Indie Lee was given less than six months to live, so she did what few of us would do: found a clean skincare company. On this episode, Indie opens up about where she found her passion for living and how surviving a brain tumor sparked the idea for her company. We'll dig in to why clean beauty is here to stay and get specific about how to start making your routine a bit cleaner. And you can shop Indie and Alex's favorite things at verishop.com/inspo.
Indie Lee was given less than six months to live, so she did what few of us would do: found a clean skincare company. On this episode of "Finding Inspo with Alex Barinka," Indie opens up about where she found her passion for living and how surviving a brain tumor sparked the idea for her company. We'll dig in to why clean beauty is here to stay and get specific about how to start making your routine a bit cleaner. You won't want to miss this heavy dose of life and career inspiration.
Every episode of "Finding Inspo with Alex Barinka" is shoppable through e-commerce company Verishop to help you discover new brands through their unique stories. Indie Lee and host Alex Barinka have curated their favorite products in the Finding Inspo store at verishop.com/inspo. New Verishop customers can take 20% off their first purchase with the code INSPOINDIE (exclusions may apply; code expires 30 days after episode publication and cannot be combined with other promotions).
Follow the podcast on Twitter and Instagram at @inspopodcast and Alex Barinka on Twitter and Instagram at @alexbarinka. Tweet or comment to Alex on social media, or write a podcast review, about where you are finding inspo from this conversation, and she may read your takeaways on the next episode.
This podcast is executive produced by Alex Barinka, who also serves as head of external affairs at Verishop. Special thanks to Wonder Media Network for editing and production support. See you soon!
Alex Barinka: Hey y'all, Alex Barinka here, head of external affairs at Verishop and host of Finding Inspo, the podcast that brings you a heaping helping of inspiration with a side of style. And let me tell y'all, my guest today brings it in the inspo department. Indie Lee is founder and CEO of the skincare line by the same name, Indie Lee. She was doing clean beauty before it was cool, formulating effective skin care products that are not only packed with natural nontoxic ingredients, but are also exceptionally chic. I sat down with Indie at her offices in Port Chester, New York, a lush green suburb about an hour's train ride north of New York City. She told me how she looked death in the face and said, not today. It was an experience that went on to inspire her company, but that's not her whole story. Indie's career started far from the gardens where her skincare business was born.
Indie Lee: I went to school for accounting. Okay, so I graduated with a degree in accounting, became a CPA, worked for one of the big four. I think back then it was the big eight,Ernst and Young, and then left after I got my CPA certification and went to work for HBO in their International Finance Division and I was managing the international finance division for probably six or seven years. It was incredible experience. I got to travel all over the world for them, put them in central Europe, Latin America, the Pacific Rim, at such an incredibly young age in my career to be able to be exposed to things like that. It was just an opportunity that I don't think many people have.
Alex Barinka: When you do look at the skill set you built, when you're working with HBO, are there certain things that you have taken away and and applied now at your company, Indie Lee. It's a right brain, left brain kind of difference, right? There must be things that you learned.
Indie Lee: Absolutely. Accounting is accounting. I mean that that's pretty consistent and debt. The debits and credits have to equal, so a balance sheet is still a balance sheet. A P&L is still a P&L. And so that skill set of understanding business and how to look at a set of financials absolutely helped when I decided to start Indie Lee to understand return on investment, understand that you have cash flow, what you needed to have in order to build a business, cost of goods. Those were things that were very familiar to me and didn't make it so scary, that the starting of the business or incorporation. That was not difficult. It was, I was very new to the beauty business. That was what was unbeknownst to me, and certainly not in the creativity in terms of formulation. That was all new.
Indie Lee: And so you're at HBO, you're working in the international finance division and eventually, you left. You quit. What led up to that decision?
Alex Barinka: So I worked at, in the international division, then I had my son and, and traveling internationally wasn't exactly something that was appealing to me, and I needed to move into the domestic side. I was so lucky that they allowed me that opportunity to go and work domestically for them. It was just a different floor, but we got involved in the revenue reporting groups, which is one of the largest groups there in terms of finance being the size of HBO, which was wonderful. But that creativity in terms of, if you could call it accounting creative, but the international side was really what was appealing to me and I just, I wasn't enjoying it as much.
