From Model to the Business of Beauty

Entrepreneurs are inherently visionaries in recognizing a common problem and creating a solution to address it. Oftentimes, entrepreneurs begin their careers as a multifaceted professional who — after working in other industries — can leverage their experience to introduce a newer, high-quality solution.

Looking to entrepreneurs operating within the beauty and skincare industry, the public is bombarded by products created by celebrities. After all, the influence of such figures has a broad impact on the behavior of their followers. For these products to take off amongst wider audiences, however, they often require a “seal of approval” from other key influencers.

One such influencer is former model Ekin Ozlen. After reaching a point in her life where she knew she wanted more for herself, her career, and to offer more value to her own followers, Ozlen set out to blend her personal needs and lifelong passion for beauty with high-science skincare and haircare.

The result is Keracell: a revolutionary line of products utilizing Multiple Human Cell stem cell (MHCsc) technology developed with the help of two Ph.D. biomedical scientists who are experts in molecular biology and stem cell research.

Intersecting Necessity and Entrepreneurial Passion

If Ozlen appears familiar to you at first glance, it’s likely because you’ve seen her before from her time as the go-to cover girl for many of Target’s womens’ products, or possibly on the pages of catalogs and magazines such as Cosmopolitan or Maxim.

“When I was younger, I loved writing poems and stories. I realized that I was good at it,” Ozlen says, “and always wanted to be a singer-songwriter. As a model, you’re more of a blank canvas, but as a singer you can funnel your own individual creativity into your work. Music provided me a creative outlet that my modeling career lacked,” Ozlen adds, explaining that modeling was more of a survival-driven career move.

Ozlen’s career reached a crescendo when she wanted found a space where her necessities and passions intersected.

“I wanted to be a business owner, but I also knew I had to take care of myself and my horses. I always wanted to remain independent and yet successful at the same time.”

After her husband at the time, a renowned plastic surgeon, passed away, Ozlen leaned on her deep love of skin and hair care and holistic healing from watching her late husband’s process in his practice for years. This is where Ozlen’s entrepreneurial journey with Keracelll began.

Fighting Stigma With Success

Ozlen’s drive behind her self-described necessity in branching into Keracell was due to one word: results. Being in the beauty industry for years, surrounded by the biggest and best makeup artists, hair stylists, plastic surgeons, dermatologists in New York City enabled Ozlen to provide everything she needed to begin her entrepreneurial journey with the Keracell brand.

“I was so tired of buying products and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on these new beauty and skincare items that didn’t do what they claimed that often left me with reactions or blemishes, or didn’t heal my damaged hair.”

This led Ozlen to the inclusion of MHCsc science into Keracell’s products. Though the concept of human stem cells is often widely stigmatized and misunderstood, Ozlen’s brand and unique product lines do not utilize any human DNA whatsoever in the products; rather, Keracell’s 4 different product lines — encompassing 40 different products — only utilizes human stem cell “extract” instead of the actual human stem “cells” themselves.

While some argue that this straddles an uncomfortable ethical boundary, Ozlen is committed to continue her drive in building the Keracell brand and educating those in order to bring its products to a larger audience of people in need of the results they have been proven to show since the brand’s inception.

Copyright © 2021 California Business Journal. All Rights Reserved.

This article was edited and published by Rick Weinberg, California Business Journal’s Founder, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief. Click here for Rick Weinberg’s biography.

For testimonials on the impact of California Business Journal articles, click here.