Migraines to Milestones with Emilie Hoyt
How One Woman's Quest for Wellness Sparked a Clean Beauty Revolution
July 23rd, 2024 • 3 min read
In the late 1990s, "clean beauty" was a virtually unknown concept, synthetic fragrances and harmful ingredients dominated the shelves. Amidst this landscape, Emilie Hoyt founded LATHER, driven by a personal need for safe beauty products.
“I started Lather 1999, really out of a personal need. I grew up with severe migraine headaches and when I was just starting to be a teenager, I learned that they were brought on by ingredients that were just found in my beauty products and household products. Most of the time it was perfume, synthetic fragrance, and other irritants.
So, eliminating all of the products based on ingredient labels and trying to find things that worked for me, I was looking at ingredient labels everywhere I went - from the fanciest department store to the thrifty drugstore in my neighborhood and everything was the exact same ingredient list… Even at 13, I was like, ‘What the hell is this?’ Y’know, ‘Why is there nothing different?’
So that just fueled my passion for always exploring, trying new things, looking at what other cultures do…I was excited to find some more natural alternatives, but this was in the '90s. In those days, it was very alternative or gift, so you really had to like put your Birkenstocks on to go and like find something that was, y’know brown with Raffia. It wasn't considered mainstream…Clean Beauty wasn't even considered a thing.”
Her relentless pursuit of innovation and exploration of new ingredients paved the way for LATHER to introduce a modern, unisex design to the beauty world.
“We've never taken outside money. Honestly, never even took a bank loan. So it it's been 25 years, and I'm not a billion-dollar company…It's slow growing that way, but I've always felt a great deal of pride that we've been profitable and that we've kind of, y’know, grown bit by bit and felt like very sustainably (sic).
By tapping into overlooked revenue streams, such as the hospitality industry, LATHER has weathered market fluctuations and emerged stronger.
“It's captive audience, travellers, they have low expectation of what's in the room, and we offered an amazing product and great service to our hotels. We gained customers and grew that way and it gave us a lot of revenue and profit to withstand kind of the ups and downs of the consumer business.”
The COVID-19 pandemic hit the hospitality industry hard, impacting LATHER significantly. "We got three hotel orders in April of 2020. Two of them were mistakes… and we did not get paid," Emilie recounts. With inventory piling up, they had to lay off most of their staff. “And so that was horrible, and we had to really think. You don't know how long it's going to last.”
However, strong vendor relationships helped them navigate the crisis. “Luckily, these are vendors I've known for decades, like really getting on the phone with them, explaining, you know, what we can pay, what we can't, and without their help, you know, I don't think we'd be here.”
Through LATHER, Emilie has proven that integrity, passion, and innovation are the true cornerstones of lasting success in the beauty industry.
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