When Indie Lee launched her eponymous beauty brand in 2010, all-natural beauty was yet to hit the mainstream. But after experiencing the rise and fall of the ‘clean’ beauty movement in the 2010s, Lee is hoping for a second coming for her label. On February 24, she’s launching an affordable line, Indie Lee Botanicals, aimed at a mass-market consumer, available at Whole Foods Market.
The Indie Lee Botanicals range is priced below $25 with four products: the Morning Dew Gel Cleanser ($19.99), Hydra Petal Facial Toner ($19.99), Vital Bloom Serum ($24.99) and Bloom Balance Moisturizer ($24.99). All of the products use a minimum of four ingredients that can be grown and extracted at home, like safflower, blackberry and lemon, while only the serum uses hyaluronic acid, derived from microbial fermentation of plants. It’s a far more accessible version than her original brand, which ranges between $20 to $135 and is sold through retailers like Credo.
The decision to strip back the ingredients is a nod to how Lee started her business. One of the founding figures of the clean beauty movement, she entered the beauty industry in unusual circumstances. After giving birth to her second child in 2003, Lee left her accountant role at HBO, and became interested in the farm-to-table movement. She built a 750-square-foot greenhouse in her backyard, growing 12 varieties of plants. Later that year, Lee began to lose her vision, and was told by doctors that she had a brain tumor.
She went into surgery on Earth Day — April 22, 2009 — and emerged eight hours later with a full vision for a clean beauty brand, with all-natural ingredients. As Lee recovered, the experience made her question what ingredients she would put on her skin. The brand launched in 2010. “I put HBO businesses all over the world, so it wasn’t difficult to understand how businesses scale,” she says.
In the early years, Lee was selling to her local community, friends, and family with “eco chic” packaging that had a homegrown feel. But the brand underwent redesign in 2014, incorporating clean and minimal designs that put the product front and center. Department store Henri Bendel began stocking the line shortly after, followed by Bluemercury, Credo Beauty, and Nordstrom that same year.
Around that time, clean beauty entered its boom era. Brands like Indie Lee, Tata Harper, Drunk Elephant, Flying Wild, and Goop were capturing serious market share, as consumers became conscious of the negative effects of artificial ingredients in skincare. After three years of growth, in 2017, Indie Lee was acquired by beauty investment business Ancora, founded by beauty executives Nicky Kinnaird and Lori Perella Krebs, who had partnered with private equity firm Winona Capital. The investment was to help Lee expand the brand’s categories and international exposure. “[With] all the things that were necessary in retail at that time, I needed capital,” she says.
But soon, things began to change. At the end of the 2010s, the conversation around clean beauty shifted. Skincare experts began calling out the movement for “cleanwashing”, noting that “natural” does not necessarily mean safe, and “chemical” does not necessarily mean dangerous. And as consumers became focused on product efficacy and scientifically proven skincare, the market moved away from demonizing effective artificial ingredients like parabens or sulfates, and clean beauty brands fell out of favor.
Indie Lee’s growth began to falter. “[The investment] was wonderful until private equity didn’t get their next round of capital and things started to change,” Lee says. “It wasn’t the Cinderella story that people hoped for.” After the investment, the business “hit a growth slump”, and none of the plans for expansion took shape.
Then, Lee’s health took a left turn in 2024, when her brain tumor returned. She had back-to-back brain surgeries, and had even prepared a goodbye email to her employees in case she didn’t make it out of the operating room — and the company closed for lack of funds. However, at the eleventh hour, the American Exchange Group (AEX) acquired the business for an undisclosed sum in 2024, with a focus on new product development (NPD). “The AEX ownership is allowing me to continue creating change in the industry,” says Lee. Now, she’s on a mission to put accessible clean beauty on the map without the hefty price tags.
With Indie Lee Botanicals, Lee is hoping to reach a broader audience, and boost her brand’s bottom line via discovery at Whole Foods. “I looked into doing this years ago, but there was no money and the brand wasn’t well known then,” she says. “This was a very strategic route for us. We wanted to meet consumers where they’re already food shopping, and people who aren t necessarily going into regular beauty retailers or department stores. Whole Foods gives you that credibility [in the clean and natural market].”
The biggest difference between Lee’s main line and new range is the packaging and clinical testing — two factors that made her original line more expensive. For Botanicals, she’s using post-consumer recycled plastic for the products instead of glass, and the products have not undergone intensive clinical trials — they’re made out of simple, tried-and-tested ingredients, which reduces development costs, the founder explains. Lee states that in order for accessible clean beauty to have a real wave in the industry, she must start small and build from there before venturing into different types of packaging and clinical testing.
And while science-backed labels continue to soar in today’s beauty market, Lee, in her decades-long career in clean beauty, feels there’s still a customer for more natural, back-to-basics beauty. “People are wanting to go back into the garden and make their own bread and all those things, people want that slower connection versus the hustle culture,” she says. “All of this is so in line with where we re all going, but it starts with the ingredients.” This chimes with the rhythmic health trend we’re seeing bubble up this year, as consumers move from intense tracking and self-optimization to more natural practices that align with their body’s natural rhythm.
The partnership with Whole Foods Market will be limited to the US for now, and the Indie Lee Botanicals line will continue to expand its product development. “I would love to continue the expansion of Indie Lee Botanicals to retailers that we [the main line] are known for,” says Lee, adding that the range is already being fought over by her children and their friends.
She dreams of a day when she can sell her products for $3 or 99 cents. “If I can get people to go into the garden, touch the ground or grow their own flowers or food, that’s already a good start,” says Lee.
