Indie Lee: The Diagnosis That Built a Clean Beauty Empire

About this episode

Indie Lee shares her journey from a life-threatening diagnosis to building a clean beauty empire focused on safe and sustainable skincare.

Indie Lee is a clean beauty skincare brand founded by Indie Lee in 2010, built around the idea of combining high-performance formulas with plant-derived, non-toxic ingredients. The brand was born out of Lee’s personal health crisis—she was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor in 2008, which doctors believed could be environmentally linked, prompting her to rethink everything she was putting on her skin. After undergoing successful surgery, she made it her mission to create safer, transparent skincare and to educate consumers on ingredient awareness. What started as formulations she created in her own kitchen quickly evolved into a full line of products known for being clean, cruelty-free, and rooted in both nature and science. The brand became an early player in the clean beauty movement, emphasizing sustainability, ethical sourcing, and avoiding thousands of potentially harmful ingredients. Today, Indie Lee is widely distributed across major retailers and has continued to grow, including recent expansions aimed at making clean beauty more accessible to a broader audience. In this episode, Indie also discusses: Her brain tumor diagnosis that forced a complete life reset…

People in this episode

Host: Takara Sewitt

Guest: Indie Lee

Topics covered

• clean beauty
• entrepreneurship
• personal health crisis
• sustainability
• ingredient awareness

Keywords

• clean beauty
• skincare
• Indie Lee
• sustainability
• non-toxic ingredients
• entrepreneurship
• health crisis

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Indie Lee, Bluemercury, Credo, Ulta, Amazon, Whole Foods

More episodes of Glam & Grow - Beauty Business Podcast

• How The Original Southside Is Raising the Bar for Ready-to-Drink Cocktails With Founder Meredith Mills-Merritt · June 8, 2026 · 59 min
• Designing the Modern Woman: The Ronny Kobo Brand Story · April 13, 2026 · 1h 6m
• Scaling from to 4.5 Million Customers in 3 Years With Angie Tebbe, Founder of Rae Wellness · March 30, 2026 · 49 min
• From the Conair Legacy to arachne: The Next Generation of Beauty Innovation With Founder Sophia Wojczak · March 16, 2026 · 44 min
• Inside the Fastest-Growing Brand in Modern Aesthetics With Founder Michele Henry, Face Foundrie · March 2, 2026 · 44 min
• From Dermatopathology to Daily Care: Why Dr. Mamina Turegano Trusts Obagi® for Scalp Health · February 16, 2026 · 49 min