Meet the innovative beauty boss setting the standard for conscious skincare. For this issue, we wanted to speak with Emma Lewisham and discover how her namesake brand has become such a leader in the industry. Read along and get to know her journey, uncover her best beauty secrets, discover her favorite products and more!
We hope to lead a new vision of beauty, where beauty can be a force for good. Our mission is to set a new benchmark in beauty – in product, through luxurious, natural and scientifically proven skincare; in people, through empowering and educating our customers; and in planet, through leading a movement towards a circular, climate positive and transparent beauty industry.
Can you tell us about your journey and how Emma Lewisham, the brand, came to be?
Having prioritised my work over my wellness for ten years, after losing my mother to cancer, I began looking closely at my health, and making lifestyle changes. These lifestyle changes led me to discover that a skincare product I was using to combat hyperpigmentation wasn’t safe to continue using during pregnancy, and was in fact banned in many countries. This put me on the path to find a natural alternative and ultimately to discover the gap in the market for scientifically proven, natural and sustainable skincare. There seemed to be a need to compromise between having natural skincare, and skincare that was scientifically proven to work. I was passionate about proving that you didn’t need to compromise. I could see a way for things to be done differently, and this is what led me to create Emma Lewisham.
Do you have any advice for women looking to build their own businesses?
Firstly, I would encourage anyone who is passionate about something or can see a better way of doing something and is thinking of starting their own business, to just go for it. It takes courage to take the leap of faith and start your own business but the world needs more people who are willing to step out of their comfort zone to create change, and in my experience when it’s something you’re passionate about it’s worth all the hard work.
In terms of advice, I’ve learnt to wear many hats and stay as agile as possible, because things change quickly. Having the ability to be as reactive as you are strategic is an important skill to nurture, as is ensuring that reactive decisions, while made quickly, are always calm and considered. I have also learnt the importance of anticipating growth in order to have the resources and processes in place before a big growth spurt arrives. And finally, a small but significant lesson I’ve learnt is to trust my gut. I’ve found that I always intuitively know when an opportunity, person or situation is the right or wrong fit.
What is your mission as a brand?
We hope to lead a new vision of beauty, where beauty can be a force for good. Our mission is to set a new benchmark in beauty – in product, through luxurious, natural and scientifically proven skincare; in people, through empowering and educating our customers; and in planet, through leading a movement towards a circular, climate positive and transparent beauty industry.
We’d love to learn more about the sustainable efforts that go into making your products and their benefits for us and the planet. Can you speak a bit on this?
In 2021, we proudly became the world’s first certified Climate Positive and 100% circularly designed beauty brand. Through our complimentary global takeback programme, the Emma Lewisham Beauty Circle, we bring back all used packaging to be either refilled or recycled. Our innovative, refill pod and pouch system allows all our packaging to be refilled. This industry-first initiative not only helps to eliminate waste but has been certified to reduce carbon emissions per product by up to 74%. Since launching the Emma Lewisham Beauty Circle in 2020, refills are now between 45-50% of our sales each month. This has resulted in a saving of over 22,000kg of carbon emissions in the last 12 months (the equivalent of driving the length of New Zealand nearly 50 times).
We are also certified Climate Positive at both a business and product level which means that we have gone beyond just neutralising our carbon emissions, instead positively offsetting them in order to have a positive environmental impact. To gain this certification, we measured our total emissions both at a business and product level, in order to understand and identify the areas we could make reductions. After reducing each product’s inherent emissions as much as possible, we then offset our remaining emissions by 125% through an independent certification agency, Toitu Envirocare, to become certified Climate Positive under their Climate Positive Programme.
Finally, we are also strong believers that to play our part in meeting global climate targets we must place collaboration over competition. This led us to share the IP surrounding our circular and climate positive practices industry wide. Through releasing this information, our hope is that other businesses can capitalise off our innovations and investments in order to fast-track their transition to a circular, climate positive and transparent beauty industry.
What advice would you give to brands who want to begin their journey of sustainable production?
My recommendation for any business wishing to become more sustainable, is to partner with sustainability experts who can help guide you in writing a sustainability strategy with science based targets. It’s important to thoroughly assess all the impacts your business has on both people and the environment, identify the areas you can have the greatest impacts and then set specific and measurable targets to work towards. We have found it incredibly valuable to have expertise of an external sustainability consultancy to support us through this process.
What are your top 3 beauty secrets for healthier, happier skin?
I believe that in addition to your skincare routine, lifestyle plays an integral role in healthy skin. There is nothing more powerful than nourishing your body from the inside out, so drinking lots of water, eating healthy, getting plenty of sleep and managing stress through relaxation practices, all do absolute wonders for healthy and happy skin.
What are some of your favorite products from the collection?
Some of my favourite products from our range are the Skin Reset Serum, the Supernatural Face Crème Riche and the Illuminating Oil Cleanser.
The Skin Reset Serum is particularly special to me as it was our founding product, and was developed as a direct result of my inability to find a natural product proven to improve hyperpigmentation. It very quickly became a cult favourite for its incredible results in dramatically reducing hyperpigmentation and brightening the skin.
Then, the Supernatural Face Creme Riche is my favourite everyday product for restoring moisture to my skin. It’s our most advanced moisturising crème, bathing the skin in six types of hyaluronic acid and it’s proven to regenerate collagen at a cellular level. It always leaves my skin feeling plumped, hydrated and glowing.
And, then finally, I love our Illuminating Oil Cleanser. This luxurious cleanser is rich in vitamin E and contains a triple action cleansing complex that deeply cleans the skin without stripping natural oils. It goes on as an oil and then turns into the most beautiful milky emulsion when you add water. It also provides antioxidant protection and hydration even after you rinse it off, and doesn’t leave any oily residue.
