Hi There!
I'm Sonia Roselli
The beauty industry is a scam and I'm done pretending it isn't.
They sell you actives that destroy your barrier. Then they sell you more products to fix what they broke. Then they blame your "sensitive skin" when nothing works.
I saw that playbook for 30 years. Behind the chair. Behind the scenes. In rooms where they decide what goes in the bottle versus what goes on the marketing deck. Two different conversations.
I had a skin and makeup studio in Chicago for 20 years. Thousands of women sat in my chair with the same story: red skin, tight skin, products that sting, foundation that won't sit. Hundreds of dollars spent on routines that made everything worse.
I knew why. I kept my mouth shut because I had contracts to protect.
Then my own rosacea got so bad I couldn't fix my own face with any of it. I had access to everything on the market. None of it worked.
Because the problem was never my skin. The problem was the products.
So I walked.
Went to Japan and Korea. Found chemists who refused to cut corners. Built Sonia Roselli Beauty for people whose skin has been destroyed by the brands they trusted.
No investors. No influencer bullshit. No apologies.
This is what happens when someone who knows where the bodies are buried decides to build instead of comply.
Thousands of Women. Same Story.
Red skin. Tight skin. Products that sting. Foundation that won't sit. Hundreds of dollars spent on routines that made everything worse.
I didn't need to guess why. I knew. The formulas were underdosed. The peptides were diluted to nothing. The fragrance was there for the "experience" even though it wrecks reactive skin.
I watched women blame themselves for their "sensitive skin" when the products were the problem.
While They Chase Trends, I Fix Skin.
Other brands pump products full of actives that wreck your barrier. Then they launch the next thing before you've even figured out why your face is on fire.
I have rosacea. I know what it's like when everything stings, burns, or makes it worse.
That's why I went to Japan and Korea. That's why every formula is edited down to only what reactive, aging skin actually needs.
Nothing trendy. Nothing filler. Nothing that exists just to pad the line.
What I Built Instead
Formulas with ceramide ratios that actually match your skin's biology. Ingredients at concentrations that do something—not diluted to nothing so they look good on a label.
9 products. That's it.
No 20-step routines designed to move more SKUs. No launching stuff just to have a full line. No creating problems so I can sell you the solution.
If your skin has been wrecked by the brands you trusted, this is what I made for you.
Notable
Faces I've Worked On
Betty White. Elton John. Ben Affleck. Linda Evangelista. Lenny Kravitz. Vanessa Williams. Just to name a few.
None of that mattered when my own skin fell apart.
But 30 years behind the chair taught me what works under lights, under pressure, under HD cameras that catch everything. That's the standard I formulate to.
MY JOURNEY
How I Fell In Love With An Industry
Prom Pics Tell All
1985: Mall Makeup Counter
16 years old. Blush you could see from space. Those prom pics were rough. But they started a 30-year obsession with making people look better than I made myself look.
1992-1997: Aveda
Joined with no idea I'd end up shaping how beauty gets taught. Trained alongside Sonia Kashuk. Mastered advanced skincare and makeup artistry.
Then I was the one commanding the room. Teaching hundreds of salon professionals skincare science, makeup technique, business strategy. I didn't just train artists—I built entrepreneurs who understood both the art and the science.
All that hands-on experience became the foundation for creating my own formulas years later.
1998: Fired
Estée Lauder bought Aveda. I got sacked. Best thing that ever happened.
Bought a one-way ticket to Italy and worked Milan Fashion Week. I stopped playing by someone else's rules.
1999: Going On My Own
After my time in Italy, I returned to Chicago to build my own thing. TV. Commercials. News. Brides.
Became Chicago's first on-location bridal makeup artist—literally wrote the playbook for modern bridal services.
Celebrity clients. Nervous brides. Women who'd tried everything and nothing worked.
Thousands of faces. Same problems. I was learning what the industry was getting wrong long before I could do anything about it.
2008: Chicago Makeup & Skin Studio
Opened Sonia Roselli Studio. Facials. Makeup. Classes. Photoshoots. Brides. All of it.
But the real work happened after clients left. I started experimenting with my own formulas because nothing on the market did what I needed it to do.
My clients became my test subjects. They didn't mind. They got better products than anything on the shelves and I got real feedback from real skin.
That studio became the lab for everything I'd build later.
2007-2015: Product Development Consultant
Major brands. Names you'd recognize. They paid me to tell them how to improve formulas based on 20 years of working on real skin.
They didn't want to hear it.
Concentrations too low. Fragrance triggering reactions. Reactive skin ignored. Women of color ignored. Women over 40 ignored. Launched anyway.
Then they stopped asking pros and started listening to influencers. Made them a lot of money. Consumers got screwed.
The sad part? Consumers didn't know better. They walked around with bad makeup and bad skin thinking it was their fault.
I sat in those rooms. Kept my mouth shut. Kept cashing checks.
Until I couldn't anymore.
2015: Sexapeel Is Born
Stopped advising. Started building. My first product—instant exfoliation from Korea. No irritation. Finally, sensitive skin could get results without the damage.
The hit that launched everything.
Now: Sonia Roselli Beauty
9 products. Formulated in Japan and Korea. For skin that's been failed by everyone else.
"The beauty industry creates problems and sells you the solution. I'm not playing that game."
-Sonia Roselli, Founder
I Built This For The People They Ignored.
Reactive skin. Aging skin. Skin that's been wrecked by the brands that were supposed to help.
You've spent enough money on products that don't work.
Try something that does.
