Aesthetician And Media Skincare Expert Shani Hillian’s New Brand In Groov Is About Balance And Never Overpromising

For an aesthetician, it might be counterintuitive to tell clients that perfect skin doesn’t exist, but that’s the message Shani Hillian is spreading with her forthcoming brand In Groov.

Aghast at skincare products that claim to clear skin or treat conditions, she says she was inspired to create her brand “to help you get in a groove and adopt holistic alternatives. It’s not to claim anything.” She added that skincare should be focused on “how to get through the in-between stages. Your skin is always in transition, just like we’re always in transition just in life…I find that a lot of products on the market are not really geared toward balance and harmony, which is very important for your skin because you’re never going to have an end goal.”

She developed In Groov’s hero product Every Mood with balance in mind. The cleansing oil formulated with milk thistle, prickly pear, elderberry and Sacha Inchi, doubles as moisturizer and is intended to strengthen the skin without stripping it. It can be used as the first step in a double cleanse process, toward the conclusion of a skincare routine to seal in products or be paired with a water-based moisturizer. It will soft launch next month on In Groov’s website. Hillian put $25,000 of her savings into starting the brand.

“I specifically named it Every Mood because it’s for every person with every skin type, no matter what mood their skin is in,” says Hillian. “It’s very gentle, it’s very nourishing, it’s fortifying to the skin, and it really helps heal and balance out the natural sebum production in your skin without compromising your skin barrier or your lipid mantle.”

Hillian plans to enlarge In Groov’s assortment with supplements down the line. She says, “Your gut and mind and your skin connection is very real.” She also hopes In Groov will partner with indie beauty retailers like Thirteen Lune in the future.

Hillian has worked as a holistic aesthetician for 17 years. Based in Brooklyn, she had a studio in New York which closed in 2021. She plans to do pop ups in 2024. She grew up watching her grandmother use natural plants and herbs to heal skin ailments in the countryside of Jamaica, which is where her interest in skincare blossomed. When Hillian enrolled in beauty school, though, she did so to become a hairstylist. “I ended up liking the aesthetician side better because you learn about hair, nails and skin,” she says.

Before practicing as an aesthetician, however, she took a detour to be a model for a few years. Once she settled into her aesthetician career, she resumed her education at 25 years old by studying plant medicine at the Internal Dermal Institute and under the mentorship of two herbalists.

“I’m not against [synthetic] chemicals, I think they have their need, but I just personally choose to treat skin holistically with natural ingredients,” says Hillian. Speaking about In Groov, she says, “I wanted to create something that’s an ode to Jamaica, an ode to my culture because that’s really been the foundation that I’ve built my education on and built this passion on.”

Along with working as an aesthetician, Hillian has become a go-to writer on skincare for publications covering beauty. She has bylines in Elle, Bustle, The Zoe Report, Byrdie and PopSugar, among several outlets. She plans on reaching out to the editors she’s connected with through her writing for product seeding and getting the word out about In Groov. “I don’t want to mass advertise because I don’t think that it’s authentic to my brand,” she says. “I think it will build as it goes.”

Hillian has started a newsletter and is cultivating an audience on Instagram, where she has over 17,000 followers and has partnered with brands such as Meaningful Beauty, Oui The People and Gem. “I truly love educating folks on their skin, and so when it comes to In Groov, I would love to know how folks like the product first,” she says. “That’s why I’m doing a soft launch because I want to see, does it work? Does it not work? Does the bottle work? Would you like a pump and not a dropper? I love interacting with my audience on that.”