Indie Lee: I realized this is not what I really love to do and the organization was changing so much and I said, you know this, I'm starting to have those Sundays where I didn't want to go to work, but I loved the career development of my team, et Cetera. And so I went into recruiting career development and left HBO, which was really hard cause I kind of grew up there after eight years and did some recruiting and career development and coaching. And then a friend of mine was starting a business about starting school gardens here in Westchester County. I love to garden, I have green fingers, toes and there's little thing, I love to garden. And I said, let me help you with this business. I will run your greenhouse. They said, well, we don't really have a greenhouse or nursery. And I said, I know, let me do that.
Indie Lee: So I built a 750-square-foot greenhouse in my backyard. By the way, it has a chandelier in it. So I, you know, go big go home type of thing. And I was doing that. I was helping to bring school gardens to life and teaching that farm to table movement to children, which was really inspirational to me and to have that conversation and that connection and for them to get their hands dirty and understand stewardship of the earth and sustainability. So I got very involved with that. What happened was one day in the office turned to two days in the office and before I knew I was really finance and was really working in the office and other people were in my greenhouse.
Alex Barinka: You fall back on those things, right?
Indie Lee: And you're right. You do. And I was like, I don't, I don't like this. I don't want to do this. So I said, you know, this isn't working. I'll help provide the plants for you, but I'm going to just work in the greenhouse. And I started to grow micro greens and edible flowers and I was selling those to some of the local restaurants and Whole Foods. And then in June of 2008, I couldn't open and close my hand and I couldn't put my shoes on my feet and I couldn't lace them up and I thought I might have Lyme disease. And I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and I was no longer able to work in the greenhouse or the farm that I had put in my backyard. So I was really at a crossroad. It was like, what am I going to do? I built this thing that I wanted to do.
Alex Barinka: Because obviously, it's a health issue and that's a problem in of itself, but you know, quitting a job that you're comfortable in is really scary. And you found this passion project and then now to not be able to do it, that seems like a whole other level of mental hurdle that you have to get through aside from yeah, new diagnosis.
Indie Lee: Absolutely. Absolutely. It was as someone who's a type-a personality working, Ernst and Young, HBO then going to the career coaching and recruiting, that's a big change. That was a huge risk and I was very risk adverse. And I thought I had my plan. I mean I'm a planner. How is this happening? It was true. It was really questioning my sense of self, which was, you kind of had this identity crisis and then is that exactly as you said and then you're like, wait, I'm sick, too. What's going on here? And I always believe the universe kind of sends you signs. So my sister says she's pregnant and I have all this ingredients and I knew about the toxic load.
Indie Lee: I understood it because I was getting very involved with slow food movement. I knew about what you're putting on your body and what you're putting in your body, but I was very concentrated on what you're putting in your body. But there I was unable to work on what I was planning to do. My sister says she's pregnant, I have all this lavender, all this calendula. I said, oh my gosh, I don't want anything toxic going on my nephew's tush, I'm going to make some products. So type-A personality goes and learns how to use Photoshop and made labels and bought a label printer and then starts, you know, learning how to do DIY salves and, and you know, baby oils. And I created this little line just for her and made little mini ones to give out at the baby shower. And everyone says to me, oh my gosh, this is what you should do.
Indie Lee: You have to realize 2008, the clean beauty space was really not there. It was exactly what we thought. It was. Very, um, farm farmers market crunchy Granola, et cetera.
Alex Barinka: That's not for everyone.
Indie Lee: It wasn't for everyone. It wasn't for everyone. No. And it was certainly wasn't available unless you're going to the farmer's market. So I said, okay, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to go ahead and do this, but everyone said, this is what you do for a living. I'm like, I don't know if this is what I want to do for a living. And my mom's like, oh my gosh, she's gonna make an industry of baby products. I didn't really think that's what I want to do. I don't know what it is. And then, the universe decided to send me a different message and I started to notice that I was losing my vision out of my left eye.
Indie Lee: I said, oh, this is really strange. I had just been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and been on chemotherapy drugs for it to help with the flare ups and now I'm losing my vision, what's going on? And it was November 4th, 2008, I can remember it like it was yesterday. And I go to the doctor and he said, okay, well we need to send you in for an MRI. I said, "Okay, let me see what works for me." He said, "Now, now works." And I went off to radiology. 45 minutes after he called me and said, "Could you come in?" I said, "Sure, tell me what's up." He's like, "Well, I'll tell you when you get here." I was like, "No, now I'm going to go Google things and that's not going to happen."
Alex Barinka: Type-A again.
