A Chat with Indie Lee: The OG Clean Skincare Founder

Here at GreenPan, we love spotlighting brands that share the same values when it comes to clean ingredients and sustainable practices. As the inventors of healthy ceramic nonstick, it’s only fitting that we showcase a brand that was also one of the first of its kind. Indie Lee is a clean beauty and skincare brand that sources the world’s finest ingredients from nature and marries them with the most prestigious personal care technology. 

Indie Lee is the next step in creating a healthier lifestyle throughout every aspect of your routine. “I look at makeup as self-expression, artistry and creativity – but I look at skincare as part of your health, because you’re feeding your skin,” says Indie Lee, founder of Indie Lee Skincare. 

We were lucky enough to sit down with both the creator herself, as well as the Vice President of Marketing, Beth Bennett, to talk about their overall message to customers and the inspiring story of how the brand came to be.  

“I look at makeup as self-expression, artistry and creativity – but I look at skincare as part of your health, because you’re feeding your skin."

How Did Indie Lee Get Started?

In November 2008, Lee was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor that was believed to be environmentally derived. “It was my awakening,” she says affirmatively. “I was given a finite amount of time to live, and I realized I was just a passenger in my own life.”  

Lee’s doctor couldn't tell exactly what caused her tumor, but they pointed to the environment and potentially her beauty products. Her doctor asked her, “What did you put on your skin? What did your mother put on her skin when she was pregnant with you?” 

That’s when the lightbulb went on and she began to think, if something she was putting on her skin could potentially cause harm to her body, what about everybody else? 

After her diagnosis, Lee started blogging under the name Independent Lisa in an effort to reclaim the narrative of her life, but this quickly evolved into so much more, morphing into her new name and identity: Indie Lee. 

On April 22, 2009, doctors removed the tumor from Lee's brain. Now, with her successful skincare line, she wants to educate other women on the risks associated with the products they're putting on their skin. 

What is Clean Beauty?  

Lee’s health journey has played a significant role in building the brand.  

“There really wasn’t a lot of clean brands out there when I started. So for me, it was looking for something that I wanted to use that was effective,” Lee explains.  

"For me, it’s how you bring this awareness without fear mongering."

Indie Lee uses naturally-derived and organic ingredients to create their line of clean beauty products. From cleansers and toners to scrubs, serums, and everything in between, Indie Lee has your clean skincare routine covered. Formulated without 1300+ banned ingredients, Indie Lee is not only Prop 65 and EU compliant, but is also COSMOS-certified. 

COSMOS-certified means that everything is being overseen by leaders in biodiversity and sustainability: the farming, the harvesting, the extracting, and the bottling.  

Lee explains that when she first started Indie Lee, she learned that skin can absorb up to 60% of products in as little as 32 seconds. When she relayed this information to customers, they couldn’t believe it.  

“I would say ok, do you know anyone who uses a nicotine patch, hormone patches, birth control – all these things that are done transdermally,” Lee says.  

Lee’s approach to educating her customers is simple. “For me, it’s how you bring this awareness without fear mongering.”  

When creating a skincare brand that prides itself on clean ingredients (especially one of the first), educating your customers is extremely important.  

“It’s not making a decision for anybody, what’s right for them, it’s just bringing that level of awareness and education so they can make choices that work for them. But of course, for me, I want it to be as clean as possible.”  

Beth Bennett, who has worked in the skincare industry for two decades, described the process behind creating Indie Lee products.

“Indie truly was the OG in terms of that space for skincare,” Bennett explains.  

“A lot of Indie’s products are inspired by challenges she’s had because of her autoimmune diseases and because of medications she’s been on, that’s either made her skin incredibly dry or cracked – like the Coconut Citrus Scrub, which is one of my all-time favorite products.”  

Indie Lee’s Coconut Citrus Body Scrub was the first product she developed and now one of her bestselling.   

“It’s so hydrating,” Bennett explains. “When Indie was on medication, her skin was just itching beyond belief, but unfortunately she couldn’t use retinol because certain medications made her skin so sensitive.”  

Retinol is a form of vitamin A with many uses in skin care like antiaging and acne reduction.  Retinol also increases skin cell production, helps unclog pores, and exfoliates your skin. 

“Not every product, but some of her products have truly come out of “Okay I can’t use retinol, but I want the benefits of retinol, so how are we going to find that,” Bennett adds.  

Evolving the Indie Lee Brand

When asked how Lee’s definition of clean beauty has changed over the years, Indie explains that it has not quite changed, but rather evolved as the brand continues to grow.  

"I realized for efficacy, you needed to have a team. I was making products – I literally was making them in my kitchen."

“First it was using very simple ingredients – but I realized for efficacy, you needed to have a team. I was making products – I literally was making them in my kitchen – and so I would say that technology wasn’t something that I could bring in my kitchen,” Lee says.  

“But then by working with these leading chemists, we were able to bring science into it. So of course, thinking of what I thought was clean - was like using essential oils, jojoba, and sugars, now it’s like, how are we going to use potent stem cells, how are we going to source squalene that is as clean as possible.”

What’s Next for Indie Lee? 

Soon Lee plans to move to wide open land where she can be free to farm and garden. 

“At the farm, I really want to grow a lot of medicinal plants too, so I really want to lean into that home apothecary and just really start to educate and talk about it again.”  

However, Lee is more focused on what’s in front of her rather than what’s to come. When she was diagnosed with the brain tumor, she realized she was so busy planning and achieving that she wasn’t living. Ever since going through her health journey, Lee swore that she would live every day differently and stay present.  

While succeeding in the clean beauty market, Indie Lee Skincare is committed to continuous curiosity, education and knowledge.