ONSKN is going Deeper Than Representation

Founder Dr. Kianna De La Mores brings her military and healthcare experience to a skincare brand built around understanding melanated skin, from formulation to the last drops in the bottle.

A beauty brand can broaden the faces in its campaigns without changing the thinking behind its products. For Dr. Kianna De La Mores, founder of ONSKN, meaningful inclusion begins much earlier, in the conversations that determine what a formula should do and whose experiences guide its development.

“I hope ONSKN helps shift the conversation from simply including people of color to truly understanding our skin,” she tells The Beauty Brief.

That ambition gives ONSKN a clear foundation. Barrier health, moisture, and the appearance of hyperpigmentation shape its approach to skincare, informed by a founder whose background spans military service and healthcare. Her own experience navigating skin concerns made the need for that understanding personal.

An Experience That Changed the Brief

Several years ago, De La Mores underwent a skin biopsy on her shoulder. She describes the procedure as botched and says she was sent home without medication, bandages, or meaningful aftercare guidance. With her healthcare background, the lack of support was especially troubling.

When she began searching for products to support her skin and minimize discoloration, she struggled to find options developed with skin of color in mind.

“I didn't just see a gap in the market—I experienced it firsthand,” she says. “That became one of the driving forces behind creating ONSKN.”

The experience sharpened her expectations of what skincare should offer: thoughtful development, clear information, and an understanding of the people expected to trust it.

Her previous careers helped establish those standards. Military service taught her discipline, resilience, and critical thinking, qualities she brought to researching ingredients and finding development partners. Healthcare reinforced the importance of transparency.

“Patients deserve products they can trust, and I wanted consumers to feel the same way about ONSKN,” she says.

Resilience Begins With Care

Resilience is central to ONSKN’s philosophy. De La Mores defines it through skin health and a strong barrier, challenging the assumption that melanated skin can tolerate harsher treatment.

That belief shaped her priorities for Even ONSKN Serum. Moisture and hyperpigmentation were both essential to the development brief, reflecting her desire to address discoloration without making harshness part of the promise.

De La Mores points to ursolic acid as an ingredient she selected for that approach, describing its role in targeting the appearance of dark marks while supporting and soothing the skin. Her years spent living in different climates during military service also influenced the brief. She wanted hydration to remain part of the equation as skin adapted to changing environments.

Across the line, she says, formulas were developed with a cosmetic chemist, with people of color at the forefront from the beginning. The process took more than a year of testing and refinement.

For a brand describing its skincare as thoughtful, that development history gives the word substance. It explains where the founder’s experiences entered the process and how they influenced the products she wanted to make.

The Bottle Has a Job, Too

Some of ONSKN’s most revealing decisions are practical. De La Mores says packaging took the longest to develop, as she worked through protecting the formulas, traveling with the products, opening the containers, and accessing what remained inside.

The moisturizer and serum can be completely unscrewed, allowing customers to reach remaining product. The cleanser’s consistency was also developed with dispensing in mind.

These choices form part of her approach to reducing waste, while helping customers get more value from their purchases. They increased production costs, she says, but were worth pursuing.

There is a useful connection between those packaging decisions and the larger brand philosophy. Understanding a customer includes thinking about what happens throughout a product’s use, from the first application to the moment they try to get the last drops out.

For someone starting with a single product, De La Mores recommends the Pore ONSKN Hydrating Cleanser. She says it has become the brand’s bestseller and is designed to last up to 60 days, with only a small amount needed to create a rich lather.

A More Informed Relationship With Skin

Building ONSKN has changed De La Mores’s own approach to skincare. She describes becoming more discerning and treating her skin with greater pride and respect, guided by a deeper understanding of ingredients.

“I no longer follow trends or assume that what's popular is what's best,” she says.

That shift also informs her ambitions for the brand. Alongside building awareness, she wants ONSKN to become a trusted resource and community where people of color can learn about their skin and find products developed with their concerns in mind.

“Representation is important, but representation without education and products that actually meet our needs isn't enough,” she says.

ONSKN brings that conviction into the decisions behind the brand: whose experience informs development, how a formula’s priorities are established, and whether its packaging makes everyday use easier. For De La Mores, those details are part of helping customers feel understood long before they see themselves in a campaign.