Indie Lee: Oh yeah, right. Of course. And you know the dark rabbit hole. You go down on Web MD. And he said, okay, well the long as you promise, I'll tell you. I said, OK, let's go. He said, "You have a brain tumor." I said, "I'll see you in 15 minutes." I didn't call anyone. I got in my car and started driving and it was in that 15 minute drive. That's all it was that my life changed dramatically. I realized that something powerful was going to come out of this. I knew it. If I would step back and allow this and just take this as a journey and embrace life and see what's happening. I didn't feel like, oh my gosh, I'm dying. I just said, okay, there's a lesson. There's something. I also realized that I was a planner where I didn't realize I knew it was, but I had to be self reflective enough to be honest with myself and said, oh my gosh, I'm a planner. I've been sitting here for the past 37 years, planning my life away. I had forgotten to live it. I was literally a passenger in my own life. And it was a great life.
Indie Lee: I don't want you to think like I, but I wasn't an active participant. I wasn't living vibrantly. And I said, okay, here's the lesson for whatever time I have left, I'm going to live every day with what I now call the three P's: with passion, purpose, every day be present to the potential.
Alex Barinka: And it takes such a level of, of I think emotional, perhaps maturity is the right word, to embrace that moment like that and to say everything happens for a reason, and to say, okay, I'm not just going to use this as something that shuts me down, but actually something that lifts me up. Where do you think you got that?
Indie Lee: I'm an optimist by nature. But I'm also a Buddhist and practice. I've been a practicing Buddhist for many years, close to 20 now. So there is no doubt that that practice and that faith had gotten me through a lot of difficulties in my life and certainly that, that hurdle.
Indie Lee: And I think it was that faith, that knowing to allow and to go in with positivity that something incredible will come out of it. There's no doubt that that's what got me through that in my optimism and obviously an incredible support system of friends and family. But I think it was that sense of faith, of knowing there's something bigger out there that allowed this town to have that self reflection in a very short period of time. And people always say, you know, you have a bad day and you cycle through it so quickly. It's that practice that helps me do it. So by the time I got to doctor's office, I was like, let's go. And he said, bring it. Yeah, he's a little confused. This is not what I expected it to be walking. He was put fucking office. I said, no, this is going to be okay.
Indie Lee: I said, well, what is it though? He said, I don't know, but it doesn't look like cancer. And it was not. He said, but it looks pretty serious. You need to go see some really heavy hitters. So I consulted with people at Duke, Johns Hopkins, Sloan Kettering, the NIH and the doctor said, we don't know what this is. It doesn't look like cancer, but you need to get your affairs in order. You could have as little as six months to live. And I would say, thank you so much for that diagnosis. I don't think so. And I would go and look at for another one. And in between my first two doctors, I met with my neuroendocrinologist and I said, how is this happening? Nobody in my family has anything like this. And he said, we're seeing more and more of these things tied to the environment.
Indie Lee: Doc, I've got a very large greenhouse in my backyard that I'm eating organic at, or what are you talking about? He said, yeah, that could be environment, but what do you put on your skin? That was my Aha. That was my awakening. That was it. In that moment that what is my purpose became crystal clear and I realized that, you know, the universe was sending me all these incredible signs, you know, greenhouse, starting a children's line, you know, baby line of products that was it. This was it. And I knew that it's largely unregulated industry. The laws hasn't been fundamentally changed since 1938.
Alex Barinka: Especially here in the U.S.
New Speaker: Oh the U.S. Is the worst, we're terrible, which is incredible because we have so many resources available to us. But yet the changes happen. I mean, yes, there are more laws being introduced now in terms of personal care, but we have so far to go to even catch up with the EU and I said, nobody should be saying goodbye to their children like this.
Indie Lee: I'm going to start a line that is clean, that is effective and safe. I want it to look really beautiful because again, 2008, 2009, things don't look beautiful on a shelf and more broadly, I really want to create a platform for change. I wanted to educate and empower people to live their healthiest life. And I walked out and my best friend was sitting in the waiting room. She was like, you're in a good mood. I'm like, I know what we're going to do. I know the purpose. I'm going to create a skincare line. It's going to be clean, it's going to be effective, it's going to look beautiful. I'm going to educate. She's like, what happened in that doctor's appointment? And here we are. When you're getting six months to live, you have a choice of how you're to live it. Again, going back to that Buddhist principle, I was going to live every moment to the fullest and I was going to brace everything and I was going to really be positive because I do know you live in choice.
Indie Lee: So my choice was to choose joy in every possible moment and look at it with an opportunity. And so when my kids were at school, I read everything I could on the beauty industry, on skincare, on DIY products, everything. I spoke with, aroma therapists, homeopathic doctor, naturalpath, I mean you name it, I spoke with them and I started concocting. And I found a doctor fortunately for me who also said, I'll give you a shot at surgery. So he said, okay, I don't know what this is again, but let's do it. Let's do it on April 22nd. So for any of the listeners, April 22nd is Earth Day. It is so universe sends you a sign. I said, that's a good sign. And so they said, we'll do it. And I said, okay, let's go. And he said, well you have less than a 50% chance of waking up.
Indie Lee: I said, that is fantastic because I don't have any if we don't do it. And I was already starting to slow down. So April 22nd I walked in and said, today's a great day to live. Let's put on some kick tissue music and get going. Of course the anesthesiologist thought I was nuts, asked if I had been taking drugs or drinking because I was way too happy and many hours, many, many hours later when I woke up and then when I went to see, I wasn't able to see really out of my left eye at that point. And when I woke up I was able to see completely and my first words out of my mouth were, oh my gosh, I can see, and the nurse just like, you're awake. I go, good sign. But I wasn't able to see. And I got the entire surgical team in and the doctor took my hand and said, we got everything welcome to the rest of your life.
Indie Lee: God, it's the most incredible journey since that day. I don't think I could have ever played this out in my mind.
Alex Barinka: But a lot of people would not have reacted the way that you did. I think that speaks to such a resilience of spirit to be able to go into that and say, look, we're going to do this. You're going to do this with your health. You're going to do this with, uh, your new passion project.So from there, what did you do from there? Right. You have this new lease on life. You are more grounded now the your beliefs that got you through. What happened next?
Alex Barinka: Again, embracing my woo-woo side, right. It was full on, I mean even before surgery, I had a website ready to go. I had a couple of products ready to go and I remember waking up from surgery and a few hours in recovery and whatnot, and I call the gentleman who was helping me with the website.
Indie Lee: I'm like, we're going to turn it on in a month. Let's go. And he's like, did you just wake up from brain surgery? I'm like, I am so ready.
Alex Barinka: Literally hitting the ground running
Indie Lee: literally. And that's what I did. I literally hit the ground running. I think it was my ignorance. I mean they say ignorance is bliss. I think it was that not knowing and truly not understanding what I was getting myself into that gave me the courage to do it. But also in my mind, knew I was living for a reason. And so when you have that in your mind and you know there's a purpose and you're living everyday with purpose, you're almost myopic. It's like you're going, and I bet also having lived through what you live through, it puts the idea of failure in a different perspective. Yes, absolutely. I, you know, I used to say failure is not an option. And for me, not creating this was never an option, but I really am starting to think that it's not -- you're going to fail all sorts of things, you know what I mean? That's not a problem. It's fail quick. You know. Let's go and then move on to the next thing. When I realized is it wasn't that they were failures, they were just lessons. So, okay, this didn't go right. Great. Let's change course. Let's go here. Okay, this happened. Okay, great. Let's choose this now. Because I was given this opportunity at this, at life, you can't help but look at things differently. I mean, even when I have a bad day, I have to reflect on the fact that I get to have a bad day. The opposite was I wasn't going to be here. I wasn't going to see my daughter turned 16 I wasn't going to take my son to college.
Indie Lee: That wasn't even in the realm of possibilities. So if something goes wrong, no one's dying. I'm still here. I'm creating change. I'm connecting with people. You know? For me, the skincare is obviously the line is so important and fundamental, but this connection with our community in creating this community, that is what keeps me fired on all cylinders every day. I mean, social media is such a gift because I get to communicate with people from around the world of how we're changing their life because they're feeling more positive about how they look. They don't have to wear a foundation or they feel comfortable in their own skin or it's him going through this very difficult process, and I heard your story and your optimism is what is keeping me grounded right now. I mean just it doesn't, I don't think it gets better than that. I don't think it does. No. I think that's really all part of this story. It's not just about the skincare. It is about this journey of life and embracing it and living in joy at every possible moment.
Alex Barinka: Let's take a quick break for my chat with clean skincare maven, Indie Lee. We're about to dig into how she built your company and then we're going to get real specific about some of our favorite Indie Lee products and I want you to know that I've made it super easy to find them. With every new episode I'll be curating a list of my guests and my favorite products for the special Finding Inspo store on verishop.com. It will include items from our conversation and a few others that are inspiring us lately, and next to each product we'll tell you why we're into it. You can find it at verishop.com/inspo, and I'll also link it in the show notes. And just for Finding Inspo listeners, new Verishop customers can take 20% off their first purchase with the code INSPOINDIE. That's one word. INSPOINDIE. You're not going to want to miss the rest of our chat because we are talking business. We'll dive into how Indie Lee went from concocting lotions and potions in her kitchen to where the company is now. We'll give advice on keeping your sanity during that controlled chaos of starting a business and give some tips on where to start making your beauty routine a bit cleaner.
Alex Barinka: You hit the ground running, you've designed your website, you're starting to formulate. Take us back to, what was it now? Probably 2009 when you really started to dig in.
Indie Lee: Yeah, so April 22nd, 2009 is when I had surgery. I had some of the products from my sister's baby's little collection, right? So I had some of those and I was starting to bring more products out that I was concocting, literally concocting in my kitchen and then I realized this isn't the way to do it. And I was thinking of coming out with a hair line. I was working with someone. I said, okay, this is going to work with you. He introduced me to a formulator down in Florida who I still to this day use and work with. And that relationship with that formulator has helped me create products that I could never create in my kitchen.
Indie Lee: And it just really started to grow from there. And you know, I said we were going to be eco chic when we started. We were very eco eco, you know, I had no money. I started this line by selling all my jewelry outside of maybe three pieces. I realized I was dying, I couldn't take it with me. Things don't matter, it's people and emotions that matter. And so I sold my jewelry and started and then it got a little bigger because I didn't have that much jewelry. And then I cashed in my 401k from HBO and then we started to grow and everything that was made and we made him money, went right back into the company. And then I was really lucky because other people were starting to come on board to help and they were, you know, friends and family. So we started to bring in that as well to help grow us.
Indie Lee: I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the help of friends and family who helped to support us when, you know, like my 401k was not enough. We actually were able to keep going with that small amount of money for about seven years because every dollar that came in, we went right back into the company. And what I realized is so we said we were eco chic, we were eco, eco. We were in brown bottles, we were very granola, very granola still. And were working with a PR company and they're like, you say your eco chic, but you're really still eco. And I said, yeah, we're what we say, well your heart and what is communicated on the packaging aren't matching. And yet we were doing really, we did trunk shows at Henri Bendel and then they were like, oh my gosh, you're doing fantastic, but the look isn't something we would carry on our shelf.
Indie Lee: And so my designer and I started to talk and my designer still with me today and he said, okay, we need to rebrand and really take a look at who you are. And we relaunched, I think it was 2013, 2014, April 22nd again on shelf at Henri Bendel completely different look but very similar to what we looked like now. And that's when things started to change because what we said, we were matched what we looked like on shelf and it was beautiful and it was different and it was clean and it made sense. And now we're starting to get press and now retailers were coming to us. And with that change, the business trajectory changed
Alex Barinka: The trajectory of clean beauty in general also changed that time. How did you see that align, and where do you think you fell into that kind of a change in the industry?
Indie Lee: I mean there, there was a group of us who were, who were pretty much starting off. I mean Dr. Haushka was around for awhile and certainly products from Europe had been cleaner, but you were starting to see the momentum growing more and more people were coming on the scene because we were starting to have the dialogue. You're starting to hear rumblings of what you're putting on your skin could be absorbed. People are now talking about it. Studies are now proving there's a link and people are realizing that what's created in Europe is very different than what's created here and now the industry is starting to grow, so we all kind of get to rise with that tide. It's incredible to see and be a part of it.
Alex Barinka: You had the very unfortunate situation where you were kind of smacked in the face with this idea of environmental toxins affecting your body. Not everyone goes through that yet. People are now more aware and shifting more toward, um, you know, being very conscientious about what they're putting on their body or at least starting to integrate things into their daily routine. Why do you think there's this more consumer shift right now? I mean, we're starting with clean that that would have seen seemed really risky to start a new beauty category at a new ecommerce site in clean, but we feel that it's not just a trend. We think it's actually a movement and that it's here to stay. Why do you think we've seen now this, this monumental shift over the past few years?
Indie Lee: I, first of all, I completely agree. I love to say it is not a trend. It is here to stay. I know anybody in this movement agrees with you, but our goal is for there to just be beauty where you don't even have to have the word clean in front of it.
