At the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic Saskia Steinberg, 20, from London, was just a university history student who found herself bored at home. Eight months later, she is founder of MaskYoFace, an independent, stylish, sustainable face mask business who has sold nearly 1000 units.
View this post on Instagram
Before coronavirus, Saskia didn’t know how to sew and chose to teach herself a new skill during the first UK lockdown.
She said: “My mum had a sewing machine just lying there. I am someone who always needs to be doing something because I get bored quite easily. I just found myself stuck in a bit of a rut during at the beginning of the pandemic. I was thinking about what I could do to keep myself entertained so I thought I would teach myself to sew because that gives me something to look forward to. That’s how it all started I didn’t know how to sew before.”
But Saskia was only looking for a hobby. It wasn’t until later that a business idea developed and MaskYoFace was born.
“I was looking at all the masks people were wearing, and they were all ugly, blue and disposable which isn’t sustainable for the environment. I wanted to create a fashionable, fabric face mask.”
Business soon took off for MaskYoFace and to date they have sold nearly 1000 units.
“It is really nice to work for yourself. We have sold nearly 1000 units. It is insane as I never thought I would be able to sell so much. A lot of customers are from Instagram and I recently set up a website, so more customers come through the internet.”
View this post on Instagram
MaskYoFace allowed Saskia to be a part of an Instagram community with other independent, female, small business owners.
“I love being part of the female, small business community on Instagram and have since done two pop up shops. You do you get to connect with a range of people. It’s nice how everyone supports each other, a lot of small businesses will comment on my posts and I will comment on theirs. I am in group chats with people that encourage each other. I feel like I have been a part of a community that before I never knew existed.”
Due to the success of MaskYoFace, Saskia was also able to donate to five different charities simultaneously.
“Originally, I was donating 25 per cent of all profits to charity but since going back to university I don’t do that anymore. The first place I donated too was the NHS at The Royal Free Hospital in London, Hampstead.
“The second place I donated to was The Minnesota Freedom Fund in America. This was because of the Black Lives Matter movement which I am very passionate about supporting.
“I also wanted to donate somewhere that is more local, so I chose the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust. This was set up in London and they do a lot of stuff to educate people in being dissent in the school room which I think is important.
“The other charities were GIRES who are helping and researching about people who are transgender and part of the LGBTQ community. Lastly, I felt that lockdown had an effect on a lot of people’s mental health, so I chose to donate to MIND charity.”
View this post on Instagram
Saskia plans to continue to grow MaskYoFace for the remainder of the pandemic and develop its product range.
“The opportunity to do this is ripe and people need masks so I will carry on. At some point it will die down because people won’t need masks anymore. But from this I have also began sewing tops and a lot of my friends have asked me to sew custom tops for them and I have sold some on my website.”
In a message to all MaskYoFace customers, Saskia said: “I would say thank you to everyone that loves my products and has supported me. I get so many nice messages and feedback from people and it really makes my day. Sometimes I will feel stressed but then I think that there is actually a lot of people who like what I’m doing. It provides a lot of comfort and it fills me with a lot of love from all of my customers.”
To buy a handmade mask by Saskia from MaskYoFace check out their Instagram page, @maskyoface or click here to go to their website.
