This Pharmacy Lets You Trade Video Game Skins for Skincare Products

Swedish pharmacy Apotek Hjärtat has joined game distribution platform Steam! … and not because it’s made a pharma game (though it recently made a creepy pill out of biohazardous river water). 

With help from agency Wenderfalck out of Stockholm, it’s created “Skin for Skin,” a campaign where people can exchange in-game skins for skincare products. 

In video games, skins change the look of a player or a tool, weapon or other item. On this side of the screen, skin is the largest organ in the body. Apotek Hjärtat notes that hours of screen time—gathering skins, no doubt—creates problems for your human skin. Blue light causes sleep issues and stresses the flesh, while radiation from the screen further irritates it. 

This produces acne … which leads to the reinforcement of hackneyed stereotypes about gamers, and who wants that? 

If you’re a frequent Steam visitor—and an inhabitant of Sweden—who just ran an anxious hand over your face (don’t do that!), here’s how to take advantage of the offer: Befriend Apotek Hjärtat on Steam, and once accepted, send an exchange request. Then gift them a skin. 

Once that’s done, the brand will request your address and send products your way, free of charge. “No information is saved after we have sent your products,” they promise. They even provided a helpful explanatory website, complete with a step-by-step JPG! 

The skincare items in question hail from the Spot Stop line. They include face wash, toner, moisturizer, spot treatment cream, facial masks and cover-up; everything you need for staying stream-ready. 

“Skin for Skin” will run on YouTube, Instagram and Twitch. There was also an activation during Dreamhack Winter 2019, which was replete with esports tournaments and took place in Sweden. 

Meanwhile, Sweden’s largest private pharmacy quietly amasses the biggest, most random collection of skins the world has ever known. It has already begun.