The Interview: Azio Beauty founder Jonathan Penna on its ambition to lead the hybrid beauty movement

Entrepreneur Jonathan Penna and Luna Cassan established Azio Beauty in 2022 with a mission to deliver high-performance, transparently priced hybrid skincare.

The philosophy behind the brand is to ensure each product in its tightly edited line-up is as good as it possibly can be, exemplified by its Intense Firming Face Serum, which contains the acetyl hexapeptide-8, often referred to as a “Botox-like” peptide.

Azio works directly with formulators in Korea to keep its prices as fair as they can be and advocates a streamlined regimen to ensure customers are only using the products they truly need.

Having successfully built the brand in Ireland in recent years, Azio is now ready to tackle the UK and lead the hybrid beauty boom, which is expected to be a key movement for 2026.

Penna speaks to TheIndustry.beauty about his entrepreneurial journey, the Azio Beauty story so far and his expansion ambitions.

You have been described as a serial entrepreneur, can you tell us about some of the companies you have been involved in before setting up Azio Beauty?

I think it is important to start by mentioning my co-founder, Luna, because our backgrounds are very complementary. Before Azio, Luna built her career in the creative world. She was a professional photographer and painter, which strongly shaped her eye for aesthetics, branding, and storytelling. That creative foundation plays a big role in how we approach product and brand today at Azio Beauty.

As for me, I have been building businesses from a very young age. I started my first venture when I was 15 years old. At the time, I was renting a house and organising fairly large parties for the university next to my boarding school. It quickly became a real operation with consistent revenue. My parents genuinely thought I was doing something illegal because they could not understand how I had that much money at such a young age. In reality, I was simply organising events.

That experience naturally led me into the nightlife and entertainment industry. At 17, I co-founded an artist management and booking agency in the south of France with a partner who had strong connections in Miami. We worked with major nightclubs, booking international artists and handling the full process from contracts to logistics. Through this agency, we organised large-scale nights featuring artists such as Chris Brown, Rick Ross, and many others.

While the business was successful, I quickly realised that nightlife was not where I wanted to build my long-term career. I lost interest and decided to walk away. Around the same time, I had a strong desire to live in an English-speaking country, which led me to move to London before turning 18.

Initially, I enrolled in HEC Paris, one of the top business schools in Europe, because I believed formal training would make me a better entrepreneur. I very quickly realised this path was not right for me. I completed only one semester before choosing to focus fully on building businesses instead.

My first serious venture was the development of a robo-advisor platform. The idea was to allow users to answer a short set of questions, after which the system would automatically build and manage a diversified investment portfolio. This was happening around the same time that Wealthsimple was scaling in Canada and Nutmeg was emerging in Europe. I had conversations with individuals who later went on to lead Nutmeg.

In the end, the timing was not right. I was under 18, operating in a heavily regulated industry, and working in a country where I was not a native speaker. We decided to sell the initial technology we had built to another group that was better positioned to scale it.

With the capital I made from that deal, I started a small real estate business. I was buying properties at auction in Nice, renovating them, and reselling them. At its peak, I owned and managed five properties, so it was a small but active real estate operation.

I eventually decided to stop this business for two main reasons. First, regulations in Nice changed, limiting short-term rentals to a maximum of 90 days per year, which significantly impacted the model. Second, while renovating my latest flat in France, a contractor I had been working with knocked down the wrong wall. This caused the floor above my apartment to partially collapse, creating major structural damage.

That experience taught me a very clear lesson. Real estate can be attractive, but it is slow, capital-intensive, and mistakes are extremely costly. It naturally pushed me away from property and back toward building more scalable businesses.

After that, I moved into the food and hospitality sector. I co-founded a bakery business in London with a partner from a multi-generation baking family. The company was structured as two businesses. One focused on B2B supply for hotels and restaurants, and the other was a consumer-facing brand designed to operate small, high-quality bakehouse locations across the city. The goal was to deliver premium bread and patisserie through an efficient production and logistics model.

We raised capital from well-known restaurant and hotel owners across London and were scheduled to launch in March 2020. Unfortunately, COVID hit at exactly the same time. As lockdowns intensified, many of our investors urgently needed liquidity to keep their own businesses alive. We made the difficult but responsible decision to shut the business down early, return the unspent capital, and move on rather than push through a long and uncertain recovery.

