Product Update

Is True Skincare Ltd Still in Business? (2026 Update)

Is True Skincare Ltd from Dragons’ Den still around in 2026? The deal it made, the dragons who invested, and where to buy True Skincare Ltd today.

Dragons' Den IndexUpdated 5 June 20266 min read

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True Skincare pitched waterless natural skincare in Series 18, Episode 3 of Dragons' Den, and this is one of the harder verdicts in this index to deliver. The company that pitched on the show is no longer trading. True Skincare Limited went into creditors' voluntary liquidation in June 2024.

The Short Answer

True Skincare Limited, the company founded by Emma Thornton in 2018 that appeared on Dragons' Den, entered liquidation on 19 June 2024, citing significant financial challenges. Insolvency practitioners were appointed to wind the company down.

A website still exists at trueskincare.co.uk carrying waterless skincare products, but company records and reporting from beauty industry trade press indicate the domain and brand are now associated with Monuskin, a separate skincare business, rather than the original Dragons' Den company continuing to trade under Emma Thornton.

The Pitch

Emma Thornton brought True Skincare into the Den in Series 18, Episode 3, pitching waterless, concentrate-based skincare products designed to cut down on the water and packaging waste involved in typical bottled skincare. She asked for £75,000 in exchange for 12.5 percent of the business.

The pitch went well by any normal measure. Reporting describes Thornton receiving offers from four of the five dragons on the panel, a strong response for a beauty brand built on a genuinely different manufacturing approach.

Waterless skincare was a genuinely novel angle at the time, built around concentrated formulas that customers dilute themselves, cutting down dramatically on the water, plastic and shipping weight involved in a typical bottle of lotion or cleanser. It is the kind of idea that photographs well on television and tests well with sustainability-minded shoppers, both of which likely contributed to the strength of the response from the panel.

A Deal Struck, Then Walked Away From

Thornton struck a deal on air with Deborah Meaden, but according to later reporting she withdrew from that agreement after the show finished filming, before it closed. On-air handshakes are not binding, and due diligence kills a meaningful share of televised deals before any money changes hands, so a founder walking away from an agreed deal is not unusual on its own.

What is unusual, and what makes this one worth being careful about, is what came after.

Why Post-Show Growth Can Be Dangerous

A Dragons' Den appearance can generate a genuine surge in demand overnight, and that sounds like an unambiguously good problem to have. In practice it is one of the most common ways a young company gets into trouble. Suddenly needing to manufacture, fulfil and ship far more orders than the business planned for forces founders into rapid, expensive decisions, new equipment, new staff, new suppliers, often on financing terms far less favourable than they would get with more time to negotiate.

True Skincare's decision to bring manufacturing and fulfilment in-house rather than continuing to outsource it fits this exact pattern. It is a rational response to a sudden spike in orders, but it converts a company's cost base from variable to fixed at precisely the moment its cash flow is least predictable.

The Liquidation

Trade press coverage from insolvency reporting outlets describes True Skincare's post-Dragons' Den period as one of rapid, costly expansion. The company brought manufacturing and fulfilment in-house to keep up with the attention the show generated, which increased operational costs sharply. Reporting also points to the financial difficulties of a key trade partner, made worse by the broader economic fallout of the war in Ukraine, as placing serious strain on the company's cash flow.

That combination proved fatal. Taunton-based True Skincare Limited entered creditors' voluntary liquidation on 19 June 2024, with insolvency practitioners appointed to handle the wind-down. Company filings show one of the appointed liquidators ceased to act in June 2025, consistent with a liquidation process working its way through to conclusion rather than an active trading business.

It is worth being precise about what liquidation means in practice. A creditors' voluntary liquidation is a formal process where a company's directors, facing debts it cannot pay, choose to wind the business down and appoint an insolvency practitioner to sell whatever assets remain and distribute the proceeds to creditors. It is not the same as a company simply going quiet or a founder walking away informally, it is a legal, documented end to the business.

Where Things Stand Now

True Skincare pitched in Series 18, Episode 3, asked for £75,000 for 12.5 percent, and struck an on-air deal with Deborah Meaden that Emma Thornton later withdrew from. The company subsequently went into liquidation in June 2024 after growth costs and a trading partner's financial trouble strained its cash flow.

If you are trying to buy waterless skincare from the exact company that pitched on Dragons' Den, the honest answer is that it is no longer trading under its original ownership. A website still exists at the same domain, but the evidence points to it now being run by a different skincare business rather than the founder who stood in the Den. This one did not make it, and anyone repeating the "still selling" claim without checking the liquidation filings would be getting it wrong.

Where to buy True Skincare Ltd

Still selling as of 5 June 2026. Check today's price and availability.

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See the full True Skincare Ltd deal breakdown and term sheet →