Roughly 15 years ago, Stephanie Simkins decided to combine multiple passions into one entrepreneurial idea.
By that point in her life, Simkins had operated a nutrition company and a catering company, and she’d also worked as a holistic health practitioner. In 2009, it came time to put her passions for food, wellness and clean living into one business — a Kansas City-based skincare brand.
Now Simkins is bringing that brand, Skin KC, to Johnson County. She plans to host a soft opening for her new Overland Park store this weekend, followed by a grand opening event next week.
Skin KC will operate at 7304 W. 80th St.
- The store will occupy a space in downtown Overland Park, near Strang Hall and the Bottle Shop.
- Interior design company Hatch + Home previously occupied that space before closing in 2023.
- Once it opens, Skin KC will operate from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Skin KC offers natural and organic skincare
Skin KC carries a range of full-body skin products, from face washes and masks to serums and lip tints.
Simkins considers her brand one stop shop for all aspects of a skincare regimen — and the fact that it’s all locally made, she said, is what sets it apart.
“We pay close attention to getting the best ingredients that we can,” Simkins said. “You can find a local chapstick and you can find a local lotion (in Kansas City area stores), but you can’t find an entire local line of skin and bath and body products.”
The store is “anchored” by Simkins’ own brand, though it will also carry a few items from other brands. The common theme, she said, is that none of the store’s products will contain synthetic ingredients, dyes, fragrances, or other chemicals like parabens and hormonal disruptors.
“It’ll be an entire store with brands that are free of a lot of the harmful chemicals that you’d normally find in mainstream brands,” she said. “It’s the first of its kind in Kansas City — the first clean beauty store where you can get everything for kids, pets, men, women, and everything for travel.”
Simkins started out selling her skincare products exclusively to her individual clients, then began selling them in spas and larger stores like Natural Grocers before moving into her own storefront.
Her first storefront operated at the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, for three years before she relocated to Kansas City’s Brookside neighborhood — where the store has now operated for seven years. Her products can also be found in two stores inside the Kansas City International Airport.
Skin KC will offer more than retail
Simkins said the novelty of this new Overland Park location will be its size — which is larger than her Brookside shop. The size will allow for her to offer retail and spa services in one space, something she said she’s always wanted to do.
The spa in the back of the store will offer services like facials, waxing, lash services and an infrared sauna. The space will also have a lab for Simkins to make more products on site.
“I’m looking forward to having the space where I can accommodate all the things I want to share with my clients and my customers,” she said. “I’m excited about being able to have my store and my lab here in one place.”
A born-and-raised Overland Park resident, Simkins has watched the downtown area grow. With so much activity and growth in one place, she said that when it came time to expand her business, it felt like the perfect place to do it.
“Downtown Overland Park has so much to offer — and like I said, I grew up right here in this neighborhood,” she said. “It means a lot to me to be here.”
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