During lockdown, with consumers suddenly buying almost everything online, I became deeply interested in e-commerce and digital consumer brands. That shift in focus is what ultimately led me to discover and build Azio Beauty.

Jonathan Penna

What was it that triggered the decision to move in the beauty market?

Our entry into beauty actually started with a men’s skincare brand called Orbyt Skin. From a performance standpoint, the brand did quite well early on. Customer acquisition was strong, and we were generating a high volume of subscriptions. The concept was built around personalised skincare routines delivered on a subscription-only model.

However, very quickly we realised something important. While men were happy to try skincare, they were far less willing to commit long term. Retention was challenging, churn was high, and sticking to a multi-step routine simply did not fit naturally into most men’s habits.

In hindsight, if I were to rebuild that brand today, I would simplify it dramatically. I would probably launch with just one stick made out of two products. On the left one universal cleanser that works for all skin types, and on the right one all-in-one serum or cream that replaces multiple steps. That kind of simplicity would have made it much easier to keep men engaged and subscribed. In the model we were running at the time, the routine was simply too complex.

Initially, we thought the problem might be the product itself. We were manufacturing in the UK, and while the suppliers were solid, we felt the formulations could be significantly better. That led us to travel to Seoul, with the goal of meeting more advanced laboratories and understanding Korean skincare manufacturing.

During that trip, we met someone who later became our Head of Product. She had previously worked at L’Oréal Korea, and she introduced us to the world of skincare manufacturing in Seoul. Through visits to some of the largest and most respected Korean manufacturers, we began to understand the true cost structure behind high-quality skincare.

What really shifted everything for us was realising that many brands being sold in Europe at very high price points were being produced in the same facilities, often with very similar formulations. When we broke down the numbers, we realised that some of these brands were operating on margins of 90 to 95 percent. That was a turning point.

For us, it raised a fundamental question. If it is possible to produce exceptional, luxury-level skincare at that cost, why not offer it at a far more reasonable price, still maintain strong margins, and make it accessible to more people?

From that moment, our focus shifted completely. We moved away from the men’s-only skincare concept and began building the foundation for Azio Beauty, with a clear mission. To create high-performance, luxury skincare, produced with the best labs in the world, but priced fairly and transparently.

Tell us about the vision for Azio at the beginning and what did the product line-up look like at the start?

From the very beginning, the vision for Azio Beauty was extremely clear. Rather than launching a wide range of products, we wanted to build a tight, focused lineup of essentials and make them as good as they could possibly be.

Interestingly, the product lineup we launched with is almost exactly the same as the one we have today. The difference is not in the number of products, but in how much work has gone into refining them over time. Our philosophy was never about releasing dozens of SKUs. It was about choosing the products that genuinely made sense, and then continuously improving them.

When we officially launched the brand in April 2022, the formulations were already strong. Since then, each product has been reformulated more than four times. This has been a very deliberate choice. Instead of replacing products or adding new ones unnecessarily, we prefer to go back to the lab and keep pushing the same formulas to the highest possible standard.

A big part of this approach comes from how we work with our development team in Korea. The Korean beauty ecosystem moves very quickly, especially when it comes to new ingredients and formulation technologies. Whenever a new ingredient emerges that is well-studied, well-received, and genuinely effective, we test it. If it improves the formulation, we integrate it. If it does not add real value, we leave it out.

That mindset has guided our product development from day one. Focus on fewer products, obsess over formulation quality, and continuously evolve based on science, performance, and real results rather than trends. That is how the initial vision for Azio Beauty was set, and it is still how we build today.

How did you establish the relationship with the formulators and manufacturers and how long did it take to get the first product line-up ready?

When we first arrived in Korea, we were incredibly fortunate to meet the person who later became our Head of Product. At the time, she had previously worked at L’Oréal and had built strong, long-standing relationships with many of the top laboratories and manufacturers in Korea. Having the right person on the ground made an enormous difference from day one.

Because of her experience and credibility, we were able to access some of the best labs in the country very quickly. In that sense, the early development phase was relatively smooth. We did not have to convince people from scratch, because we were introduced with trust already in place.

I still remember the very first time we pitched our vision to one of the manufacturers. None of them spoke English, so the entire presentation was done through translators. We were explaining our long-term vision for the brand, our standards for formulation, and how we wanted to approach pricing and quality. It was a slightly chaotic but very memorable moment, and it really highlighted how international and collaborative the process was from the start.

