After working tirelessly for more than seven years, South African entrepreneur Kerryne Neufeldt (35) is storming the US$160 billion global beauty market with her patented cryogel eye-care product. In the process, she’s turning the cosmetics company that she started in her backyard into a multi-million dollar enterprise. Some people might celebrate this type of success with a relaxing trip to the spa. But Kerryne, a born marketer, would never visit a spa or salon without converting it into a sales opportunity. Working from the ground up as both scientist and CEO – on research and development, raising funds, scalable manufacturing, and sales and distribution – Kerryne has used her natural market instincts to turn a shelved technology into a truly unique product with global potential. Her company iSlices currently produces an innovative, cryogel eye pad, which slowly releases active ingredients to the skin to combat a wide range of eye irritations.

Born in Johannesburg, Kerryne’s entrepreneurial success stems from her resilience and proven ability to learn from difficult situations. At the age of 22, after completing a post graduate degree in marketing at the University of Pretoria, she worked as a sandwich maker in a London branch of the world-renowned food chain Pret-A-Manger. Though her job was often menial, Kerryne quickly gained an appreciation for business processes that penetrated down to the lowest levels of production. When she returned to South Africa – full of ambitions to start her own world-renowned company – Kerryne became the exclusive import and distribution agent for the Swiss cosmetics manufacturer, Karin Herzog. Although the company was very successful at first, Kerryne lost everything two years later due a bad partnership. At just 24, she was already a veteran entrepreneur with eyes beyond her years.

While looking for her next venture, Kerryne was guided by a personal passion for health and wellness. At one point, she was excited to find a special Italian mask claiming to treat five major eye symptoms, but was disappointed when it did not deliver on the claim. After testing a variety of eye-care products, Kerryne discovered a gap in the market: many companies were beginning to augment their creams and lotions with gimmicky eye masks and pads, but none of these products actually worked. Kerryne wanted to develop an eye-care product with real technology to back it up.

In 2000, Kerryne learned that the South Africa Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Polymer Technology Division had invented a water-soluble polymer gel that functioned as a dermal delivery system – in other words, a gel-like substance that could be liquefied and solidified to absorb and emit ingredients to the skin. Kerryne took advantage of the opportunity and negotiated an exclusive license for the technology. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Kerryne became a scientist of necessity, working tirelessly to create the eye-care product she had always imagined. In a makeshift lab on their property, Kerryne and her husband cooked up polymer, experimenting on hundreds of different freeze/thaw cycles. After six years, countless side jobs, and R3.3 million (US$426,000) funding from 13 different institutions, Kerryne and her husband finally perfected a scalable method for infusing the liquid active ingredients, and then turning the polymer into a gel of the right consistency. Once Kerryne designed the custom-made packaging that allows the gel product to be reused, eyeSlices was ready for market.

eyeSlices were launched at the Professional Beauty Exhibition JHB in early 2006. Within two hours of setting up the booth, she had sold out of product. This initial response has translated into wide-scale success for the company. By the end of 2006, the company had stocked the product in over 100 salons and spas in South Africa. And, in the past two years, international demand has been met by supplying distributors in Mexico, Australia, Dubai, and the USA with the eyeSlices professional line.

After working tirelessly for more than seven years, South African entrepreneur Kerryne Neufeldt (35) is storming the US$160 billion global beauty market with her patented cryogel eye-care product. In the process, she’s turning the cosmetics company that she started in her backyard into a multi-million dollar enterprise. Some people might celebrate this type of success with a relaxing trip to the spa. But Kerryne, a born marketer, would never visit a spa or salon without converting it into a sales opportunity. Working from the ground up as both scientist and CEO – on research and development, raising funds, scalable manufacturing, and sales and distribution – Kerryne has used her natural market instincts to turn a shelved technology into a truly unique product with global potential. Her company iSlices currently produces an innovative, cryogel eye pad, which slowly releases active ingredients to the skin to combat a wide range of eye irritations.

Born in Johannesburg, Kerryne’s entrepreneurial success stems from her resilience and proven ability to learn from difficult situations. At the age of 22, after completing a post graduate degree in marketing at the University of Pretoria, she worked as a sandwich maker in a London branch of the world-renowned food chain Pret-A-Manger. Though her job was often menial, Kerryne quickly gained an appreciation for business processes that penetrated down to the lowest levels of production. When she returned to South Africa – full of ambitions to start her own world-renowned company – Kerryne became the exclusive import and distribution agent for the Swiss cosmetics manufacturer, Karin Herzog. Although the company was very successful at first, Kerryne lost everything two years later due a bad partnership. At just 24, she was already a veteran entrepreneur with eyes beyond her years.

While looking for her next venture, Kerryne was guided by a personal passion for health and wellness. At one point, she was excited to find a special Italian mask claiming to treat five major eye symptoms, but was disappointed when it did not deliver on the claim. After testing a variety of eye-care products, Kerryne discovered a gap in the market: many companies were beginning to augment their creams and lotions with gimmicky eye masks and pads, but none of these products actually worked. Kerryne wanted to develop an eye-care product with real technology to back it up.

In 2000, Kerryne learned that the South Africa Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Polymer Technology Division had invented a water-soluble polymer gel that functioned as a dermal delivery system – in other words, a gel-like substance that could be liquefied and solidified to absorb and emit ingredients to the skin. Kerryne took advantage of the opportunity and negotiated an exclusive license for the technology. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Kerryne became a scientist of necessity, working tirelessly to create the eye-care product she had always imagined. In a makeshift lab on their property, Kerryne and her husband cooked up polymer, experimenting on hundreds of different freeze/thaw cycles. After six years, countless side jobs, and R3.3 million (US$426,000) funding from 13 different institutions, Kerryne and her husband finally perfected a scalable method for infusing the liquid active ingredients, and then turning the polymer into a gel of the right consistency. Once Kerryne designed the custom-made packaging that allows the gel product to be reused, eyeSlices was ready for market.

eyeSlices were launched at the Professional Beauty Exhibition JHB in early 2006. Within two hours of setting up the booth, she had sold out of product. This initial response has translated into wide-scale success for the company. By the end of 2006, the company had stocked the product in over 100 salons and spas in South Africa. And, in the past two years, international demand has been met by supplying distributors in Mexico, Australia, Dubai, and the USA with the eyeSlices professional line.