Indie Lee: That's, that's what success looks like, that that's the norm. I think the reason why is because brands like myself, brands like Tata Harper, brands like Rosemary from RMS, you've got these people who, well people, you know, people who started in this, we're talking about it, Beauty Counter, you're starting to hear it. People are starting to take the time to talk about it on broadcast. People are talking about it in the news, these lawsuits, these things are coming to light in mainstream media so you can't help but to notice it. The other part is technology has changed. Ingredient technology has changed. You no longer need to sacrifice the efficacy for that clean beauty. So at one point people are like, oh, it's lovely, but does it really work? Absolutely. It is just as good if not better than conventional. So there is no sacrifice. So I think people are willing to embrace it.
Indie Lee: It looks mainstream and you've got retailers, you've got dedicated retailers to clean beauty, right? Brick and mortar. But you've also got other, I would say, mainstream retailers that are embracing this movement and bringing it forth and talking about why it's important too. So you've got this perfect storm going on that it just is easy. But Social media I think really has played a tremendous part of that because you can't help it be on and people talking about it in your feed and it's not just one post anymore. It's five, six, seven, eight, nine posts, you know, in your 20 posts, you know, feed that groundswell is now here.
Alex Barinka: So what do you say to folks who want to be more clean in their day to day routine and they don't really know where to get started? What would your suggestion be?
Indie Lee: I don't say that you have to be like me who basically went home and opened her drawer and I, I, you know, I'm from Long Island. I said, open it up and throws everything out. All the samples that I had that I'd been saving for no reason. Like I was the lotions and potions junkie that gets very expensive. And you also might have a reaction to something, even though it's clean, you could have a reaction if you are allergic to mangoes and something has mango in it, that doesn't mean you couldn't have a reaction. So what happens is people buy everything new. They might have a reaction to something, they don't know what product it is. Like, oh clean doesn't work. I suggest that when you start to run out of a product, that's when you start doing your due diligence and your research and then replace it with a clean one and start figuring out what brands you like, etc. And then when the next one you start working on that.
Indie Lee: And so before you know it, within a course of, you know, three to six months, you've changed over the majority of your routine just by virtue of you running out of things. And if you still have something in your drawer for three years and you probably didn't love it that much cause you haven't used it up.
Alex Barinka: So is there something in your assortment that you say would be a good jumping off point?
Indie Lee: Yeah. I mean again it goes to what are you're running out of, but obviously we're known for our cleansers. I mean it's a great entree where people say, oh my gosh, it removes your makeup. It cleans your face. It's not stripping.
Alex Barinka: I'm obsessed with the rosehip. That's my go to.
Indie Lee: There you go. And people are into the scents because they're non-synthetic, right? So you've got these beautiful scents that are clean that people, can have this reaction to and say, oh my gosh, this is mine.
Indie Lee: And they're having beautiful results. Their skin is clear.
Alex Barinka: You know, it seems like you all have a lot of thoughtfulness in your ingredients and you have a lot of really unique ingredients that are efficacious. Can you kind of talk through how you get to a squalane oil or some of the stuff that's in your Co-Q-10 toner, because they are seemingly unique and, and other folks are jumping on the bandwagon, too.
Indie Lee: And so the cleansers are fantastic. If you're buying a moisturizer, a squalane oil, one ingredient. So easy to make that switch and our body produces it in abundance naturally until your mid twenties so I think people are now realizing what a great ingredient. It's got so many benefits. Why not start to bring it into our skincare? I know I'm known as the Squalane Queen.
Indie Lee: It's like you're known for this ingredient. And I didn't invent it. It was sort of like I was looking at creating a product for my face, a moisturizer and I start to do some research and I said, well, our body produces it. Why not? And you can get it from a plant source, olives and sugar. Why wouldn't we just use that if it helps regulate oil production and you know, it's absorbed super fast. So you know, fantastic for texture and tone, it's done wonders for me with my hyperpigmentation. Like why wouldn't people use this? And realizing that you can source it ethically and you can source it botanically.
Alex Barinka: It's so great. For day to day life. It wears so well under makeup. Even if you're layering, which sometimes face oils don't layer well and this really absorbs really quickly. I mostly use it like on the cheekbones forehead, nose, chin, whereever I need a little extra glow and it lays really well too, which again doesn't always happen.
