My name is: Ning Li.

My stomping ground is: Paris, France.

I’m known for being: Founder of Typology Paris, France’s number one online skincare brand.

I’m talking about: Typology’s 9 Ingredient Moisturizer. It’s a minimalist formula that does what it says, and it’s one of Typology’s bestsellers. 

Before I started this work, I was:

I grew up in China and completed high school in France, as well as attending HEC Business School in Paris. I then moved to London where I founded myfab.com (another online designer lifestyle brand) and went on to co-found MADE.com. I believe I’m an entrepreneur at heart.

My interest was sparked when:  

I have been a founder of multiple companies, including the online furniture brand in Europe and Australia, MADE.com. Having found the winning formula for bringing traditionally offline buying experiences (no one was buying couches online twelve years ago) to a new breed of online shoppers, I moved from London to Paris in 2019 to start a family with my wife. As I was caring for my daughter, I started to noticed how vague, confusing and frustrating cosmetics labels were, especially as I was paying a lot more attention on behalf of my baby daughter. Hence, the idea to launch a digital-first, clean and transparent line of skincare that is personalized to your needs: Typology.

The idea behind it is: 

Typology is a natural skincare brand from Paris. We study what’s good and what’s not good for your skin. We’re known in France for being the clean skincare brand. “Clean” can mean a lot of things to people, but we’re happy that our customers recognize that our ingredients, formulas and packaging are good for their skin and for the environment. 

We’re minimalist by nature, and strict with our ban list of ingredients to make sure we’re not using anything that could be harmful to your skin or the environment—no silicones, parabens, animal-derived ingredients, nano-particles and a long list of other things.

My favorite lesser-known detail is:

Our packaging is very interesting. We get lots of compliments on its minimalist look and feel, but there’s deep intentionality behind the design, as well. By using square and rectangular shapes, and the minimal amount of empty space, we can pack and ship the boxes from our warehouse outside of Paris with the most efficiency. In addition, we use as much recycled and recyclable packaging and materials as possible. There’s more on our packaging charter here.

What it means to me to create something with intention is:

I think something that is key to the creation process is working towards the essence of something. This goes for our formulations as well as how I tend to approach my businesses. I’m not into fluff and the superfluous. I like to get to the heart of the matter and start from there, add only the most potent and critically-chosen elements to have the most impact.  

I hope that our customers walk away feeling:

I hope that customers take away from their experience at Typology as much information as possible about their skin’s needs and the right products. We have developed an in-house classification of 24 skin typologies through our online diagnostic. We want to go beyond the established schema of four skin types (normal, dry, oily, mixed), as the differentiations and needs of the skin go beyond this classification. By discovering their skin typology, and providing the right products for them, I hope we can help them feel confident in their choices and healthy in their skin.

The item that I currently can’t live without is: 

Purifying Night Serum with Peony.

It would make the perfect holiday gift because:

Your skin regenerates faster at night, and this oil helps purify and protect skin overnight. It’s a dry oil that combines active ingredients including plant cells, botanical oils and essential oils. And it smells so natural and pure.

The Live The Process piece on my holiday list is: I’m a pretty minimalist person with uncomplicated tastes, so the Celeste Turtleneck would be a fitting gift that I could give to my wife.

The words I live by are:

The idea is not to become the best in the world, but to try to be better for the world.

One truth that is so important, but people don’t always realize is:

It’s complicated to keep it simple.