While the development itself was efficient, building a full product lineup still took time. From initial concept to final launch, including formulation work, testing, iterations, and all regulatory approvals, it took us close to one year to be fully ready. A large part of that timeline was ensuring every product was properly registered and compliant across all required markets.

Overall, the process moved as quickly as it realistically could, but we were very intentional about not rushing it. Getting the right formulations, the right partners, and the right regulatory foundation in place was essential for building Azio Beauty on solid ground.

How has the NPD been managed since?

Since the beginning, new product development has been led primarily by my co-founder, Luna. She has been responsible for shaping the concepts behind each product, coming up with new ideas, approving formulations, and overseeing the overall product direction. She works very closely with our development team in Korea. We are currently working on a new generation of hybrid products, which we plan to release in 2026, and the challenge has been to genuinely push the boundaries of what hybrid beauty can be.

For us, a hybrid product cannot simply be a makeup product with a few skincare ingredients added for marketing purposes. It has to truly perform on both sides. If it is positioned as skincare, the active ingredients must be included at effective dosages with proven benefits. At the same time, the makeup component has to perform at the same level as a traditional makeup product in terms of coverage, texture, and wear.

On top of that, we are holding ourselves to extremely high standards of protection, including SPF 50+++, which adds another layer of technical complexity. Balancing efficacy, performance, sensory experience, and protection in a single product is very challenging, and that is where most of our innovation time is currently spent.

Azio operates a transparent pricing model

Akin to brands, such as Beauty Pie, you have gone for full transparency on pricing. Why was that important and how has the consumer responded?

Pricing transparency mattered to us because the traditional beauty industry operates on extremely high margins that did not make sense once we understood the real cost of producing high-quality skincare. By working directly with leading labs in Korea, we were able to lower production costs without compromising on quality and pass those savings on to the customer.

Being open about pricing felt more honest and helped build trust. The response has been very strong. Many customers come from luxury skincare brands, recognise the quality immediately, and appreciate that the price is fair.

This approach has driven exceptional loyalty, more than 70 percent of our sales have come from repeat customers, which for us is a clear sign that the products deliver real value.

You do offer subscriptions and sets, which are even more keenly priced, have you been successful in building up a loyal, repeat customer base?

Yes, we do. Our subscription model is built on a very simple idea. Acquiring a new customer costs us roughly 20 percent of the purchase price. If a customer chooses to subscribe, we no longer need to spend that money on marketing, so we pass those savings back to them through better pricing.

From day one, we have been transparent that subscription pricing can evolve over time. The goal is not to lock customers in, but to reward loyalty while keeping the model flexible.

This approach has worked extremely well. Today, we have over 50,000 active subscribers. Beyond pricing, convenience plays a major role. Subscriptions are fully flexible, and because our products often sell out, subscribers also benefit from priority access to stock.

Overall, subscriptions have been a key driver in building a large, loyal, and highly engaged customer base.

You have a great skin analyser tool on the website to help consumers build a routine, how well used is that by consumers?

The skin analyser is really the first step in our journey toward becoming a tech-enabled beauty brand. Today, it is already used by over 500 people per day, helping customers understand their skin and identify the right routine for their needs.

The tool is powered by a proprietary AI model that analyses facial features and skin characteristics, then recommends ingredients based on what the skin actually needs. Importantly, this is not limited to our own products. The goal is to provide an unbiased analysis first, and then suggest the most suitable solutions based on that assessment.

At its core, the analyser helps solve a very common problem. Customers often ask which products they should use for specific concerns. Instead of relying on manual customer support, we are automating that decision-making process and making it accessible instantly.

This is only the beginning. We are currently developing several additional tools, including a custom shade finder that scans the skin and recommends the correct shade while showing how it will look, a skin ingredient decoder that allows users to upload a product label and understand ingredient efficacy, and an AI dermatologist-style assistant that builds on the initial skin analysis to answer questions and make safe, compliant recommendations.

All of these tools are designed to help customers make better, more informed decisions and avoid paying purely for marketing or hype. We believe technology can genuinely improve the beauty buying experience, and our goal is to make these tools freely available to empower customers rather than push sales.

You’ve been focused on building the brand in Ireland; what is it about that market that made it such a good test and learn platform?