Indie Lee: And that's because of the type of, well first of all it's the, it's the properties, the squalane. We're also using high grade ingredients. So I think that's also coupled with it. It's just a phenomenal ingredient to use. And again, that's why these people are creating lines based on and bringing it more into products. And then, you know, the toner, which I've had for years, was I didn't want to use a toner because I felt that they were going to be stripping. I would come back from the, you know, the astringent days when it was literally a toner, was my eyes red as opposed to dry you out so you didn't have any oil. And what happened? You went to an oil production factory and started over producing. I Said, okay, actually toners have a purpose. I want to do what that does, but I want to do it in a different way. So then we decided, okay, well co-q-10m, mother of antioxidants, why don't we use that? Right? Environmental stressors are such an important part of our skincare and what they're the role they're playing on us. Why don't we use co-q-10 right? Then I'll be like, well add hylauronic acid. So again, worried about the perception that toners were stripping, that's binding a thousand times its weight, you know, of moisture to your skin. So super hydrating. So it was those things to say, okay, what do we want the toner to do and how can we make it the anti-what everybody else thought it was. And then people fell in love with it and now people use it.
Indie Lee: You know, after they go to the gym, they don't wash their face, they don't take a shower, use the toner as a spray.
Alex Barinka: Tone and go
Indie Lee: Oh I love that. Tone and go, right. So it was those, but then now you've got these ingredient technologies that you can do. So we're able to use, oh my gosh, our eye serum the I-Waken is a phenomenal product. We were able to use like mountain ash button, Arnica, Spiralina, you know, those properties which are going to help with reducing puffiness, dark circles and fine lines. You know, you've got some hylauronic acid, smaller molecules. So really bringing that moisture deep to your skin. Those are things that we're able to formulate. Now with our peel pads, which I am obsessed with, again, you're getting your glycolic from caviar lime and you've got your salycilic and the gentle peel from winter green.
Indie Lee: It's using those ingredients, but sourcing them from what Mother Nature provides us with and how we're able to do it. And you're not sacrificing the efficacy. It's just, it's incredible. I am so lucky these days. I'm not making anything in my kitchen. I haven't for many, many, many, many, many years. But we're able to work with some of the world's leading scientists and chemists to create these unique formulations.
Alex Barinka: So then where are you looking to kind of help find inspiration? Where are you looking to hit that creative spark now as you're looking for these ingredients that you are using in different ways?
Indie Lee: The world outside. Seriously as we like to say, we have, you know, our creed, which I tell everybody to take a look at on our site, but like of what we believe, but really from the oceans, the mountains, you know, our fields. And then speaking with other chemists who are looking and seeing what's on the forefront.
Indie Lee: I mean certainly we want things that are tried and true of course, and we know are going to work and we know we're safe. Safety is of course paramount, but how can we use these ingredients differently? What's coming out now, what new delivery systems can we now know, encapsulations or whatnot. And we're able to work with these leading scientists to come up with these really cool formulations as a result. But the, the inspiration comes from mother nature and it also comes from our community. What are they clamoring for and asking for that they can't find somewhere else or they want us to create, I mean I read all the posts. I know when I really do, I read them all and so really that information or like you know called crowdsourcing of information to really inspire us on what's next. Also looking at what's possible, what's what's on trend for us.
Indie Lee: It's not always going to be about what's happening in trend. I want to say, well what's beyond that? What's that blue sky new product and then saying where is society and how can we help play a role in their wellness? And that's I think what you're going to start seeing coming out because I'm truly inspired by creating more of a conversation about what wellness looks to each person and it looks very different to everybody.
Alex Barinka: There has been kind of a shift with clean beauty in a positive way that I think before it was either granola or everything's a spa day. Like I think this idea of it being part of your daily routine is really important and has been very important for the industry because it's not just that it's a onetime thing or it's when you go to the nice spa, you get your clean stuff.
Indie Lee: It's that you can integrate it into your day to day and that guilty pleasure and we shouldn't have to wait for something like that to take care of ourselves. Our greatest responsibility is to take care of ourselves as a society that is primarily caretakers. How can we take care of others if we're not doing for ourselves first? It's not a selfish act at all. It's a self-care act. Yeah. You are preserving your health, mind, body, and soul so that you can continue to be productive, whatever that looks like. Whether it's as a mom, as a caretaker of a parent or a loved one or what, or for you know like you know your fur babies or running a company or doing all of those things.
Alex Barinka: How are you finding balance?
Indie Lee: For me, it's not a 50-50. It's knowing that sometimes it's going to be 80% this and 20% that still balances out to a hundred all times.
