims?
Kati: “I’d say that while not everyone knows, or even cares, Finland does have a significant niche of consumers who are very aware and seek out natural products from ethical companies.
However, a large part of the consumer population doesn’t prioritize naturality as a core value. But when presented with two options that deliver the same results, they will naturally choose the one that’s better for the planet or animals.
There’s still a lot to do in terms of clarifying classifications. Veganism is a big trend, but many consumers confuse it with “natural.” Brands also tend to use trending terms in confusing ways.”
What’s next for Twistbe?
Kati: “As you know, we launched our brand, LYOS, at the end of last year. That has been a new venture for us, and at the same time, it just naturally happened that we ended up acquiring the brand BIOBAY that we distributed. So now, not only are we retailers, but also brand owners, which is very exciting for us. This move reflects our values — we choose to sell products we truly believe in, valuing quality over volume.”
What advice would you give to brands looking to enter the natural beauty retail space?
Kati: “I heard this somewhere, and I think it’s a great approach:
“It’s easy to jump on a trend, thinking you’ll get your share of the hype. The thing is, if there’s no intention behind the product, it’s not going to work out”.
We shouldn’t just create products for the market, because that won’t make us stand out. But if you create solutions for your customers, that’s where you’ll succeed!”
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Twistbe aligns closely with the ENBA’s values, particularly in advocating for consumer rights and combating greenwashing in cosmetic formulations. Their philosophy focuses on transparency, ethical practices, and empowering consumers in the beauty industry.
Twistbe embodies the values of the European Natural Beauty Awards: excellence, transparency, and authentic naturality.
To learn more about Twistbe: