How Lissy Skincare Hit $1M on TikTok Shop

I did my first million without a single ad, single paid, anything. Like, it was all just off Tik Tok shop for free. It was so crazy. Yeah. Welcome to the Know Your Ship podcast presented by E-Hub. I’m your host, Frank Dolce. This is Lissy, the founder of Lissy Skincare. And man, we’re so happy to have you here with us on the Know Your Ship podcast. We’ve been trying to get you here for a long time. Why have you been avoiding this? Oh, I’m I’m booked and busy. I’m I’m a really tough get. No, I I I I kind of live a hot minute away, so it’s hard for me to get up here. Well, we’re

in Salt Lake County. You’re not correct. What? You’re in Richfield. Yeah. What county is that? Severe. Oh, yeah. Sounds really real fakeville. But it’s not No, it’s not spelled like severe like harsh. Correct. And I can never spell that word now because I’ve lived in Severe County most of my life and I I don’t know what’s what. I guess it gets really confusing. Severe and severe. Yeah. Okay. So, you’re growing up in Richfield and are you thinking at this point like Okay. Okay. What did you want to be when you grew up? I don’t think I had like anything so set in stone. Um, no, no real thoughts. I, you know, every young girl is

like, I just want to be a mom, which is true and, you know, such a giant part of my life. But I heard someone say the other day that the happiest moms are the part-time working moms. And I think that’s that’s very true. You have a little break and I get to work for a couple hours a day and be a mom the rest of the day. And it’s so nice. But um I don’t think I had anything that always stuck with me when I was a kid. When I went to college, I went for business. So I was interested in business, but I still don’t have anything like specifically in mind. Where did you

go to college? Where did you So I went for one semester at Utah State and then I went to esthetician school right after. And did you did you enjoy your semester of college or was it just not your thing? I did. I did. Um, but I I think I had been going kind of back and forth like do I want to go to college? Do I want to go to esthetician school? And as much as I loved college, I just I knew I wanted to go to esthetician school. So that’s what I did. But it was like a very sad hard decision. And if there was a great esthetician school in Logan, I would have

stayed up there. But did you start having this this thought earlier in your in your life? High school maybe. Um, maybe towards the end of high school. I don’t think I even knew what an esthetician was for most of high school. I think maybe my sister-in-law had mentioned like you should become an aesthetician or you should look into this. So, I kind of like heard it, thought about it. But yeah, it was just kind of in the back of my mind and then I don’t know, it came to the front of my mind for for those of us who don’t know, how would you describe an aesthetician? Okay, so an esthetician, it’s a it’s a

trade like degree. It’s the word. Is that not is that the right thing? Sure. Um certificate, I guess. So, um you go to school in Utah, you can either go for 1,200 hours or 600 hours. One’s a basic esthetician, one’s a master esthetician. I’m a master. Not to brag, you should brag. I think most people in Utah are a master esthetician, probably. Um but you learn anything from waxing to facials to lasers, chemical peels. um body treatments. What else? Eyebrows, eyelashes, anything kind of in that sphere. And do you specialize in any of those things or do you just learn you you you learn and can become licensed, I guess, in all of it? Um

so for a basic esthetician, you’re mostly learning waxing and lash extensions, basic facials. Master esthetician is micro needling, lasers, deeper chemical peels. Yeah. Did you have a favorite? Um, well, this says something about me. I liked eyebrow wax and tints cuz they were so fast and so easy and I was pretty good at them. Okay. Um, so I did like those. I also did like chemical peels, but I wasn’t as much as like the fofy 90minute facial. Yeah. No, you didn’t have to. I like I could do it, but I I was dreading it, you know? Yes. Say with waxing, I wasn’t like the best at body wax. Like waxing a full pair of legs

is it’s like Yeah, it sucks. It’s like running a marathon somehow. Some people are really good at it, but not not me. Yeah. Wow. Uh, and that takes a long time. Well, I feel like it took me like 40 minutes. It probably shouldn’t have, but again, I wasn’t I wasn’t good at it. Yeah. So, was there something What prompted you to head into this? Why Why did you decide this was your the right path for you? So, it sounded fun and and cool and cute and I was like, I could own my own business and kind of do my own thing. Um, and also I struggled with acne forever up until this point um and

beyond. Um, but I I was like, “Okay, I’m going to I’m going to figure out how to solve my problems, clear my acne. I’m going to do it for other people. I’m going to make my own schedule, own my own business. It’s going to be fun and it’s girly.” And it was just like all all the things I could ever want. Checked all the boxes. Yeah. And so within that program, did you were you trying to figure out along the way, you know, proper skin care or whatever to clear up acne? Yes. And I feel like I was one of the only people that went into esthetician school like genuinely knowing nothing about skin care.

Like I feel like I just like wanted to clear my acne. Like I’m but I didn’t know much up until this point. I wasn’t like crazy about skincare. I didn’t even know what hyaluronic acid was. And you know, everyone’s saying all these skincare terms and I’m like, so I’m the dumb one here. Like, I don’t know anything. And I was in school always used as the example for the different types of acne. It’s like, look at look at Lissy. She has this great grade of acne. Just, you know, things like that. Or I remember when I was about to graduate, one of my instructors was like, we really need to get your acne under control.

You’re not going to get a job. Like that. I was that girl at esthetician school. just like skin crazy, not getting better. Everyone’s a little worried about me type of thing. So, what kinds of things were you trying to do to to clear it up and what was your I I guess I’m interested in what was your skinincare routine like be before that like when you started to develop acne? So, I mean, I had tried a lot of things pre esthetician school. Um, like in high school I did Proactive, which was like, you know, the thing at the time, I guess. Um, and that just dried my face to bones. Literally, I remember like being

able to touch my face like this and I could watch skin cells fall off of my face. That’s how bad it was. I did lots of, you know, creams that were just shredding my face and burning it to bits and all the things. I think I was on some pill. I don’t remember what it was. I never did Accutane, but like in high school was on something. I don’t know. But nothing worked long term and nothing was like gentle on my skin or didn’t wreck my face. Um, so then in esthetician school, I was using like nice professional skin care products um that were good, but and we’ll get into this later, um, products that

are like acne safe, but still like very drying. If they’re labeled as acne products, they were really drying. And if they weren’t, but they were supposed to be like okay for acne, they always had like fungal trigger triggering acne ingredients in them, which I I didn’t even realize at the time. But on top of that, I was doing chemical peels. I was doing lasers. Like I I was so my face was going through so much because you have to kind of do those things in school because you’re learning on each other. Um so yeah, I was doing micro needling. Like my skin was just going through the ringer and never really had a break. Plus

just using aggressive skinincare products. Um so my skin was crazy in esthetician school. It was such a roller coaster and I just kept thinking if I if I fry my face off a little bit more maybe maybe my skin will clear up. Not not really, but it just it felt that way because we were always doing peels and stuff. Um, and my skin it chilled out a little bit after school cuz I wasn’t doing so much to it, but still not but not what you want. No, still still struggling with acne. Still texture. Yeah. The whole thing. And how did that affect you? Like Yeah. Yeah. It um it sucked. I had really low self-esteem

during that time for sure. like especially in esthetician school. Um and I had also just moved to Provo. I didn’t really know anybody. I was struggling with acne. Like oh that was a bad that was a bad time in life. But um pre-esthetician school like I remember in high school just kind of like if I was like struggling with acne just kind of like looking down like I don’t want anyone to look at me because I’m so embarrassed of my face. And I think a lot of people that struggle with acne feel that way and they they shouldn’t but it’s it’s just like right on your face. It sucks. Like having acne is it can

definitely take a hit to your self-esteem. It did. Yeah. How did you How did you manage that? I cried. I don’t know. No, there was no form of manage. Oh man. No, I was I was I was fine. But yeah, you know, if someone brought it up, I’d cry at the time. At the time. Yes. Not now. And so you’re now you’ve you’ve graduated. Yes. and and you’re still having some skin issues. Yes. And you’re also now dealing or building your own clientele and the clientele is saying like, “Hey, help me with my correct.” So, yeah, you can see how I’m in like a comfortable position now. difficult. Did anybody ever ask you about that?

No. And honestly, I was super open about it. Um, at this time I kind of started building a platform on social media as an aesthetician and um, I just was really open about like being an aesthetician and struggling with acne and like how bad that sucks and how dumb it makes you feel. Um, and I had so many estheticians that were that related and felt the same way. And it honestly helped me build like a really great community on Instagram which led to literally every other part of my business. And everything I’ve done now, I feel like originated from that community that I built on Instagram at that time. So, I always say like I’m

so grateful for my acne because it is taken me exactly to where I am now. But even like I’m grateful that I was still struggling with acne after esthetician school because it led me to create my own brand and it led me to build that community of estheticians that felt the same way. And I think just it’s really easy to pretend like your skin looks great and everything’s great. I’m such a great esthetician and I know what I’m doing, but 10 out of 10 times in my life, I’ve figured out that just being open and being honest and vulnerable or saying I don’t know, like I don’t know the answer to that or just, you

know, saying what might make you feel dumb even though even if it’s true, just like is always the right answer. It always like brings something good into my life. I feel like m I love that perspective and it’s really interesting that you that you say I’m grateful for my acne and the struggle because it helped to get you where you are today. Yeah. You can’t see it in the moment. It’s impossible to see it in the moment. But everybody who does uh everybody who battles and fights and wins the struggle is grateful for it. It’s so interesting. Yeah, I feel like that’s what makes a really great business in the end is because I mean

if we’re talking about somebody that’s built something off of said struggle, I feel like cuz it’s something that’s genuinely making a difference or something they actually really care about. And I feel like that’s been my um situation at least. Yeah. Okay. So, let’s let’s keep going down this let’s keep going down this path. you’re you’re you mentioned that you you built up this community on Instagram and that it led to other things. So, what were some of the other things that that community led to? Yeah, I built that community. I started gaining Instagram followers that are all estheticians. Um, and at this time somebody reached out to me from a like a esthetician school up

in Utah County and I lived in Richfield at the time and they said, “I would love for you to come teach an Instagram class to our students. Um, teach them about, you know, how to get Instagram followers and engagement and build a community on Instagram like you have.” And I’m like, “Okay, that sounds great. I’ve never done anything like that. It sounds so fun.” I spent so much time creating this class that was like an hour and a half long or something. You’re supposed to like take up the whole class. I was really excited about it. I drove up to Utah County to to teach it. And I get there, nobody’s like I’m like, “Hey,

I’m here. Teach this class.” Like, “Oh, okay.” I don’t know. No one really knows what’s going on. I go into this class. There’s one student and she could not have cared less that I was there. And this teacher never even came in and like sat there and like facilitator was just like, “Okay, go in there.” Like it was just like super like, “Okay, um, great.” So, I kind of start teaching this class. I’m like, “Can we get like any other students in here?” You know, I don’t know. So, a couple other people come in here. I’m not joking. They were on their phones the entire time. Like, they could not have cared less. I was

just like, “Okay, so why did I do this? Like, this is so dumb.” I was like so annoyed about it. So, I I left pissed. Um and then I went home and I’m like, “Okay, well, I actually did create like this really great class.” Um and so I posted about it on Instagram. I had some people sign up for it and I like taught it over Zoom to tons of people. Really? Um. Yes. And it I think I made like, you know, I taught it a couple times. I think I made like $20,000 or something. Like I think I maybe taught it like every other month or I can’t remember what it was, but I

know I made at least $20,000 doing it. And I I think I sold the recording of it as well. And I was like, okay. Like that that was cool. And that was not being in the treatment room like which was nice cuz I wasn’t obsessed with doing the actual treatments. I actually like really loved the business aspect of of it. So that was kind of like the first thing that was like, oh that was different and that was cool and that actually made me money. Um and then one day it popped into my head that I should make apparel for estheticians. And there was nothing like this at the time. And then these weren’t like

uniforms per se. They were like I guess you would call it like more merch like um they were like really cute tone on tone embroidered um sweatshirts and t-shirts that said esthetician or they said I love your face or I don’t know different things that like were really cute at the time. And so I posted about them on Instagram and it just like blew up. Like my that post got so many shares. cuz I got like hundreds of comments which at the time was just like amazing and so many people were so excited about it. Um and I did them as pre-order so people would order and because my brother owned the business I was

able to like turn them out pretty quickly. Um and then I didn’t have any overhead so it was just like straight profit and it just did so good. And then I would just like and I think I would this is what I did. I left the store open for like 24 hours for orders and then I would get a ton of orders, close it, fulfill it, and do it again. So, there was like a scarcity. Oh, yeah. You created scarcity in the marketplace. They’re like, I better order this time or cuz they didn’t want to miss the the window. And nobody else was doing this at the time. And they were actually really good-looking. They

were really cute. People were obsessed. And that like helped grow my Instagram that much more, helped grow my um community that much more. And then I was like suddenly making six figures just off of the clothes. Um, so I did that for a couple years. I’m like, “This is like this is so fun. It’s like simple. It’s pretty easy. It’s making me great money. I’m not having to be in the treatment room once again.” Yeah. Um, so that was that was that and I was I was did that for a couple years and into that blood I started hosting retreats for estheticians and so people would come from all over the country. I’ve had people

from New York, Alaska, everywhere in between come fly to Utah and come to my retreats. It’s like a three-day retreat and I have people come in and speak and I speak and it’s just like fun community building and I did four or five of those over the like a year and a half and that made me some decent money and it was really fun and I realized how much I like doing events and like um meeting people in person and during this time also bled into I want to create my own skincare brand that actually clears my acne because I was still struggling. um clears my acne, is all acne safe, is all fungal acne

safe. I was having kids at this time and they need to be pregnancy safe and I just like wanted to clear my acne. I was like so done. I’m like, I just want to have clear skin and not have to worry about this so much. And so during this time as well, I started figuring out what that would be and researching ingredients and trying out different products and started formulating my first product. Okay, let’s pause there for a second and just go back. So, it’s amazing that you took your one student and a couple stragglers in Utah County experience and turned that into a business. So, the you know, the obstacle is the way mentality.

So, just taking what could have been a fail and turning that into a success success. So, amazing. Is that still around or is that No, everything’s dead except except for the skin care products. Everything even like clothing. Yes, I know. And people are still messaging me on Instagram like please bring back the clothes. But why did the clothing go away? Cuz I wasn’t passionate about it. I didn’t I any like it was fun and it made me realize like how much I like business and stuff, but I was like I’m also like I’m not that I I had I had no more ideas. I was out of ideas and to what like to like design

and stuff that’s like I’m not that good at at design but I just I wasn’t like obsessed with it and and now a lot of people do it and it’s great for them and I they I send people to other people now and it’s great. Okay. And then you started this retreat Yes. thing is are the retreats still going? No. And my gosh, you’ve started all of these successful businesses and then you’ve just like I’m done with that. I know. I know. But I think of them all as like a stepping stone to where I am now. Like I feel like they were all really good in the moment, but I always knew like as

soon as I set my mind on or had the even thought of I want to start my own skincare line, like I knew that was my end all like where I want to put all of my efforts and what I see hopefully like envisioning the rest of my life’s work being towards. And I never felt that way with like Instagram, you know, and like clothes and stuff. Those were just like a really great retreats. Yeah. And maybe I would dabble back into like hosting I think events and retreats and things like that. That one up. Yeah. But it there’s a there’s a hefty pin in it right now. A big pin. A big pin. Um,

so are during this time had do you like had you ever just resigned yourself to like like look you know what I’m just going to have to deal with this acne? I don’t know if I’ve even ever thought about that or been asked that. Probably. Yeah. I think before I decided like you know I’m going to solve this problem myself. I’m sure I was just like every year on my birthday like I’m one year old. Is this going to go away now? Like I kept thinking like, you know, I’m going to age. How is this? Always on your mind. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But it never it never held you back. Like you just never let

it hold you back. I think that’s I think that’s meaningful as well that you just had the mentality to even though you were dealing with all of the issues surrounding it that we’ve that we’ve already discussed, but you just kept on like let’s go. Yeah. I feel like that the type of person I am is like a let’s go type of person. Like something comes into my mind, I’m going to do it. I’m not I’m not gonna wait or like research too much or make sure anything’s so perfect. I’m just going to go. And I feel like I’m very kind of scrappy in that way too of just like I’m just going for it. It

might not be like perfect the first time, but we’re going. Where does that come from? I don’t know. Did you have any examples early in your life that were that kind of mentality? Is it just something that you think you developed because of your own life circumstance? I have I don’t know. Um I think my brother is like a really successful business owner and I feel like I’m a lot like him and I look up to him a lot and I think I just saw him go and do and make take risks and I think I just kind of followed suit maybe um or maybe it’s innate in inside of me. I don’t know. No,

that’s actually I think it is. No, I think it is. But I think I had good examples of like other people being successful when they like took risks and um did things. And I think I think I just had the mentality and I think I do have the mentality of like whatever I want to do I can do. Like I just have to go and do it. And I I always I feel like I just am good at betting on myself and just knowing I’m going to do it. I don’t you know I’m going to make it work. I’m going to go for it. I’m going to work hard. figure it out. I love it.

It’s a It’s a great mentality to have. A lot of a lot of people, you know, get stuck in all of the other stuff. Like, I want to do this, but here’s a thousand reasons why it could fail. And if it fails, then I’m And you’re more like, no, let’s just go do this. We’re going to figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes the the reality hits me and I’m like, oh, what am I doing? Like literally yesterday I was laying in bed and I was like cuz I’m formulating a sunscreen right now and it’s coming out and all of a sudden it hit me like I have to order 10,000 pieces like that’s the

minimum order quantity for the sunscreen and it all has to be filled at once which means I have to like sell through them in the next couple years. And it just kind of like finally like hit me like that’s 10,000 pieces like what? And like the thought really it was just kind of like yeah I can do it. And then like reality kind of hit me yesterday, but now I’m just like, well, I got to do it. Like I have I have no choice. But yeah, I it’s just sometimes the reality hits and sometimes sometimes I’m like, well, whatever. But honestly, everything has worked out for me so far. So I like I said, I’m

like I’m betting on myself. I’m going to figure it out. I’m going to make it work. You keep working through it. Yeah. Okay. So you have now decided you’re putting your foot in the ground. I am done with acne. Yes, I’m gonna figure this out. I’m a master esthetician. Correct. Tell me about this. Tell me about this process. How did you figure it out? Because clearly if as we’re looking at you now, I don’t think anyone would ever even imagine that you had facial skin care issues. Yeah. So, um, skincare is hard because like I said, uh, a lot of acne specific ingredients and products are very like drying and stripping. And I I knew

I had fungal acne cuz a dermatologist had told me. So, well, okay, fungal acne is something that I may not be familiar with and mo most people aren’t. So, there’s regular acne, which you all know, know and love. Yeah. And we don’t have to describe it. Yeah. Okay. Okay, so we all know and love we all know and love regular acne. And then there’s fungal acne which is more like just like it presents a skin texture. Um doesn’t really like pop. It doesn’t really go away and it does not react to your regular regular acne ingredients. So like a salicy silk is not going to really take it out. Um so you can’t just like

dry it up. No. No. Um yeah, not really. So fungal acne can occur from so many things. um like oils in your skinincare products or like ers which are a type of skinare ingredient um but also like too much sugar too much sweat like there’s a lot of things that can cause fungal acne is stress a thing is I mean yeah stress is a thing for everything in your body you know so stress can definitely be a cause for acne possibly fungal acne I don’t know off the top of my head okay anyways but so it’s like those flesh colored bumps they just they don’t react act the same. And even so many I would

say like even majority probably of acne labeled products, so products that’s targeted to clear your acne, it still has fungal acne triggering ingredients in it. Most people, unless you like really struggle with fungal acne or are deep in the fungal acne world, you don’t you don’t realize that all these ingredients in your acne product are also causing fungal acne. Um, and a fungal acne is not actually acne. It’s a fungal issue. So, it’s like the it’s caused kind of by the same thing um that dandruff would be caused by because that’s a fungal issue as well. Pretty much just like an overgrowth of yeast on your skin with not enough bacteria to like combat it

kind of. So, even if you’re on an antibiotic and you all of a sudden have like a dip in um bacteria in your skin, it can cause fungal acne. like it’s it’s just it’s very very common, but not a lot of people know that they have it. Um, and so you don’t even know to look out for it, especially in your skin care. And so I I knew I had fungal acne, but I didn’t really know what to do about it or like what ingredients caused it. And the more I researched, the more I realized like, oh my gosh, literally every single product that I’m using has fungal acne triggering ingredients in them. Like every

single one. Um, and so I tried to find like a moisturizer that was acne safe and fungal acne safe and like it was straight up water and somehow also burned my skin at the same time. There’s just like not good there’s not good options. Um, especially with like, you know, maybe you’ll find a cleanser, maybe you’ll find a serum, but like a whole skincare line, it’s it’s not happening. It’s not happening. So, um, that fungal acne is kind of like where I started. I was like, I need to get rid of my acne and my fungal acne. What does that? And I discovered an ingredient, mandelic acid, which is a known like known in the

skincare world, but it’s not very like popular in the way that like lots of brands have a mandelic acid. Um, but I kind of started discover mandelic acid, how it is literally like the best skinincare ingredient for acne. way way way more gentle than your other uh skincare acids. It’s antifungal and anti-inflammatory, so it’s going to hit your fungal acne and your regular acne. Um it’s it’s just really amazing. So, I I started like testing out different types of mandelic acids, started realizing like how quickly it helped my skin. My fungal acne was going away so fast. So, now I’m like, “Okay, this is this is the skincare ingredient that I’ve been missing.” and not

enough people talk about the skincare ingredient. So then I kind of just set out to create like the best mandelic acid and that’s where I started. So how did you determine you had fungal acne? A dermatologist told me. Oh, okay. So when I was like in high school like Oh, so you you knew I knew what I that’s all I knew. That’s literally the extent of what I knew about fungal acne is that I had it. I’m a little amazed. Like fungal acne is clearly something that’s wellnown. Yeah, I guess maybe I wouldn’t say it’s well known. Like I I would say like the general population probably doesn’t know that they have fungal acne if

they have like dermatologists know or I never I never heard the word once in a esthetician school like it wasn’t even touched on. So that’s interesting. I think it’s a lot of people have it. They just don’t know. Got it. Okay. And so and then the other thing is mand is it mandelic? Mhm. Mandelic acid is known in the industry, but never those two things were never aligned as like mandelic acid is really great and it helps with fungal acne. There was like a couple brands that were doing mandelic in like a a good way. Um, but mandelic was like nowhere near as popular or as heard of as salicylic acid or benzol peroxide or

your retinols or your typical like harsh acne ingredients. It was just kind of like, you know, this is one of the alpha hydroxy acids, but it wasn’t she wasn’t the popular one, you know. I’m making the popular one. The one that worked. Yes. Okay. So, h how when you when you discovered this product and started using it to treat your acne, what were the results? Immediate clear skin. Like literally life-changing immediately. It was really crazy. Especially for my fungal acne. I think my fungal acne went away in like a week, like so quick. And then and then the rest of my acne was just like like slowly healed right after. So it was and I’m

like, “Wow, why is this not more popular?” Yeah. Uh yeah, it was crazy. Um Yeah. Okay. So that’s the start. And at this point, you said this is my foundation. This is the where I’m going to build my skinincare line. Yeah. And there was there’s like one pretty popular mandelic acid within the skin care like esthetician world, but you have to get it through an esthetician. It’s not like at least at the time I believe. I’m unsure if that’s still true. Um but I believe you have to get it through an esthetician. So it wasn’t just like e easy access good skin care that’s clearing your acne. You didn’t just go run down to Harmon’s

or something and pick it up off the shelf. Yeah. So it was yeah it just wasn’t as easy to get. And then I also in my mandelic I added other ingredients that just give additional benefits. So it’s like a a five in one kind of. Okay. So now you’re transitioning from I’m going to solve my skin issues. I’ve solved my skin issues. But now what? Like how do you start? Are you a chemist? Like how do you start building a product? No. So I first found another esthetician that had like created a really amazing mandelic and she sold the formula to me. So I she was using it. So she had created the product and

she was in California and she was using it on her clients and she sold me two gallons of this. So, it’s kind of like a pri it was kind in the beginning it was kind of like a private oop sorry private label type of situation but I knew I had to buy 5,000 bottles of like packaging and I didn’t want to fill all those right away. And I had found this girl. I had tried out her mandelic serum and I loved it. Like it was so good. It was just like it was perfect. Um, and so she sold me two gallons and that was I think one gallon was like 140 140 bottles or something.

So two of those like I think I start with like 280. Um, sorry I’m like really skipping. Wow. It’s your story. You tell you give us all the details you want. Amazing plug. Okay. This this is that that’s kind of how I like started. I tested out that product like I used her product for probably a year before I was like, “Okay, I’m going to like buy I I didn’t want to like buy 280 pieces of her stuff until I like test it out.” So, I found her. I started using her product. I loved it. I was obsessed with it. She sold me two gallons of it to put into my own packaging. Gotcha. And

that’s like the long story short of once I discovered mandelic acid. Found her, loved it, knew I wanted to start a skincare brand. What time frame are we looking at? Is this over the course of a year? Is this a few months? Um, from like when the idea came into my mind to then me buying a bunch of Mandelic brands and testing them out to then being like, “Okay, I’m ready to figure out my own thing.” Finding her, testing out her product forever, finally pulling the trigger. probably like two years. Wow. Yes. So, it’s kind of long R&D. Yeah. I was scared too to like pull the trigger. Like I had used um the girl

that she was going to sell me the her formula. I had used it for so long before I like decided, okay, I’m going to do it. And then it was like, okay, now I got to actually buy the packaging and like build a website and like do all of this thing. Like there was it just took me a long time to really pull the trigger because I was so scared. Um yeah. So are you still in touch with this individual? No. So since then I um once I was like okay I can actually sell through these and the business is growing. I reformulated with a lab and now I’m like doing them in bulk. So

Gotcha. And same with my other products. Did do you know anything about her background? I mean she’s an aesthetician. I do know. And I she’s way smarter than me. I don’t know. Yeah, she you never give yourself enough credit. We’re going to have to work on that because you do you’ve done amazing things when it comes to like skincare ingredients and like all the nitty-gritty of like derivatives and stuff like that. Like I the chemists and they know better than me on that type of stuff and she’s very smart when it comes to that type of stuff. I hear you. But like the stuff that you’ve just described up to this point like it’s it’s

really an amazing story. You should be proud of yourself. Thank you. So, uh, I was just curious if she also struggled with, um, some form of acne that she was trying to solve and she found this particular product. Um, I don’t know totally her back story, but she does run an acne clinic. So, and she like helps people with their acne all day every day. And I’m sure if I mean I’m sure that product is very successful. Yeah. Okay. So now you’ve gone you you’ve you’ve brought us to this point where you’re going to start formulating your own and what are the things that you’re thinking about as you want to formulate your own product

that I don’t know maybe they were missing or something you wanted to add to the stuff that you liked so much. Yeah. So um hers had fragrance in it which I didn’t love. So that was like number one thing is like okay I’m going to reformulate but I did want it to be like our I was really nervous to reformulate it because our customers loved the old one. It was it was like a it was a perfect formula by just the fragrance in my opinion. Um so it was very nerve-wracking. So I’m like okay I know I can do this. I don’t need to buy the gallon. I can have a lab do this in

bulk order. Um, and I mean there’s a lot that got me to that point as well between launch and now I’m I I know I can do this type of thing. Um, but yeah, I pretty much said, you know, I want to keep all of these specific ingredients. I want to remove the fragrance, possibly make it like a hair more gentle, but I don’t want to compromise on effectiveness. Yes. Yeah. So, um, the lab started making me samples of that and I went through sample after sample after sample just testing out, having other people test them out, making tweaks. Um, finally landed on the right one and then stalled for a little while because I

was so scared to relaunch again and then the perfect product and then you were like, “No, I’m not going to do it.” I know. Well, I knew I was going to do it, but I was just so scared. I’m like, is this the perfect one? Like, is it as good? Like, I thought it was as good, but what if it wasn’t? And if I had like one little breakout, I’m just like, what if it’s the product? You know, like I was so scared. Like, I wanted it to be. It’s hard because the people loved it so much. I was just so scared that people would be like, “This changed and we’re going to go I’m

going to go find a different Mandelic.” So, finally, I I did reformulate it. It was It’s practically the same formulation. Um, few tweaks, just few tweaks. and nobody batted an eye and it was great. So what uh did you just like you know open up your phone Google contract manufacturers and how how does that process I mean there’s there’s people who are going to be listening to this who are like I have a product I don’t know what to do next actually I feel really lucky well okay sorry I actually have two labs one was a Google situation like my my moisturizer that I came out with I was just like googling and researching and

Facebook every like you know every every bit of information about every lab that I could find I was on the internet I was doing. I finally set it on the lab that seemed good. I made my moisturizer with them. They were they were great. And then um during when I was like, “Okay, I need to reformulate my mandelic.” A lab from Utah reached out to me, like a sales guy, I guess, a sales guy reached out to me. Um, and they have some great credentials of other brands that they work with that I know. And so I went and like toured their lab and decided to go with them and they’ve been great. How did

they reach out to you? Did Did they see your other product? I’m sure they saw like an ad. I think they found me on it. Gotcha. And so that’s a local Utah Yes. company and you’re still working with them. Yes. And uh not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but how many products from since the first product, the Mandelic and what is it called by the way? Mandelic serum. Everything’s really on the nose. Makes sense on my brand because our pack our branding and our packaging is kind of like girly cutesy kind of colorful and I didn’t want to get too whimsical and crazy with the names. I also with the names sometimes like

there are some brands that have like really cute names but I’m like but what does it do? Like I don’t know. I need to know immediately does. Yes. It’s like you know I’m trying not to say an actual brand name that I’m thinking of that has like a cutesy name. But what does what does that do? What does that I don’t know what that does. Is that is that for my acne? Is that a hydrating? Is that a active? Is that I have no idea what that is. I I wanted to avoid that. So like our products are literally called like mandelic serum, hydrating serum, vitamin C serum, moisturizer, jelly cleanser. So someone’s not going

to pick it up and be like, “Yes, what the heck is this?” Yes. I don’t want them to be confused if they’re looking for a mandelic serum. I want them to have it. You know, very direct, very clear. Yes. I love that. Okay. So, um, so now you’re you you’ve created the Mandelic and, um, at this point, we’re going to still, we’re not leaving the Mandelic, but at this point, how many products have you built on top of that product? So, on top of the Mandelic, right now, I have four other products out, and I’m working on a a four, sorry. Uh, so now I have five with the Mandelic. I a sixth is coming

out soon, and I’m working on a seventh. Whoa. Okay. So, well, let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about the evolution of now your products. Um, I guess before we do that, how how did you go to market on my website? Just just only marketed it on my Instagram, which luckily I had built that great community. Yeah. And they showed up and showed out and I sold out on the first day and it was really exciting. So, you know, I ordered more gallons and been more and more and more into the point where now I’m like bulk doing everything again. Do do people in that community and I’m I guess I’m talking about aestheticians in that

community, are they also customers now? Yes. So, yes, some but people really like to stick with Yeah. like medical grade skin care can only buy through an aesthetician type of thing which I don’t fault them for because um I that was me once too you know um but we do wholesale to estheticians if they want to but I mean there’s so many amazing longstanding medical grade skincare brands out there that you know estheticians know and love and I’m still a baby brand and I I hope to break into that market a a little bit still. What’s the difference between a medical grade and Lissy skinare? Nothing. Do you have to do you have to pay

a bunch of money to get some sort of stamp that says medical grade? No, because medical medical grade is not real. It’s just a marketing term. It’s not regulated in any way. But a lot of esthetician specific brands, you know, market as medical grade. Are these like the big corporations that are doing a lots of skin care stuff? Yeah. Like we won’t name them, but all the ones you would think of. Well, I don’t know who you’re thinking of. I don’t know if we’re think I don’t We’re I bet we’re thinking of the same. Well, I it’s it’s mostly like brands, not like huge corporations. It’s more like brands that you that wholesale just to

estheticians. Um, and really what they say medical grade is it has like a higher potency of acids um, or more like stable ingredients or more results driven, which Lissy Skincare is all of those things. But yeah, you wouldn’t survive without as a company without all of those things and results. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know. It’s it’s not a real thing technically, but you know, estheticians stick with their the tried andrue years worth of, you know, I don’t know. It and it’s I don’t fault them for it at all. But I hope to wholesale to more estheticians or be in more spas, but I also hope to be in Sephora one day and estheticians wouldn’t

like that. So, you know, I don’t know. We’ll see where it goes. Gotcha. Okay. So, what what next? like how are you making decisions on what to do next and what did you do next after the first? Yeah. So, um yeah, we have the mandelic and we’ve done vitamin C, hydrating moisturizer and cleanser. And the thing that um helps me make my next decision or the next product is where is there like a hole in my skincare routine that I need to fill because I don’t put like anything besides Lissy skincare on my skin pretty much. Uh on occasion I’ll use like a face mask or you know I use like other people’s lip products

and stuff like that but my skin is so acne prone so fungal acne prone that I don’t put anything else on my skin. So it was kind of like okay well I really need a moisturizer now you know I can’t keep burning my face off with this one that’s acne safe and fungal acne safe and um you know now it’s time for a cleanser. So it’s just kind of like right now I feel like I’ve kind of been building like the the basic line. I was like the vitamin C serum. I’m like vitamin C’s are notorious for breaking people out. We need a really great one that’s acne safe, that’s really results driven, it’s going

to help with acne scars, um, also hyperpigmentation. Um, I mean, you have to have a hydrating serum, especially living in Utah. And then everyone has to have a moisturizer and a and a cleanser. What was the second product? Uh, vitamin C serum. And did you have to go through the same process? Are you using the same manufacturer? Did you find something that you liked and then built on that? How did that whole? So I that girl that I got the mandelic from, she also had a vitamin C. So I got those two products from her and then I started formulating everything else on my own. But since I have re like everything’s now my own.

Um but at the time I used her vitamin C cuz it was also really great and it was interesting cuz her products hap that product specifically happened to also be fun acne safe and acne safe. So, seemed like a really easy transition. And I also did it like more at the beginning of my business where I wasn’t ready to go bulk orders yet. Gotcha. So, is all of this stuff, by the way, is all of this uh the acne that you’re talking about, is it all like facial presenting or is it does it occur elsewhere on your body? I’m not talking you specifically. I’m saying general in the general population. Is it only face presenting

or are these issues that you have elsewhere? I I think it depends on the person. A lot of people have it elsewhere. A lot of people just have on their face. And can So if people are having fungal acne issues on their back? Yeah, you could put the products wherever. Okay. Yeah. All right. Yeah. So yeah, I did vitamin C. Um and then I wanted to do a hydrating serum and at this time I was started finding labs. So I was and I was doing my moisturizer and the the hydrating serum and then I did my cleanser and and started working with the lab up here to do those and that was really great and

that was like a new process because I had actually you know at that point like not formulated my own product at that point. So then I had to learn how to do that and that was really fun and cool and tell us about that process. Yeah. So, um, pretty much what you do is you send the lab a big, it’s kind of like a questionnaire of like, okay, what is this product? What ingredients do you want in it? What do you want it to do? What do you not want it to do? What can it not have? What kind of claims do you want it to make? Um, then send us two products that you

like that are similar to this product, and what are their ingredient lists? And send us samples so we can test those out. So, you do all of those things and they make up a sample and you try it out and then you send back a feedback form that says texture was, you know, not great, smell sucked, color great, ingredients changed this, you know, and then you just go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth until you land on the correct formula. Um, it depends. Um, the sunscreen that I’m coming out with right now, I I think I was going back and forth for about 11 months before I got to the

final product, which for a sunscreen, I actually I feel like it was pretty quick. The the non-quick thing now is like the FDA testing, which I’ve never had to go through cuz none of my other products have to be FDA approved. Um, so that’s a very long process. Um, I’m just starting another product right now and it’s um, I just got my first sample of it like two days ago and I’m really hoping to launch by November. So, if that gives you an idea. Yeah. But who knows cuz I don’t know how how many times I’m going to go back and forth. And then you have to have other people test it out and make

sure it works on them and that you have to get their feedback, all that. Okay. uh as you look back across this, you’re still so young, but you’ve you’ve accomplished so much and you’ve been through so much in all of this experience. As you’re looking back, is there something that you would say on a in in the on the business side running a business that could be formulation or marketing or how you’re getting products to people or whatever? As you look back across that, is there anything that you think if I would have done it this way that would have been more efficient? That would have been more profitable. I’m guess I’m just wondering if

there’s things that you would advise people to think about as they’re building businesses. Um, you know, there’s always like, okay, I didn’t start with owning my formula. And I people might that might be like kind of controversial. Um, maybe not. But I don’t feel like I regret it. I I actually feel like I did everything right. It wasn’t maybe as profitable per item. It definitely wasn’t as profitable per item that way, but it allowed me to like start small and start with one product and like gradually grow instead of, okay, I’m going to fill 5,000 bottles and, you know, let some of them go bad because I can’t get through them all or let that

like anxiety of having to sell through all of these just like me. And now I own all my formulas and and it’s great and I I don’t regret it. I think I think I I I always advise people that when they’re starting a business, they don’t have to have everything like perfect and they don’t have to start huge. Like I started with one product and it allowed me to not go into any debt. It allowed me to not have any partners or have any issues financially. and then to put that money into my second product and then my third and and slowly gradually do that where I didn’t have to take a huge investment or

a loan or have a partner or do anything like that just to have the formula as my own upfront and have like a million pieces to sell. Um, so I don’t know. I like the way I did it. What what is the thing that you on a daily basis, what is the thing that you think is the most challenging or the thing you struggle with the most in running a running a business? Um, I think like the mental toll sometimes it’s not I I feel really lucky so far with how smooth things have gone. There’s been some issues, you know, like a 10,000 piece mandelic with all leaky caps. There’s been things like that. But

it’s I feel like the harder things are just like the comparing myself to other Utah skincare brands or other, you know, just things like that where I’m just like, “Oh my gosh, like their party looked way better than mine or they’re they came out with this product before I could do it or they’re making way more money than I am or you know they’re they have more people posting about them on Instagram.” It’s just like that mental battle every day of just like trying to feel like I’m like keeping up or doing enough or growing fast enough. That’s that’s the hardest part for me personally. And I do feel like I have a lot of

things that other brands don’t as far as everything’s acne safe, fungal, acne safe, pregnancy safe, like maybe for sensitive skin. It’s very like different and it’s its own niche. But it it still doesn’t stop me from sometimes comparing or like panicking or like, “Oh my gosh, okay, they did this much in year three and I did this much in year three and you know, so it’s it’s like nothing against them. Love them and I look up to them so much. Like think they’re so amazing. I’m like no one’s specifically, but I’m just saying like other brands in general, it’s just like it’s hard not to compare sometimes and Yeah. or like, “Oh my gosh, like

last week we did this much and this week we’re down by 20% and now my life’s over.” I hear you. I hear you. But you’re you’re doing amazing things. Don’t Yeah. Let’s don’t forget that part. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a it’s an up and down in my brain. You know, one of the things that we were talking about uh before we started was uh how you make decisions about how you’re going to market, how you’re going to present yourself to the community, how you’re going to build products, what you’re going to order. And you’ve you made the comment like a lot of it has been gut. Like you called it vibes, but I’m

I think I’m too old to use that word. But but um but it’s it sounds like you’re making a transition in your business to incorporate more databased data driven decisions. Yes. Tell us about that and how are you feeling about that? Well, it’s really new as of January 1st. New Year’s resolution. New Year’s resolution. Know what’s going on in my business. Well, it’s not going to air, but it’s just Feb. It’s like February 6th today. Okay. So, this has only been a month. So, um, yeah, New Year’s goal, know what’s going on in my business. Know like the numbers, you know, my ads girl, she sends me numbers. She I know like when my rorowaz

is, you know, I know like little things like like that. I know like what my daily sales is, but nothing like you could just look at a spreadsheet and know what’s going on all the time type of thing. And so my my husband has now taken on that role in Lissy Skincare. Oh, he’s the data guy. He’s the data guy. Okay. Yeah. So, he is in contact with everybody that he needs the metrics for and puts them all in this, you know, fancy spreadsheet and we’re doing it weekly so we know how are our ads doing this week and how are how is Amazon doing this week and how are sales and how are blah

blah blah like all all those things and where’s our profit at versus whatever. All those things I could not just tell you at any given time. Yeah, we’re now going to know. That’s That’s exciting. I feel like this is like the epitome of like a girl owning a business. Like girl math, girl math vibes. Well, you’re not you’re not alone. And we’ve had plenty of of uh female founded businesses on the podcast. Um, and there’s a good mix of I shouldn’t drag all girls into for this. I’m sorry, girls. There’s like there’s a good mix of of of a lot of um very successful brands who have been in the very same position and have

run for years on it just felt this felt right. Yeah. Which I also stand by. I also stand by my market research was this was what I needed. I wasn’t maybe the I don’t know that I needed this market research never done it. Okay. And and the opposite is true as well. There have also been um the businesses that are from the very beginning very data driven and where to put marketing dollars and market research and all of this stuff. So I don’t know, you know, there’s probably the the the right answers is probably a balance. Yes. Of doing both of the ability to do both. And so datadriven decisions aren’t always going to give

you the right I mean maybe you could make a point the case for well more than more often than not you’ll get to a good place but it’s not always right. And the other side of it is instinct is real. Yes. And it’s super meaningful in building a business. And that’s been something you’ve been able to rely on in building your business, right? I mean Yes. I feel like instinct and God, if we’re going to really get into it, I feel like I’ve been side as well. Me personally, yes. I feel like I’ve just every like big decision, even like all the stepping stones that I was talking about to get me here, I feel

like they were just like inspiration that just kind of like came into my mind and it felt right and I went for it and it like all worked out. Like I that’s kind of how I’ve gone off. Has this been has that been uh always been a part of your life? Have you felt kind of guided by that sort of prayer? Um, yes. Um, definitely. I just don’t think I like knew how to understand it my whole life, but I feel like I do now, if that makes sense. Well, tell us about that. Um, well, you know, I feel like growing up I was I was like, “Okay, I’m going to pray. God’s going to

