Meet The Celebrity Skin Expert Who Changed The Way We Think About Facials
Main image – Skin Design London
There’s a particular kind of expert whose name quietly circulates among people who take their skin seriously – the one you’re told to see not because they’re trending, but because they actually understand skin.
Fatma Shaheen is one of those names.
Over the past two decades, the founder of Skin Design London has treated everyone from Jennifer Lawrence and Kim Kardashian to Kris Jenner, as well as a long list of industry insiders who prefer their skincare referrals whispered rather than advertised.
Her clinic, now based inside Selfridges’ VIP suite, has become known for something more specific than celebrity glow; texture.
But Shaheen’s path into skin wasn’t a conventional one. She didn’t train at beauty school or start out dreaming of a career in facials. Instead, she arrived via the corporate world – and an unexpected gap she realised no one in the industry seemed to be addressing (but now feels central to most facials).
Ahead, Shaheen explains her route to becoming “skin designer to the stars,” why she believes much of the industry still gets skin wrong, and the philosophy that has made her one of the most trusted names in celebrity skincare.
An accidental career
“I mean, I didn’t,” she says, when I ask why she first wanted to work in skincare. “My background is not beauty school.”
Originally trained as a business graduate working in consulting and finance, Shaheen took what she thought would be a short career break. “What was supposed to be a year off turned into ten years,” she says, laughing.
Eventually she was offered the chance to set up a dental spa and medispa, a concept that at the time was far more common in the United States than the UK.
Image – Skin Design London
“I went in as a founder and immediately saw a huge gap,” she tells me. “The traditional therapist side and the facialist side felt very outdated. And then on the other side you’ve got doctors – who I felt weren’t connected enough to skin and clients.”
What Shaheen saw was a divide that still exists today. At one end of the spectrum were spa-style facials: relaxing, but often limited in their ability to treat real skin concerns. At the other were medical procedures performed in clinics, which could feel clinical and distant from the day-to-day reality of skin.
Skin Design London was created to sit somewhere between the two. “Doctors don’t really touch skin,” she explains. “They inject, they do a couple of things, and off you go. But at the other end, there’s still a very old fashioned way of treating skin which isn’t sufficient anymore.”
What Shaheen wanted instead was a results driven approach that didn’t feel aggressive – treatments that improved skin texture and health without forcing clients into days of downtime.
“You can still keep your face and look like yourself,” she says simply.
Something between spas and science
Much of what has become standard in modern skin clinics – from microneedling to radio frequency treatments – was far less widely understood when Shaheen began building her approach nearly two decades ago.
“I’ve been microneedling for 18 years,” she says. “And I still stand by it.”
But the treatments themselves were only part of the story. What fascinated Shaheen was the human side of skin – the way people experience it, and the way it shapes how they feel about themselves.
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“The treatment room is a sanctuary,” she explains. “People have to be raw in there. There’s no makeup, no small talk to hide behind it.”
“You may find out things before a client’s own family does,” she goes on. “If they’re trying to conceive, if they’re under huge stress, if something personal is happening. It’s delicate and it’s heavy.”
It’s one of the reasons Shaheen describes her work as therapy. “That clinic room is my happy space,” she tells me.
And the feeling, she says, is mutual. “We always say the space is an amazing treatment – but also an amazing soul in one hour.”
Skincare overwhelm
Unsurprisingly, given the explosion of skincare products, ingredients and trends in recent years, Shaheen believes the modern consumer isn’t lacking products – they’re lacking clarity.
“I genuinely believe most people already have meaningful products in their medicine cabinet,” she says. “They’re just overwhelmed with contradictory information.”
This was the philosophy behind Shaheen’s own skincare line, Skin Design London.
“If you’ve got 10 clients, you’ve got 10 problems,” she says. “And the products should exist to solve those problems.”
That thinking shaped the early development of the brand’s product line, which started with two core ingredients; retinol and vitamin C, but has since expanded to cover most skin concerns, including the new Face Tight range for firming.
Image – Skin Design London
“I kept asking the same question,” she recalls. “Why can’t we have a retinol that doesn’t irritate your skin?”
At the time, most retinol routines involved aggressive peeling, purging and prolonged adjustment periods. For Shaheen, that didn’t make sense. “I needed something my clients could use every day without over stripping the skin,” she says.
Her solution was to mimic the layered approach she used in clinic. “Think of it as layers of renewal,” she explains. “You stimulate the skin, but then you calm it. That’s how real results happen.”
The reality of celebrity skin
Shaheen’s client list may include some of the most photographed faces in the world, but she insists that celebrity skin concerns are often surprisingly ordinary.
“Whether you’re a celebrity or not, you still get breakouts,” she says. “You still get hyperpigmentation. You still get texture.”
In fact, she says, the difference between celebrity clients and everyone else is less about the issues they face and more about access to professional treatments when they need them.
“Even if you’re skincare obsessed, there are days when your face just isn’t cooperating,” she explains. “Hormones, flights, stress – suddenly you’re puffy or your skin is dull.”
In those moments, her role is often about creating an immediate transformation. “If someone has just flown in for the Met Gala or the BAFTAs, you need to lift the face, stimulate circulation, reduce puffiness,” she says. “You need that quick transformation.”
But the environment is rarely as frantic as you might imagine. “They actually find it relaxing,” she says. “You’re not the photographer, you’re not the makeup artist. You’re just in that little bubble together.”
Why great skin starts with something simple
For all the talk of advanced treatments and celebrity clients, Shaheen’s approach to everyday skincare remains surprisingly simple.
“The beginning of good skin is cleaning your skin,” she says firmly. Cleansing properly, she believes, is one of the most overlooked steps in modern routines. “I always say, do you brush your teeth? Then you have time to cleanse your skin.”
“It’s your moment,” she says. “Clean your skin properly, revive it, and then decide if you want to wear makeup or not.”
The idea, she explains, was partly inspired by her childhood. “I’m Turkish, and the whole ritual of cleansing was always a big thing,” she says. “Friday night was the big bath – the hammam style scrub. You were properly clean.”
That sense of ritual is something Shaheen believes modern skincare has largely forgotten. “We’ve rushed everything,” she says. “But when you slow down and treat it as a ritual, your skin responds differently.”
She’s also a major advocate of the healing properties of good sleep and nutrition, and lower stress. “If we take away all the hype – the technology, the products – skin is still about how we live,” she says.
Hydration, sunlight in moderation and a balanced diet all play a role, she explains. “So does the company you keep,” she adds with a smile.
“Surround yourself with good people. That might be one of the best skincare tips I can give you.”
Stress, she points out, is often the quickest thing to show on someone’s face. “You can see it immediately in someone’s skin if they’re going through something difficult,” she says.
The takeaway
For all the technology, ingredients and treatments now available, Shaheen’s philosophy ultimately comes back to some of the core principles that most of us try to apply for a balanced life.
“I take everything away and at the end of the day I just want to treat your skin,” she says. “I love seeing the results and seeing that someone feels happier when they leave.”
In an industry increasingly driven by loud new launches and virality, that focus is refreshing. The goal, for Shaheen, isn’t perfection – it’s healthier, better skin that still looks like you.
And, as she puts it, “I probably have one of the best jobs in the world.”
After two decades spent quietly reshaping how modern facials work then, it’s hard to disagree.
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