Our Q&A with Phoebe Song, Founder of Snowfox Skincare, covers the development of their Snow Melt MatteBright™ Powder, skincare tips, and more!
Congratulations on Snowfox Skincare’s Beauty News NYC Official Editor’s Choice Award in the Best Clean Skincare Innovation category! What does this recognition mean to you and your team?
It means a lot, especially because Snow Melt MatteBright™ Powder was such a technical leap for us. This recognition validates the years we’ve spent refining a formula that bridges the gap between skincare and makeup for sensitive skin. For our team, it’s encouragement to keep pushing innovation in a clean and conscious way.
What inspired the creation of the Snow Melt MatteBright Powder, and how does it reflect the ethos of Snowfox?
It started with recognizing a gap in the market – it’s very difficult to find a “clean” talc-free setting powder that controls shine without clogging pores, over-drying, or causing irritation on sensitive skin types, yet still performs like a luxury makeup product. MatteBright reflects our core philosophy: combining high performance with skin health optimization. It’s clean, breathable, and genuinely treats the skin while enhancing it — that “clean and effective” balance defines Snow Fox.
How do you personally define “clean”? What ingredients or standards are non-negotiable for you?
To me, “clean” means being intelligent yet open-minded about your formulations. It’s not just about what we leave out, but what we choose to include, and we are very open to updating our formulations with the newest in skin sciences. As a Rosacea patient myself, I am not a fan of “clean washing” or fear mongering – just because something is “natural” doesn’t mean it is “clean”. The quality, quality control, and transparency of the source ingredients are key to a high-quality product, so I don’t negotiate at all on that front. We work with renowned global quality assurance companies like SGS to run tests on every single item and formulation we launch.
What’s your process for formulating products that are both effective and gentle?
We start with sensitive skin in mind, and reverse engineer from there. Every formula is built around what the skin needs to function well. We test across real-world use cases, and we’re never afraid to go through multiple rounds of reformulation to get it right. Some of our concepts take up to three to four years to launch, which I know is not something a lot of other business owners agree with, but I truly believe that innovation and refinement take time. My family’s culture often focuses on how well something is made, not how fast it’s done. When I was younger, I would get impatient, but now I understand. My best-selling products are always the ones that I took the longest time on.
How did you achieve that balance of wearability and performance in MatteBright?
It took time. Our first version of Snow Melt did well, but the feedback was that some of our most sensitive clients still felt too dry and noticed caking. So we began to test not just single ingredients in powder form, but skincare complexes – combined, trademarked technologies that addressed a lot more with stronger clinical studies. Then we refined the texture, performance, and “slip” to deliver real oil control and skin refinement. This is why we chose sebum-regulating 5? Avocuta® and a brightening botanical complex that treats the skin over time, all milled into an ultra-fine powder that feels like air.
Was it intentional to make a hybrid between skincare and makeup, and are you planning more?
Yes, very intentional. I’ve always believed makeup shouldn’t undo your skincare — it should complement it. MatteBright is our first true hybrid, and it won’t be the last. We’re working on more formulas that offer that crossover between treatment and aesthetic enhancement, but that’s only a part of our overall research into different categories.
What challenges or surprises came up during development?
Powder is technically challenging, especially when you exclude silicones and talc. It was also almost impossible to get traditionally liquid serum, like skin complexes, milled into an ultra-fine powder. Getting the texture right without compromising on ingredient integrity was a huge hurdle. We had to rethink traditional formats and create something clean, yet cosmetically elegant. But this is why Snow Melt doesn’t feel like any other cosmetic powder.
What’s one piece of advice for people with sensitivities or flare-ups?
Treat in layers. You need to customize a routine that suits you individually, and then follow each step with discipline for a prolonged period. Inflammatory Rosacea is not an easy condition to have, but this is what helped me the most and forms Snow Fox’s core lineup.
What part of product development excites you most, and what do you personally use daily?
I love the formulation phase and the feedback phase — seeing an idea come to life, and having real people message us to tell us how much we’ve changed their lives. Of course, for most of our normal skin customers, loving a product is wonderful, but for those who come from chronic skin issues, pain, and low self-esteem due to visible conditions, this means so much to me as I relate so deeply. Daily, my routine is a strictly followed regimen of:
- Lavender Cleansing Oil
- Cooling Foam (double cleanse)
- Sheet mask (One of the 5, depending on the function I need) – I do this at least 3 times a week.
- Herbal Youth Tonic (I swim in this)
- Luminosity Serum + Exosome Orb
- Omega Repair Cream
- Anti-Pollution Serum
What’s next for Snowfox in 2025 and beyond?
We’re continuing to innovate with functional skincare and beauty tools, but also expanding into supplements. There’s a lot on the horizon — including new formats, more clinical testing, and a deeper integration of traditional herbal modalities with modern science.