tell me what to do in a vocal way right into my ear.” Yep. And you know, and that’s how I’m going to make all my decisions. That never happened. Not once, believe it or not. And um I don’t know if that’s the way it it works. Well, not for not for a lot of us. Like not for a lot of us, but I really wanted to be the exception. And um so I was just like, man, I just I don’t know. Like I I believe in God. I have faith, but where are where are my direct answers on every decision to make in my life? Um, and you know, it’s more eventually eventually I have

and people could just call it an instinct too. Yeah, I guess. But it’s more just like like I said, inspiration or things that come into my mind that feel right that fall into place that when I pray about it, I have peace and it works out and I just keep going and it it’s just it’s good. And um I don’t know. I feel like a lot of the things that I did like the apparel and starting my own brand and how to do it and things like that are just things that that literally just like appeared into my mind that were not really on my radar. And it was just like, oh yes, I should

do that. That’s right. I’m going to do it. And I’ve been guided in all the steps to do so. And it’s been successful and worked out. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think there’s a lot to be said for that and and trusting that instinct and and recognizing that when it when it’s there. Yeah. And it’s not always going to be maybe it will never be like Yeah. in your ear. This is what you should do. This is what you should do next. Okay. So, as we’re looking across the what you’ve accomplished so far, um, and what’s ahead, tell us about your how what what is your strategy? How are you looking at your current list

of products? What you want to do in the future and how that provides solutions for people who need skin care uh skin care products? And by the way, is this is this specific for women? This the skinare line? No, I mean it’s marketed towards women, but men can use it. We have some really cute teenage boys that use it. My cute little nephew apparently puts it on his forehead every once in a while. So cute. Is he on your Instagram? Is he one of your fine? So, is that is that illegal? I mean, he could be one of your influencers. No, no, no. I won’t I won’t put him to work. But I do think

it’s cute when I hear teenage boys or high school boys, their moms will come up to me and be like, “My son loves your product.” And I just I love that. So, no, it’s not gender specific. um the future. Is that what you asked? Or kind of what’s what’s Yeah, I want I want to know about your strategic thinking about your like you have this nice core of products. Um do you ever see that changing and and yeah, what how do you keep building on this foundation of products? Uh I there is a million skincare products to be had and to be made like you think five is a lot. There is brands with like

a million different products like four cleansers, four moisturizers, seven masks, two lip products. Like you can get really crazy. Okay, so there is there is room to get crazy if I want to get crazy. Right now I’m trying to just work on like the the core products like sunscreen is a must and that was a huge one and a huge undertaking cuz it’s way higher minimum order quantity. FDA testing is like insanely expensive and all of that. So that I’m really excited to get past that one and then I feel like I can do some more maybe some more fun things. I’m I am working on a product right now. I have not told anybody

so it’s kind of a secret but I’ll give you like a hint. Okay. It’s uh you’re not going to know what I’m talking about. It’s if any girl it’s enormously offensive. Well, you know you had I had to tell you what vitamin C does. You’re not going to know what this Okay, this is kind of a newer newer product, like a kind of a newer ingredient to hit the the market anyways, but I’m working on a retinol alternative. Um, and it’s going to be also like double as like a slugging product. Do you know So, do you know what I’m talking if we’re talking about uh the World Series? Yes. I’m very familiar with slugging

percentage, but The girls will know what I’m talking about. Maybe not, but it’s like a it’s like a really olusive product that goes on at the end of your skincare routine, like holds all your holds all your other products in and makes your skin like really nice and soft, but it’s also going to double as a retinol alternative. And a retinol is like it’s like the gold standard of anti-aging ingredient. And it’s great for acne, too. And it’s an alternative because it’s going to be more gentle and pregnancy safe. Okay. So, let me just ask you. I think the only thing I know about retinol, this may be completely made up by the way, okay?

Is that if you’re using retinol, then it’s dangerous to be exposed to sunlight. Yeah. Is that true? Yeah. Like your skin’s way more sensitive to the sun. You have to be wearing a sunscreen and you only put the retinol on at night. So, why would you use retinol? It’s very great for fine lines, wrinkles. like it’s like the best ingredient as far as anti-aging. You don’t want this. I don’t want this. No, you don’t want this. I want the like the like the lemon. You should start smoking if you don’t already. I think that would be a good thing for you to take on. Okay. Yeah. I think I don’t think you should take up

retinol or sunscreen anytime soon. You want to be aware of skin cancer. So, just keep that in mind with your your sunscreen intake. But I think that’ll be great for you. Here’s one thing that I’m struggling with. You don’t have enough wrinkles right now. You really don’t. If you want to age like leather, you got to start putting up. I got I have to work harder. Okay. So, now strategy. Where where where are we headed? You’re just building. I wish I knew. You’re just building on Do you think you need to get to like 100 products or thous You get too many then you just have products that are not selling and are just costing

you money, I think. Um, but yeah, I want to do like I have like products that I really love from other brands that I want to make fungal acne safe so that I can use them. Like those are kind of where my my brain is still at. I’m like, “Okay, I love this certain face mask, but I don’t dare use it very often because it it’ll break me out if I do.” So, I want to create the same type of product, but in my own brand, or I, you know, I love this scrub, but it’s not acne safe. I want to create the same thing where it makes my skin feel the same way, but

it’s not going to break me out. So, there’s like scrubs, masks. I want to make, you know, lip product. Um maybe like uh you know you could get you could get really deep because there’s like some skincare brands that do like shampoo and conditioner because I even have to be so so so careful with what shampoo and conditioners I use cuz they break me out really bad like around my hairline. Um so like you could get crazy and go that way body washes for body acne. But those all seem like very related and useful. Yes, everything will be related and useful. I’m I’m hoping I don’t Yeah, I but I think there’s there’s still products

to be had that I could do. So, even like I could do another cleanser that has a more active cuz right now ours is just like really uh gentle, really really soothing, which is great for acne, but I could do one that’s like a little bit more aggressive or has an active in it. So, there’s things you could do, but my goal is to always create products that are acne safe, fungal, acne safe, that are not going to disrupt your skin barrier or like Mhm. burn my face like all the products used to do and make you feel like you have whatever skinare product you need, whether you’re looking for a face mask or a

scrub or an eye cream or whatever, I have all of those like basic necessities covered. Yeah. Yeah. And then just trying to grow. Okay. Let’s talk about that in in trying to grow uh in in your years of existence. What has been the most effective marketing that you’ve done and what’s been the least effective marketing that you’ve done? O Okay, so there’s Tik Tok, which blew up for like a year. Like it blew up my business and was the most effective because it cost zero dollars. Mhm. It got so many eyeballs and just made lots of money. What were you doing with TikTok? Were you just doing I was making videos like this. Hey, I

struggled with acne my whole life and now I created a product that now cleared my acne and it solved all my problems. These are my before and afters. It’s the Lissy Skincare Mandelic Serum. Here’s some more before and afters. Check it out. Literally millions of views. Like it was just like popping off. I got in and like sometimes I was like just like in a hoodie literally in a dark room like like they weren’t like nice videos and but those were the ones that like did so good but like it was like it takes me 1 second to make this video. I don’t have makeup on like the most relaxed chill thing. It was making

