On the afternoon of February 27th, an empty inbox suddenly received a message: "Hello Karen, we are SCONAS. After seeing your fan page and blog, we really admire you and hope to have the honor of introducing ourselves." That day, I happened to be discussing "freelance writing" with a former colleague I'd known for a long time. They were asking me to "lower the per-article rate but increase the volume." Although the monthly income would be slightly more than before, for me it had become a "thankless task"—a feeling of my value being diminished.

After opening the letter, I found "thousands of words of content." The product introduction section wasn't long; instead, most of it was the sender sharing her thoughts after reading my blog. Whether it was the "100POWER" or "Social Media" series, she had read everything and genuinely told me her "reading impressions"—how much she agreed with my article content and loved my writing style. After I replied with a thank-you note, within less than a day, SCONAS sent back another thousand-word letter. We exchanged over 20 letters back and forth, nearly all lengthy essays. The founder spent considerable time carefully communicating about the new brand "SCONAS" with me.

↓Now it's incredible to still receive such lengthy letters. (Image pixelated XD)

Because my skin condition wasn't great and I wasn't confident about providing useful reviews for well-known brands, I rarely accepted beauty product trials. But after several letter exchanges, I deeply felt the founder's sincerity and made an exception to accept the product trial. When the package arrived, it was surprisingly "heavy." Upon opening it, there were six products provided for my use—I was overwhelmed with gratitude. There was also a warm handwritten postcard. That day, I immediately declined the invitation from my "former colleague" to take on that project, because I deeply realized that whether someone "values your personal worth" matters more than anything else.

↓The handwritten postcard in the lower left corner was written by her personally—every customer receives one

Feeling embarrassed about receiving so many trial products, I wrote back specifically asking, "Does the trial have a deadline?" But the founder replied adorably, "What kind of deadline do you mean? The amount of facial care products we gave you should last 1-2 months." I was originally asking when I should post about them and promote the products, but she was only concerned with whether the skincare felt comfortable to use. From this detail alone, you could tell that the founder doesn't prioritize product profitability but rather focuses on customer experience and conditions.

This made me curious about the founder's background and helped me understand why SCONAS targets "intelligent and opinionated women" as their main customer base. They want people using their skincare to know what they're applying, rather than blindly following trends. By chance, I arranged to meet the founder at a coffee shop to chat about our thoughts.

Never Entered the Workforce! Founded a Skincare Brand at 22—She Never Thought About a Exit Strategy

"Although life is very frugal, my spirit is extremely abundant," she said with bright eyes and maturity beyond her 24 years. She laughed openly at times, then showed sincere and determined eyes when speaking about her future ideals. Such spiritual abundance is a rare feeling for modern young people, rarely seen amidst social pressure. She is Francesca Lin Jiayan, co-founder of SCONAS (時空三十), unlike typical skincare brand founders who always appear with makeup. Jiayan is fresh and natural without makeup, wearing only light lipstick, which perfectly showcases her pure spirit and unique charismatic confidence.

Without ever entering the corporate workforce, Jiayan began planning her own brand around the second semester of her senior year. Family and friends worried that at such a young age, without workplace experience or social baptism, jumping directly into entrepreneurship could lead to "total loss." If the brand failed, how would she move forward without experience?

When Jiayan mentioned this to me, she immediately continued the thought, saying she told family and friends she had a three-year break-even point, but "I never thought there would be a day to end it!" As she said this, Jiayan radiated a unique light. At such moments, others would believe that "she will definitely succeed someday."

↓Jiayan personally checking the packaging.

Handwritten Postcards Add Warmth to Online Brand, Building Customer Loyalty and Repeat Purchases

Since founding the brand, what touches people's hearts most at SCONAS are the "handwritten postcards." "Customers are like my family!" While most after-sales services come from online instant replies, which already feels thoughtful to consumers, in this era of rapidly fleeting information, Jiayan chooses to write postcards that are shipped with products to customers. Many customers continue to repurchase because of a single handwritten card.

"Because they always look forward to what I'll write!" This letter-writing practice has continued for a year and a half, from writing one every two or three months to now writing over 10 daily. For Jiayan, who also handles business, orders, manufacturing, and marketing, this takes considerable time. But she insists on doing this because "I want to create products with warmth."

The hardest part for online brands has always been "how to communicate with consumers." Although separated only by a screen, reaching into customers' hearts is very difficult. Moreover, even with a great product, poor marketing is like pouring money down the drain.

Jiayan revealed her little secret: before writing each postcard, she carefully reads the "notes" section of customer requests and replies like a friend. If the notes are blank, she doesn't worry. Instead, Jiayan quietly observes what products the customer has purchased over time—whether they're moisturizing or whitening types—and depending on the weather, season, and climate, she writes greeting messages and guesses the customer's skin type. It's these small touches, these acts of putting customers in your heart, that have gradually made SCONAS gain recognition, with loyal customers willing to keep repurchasing.

"As the brand gets more and more customers, will you continue handwriting postcards?" When I asked this question, Jiayan told me this is something she will definitely continue doing. Besides especially enjoying using words to communicate, postcards are also what differentiates them from other large brands.

