Entrepreneur chooses investment angels over TV dragons

During the programme, aspiring entrepreneurs have a chance to make their dreams come true when they pitch their business idea to five multimillionaire investors.

Danielle Close from Hove, East Sussex created My Skin Feels, a sustainable skincare brand, in 2023.

In a confident pitch to the dragons, Danielle explained that the key ingredients are food items “rescued” from the Italian food manufacturing industry – tomato skins, crushed olives used in oil extraction, the stalks of breakfast oats and orange juice.

“I ferment and extract the amino acids, antioxidants – all the skin-loving goodness,” Danielle said.

Having worked in the beauty sector for fifteen years, Danielle has been constantly frustrated with the amount of waste and an industry which focuses on how people looked, as opposed to how they felt.

Giving out samples of her face wash and moisturiser, Danielle received encouraging feedback from the multi-millionaires.

Answering a question from Touker Suleyman, a British-Turkish Cypriot fashion retail entrepreneur and investor, Danielle then revealed that she is also a professional medium. The cameras quickly took in the astonished looks of the dragons.

With three offers, Danielle accepted bids from sustainability advocate Deborah Meaden and former Manchester United and England footballer Gary Neville.

Between them, they agreed to part with a £50,000 investment in return for a share of twenty per cent equity in My Skin Feels. Later, Danielle admitted that she had changed her mind about the deal.

“For a few days after filming I was really disappointed because I knew that was not the right decision to make for the business,” she said in a video posted on social media.

“Twenty per cent for £50,000 – no matter who it is, celebrity or not celebrity – is not the value of the hard work I put in. In my gut, it just felt wrong.”

Meanwhile, Danielle was approached by “angel investors” who offered her a “much bigger amount of money for a much smaller percentage,” which she accepted. An angel investor is a recognised title for an individual or group which provides funding to early-stage startups.

Danielle commented: “I needed to make the right decision for myself and my life. My angels came forward and saved the day.”

Danielle trained at London’s College of Psychic Studies for over seven years. Discussing her background as both a medium and a skincare specialist, Danielle said intuition was important in her approach to developing her own brand.

Explaining that otherworldly guidance “had such a positive impact on My Skin Feels,” Danielle added: “People think that my psychic work is separate, but intuition is your daily life…

“For me, it’s choosing who to work with, knowing which direction to go in; knowing what feels right and what is wrong is just having good intuition.

“When you go into mediumship, it’s a separate thing because that’s a specific skill for clients, but intuition in business goes hand in hand.

“I bet if you talk to any credible business leader, they’re using their intuition and not realising it.”

Danielle said that her angel investors “came in through my mediumship contacts. They really liked the business, then it just went on a bit of a spiral.”

Since the Dragons’ Den programme was filmed a year ago, My Skin Feels has achieved 250 per cent year-on-year growth.

Danielle’s website states: “Intuition runs in my family. I’m a fifth-generation medium, with this ability running, to my knowledge, as far back as the 1800s.”

On a recent podcast, Danielle recalled that she first became aware of her abilities aged five, stating: “Throughout my childhood I would just know things in my family and friends, and big events in the world like a volcano about to erupt.

“I grew up in a really old, haunted house and went to a haunted boarding school. It was terrifying but I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t understand what was happening.

“I even took myself to have a CAT scan because I thought there clearly must be something wrong with me.

“It was only when I moved to London aged about twenty that I went to a healer who said, ‘Don’t worry about it. You’re just psychic,’ and then my journey really began.

“She was so casual about it. It wasn’t scary and made sense, so I did some research and found that it runs in my family.”

On Dragons’ Den, Danielle said that if her business really took off, she would continue giving sittings in her spare time. However, her website shows that she is fully booked until 2027. For more information, visit www.danielleclose.co.uk.

Danielle appeared in series 23, episode 2 of Dragons’ Den, which is available on BBC iPlayer. You can find out more about My Skin Feels at www.myskinfeels.com or @myskinfeels.