A Diagnosis That Sparked a Mission
Before Indie Lee Skincare existed, Indie Lee’s life followed a far more traditional career path. She was a CPA with a successful background in finance and had managed HBO’s international finance division. Entrepreneurship was not part of her original vision. Her life revolved around work, family, and raising young children, and while she had always been interested in health and wellness, she had never imagined launching a consumer brand. The turning point came when she developed rheumatoid arthritis and began experiencing severe neurological symptoms that would eventually lead to a devastating diagnosis.
Doctors discovered a rare brain tumor and told her she had six months to live. As she searched for answers, Indie began asking how such a condition could occur when she believed she had been living a healthy lifestyle. She had long been involved in the farm to table movement and even built a greenhouse in her backyard where she grew much of her own food. When she questioned doctors about the cause, they suggested the issue might be environmental exposure. The moment that reframed everything came when her doctor asked a simple question: what was she putting on her skin?
That question forced her to consider something she had never deeply examined before. While consumers were becoming more conscious about what they ate, very few were questioning the ingredients in skincare products. Indie realized that the beauty industry operated with far less transparency than consumers expected. That realization became the foundation of the brand. “That moment was what fueled everything,” she explains. “I realized I need to create change in this industry.” What followed was a new mission. She would create products that were both safe and effective while dedicating her life to educating consumers about the ingredients they were putting on their bodies.
Creating Clean Beauty Before the Category Existed
When Indie Lee began developing products in 2008, the clean beauty category was still largely undefined. Natural skincare products existed, but they often lacked the performance, stability, and aesthetic presentation expected from premium beauty brands. Indie’s earliest experiments with skincare actually began through a personal moment with family. Her sister was expecting a baby, and Indie decided to create something thoughtful to bring to the baby shower using ingredients she had grown herself.
She began blending botanicals from her greenhouse into small skincare batches and shared them with friends and family. “I decided to take ingredients I was growing, tons of calendula, twelve different varieties of lavender, and make some products to share at the baby shower.” The response was immediate. People loved the products and encouraged her to turn the idea into a business. At the time she dismissed the suggestion entirely. Clean beauty was not yet a visible category, and the idea of launching a skincare brand felt unrealistic.
After her diagnosis and surgery, however, the earlier experiments took on new meaning. She began researching ingredients obsessively and speaking with dermatologists, chemists, aromatherapists, and holistic practitioners to understand formulation and ingredient safety. “I started speaking to anyone and everyone I could about the beauty industry,” she explains. Her first product emerged from a practical need. Medication for rheumatoid arthritis had severely dried and irritated her skin, so she created a moisturizing exfoliant to restore hydration. “The first product was something called the Coconut Citrus Scrub. I made it in my kitchen because my skin was so dry and scaly from medication.” That product remains part of the Indie Lee product line today.
The Hard Reality of Building a Brand
From the outside, many successful consumer brands appear to rise quickly, but the reality behind Indie Lee Skincare was far more difficult. To finance the company, Indie relied entirely on personal resources. She sold jewelry, emptied retirement savings, and accumulated credit card debt in order to fund the earliest stages of the business. “I started this brand by selling all my jewelry, emptying my 401k and going into credit card debt.” Every dollar she earned went directly back into the company.
For the first seven years she did not take a paycheck. Manufacturing, packaging, inventory, and distribution all required capital long before the company generated consistent revenue. The financial pressure was immense, especially while raising a family and managing ongoing health challenges. “There were many sleepless nights,” she says. “For the first seven years before we had any real money put into the company there were many days where I thought this was the end of the brand.”
The beauty industry is notoriously expensive to enter, and Indie believes many founders underestimate the cost required to gain traction. “The amount of money that it takes to have a brand light a fire so that it becomes buzzy is exorbitant.” The pressure eventually reached a breaking point where she lost her home, a moment she rarely discusses publicly. “I’ll be honest. I lost my house,” she admits. “There were really rough times and I didn’t know how this was going to end.” Despite those hardships, the mission behind the brand kept her moving forward.
The Packaging Pivot That Changed Everything
One of the most important turning points for Indie Lee Skincare came not from a new product but from a shift in packaging and branding. In the early days Indie focused almost entirely on ingredient quality and sustainability. The formulas worked well, but the brand’s visual presentation did not communicate the premium positioning she envisioned.
She describes the original packaging candidly. “I said I was eco chic, but it was in brown Boston round jars, amber jars. It looked crunchy despite me saying it was chic.” Retail buyers loved the product and customers responded well during trunk shows, but stores struggled to imagine the products sitting on luxury retail shelves. During trunk shows at Henri Bendel, buyers gave feedback that would ultimately reshape the brand. “They said we love your brand, you’re crushing it here, but I can’t see this on a shelf here.”
That feedback led to a complete redesign of the packaging. The product formulas remained exactly the same, but the visual identity of the brand was transformed. Once the design aligned with the product’s promise, retail momentum followed quickly. “All of a sudden everything changed,” Indie recalls. “Bendel’s said yes we want you on the shelf. Then Saks came calling, Anthropologie, Nordstrom, Blue Mercury.” The experience reinforced an important lesson. Even a great product must visually communicate its value before consumers ever pick it up.
From Startup Brand to Industry Movement
As Indie Lee Skincare expanded, the company became part of a broader cultural shift around ingredient awareness and consumer transparency. Clean beauty began evolving from a niche concept into a global category. One of Indie’s most distinctive views is her openness toward competitors entering the space. While many founders view competition as a threat, she believes category growth strengthens the entire industry.
“The only way we’re going to create change is to have enough of these brands to scale a true movement.” For Indie, the goal was never to dominate the clean beauty category alone. The mission was to shift how consumers think about ingredients and transparency. “I helped create change in an industry that needed to be overhauled,” she says. “That can never be taken away from me.”
Today clean beauty products appear in retailers across the country, from specialty boutiques to major national chains. Seeing those products reach mainstream shelves remains one of the most rewarding outcomes of the journey. “Seeing clean beauty on end caps in stores like Target and Walmart, that’s the coolest thing ever. I was a part of making that happen.” The company later received private equity investment and eventually entered a new chapter in 2024 when it joined American Exchange Group, providing additional resources to grow the brand while continuing its mission of education and transparency.
When Indie reflects on the journey, success is defined by something deeper than revenue or scale. “The brand can close tomorrow and I would still feel like it was a success,” she says. “Because we changed the industry.” The story of Indie Lee Skincare serves as a reminder that the most impactful companies often begin with personal conviction rather than market opportunity. Purpose creates endurance, community builds companies, and sometimes the hardest moments in life become the catalyst for the most meaningful work.