International big brands, with sufficient fame, have many people purchasing just for the brand name. The relationship between brand and customer lacks deep mutual understanding, and it's difficult for big brands to achieve this. Currently, they have nearly a thousand members, and she's still very willing to spend time carefully understanding customer needs.

The Brand Was Born from Skincare, Entirely Out of Desire to Care for Her Mother's Skin

↑The brand was founded for her mother. Jiayan often asks her mom to test products and personally helps her apply face masks

"SCONAS" (時空三十) is a unique brand—it had product formulations first, then was named accordingly, with the tagline "Freeze your skin at 30, reverse aging after 30," using the homophone SCONAS. This skincare product traces back to before 2010. Jiayan recalls her mother's friend, who always went out beautifully dressed and knew how to skincare well. Her mother of the same age, exhausted from work, returned home tired and only wished to sleep early, so she rarely did skincare. Her mother often told her, "I don't even have enough sleep time! How can I talk about skincare?" At that time, all-in-one skincare products weren't abundant. Jiayan just kept this statement in her heart, hoping one day to solve her mother's trouble.

With a professional makeup and skincare research team she knew, they developed an all-in-one skincare product. After family members' trial use for over two years with consistently positive feedback, Jiayan decided to dive in and create a brand—not only to take care of her mother but also to promote the products she genuinely believed in to others.

Jiayan also laughed and said, once to test whether the face mask's coverage was adequate, she shook her head vigorously after applying it, shaking her hair all messy and getting a slight headache. Only after confirming the mask material was fine and adhered well did she move into mass production. To personally oversee manufacturing, she personally ran between Taipei and Taichung offices and factories, carefully managing every step.

English Major Venturing into Skincare Science! Deep Reading of Original Materials Just to Communicate Clearly with Customers

"For example, our essence series uses hyaluronic acid imported from Japan, the most expensive in cost," "Butterfly orchid petals, through low-temperature extraction technology, produce extract liquid applied in beauty skincare that makes skin structure more perfect…" Such professional skincare manufacturing terminology flows naturally from Jiayan's mouth.

People who didn't know might think she graduated from a cosmetics or skincare-related program, but Jiayan is actually an English major graduate. Crossing from liberal arts to science was a major challenge, but she didn't give up. Instead, she worked hard reading original English books, immersed herself in foreign dermatology websites, and when she didn't understand something, wasn't afraid to ask questions or be laughed at. Instead, she diligently called professional scholars to seek advice. Because of this diligence, professional scholars were willing to answer questions and even provide academic papers to help resolve her confusion. Day after day, Jiayan went from amateur to expert.

Why choose to learn everything from scratch instead of letting others handle the professional field? Jiayan said because it's her own brand, and she must personally understand product ingredients and efficacy for customers, absorbing professional scientific knowledge and converting it into "plain language" that consumers can understand.

Because SCONAS customers are thoughtful, opinionated women, Jiayan specifically established a teaching section on the official website introducing product ingredients and publicly disclosing efficacy, so customers who love the products can feel more assured.

Not Afraid of High Costs—Only Pursuing Perfect Products

I think everyone says their products are the best! But Jiayan and her partner Jerry don't think that way. They frankly state "not everyone will be suitable for our products" but they maintain the highest standards for product quality, safety, and usability. Take hyaluronic acid, for example. At the time, they could choose hyaluronic acid raw materials from three different countries: Japan, Germany, and Switzerland, ranging from 20,000 yuan per kilogram to over 100,000 yuan. Although all are good ingredients, after trying to switch to lower-cost hyaluronic acid, they still preferred the "silkiness" and "absorption" of the high-cost materials and refused to compromise. Therefore, despite a nearly six-fold cost difference, they still chose hyaluronic acid raw materials exceeding 100,000 yuan per kilogram.

This persistence is evident in another product ingredient choice. The "Perfect Skin Factor Brightening Essence" has acne-fighting benefits and uses tea tree essential oil. They chose to use organic Taiwan-grown tea tree, which costs more than direct imports from Australia. But because its quality testing is excellent and lacks the pungent smell of imported tea tree oil, plus their desire to support Taiwan's organic small farmers, they chose Taiwanese tea tree. Even the manufacturing contractor couldn't stand their "stubborn determination," and even after the product formulation is released, they continue upgrading it, because they believe "there's no such thing as the best, only better."

↓The lively Jiayan often works hard to introduce products.

After actually chatting with Jiayan, I feel she's a girl with real vision. On the entrepreneurship path, facing numerous difficulties and even cross-disciplinary operations, whenever she encounters problems, she finds solutions. She possesses the founder's spirit of "pioneering environments" and adventure. She frequently shares skincare tips on Facebook—with an open, generous, and warm attitude that wins over many people. They especially love seeing her brilliant smile and her most authentic interactive management approach. Little by little accumulation, and surely one day her abilities will shine.

Through Jiayan's story, I want to tell everyone that "success doesn't need to be defined by others." As long as you persist in small details and execute everything from the heart, that's already enough to earn people's respect.

↓SCONAS targets "intelligent and opinionated women"—the founder herself embodies these qualities

SCONAS

Official Website: https://www.sconas.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sconasbeauty/