How This Start-Up Became One Of The Youngest Brands To Be Stocked At David Jones

The early 2020s marked a season of transformation for Paul and Bernadette Borg: a newborn baby, a new business, and a move to a new city. Lifelong Sydneysiders, they launched their skincare brand, THE SKILLS, in the midst of a global pandemic, before uprooting their lives and relocating to Brisbane with their three young children.

Quitting their decades-long careers to launch THE SKILLS as a bootstrapped Australian start-up was a high-risk move, entering a category dominated by established international brands like Aesop and Grown Alchemist without the marketing budgets or teams to match. What Paul and Bernadette did have, however, was tenacity. “Nothing has come without us creating the opportunity ourselves,” Paul says, recalling how a casual pitch to a single Anytime Fitness franchisee grew into a national rollout of Anytime Fitness x THE SKILLS The SkinZone – an in-gym beauty bar designed for post-workout skin recovery.

Bernadette and Paul Borg at 25hours Hotel Sydney The Olympia

The early months were unglamorous, defined by 5am international Zoom calls, relentless cold calling, and pitching buyers across time zones in between school drop-offs, bottle-feeding, and fine-tuning every detail of the brand. Then, just two weeks after launch, THE ICONIC called. Within 18 months, THE SKILLS was stocked not only by THE ICONIC, but also by Adore Beauty, Saks Fifth Avenue, Harvey Nichols Doha, Above The Collar, Nutrition Warehouse, and David Jones — the youngest brand ever to launch at the national department store. “That was how we knew we had a brand,” Bernadette reflects. “We didn’t have traction in the market yet, but we had execution. For all these places to back us at that stage says a lot.”

It’s this idea of ‘brand’ that has always remained central to the vision. Sports lovers at heart (Paul, a basketballer, Bernadette, a two-time Australian Open Juniors competitor), the couple set out to create something that felt authentic to them. “Built for me, designed for her,” Paul explains. “Like that oversized hoodie you steal from your partner in winter – that’s the feeling we wanted to create.” Gender-neutral and rooted in wellness rather than beauty, THE SKILLS is skincare for “fans of sweat”, designed for bodies on the move.

Drawing on their combined years of experience, Paul and Bernadette executed every element of the brand rollout — everything except the formulation itself. Bernadette credits much of her understanding of brand to mentorship from industry icons like Edwina McCann and Christine Centenera, with whom she worked closely during her time at Vogue Australia. “They taught me that without brand, nothing else matters,” she says.

The couple – who met at a now-defunct Sydney nightclub, got engaged two weeks later, and are now approaching 19 years together – came full circle in October when they launched THE SKILLS as the amenities partner at 25hours Hotel Sydney The Olympia, a boutique hotel located on the very site where their story began.

It was a serendipitous moment that perfectly reflected what THE SKILLS has always been about: a brand that’s authentically Paul and Bernadette, grounded in their values, their passion for sport and wellness, and the way they genuinely live their lives.