May 25, 2021
May Lindstrom, CEO and founder of cult LA-based indie beauty
brand that carries her name, mother of two young children, and
partner in business with her CFO husband, joined us for a
remarkable episode of Green Beauty Conversations.
If you know May Lindstrom, the chances are it is through her
brand's fabulously coloured Blue Cocoon
Beauty Balm Concentrate; a product that has seen many a
copy-cat. This episode of Green Beauty Conversations only touches
on this hero product because it is the truly unique, quiet and
mindful way May Lindstrom has built her business that caught our
attention.
In some ways, May's personal journey to starting 'May Lindstrom
the brand' resonates with many founders in the indie, natural
beauty space. She has hypersensitive skin and spent her childhood
to early twenties desperately seeking ways to alleviate a raft of
skin problems triggered by using synthetic ingredients in
mainstream personal care.
But, this is where May Lindstrom's backstory parts ways with
other indie beauty founders. A childhood amidst nature and parents
who taught her to see magic in the great outdoors, gave May her
lasting sense of responsibility to humanity and nature.
Her formative experiences and deeply-rooted personal
philosophies drove the brand at start up, and still do today even
as it has reached iconic status. Interestingly, May, ever a
creative child, became an art student, model and make-up artist but
had once set her sights on becoming a chef with her own restaurant.
May is not called 'The Skin Chef' for nothing.
Her products are renowned for their high-quality, ethically- and
sustainably-sourced ingredients. May takes obsessive care in
sourcing natural botanical cosmetic ingredients directly from
trusted, vetted farmers and other suppliers just as if she were
cooking with them and nourishing her own family from within.
In this podcast, host and Formula Botanica CEO Lorraine
Dallmeier reveals the May Lindstom behind her now celebrity status
to discover a truly atypical, indie beauty brand founder. May puts
sourcing the highest quality ingredients before growth and people
most certainly before profit, is unphased by copy-cat products and
will pull out of big retailers even when profitable if they can't
support her brand in line with her high standards.
As she says, with each product having her name on it, May
Lindstrom is still a very personal business with all the good times
and the difficulties that come with keeping things relatively small
in a very big, profit-driven industry. Listen in for a chance to
hear how May Lindstrom founder and brand thrive by bucking the
beauty industry normal.
In this episode with May Lindstrom, you will
hear:
- How in formulating for her own skin issues and for individual
clients with severe skin problems gave May her expertise in
ingredients and how to make products effective, but that skincare
needs also and as importantly to be sensorial, magical and
beautiful and take you to a different space.
- Why May deliberately formulated a capsule collection beauty
range rather than felt pressured to continually release new
products. 'Choice can be paralysing', May says. A multitasking,
smaller range is also in line with the current minimalism trend in
skincare.
- Why your customer's opinion comes first. Listen directly to
clients about what they like or don't in a formula and reformulate
to respond to their needs. Do this rather than pump out new stock
to suit retailers (who often don't have the systems in place to
sell your current stock well before its Best Before dates
anyway!).
- How May Lindstrom retains complete control over her company to
ensure they own the entire manufacturing process. 'Ingredient
integrity' is of paramount importance to indie beauty brands if
they wish to differentiate. Outsourcing means you often lose
control over the provenance of your ingredients and you won't know
how they went from seed to skincare.
- Why May doesn't like to focus on categories such as 'green',
'clean' beauty. Her philosophy is to make skincare with kindness
that connects people to themselves and helps them find their own
kind of beautiful. This approach underpins all her
formulations.
Key take-outs include:
- If you think of sustainability as just packaging, you are so
far behind! May Lindstrom ensures every aspect of the company seeks
to operate sustainably; by paying a living wage (and in line Los
Angeles rates); hand selecting ingredient suppliers and farmers who
run ethical, sustainable businesses; and drilling down into the
provenance of every component in their operations.
- A successful beauty business needs to change lives, not just
turn a profit. Ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing,
and if it lifts others up either changing their skin and/or
changing their relationship with their skin.
- Any brand can create good skincare, but to differentiate itself
it needs compassion, commitment and courage to think differently.
May Lindstrom is growing direct-to-consumer business in preference
to expanding into more retailers as it wishes to keep greater
control of its values and and product quality at the point of
sale.
- Copycat brands and products are unlikely to be a threat if you
work to establish your credentials as an ethical brand. Products
may be copied but you alone own your founding philosophy as an
indie beauty brand.
Discover May Lindstrom:
Website: maylindstrom.com Instagram:
@maylindstromskin