I recently had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Indie Lee, the founder of Indie Lee & Co. a clean and eco luxe line of skincare, formulated with efficacious ingredients that combine science + plant botanicals enhancing the health of your body or skin. We sat down and talked about clean beauty, wellness and her launch in Sephora Australia.

Indie’s story is unique and a heart warming. She started the line over ten years ago when she was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumour that doctors felt could be environmentally derived and attributed to something as simple as what she was putting on her skin. After learning that up to 60% of what we apply to our skin, including toxic ingredients in conventional skincare, may be absorbed in as little as 26 seconds, Indie had her awakening. After surviving a successful surgery on Earth Day 2009, she embarked upon a wellness journey to create a clean beauty collection dedicated to inspiring and empowering others to be mindful about what they put on their skin as well as into their body.

“When I was given a finite amount of time to live, the world became technicolor – I now appreciate every moment and I feel very fortunate to be creating a platform that will allow others to do the same. Education and empowerment are my driving forces and this line is the medium enabling me to pay my knowledge forward.” – Indie

The clean and luxurious collection of skin and beauty products will be launching in Sephora, Australian on March 20th, 2019. Indie is a kind, genuine and positive person who started her line purely out of her passion to live and literally to beat the odds of a life threatening disease. It was fascinating and inspiring to meet Indie and to learn more about her story and products. Enjoy the interview below.

How does a typical day start for you?

Every morning starts the same for me. I begin the day by mediating and taking that time for myself to get centred, I then pick up my phone to text my business partner and best friend GMS, which stands for ‘Good Morning Sunshine’. I then go look after my daughters, puppies and make myself a smoothie.

What is your morning beauty routine like?

My morning beauty routine is quite simple, as I don’t always cleanse in the morning. I do my thorough cleanse in the evening, but if I wake up and feel like my skin needs a good cleanse then I use the Indie Lee Purifying Face Wash. I typically start my morning routine with the COQ-10 Toner (this is my a.m. cleanser), it really helps to fight free radical damage and is a preventive to environmental pollution and living in an urban setting. I then follow this by using the Stem Cell Serum, because I’m 47! I follow this with the Daily Vitamin Infusion, (which has plant ceramides in it) followed by the Daily Skin Nutrition and the I-Waken Eye Cream and I’m good to GO!

What was the first skincare product you developed?

The first product I developed is not in the line anymore, but it was a moisturising oil. It had jojoba, apricot kernel, lavender and chamomile oils, a really lovely and gentle all over body oil. The other product developed first was the Coconut Citrus Scrub, it exfoliates whilst hydrating the skin so after you’ve used it you don’t need to follow with a body lotion or moisturiser. I developed this body scrub as I suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis and one of the side effects from the therapy was very dry skin – this scrub helped keep my skin super soft and hydrated!

What are your hero products from your line?

I would have to say the hero products from the line are the COQ-10 Toner, The Awaken Eye Serum, the Purifying Face Wash (this is very popular for oilier skin types) and the Radiance Renewal Pads.

What’s on your bedside stand?

It’s my phone, a noise cancelling machine (so I can really go to sleep), books as I am forever reading. I love reading and the current book I’m reading is: While You Sleep, it’s  about Auto Immune Diseases and I just finished reading Crazy Rich Girlfriends, it’s a great light hearted book that’s absolutely hilarious.

What are your tips to keeping skin healthy?

I believe that what you put on your body is just as important as what you put in your body. It’s wonderful if you’re going to use clean skincare but you have to match that with healthy eating. Don’t over-cleanse – work with your skin type and use a cleanser that won’t strip your skins natural oils. I don’t think we are getting enough hydration and we need to think about what we are drinking to make sure we are staying hydrated. My most important tip is BE KIND to yourself – we are living in a Instagram-selfie generated world and we are really hard on ourselves! We need to start loving ourselves more and believing in ourselves! Have more confidence in yourself, self confidence is one of the best beauty tips I could ever give someone – LOVE yourself!