Entiere Dermatology

Entière Is Whole

In January 2017, I stood in front of Bryon Kim’s Synedoche at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. It is a simple but powerful depiction of unique skin tones of friends, fellow artists, strangers, and himself in rows and rows of monochrome painted panels. I felt celebrated, comforted, and inspired from seeing the collective of skin tones. This is the power of design and feeling inclusive in a community.

Skin is intimate but on constant display. As a society, we place such value on beauty and anti-aging. While it is superficially perceived as vanity, it actually sheds truth to how vulnerable the skin experience is and why as humans, we are so invested in it. As a dermatologist, I am particularly sensitive to why it can be emotional to deal with skin conditions and the natural skin changes of aging. It is my job to care for skin diseases and conditions but we need collaboration beyond medicine, science, insurance, and medical professionals. We must examine our status quo. We need to reach across industries to collaborate with technologists, designers, experiential strategist, and our community, in order to architect a new experience.

It took a little more than a year and a half later from the emotional experience I had at the Whitney to launch Entière. In all of our development, we stayed deliberate to inclusiveness and the entirety of how we believe the delivery of skin health should be. My husband actually came up with the name Entière over beers we were having at a local pub. While neither of us speak French, we both lived in multiple countries so we were playing with words from different languages. There is a lightness and a beauty to this French word for “whole” or “complete.” Our design process was delightfully extensive and intentional. We drew from universally grounded concepts such as basic geometry and from what skin looks like underneath the microscope, stripped of judgement, skin color, and any surface changes — but really what is in the skin itself. We included the spectrum of skin color to appeal to everyone regardless of background, cultural influence, or life experiences. Our design is rooted in Scandinavian aesthetics due to its commitment to community and shared natural objects, such as wood and stone, since familiar elements allow people to feeling included.

We believe that the pursuit of skin health and wellness should be democratized in a simple, beautiful, and natural approach, inspired by purpose.