What is the essence of Loïs Lee Pure Skinfood?
The essence of Loïs Lee Pure Skinfood is to help women find their most beautiful skin. Through our skincare products, beauty tools, and soon even skin supplements, women are taking care of their skin in an even more holistic way – working from the outside in, as well as from the inside out.
How did you come up with the 3-Step Beauty Ritual?
I have always loved using oils to nourish my skin, but there was something missing: my skin was never completely nourished and moist. At one point, my mentor Ellen (a famous aromatherapist) spritzed some rose water before using a beautiful plant oil… and then lightning struck me. That was it: skin needs both moisture and lipids! But I didn’t want to formulate just any regular cream (which is mainly water and lipids, but also all kinds of other ‘stuff’ – at Loïs Lee, we call it meuk – which isn’t put in to care for your skin but more for conserving, emulsifying and stabilizing). Not just that hormone-disrupting chemicals are used, but that these ingredients also typically have a negative impact on your skin microbiome. So with that in mind, I formulated a lipid product and a water product, separately. Which was also convenient, because now you are able to customize the products to your skin’s needs. Together with the most important step (cleansing), I thought of a ‘Back to Basics’ system: cleanse | hydrate | nourish.
When did you first realize that pH had such a huge impact on our skin?
After I sold my first products – which was through crowdfunding, as I didn’t have any money to start my business at first – people were wanting to buy the products again. Women told me their eczema and rosacea disappeared after using my products. I was amazed and didn’t really understand why that was happening. After researching, I learned that our skin pH has to be slightly acidic. Most skincare products are too alkaline for our skin. The pH of our Hydrating Lotion, for instance, is about 4.5 – making it perfect for balancing the skin’s pH. Skin that is too alkaline is more prone to acne, dryness, rosacea, eczema, premature aging, etc.
What do you suggest to those just entering the world of natural / organic cosmetics?
Read ingredients lists. Always. Even ‘natural / organic’ brands may use some nasty stuff (meuk) I wouldn’t want to put on my skin – like phenoxyethanol (a preservative used as an alternative for parabens). Also, there is a lot of ‘greenwashing’ going on: brands or products pretending to be green when in fact they only use a small amount of natural ingredients – just to be able to put “natural” on their labels.
Is there anything you feel is missing from the natural / organic cosmetics industry at the moment?
No, actually I think there are lots of nice clean independent brands out there changing the industry for the better ♥
What has been one of the most helpful lessons/reminders throughout the development of your company?
To always listen to and trust my intuition. Collaborations that were very promising and lucrative but didn’t feel good I didn’t enter into. People who told me my idea was not good enough had me doubting it at first, but I stuck to my initial ideas. And it worked! ?
Which of your products has become a most trusted companion?
Our 3-Step Beauty Ritual is a true game-changer. It’s the foundation of beautiful, glowing, healthy skin!
In what ways does sustainability play a role in your overall process?
In different ways… for example, we use glass packaging – not only because oils should never be put in plastic containers (due to hormone-disrupting chemicals in the plastic leaking into the oils), but also because glass, especially Miron glas, preserves oils and hydrosols best and is recyclable. Loïs Lee is part of the Plastic Soup Foundation, and we are working on a refill program for our bottles. On top of this, we also hand out special flower seeds every spring to grow bee-loving flowers, to help maintain the bee population.
What lies in Loïs Lee’s near future?
We are working on new products for our current skincare line – including a serum to protect against harmful UV rays & pollution, and a night serum with a natural alternative to vitamin A. Besides that, we will be launching our first supplement in our special vegan skin supplement line (Beauty from the Inside Out) – and also launching a skincare line this year for younger girls, aged 14-18. Whoop whoop!
Any final words you’d like to share with our readers?
Get your glow on and rock your mission!
Tags: Behind the Brand, Skin Care, Skin Health
J. R. Thesis Smith is a mixed-race millenial in the dawn of their 30s & a wordsmith of sorts. They've spent most of their waking life in the U.S. – in the urban sprawl of NYC that is New Jersey, in the depths of its suburban echoes – but always dreamed of making their way across a bigger pond, to a place where opportunity would knock a little more often. After completing their training at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts (effectively spending three poor years in NYC) as a dance major, they gifted themselves a semester of studying abroad in Berlin, and in doing so kept a vow made in early adolescence – thereby inciting a metamorphosis of promise into full-bodied intention: to eventually fully emigrate to Berlin, the first space that had ever allowed them the freedom to find their own breath, their pace of existence. Now that they finally live there, they're learning how to breathe again – striving to become a more active member of the Undercommons as they continue on the odyssey that is their self-realization as an artistic being. Their most resonant hope is that they will be able to say what is true & necessary & kind; that people will find the time to listen, to themselves and each other; and that their voice will inspire other voices to speak out in turn.
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