it was like going crazy. So for like 6 months to a year I could expect a video to go viral at least once a week. Like that is how I like my business was steady and it was like okay then Tik Tok shop started. I got in at the very beginning of Tik Tok shop. Um and at that point Tik Tok was like pushing those videos. Um I think I was like literally probably I had to have been one of the only skincare brands. Like I’m telling you I got in at the very beginning and they were also uh Tik Tok would be like here’s 50% off of this product but I would get paid

the full amount. Like Tik Tok was just taking a huge cut. So, I was balling out at that time and it was amazing. I knew it was not going to last forever, but I was like milking it as much as I could during that time, which was like so great. And people were falling in love with the product and it it was really great to like get it into the hands of people for free. And um so that was the most effective thing I’ve I’ve ever done, but now it’s not like How long did that last? I think it was probably like spring of 2023 to maybe like February of 2024 year or so, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So, it was like it was like a year and then it wasn’t as like crazy, but it was still like steady. Every once in a while, we’d have a viral video. 2024 was still like good. Our best year probably. Um, and then 2025 hits and Tik Tok, like everything changes with Tik Tok. So, it’s like not the same at all. So, now we’re kind of in a spot of like, okay, we have really great customers, but we’re not like getting in front of new eyeballs as much. And now it’s time to really learn how to build a real business that’s sustainable and longlasting and not living off of like virality. And so that

was only like a year ago where we’re like, “Okay, it’s time to do this for real.” And so I guess before that, like maybe like 6 months before 2025, I started like running ads for the first time. But like I did my first million without a single ad, single paid anything. Like it was all just off Tik Tok shop for free. It was so crazy. And it gave me this like skewed view of like prof profit margins and all all of these things, you know. Um, so then I started like running ads and those were, you know, as good as ads can do. Like they were they were good effective. Yeah, they were they were

effective, but they’re not Tik Tok. Nothing will ever be what that was. Um, and so like beginning of last year, we’re like, okay, we’ve never sent products to influencers. We’ve never done anything like that. Um, so we started doing that. Um, and that’s actually been really great. It’s we like finally calculated it like a a couple months ago and it had like um for what we were spending sending products to what uh influencers were bringing in we were having like a 12x rorowaz or something. So like we were like okay this is this is effective. So right now that might be our most effective influencer influencing in your influencer marketing. Are you are people reaching

out to you or are you reaching out to influencers? mainly we’re reaching out to them. We reach out say, “Hey, we like love your page. We’d love to send you some products. What’s your address?” We keep it really simple. We don’t um say like, you know, you have to post for us. There’s like no expectation or anything. And so it started kind of slow, but and what we did that I feel like was also really effective is we targeted a specific area. So we’re like, “Okay, we’re doing Utah. That’s where we are and that’s where influencers reside.” just the place for influencers. This is the place for influencers world. Yeah. So, we’re like, we’re going

to create like this little network of affiliates because my thought process was if we have one affiliate in California, sorry, one affiliate in California, one in New York, and so so here in between, you know, they’re not all going to have the same audience where if we have like if the people in Utah feel like every single person is talking about Lissy Skincare or using Lissy Skincare, it’s going to like blow up because you want it to feel like everyone one is using this product. Everybody’s using it. So that was our strategy of like starting with a little a group of like influencer friends and then like going to their comments and finding more influencers

and then their comments and finding more influencers and just like making this big web of influencers and that’s actually been really good for us. Um because I mean we have random people in Utah say like everybody uses Lissy skincare and that’s not true but maybe everybody like all the micro influencers or influencers that you follow or the people that you see on Instagram are using Lissy Skincare. So it feels like that and so you want to use Lissy Skincare or it’s going to make you actually go to our website check us out. Yeah. So that’s been our strategy strategy and yeah it’s all us reaching out and then we follow up. If they love it

we ask if they want to code. We don’t do any paid anything. Um, it’s all just commissionbased and we try to just create like a community within our affiliates and we’ll host affiliate events every once in a while and just, you know, we’re commenting on their stuff. We’re like trying to like be involved with them and um yeah, that’s been effective. We’ve done podcasts which has been effective too. Internal podcasts. Um, we paid paid ads. Oh, got we are running ads on people’s podcasts. And again, the podcasts that we choose are like, “Hey, we know all like the the girlies in Utah are listening to this podcast. We want everyone to feel like they’re getting

bombarded in every way so that it looks like we’re everywhere and everybody’s using it.” Mhm. Um, and that has been effective. We’re not doing those as much right now. They’re expensive. Um, but the affiliates, we’re not putting like tons of money into it, so it’s been good. So, I’m guessing that after that Tik Tok shop bubble Mhm. your marketing costs have changed quite a bit. Yes. Heavily. Yeah. Yeah. Which and you know, I have like my my bookkeeper and stuff and she’s like, “You are in like like still our profit margin.” She’s like, “You’re in a very healthy spot.” But it just still feels like but they’re not like clean profit margins that they were

because I had zero overhead. but I had like one employee and I just was, you know, had no marketing costs or anything. So, we’re in a good spot, but it’s it is hard to like not get in my head about it. And then also just feeling like it’s so much more slow and steady than like I can put out a video at any time and millions of people are going to see it. And that’s like really quick and easy where now it’s like okay we got to like make ads like literal real ads not ones me in my pajamas on Tik Tok and you know the good old days like all the real business things

are like having to happen now. But I’m also grateful for it because it’s creating longevity and I’m able to build my email list where with Tik Tok like I didn’t own any of those customers, you know. So now it’s just like more slow and steady um which I think is going to be more beneficial in the long run. Yeah, absolutely. when you think about um th this is going to be the thing that is going to drive the next bubble or burst or is that something that’s on your mind or are you more like we’re just going to keep we’re going to be steady we’re going to keep building great products and and we’re going

to meet the needs of the market I feel like the only thing I know how to do right now is just be like slow and steady I’m hoping for a big break. Um, I’m in talks with a gigantic retailer, probably the biggest, but just in the very beginning talk. So, it’s like there’s like that in the back of my mind where it’s like that would be huge. Like that would be a big break obviously. Um, but who knows if that’s actually going to, you know, if things are really going to come of that. I don’t know yet. So, I just don’t know. Everything’s online currently or or is there retail? We retail like to a

few small estheticians and a little place locally to me, but mostly it’s all online. Okay. If you weren’t doing Lissy skin care, what would you be doing? I I really love owning a business. So, I think I would want to own a different business. I don’t know what I could say like going back to being like a true esthetician in the treatment room, but I don’t love that. Like that would be like the easiest fall back. I don’t know. I’d have to come up with something else. What was it about the the treatment room experience that you It wasn’t even bad. I don’t know. Like nothing. There was nothing wrong with it. Nothing bad. It

was just like uh I don’t know. I like being on my computer clacking and like looking at numbers and like coming up with new ideas and new things. It’s just like the same like let me do the same facial again. No, it’s I don’t know. Man, Lizzy, it’s been so great talking to you. This has been so much fun and you did an amazing job. Thank you. I know that you said you I know you did an amazing job and you’re doing such an amazing you’re building an amazing business and congratulations everything that you’ve accomplished so far. We’re looking forward to many more great things from you and Lissy Skincare. I hope you’ll come back

and visit us again and let us know about your next product, the next strategy, all of the all of those things. Come back and see us. Thank you. I will. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Know Your Ship podcast presented by EHUB. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review.