From the start, we were very intentional about how we approached physical retail. One thing I consistently heard from founders who had built very large consumer brands was that getting into retail is often easier than staying in retail. If you damage a relationship early through lack of experience or resources, it can be extremely difficult to recover later.

When you look at markets like the UK, the number of truly strategic retail partners is actually quite limited. If you make mistakes with key players early on, you may not get a second chance. Because of that, we wanted to test and learn in a market where it was safer to make mistakes and improve quickly.

Ireland was ideal for that. It is a highly structured market where pharmacies play a central role, and a large portion of skincare sales still happens in local chemists rather than purely online. In the same store, you can find established luxury brands alongside emerging ones, which made it a perfect environment to understand how our brand truly performed on shelf.

We started by working with smaller, fragmented pharmacy groups and had to build our B2B and retail capability from scratch, as we were initially a DTC-only brand. Inevitably, we made many mistakes. From POS execution and merchandising to assumptions around marketing and sell-through, the early performance was far from perfect.

Those early challenges became our biggest learning curve. They taught us how physical retail actually works, how to influence sell-through, and which KPIs truly matter in-store. Over time, we refined everything from our visual presence to our training and support for retailers.

Today, the results speak for themselves. During my most recent visit to Ireland, we saw that with some partners, including Gordon’s, Azio Beauty is now the top-selling skincare brand in Northern Ireland. What started as a cautious trial has turned into strong demand, to the point where we are now working to keep up with sales.

That experience has been invaluable. As we prepare to expand into the UK, which is our home market, we feel confident that we now have the knowledge, tools, and discipline to build long-term, successful retail partnerships.

Azio products are made in Korea

Last year you appeared on Dragon’s Den. That’s always a good profile builder! What did you gain from that experience?

For me, the biggest value was simply stepping outside my comfort zone. Appearing on television was a great personal experience, and it also gave the brand strong visibility. It clearly positioned Azio Beauty as a UK-founded brand, which is a real advantage when building trust with British consumers.

Beyond the exposure, the most valuable part was the feedback. One piece of advice in particular had a lasting impact. Touker Suleyman pointed out that trying to build pharmacy distribution store by store would be slow and inefficient, and that we should instead work with pharmacy groups. In hindsight, that advice was completely right and probably saved us at least six months of work.

In terms of results, the appearance definitely created a short-term boost in awareness, which was helpful. But we always viewed that as a bonus rather than the goal. Ultimately, Dragon’s Den was a strong profile builder, but for us, it marked the beginning of the real work rather than the end of it.

You’ve recently launched on Amazon and you are more focused on gaining ground in the UK market, how do you plan to build here?

Our expansion strategy is very focused. Before moving further into Europe or the US, our priority is to establish Azio Beauty as the number one hybrid beauty brand in the UK. Launching on Amazon fits directly into that strategy. For us, Amazon is not about discounting. It is about being present where our customers already shop. The same logic applies to other platforms such as TikTok Shop. We want Azio Beauty to be available across the channels our customers naturally use, while keeping the brand experience consistent.

At the same time, we are very selective about physical retail. In the UK, there are only a few partners that truly align with our brand positioning, and John Lewis is a great example of a retailer that fits our customer profile and long-term vision. As we look toward the next phase of growth, that type of partnership is far more important to us than rapid expansion.

Overall, the strategy is to grow all channels together - online, marketplace, social commerce, and retail - so they reinforce each other rather than compete. By doing that well in the UK first, we set a strong foundation for future international expansion in the next five years.

Tell us a bit more about the products. Which are the building blocks or heroes and what makes them so special?

At the heart of the brand, the undisputed hero product is the Intense Firming Face Serum. This is the product that really put Azio Beauty on the map. It is a multi-peptide powerhouse designed to work at the cellular level and deliver visible results.

The formulation combines copper peptide-1 to support collagen production, acetyl hexapeptide-8, often referred to as a “Botox-like” peptide, to help relax expression lines, and retinyl palmitate, which delivers the benefits of vitamin A without the irritation typically associated with retinoids. We also include advanced Korean botanical actives, such as lotus stem extract, to support skin protection and longevity. The result is a high-performance serum that delivers luxury-level results at a far more accessible price point.

