MAGGIE by Kakan

MAGGIE by Kakan is a Swedish skincare brand founded in 2022 by the television presenter, comedian and ceramic artist Kakan Hermansson together with Åsa Asplund, who serves as the company's chief executive [9]. Based in Stockholm and operated through the company Cookie Jar Ltd, the line is built around exfoliating acids and other active ingredients, and is sold direct to consumers as well as through retailers such as Lyko and Wakakuu.

The brand remains active but appears to operate at a reduced scale. As of mid-2026 a majority of its catalogue was listed as sold out on its own featured-products page, several remaining items were heavily discounted, and no new products had been introduced since the 2022 range. Hermansson herself continued to appear in Swedish media into 2025 and 2026.

Kakan Hermansson — full name Karin Signhild Hermansson, born in Lund in 1981 — was already a familiar figure in Swedish media before launching the brand, known for comedy and ceramics and for writing about skincare on a beauty blog since the mid-2010s [7]. (The founder has occasionally been misidentified as a different Swedish personality, "Karolina Hellsten"; the founder is in fact Karin Signhild Hermansson.) She developed the line with Åsa Asplund, formerly of the Swedish pharmacy chain Apoteket, over roughly two years before the February 2022 launch [9]. Hermansson has said she financed the venture herself, without outside investors [10].

The name "Maggie" was chosen for its warmth rather than any clinical edge. According to Hermansson, it is borrowed from a close friend's daughter, and she wanted something that felt unthreatening and evoked a grandmother [9]. The company's logo combines an oyster shell, which it associates with change and harmony, and the ouroboros as a symbol of eternity.

Development began around 2020, two years ahead of release. MAGGIE by Kakan launched on 7 February 2022 with three products — a cleansing balm, a face oil with retinol and vitamin E, and a night mask with AHA and BHA exfoliants — distributed through Lyko, Wakakuu and the brand's own website. Later the same year the range expanded with additions including a niacinamide serum and a BHA toner. Editorial coverage and the brand's own catalogue show no further product launches after this 2022 expansion.

The brand is owned by Cookie Jar Ltd (org. no. 559371-2177), a Stockholm-registered company. It is independent and self-funded by Hermansson, with no external investors and no recorded acquisitions [10].

MAGGIE by Kakan positions itself as results-oriented skincare centred on active ingredients, and it explicitly rejects anti-aging messaging. "Maggie isn't about looking younger," Hermansson told Lyko's magazine, framing the products instead around visible results and long-term skin health rather than the promise of youth [10]. The company describes the range as skincare with active ingredients and results-oriented acids, intended to moisturise, strengthen and exfoliate the skin.

Hermansson has linked the brand to her feminist views, summarising her approach as "I am my brand," and the line is pitched at an audience of skincare-curious followers familiar with her blog and podcast. The products sit in the mid-price segment, according to Swedish beauty press.

The formulations are built around well-known active ingredients, among them glycolic and lactic acid (AHA), salicylic acid (BHA), a retinoid, niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, squalane and tranexamic acid. The launch trio was followed by items such as a 20% niacinamide serum with tranexamic acid, a BHA toner, a 24-hour cream and a vitamin C oil; several products are described as fragrance-free. The brand states that all products are vegan with the exception of the cleansing balm, which contains beeswax. Products are manufactured in Sweden, at the contract manufacturer Svenska Krämfabriken in Borlänge, where the founders made repeated visits to refine the formulas [9]. Of the catalogue, the niacinamide serum has been noted as the brand's most popular product on the ingredient database SkinSort [13].

The company describes a commitment to sustainable skincare, including packaging decisions aimed at removing unnecessary elements; it has said it avoided glass partly because of the shipping weight involved. The brand also donates one Swedish krona from every product sold to Rosenlundstödet, a Gothenburg non-profit that supports women in prostitution [2].

The brand is active. Hermansson was still referred to as running both her podcast and the skincare line in 2025 press coverage, and the brand's website remained operational into 2026, with a vitamin C oil promoted on the homepage [14]. Distribution continued beyond Sweden through the retailer Lyko, whose Finnish site carried a MAGGIE by Kakan brand page [15] — even though the brand's own direct shipping is limited to Sweden.

Several signals nonetheless point to a reduced operating tempo: a majority of products listed as sold out on the featured-products page in 2026, a steeply discounted vitamin C oil, and the absence of any new launches since 2022. The founder's media platform was also affected in October 2023, when ELLE Sweden distanced itself from Hermansson over remarks she made about the Israel–Gaza conflict and removed her blog from its site [7]. The controversy concerned Hermansson personally rather than the brand, which has no recorded controversies of its own.