Indie Lee: I can never, I'm never going to be 50% mom, 50% you know, founder, it just doesn't work like that. But being honest with myself about it, but also taking time to take care of myself. In a day, 20 minutes, 40 minutes a day. Absolutely. I'm way more productive than if I'm just trying to be on that.
Alex Barinka: What does self care look like?
Indie Lee: Self care for me has always been really taking time for myself. So I meditate twice a day, 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes at night. I do transcendental meditation. But Meditation looks very different for everyone too. Taking a walk outside can be a form of meditation. I love to hike, so taking a long walk with my dogs or my friends really is something that is self care for me.
Indie Lee: I do spa day, Sundays, even when I'm on the road. I clean my makeup brushes every week and I do a mask and if I have time I'm going to take a bath. But just taking that time for myself. Sometimes self care is on the television, you know, on the sofa with a glass of wine flipping through Netflix.
Alex Barinka: My favorite kind of self that's still self care. It's taking care of oneself and that's very different. Some people, that's training for a marathon. It's not for me to say what's best for everybody, but let's have the conversation that it's okay to do these things for yourself. Self care is having my colored pencils in a cup, like writing in different colors. That's what's inspiring. That's what's keeping me balanced. Mind, body and soul.
Alex Barinka: I do what I call my alone dinners. Once a week I'll go to a restaurant, sit at the bar, get a nice glass of wine, order food, turn my phone off, not talk to anyone and just disconnect for a minute.
Indie Lee: I love that.
Alex Barinka: It's great. But it is for me, it's that moment of like disconnection, disconnecting and kind of grounding myself in something that's not the uh, dynamism of the day to day.
Indie Lee: Absolutely.
Alex Barinka: I also want to touch on, you just had your 10 year anniversary of getting to jump back into life with a whole new lease. What's next for Indie Lee, the company ,10 years in?
Indie Lee: I think goes right to that wellness conversation. It is definitely going to be more wellness in terms of products you're going to start seeing this year. Doing a lot more public speaking and personal appearances to have that connection. Just even if I meet, do meetups where we're going for a hike and that's a great way for us to see where is the brand going? Let's talk to the people who are so invested in the brand. What are they looking for now we have the tools to be able to do it differently.
Indie Lee: You know, you can have a conversation online, literally face to face, like we just did a live and I realized I have, I hit that button, we're actually able to have this conversation with other people interacting and asking questions and hearing what they want and hearing their suggestions and then doing it. It's one thing to, to hear it, but are you listening?
Alex Barinka: If there are folks who are facing something that has left them shocked that has left them really thrown off their game, what suggestions would you have for them?
Indie Lee: Get a support system in place. I think that's probably key. You know, whether that looks like a therapist for some, a priest for others or just your best friend. I think when you go through that, having that true support system is very, is going to be very important.
Indie Lee: And then I'd also remind people, and everybody cycles through things differently, and I don't think there's a wrong or right, so I just want to go out there and say that. But I do challenge people to think that you have the opportunity to choose joy even in the face of adversity. And if you can just choose that joy and find that space for five minutes, you can see so much clearer. At least that's what I found. And the people that I've spoken to who now have done that, and people who have always been like that and are able to cycle through things. But I never want to sit here and say that I'm the, I know the answers to everything. I understand the judge and jury or anything like that. That's not who I am. But I can speak from my personal experience and my personal experiences. It's way more fun to choose joy, this I can agree with. I want to inspire people to live their best life. That's what I want because we have the ability to do it. Now. I know people who will eat you no matter what you say, they're going to say, life sucks. That's, you know, I for them, that's, that's their comfort zone. I'm just saying. You know what? You could look at it a different way. Again, not saying you're not gonna have a bad day. I have them again. I'm grateful for them.
Alex Barinka: Isn't she fabulous? I have so much respect for Indie Lee, and I love what she's created. I literally use the rosehip cleanser, squalane facial oil and the I-Waken eye serum every day. You can find them all in the Finding Inspo store on Verishop at verishop.com/inspo. And remember, first-time customers get 20% off their first purchase with the code INSPOINDIE.
Alex Barinka: If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world to me. If you would rate and review the podcast. It helps other people find the show and that is so helpful, especially now when we're brand new.
Alex Barinka: I would love to hear your favorite takeaways from my chat with Indie, so please leave it in your review of this podcast or hit me up on social @alexbarinka or @inspopodcast and next episode I'll share back to you where you are finding inspo. See you soon!