Our second major pillar is our first hybrid product, the Age Defy Tinted Perfector, which really defined our hybrid philosophy. This product brings together skincare, makeup, and sun protection in one formula. It offers SPF 50+++, anti-ageing actives, and foundation-level coverage without settling into fine lines.

One of the biggest problems we saw was that many people either skip SPF because it does not sit well under makeup, or they layer too many products, making their routine heavy and uncomfortable. This product solves both. It protects, treats, and perfects the skin at the same time. Ingredients like Kakadu Plum, which contains significantly higher levels of vitamin C than many traditional sources, help brighten the skin, while advanced formulation technology ensures a smooth, natural finish throughout the day. We often describe it as a true “skin bodyguard”.

The rest of the range follows the same philosophy. From the Lifting Eye Serum to the Day and Night creams, as well as the Neck and Chest treatment, every product shares the same DNA. Fewer products, exceptional formulations, and a clear focus on performance, protection, and visible results.

2026 is set to be the year of the hybrid product as consumers seek to streamline their regimes. You seem very well placed to take advantage of that…

Absolutely. We see 2026 as a real turning point for beauty.

The beauty market is at a crossroads. Skincare has evolved rapidly into a science-led, multi-functional, preventative category that is driving significant growth. Consumers are far more educated today, but at the same time they feel frustrated. Their routines are bloated, overwhelming, and outdated. People want fewer products that do more.

Makeup, however, has not evolved at the same pace. Traditional colour cosmetics still prioritise aesthetics over skin health and often contribute to clogged pores, dryness, irritation, and even premature ageing. For us, that disconnect represents a major opportunity.

That is where hybrid beauty comes in. Our vision is to build a category that truly combines pro-ageing skincare science with high-performance makeup. The new range we are developing is based on a clear philosophy we call 180-degree beauty. Products should work on the skin while you sleep and perform beautifully while you are seen.

Every hybrid product we develop is designed to replace two or three steps in a routine, while delivering active care throughout the day. Hybrid is not an add-on for us. It is built into the formulation from the start.

Consumer demand is already there. Research shows that over a third of UK consumers are actively looking for makeup-skincare hybrids, yet there is still no brand operating at scale in the anti-ageing hybrid space. Larger groups are starting to move in this direction, but we believe we are uniquely positioned to lead by offering a full, coherent hybrid range, not just individual products.

This shift is also reinforced by changes in lifestyle. With more people working from home or moving between environments, there is a growing demand for lighter makeup that supports skin health rather than compromising it. That is exactly where we see Azio Beauty playing a key role.

For us, 2026 is not just about following a trend. It is about defining the hybrid category and setting the standard for what modern beauty should look like.

Now you have been in beauty for a few years, what has your impression been? Was it more or less challenging than you were expecting?

Coming into beauty with no prior background was actually a strength for me. As a man entering the category, I had no preconceived ideas about what was supposed to work or not work. I approached the industry purely as a problem solver, which allowed me to question things that are often taken for granted.

What genuinely excites me is breaking down complex, high-end segments of the market and finding ways to make them smarter, more efficient, and more accessible. Whether that is improving product performance, reducing unnecessary costs, or rethinking how brands operate, that challenge is fascinating to me.

People often assume that beauty is one of the most competitive and difficult industries to enter. While that is true on paper, I never really felt overwhelmed by it. We never tried to compete head-on with large groups like L’Oréal. They have billions in resources, and we do not. We have also never raised external funding.

Instead, we embraced being small. That allowed us to move faster, experiment more freely, and pivot quickly when something was not working. In many ways, that agility became our biggest advantage.

So for me, beauty has not been more or less challenging than expected. It has simply been exciting. It is an industry full of problems worth solving!

What is your grand vision now for the brand? 

​​The grand vision for Azio Beauty is to own and define the anti-ageing hybrid category. Our focus is very specific. We sit at the intersection of skincare and makeup, with anti-ageing performance at the core of every product.

Our ambition is to become the number one anti-ageing hybrid beauty brand in the UK first. That market leadership is essential before expanding further. Once we have clearly established that position, the next step will be international growth, either across Europe or into the US, depending on where consumer demand and category maturity are strongest at that time.

Beyond geography, the vision is also about category leadership. We want to set the standard for what hybrid beauty should be. Products that replace multiple steps, deliver visible skin benefits, and perform at a professional makeup level without compromising skin health.