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December 06, 2007
Posted at 02:26PM
Kathleen Lewis
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| I never had any intention of going into the beauty business. What a crazy thing to do in today's corporate world! I began by making products for myself, because I like natural products and they were not as readily available fifteen years ago when I started. I was in a beauty store at the time and it struck me—not long ago, families made their own soap, or cream. How hard could it be? I began experimenting on my own. You can't make one bar of soap, you have to make 30 or so at a time, so before you know it, you have 100 bars of soap drying around the house! I live in Brooklyn's Park Slope, and about seven years ago a great new boutique opened in the neighborhood. They carried many very cool local indie designers but had some boring, cheap soaps for sale. I couldn't resist telling them about my cool homemade soap, and they were happy to discover that someone still made soap! That led to a similar encounter with a new store in Manhattan that was happy to discover someone who made lotion, cream, candles—all of the categories. That store began carrying my products, and soon after, the exposure got me into other stores around the country. I owned another company at the time, an emergency child care service here in New York called Pinch Sitters. When the Manhattan store offered to represent my line in the wholesale market, I sold Pinch Sitters and started Kathleen Lewis Beauty. |
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| My philosophy of skin care is "Do no harm." It shouldn't be that complicated to cleanse and moisturize you skin. Fifteen years ago, when I first started making my own products, everything was trending towards science. It seemed like only doctors and large corporations could tell you how to wash and what ingredients to use. The result was a damaging chain, where each product necessitated another; you dried out your skin with the wash or the toner and then needed a five-step program to counteract the previous step. With all-natural ingredients, it is much simpler and doesn't harm your skin with unnecessary chemicals. It is also much easier on the environment. | ||||||||
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| In my daily life, I use the good plain and vitamin products. I use Good Plain Cream to remove makeup, vitamin foam wash or good plain soap to cleanse, and to moisturize, Good Plain Cream in the morning and Vitamin Cream at night. That said, I am always rediscovering my fragrance products. Since I work with fragrances all day, I often don't really "smell" them. Whenever I do store events or trade shows, and I am showing the products, I get reacquainted with how pretty narcissus is and understand again why people love honey so much. | ||||||||
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| The greatest obstacle for any business owner is the limitation of their own mind. I am a one-person operation and anything that happens I have to think of it, create it and execute the plan. I always have to be fresh, focused and organized. | ||||||||
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| I love the old-fashioned, simple way that I do business. I think of a product, make it myself, put it in a box, sell it directly and get paid for it. That basic way of doing business is unique in today's economy. | ||||||||
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