Yahoo Finance 'The lives we have changed with our skincare products is a pinch me moment'
The stories you don't know about some of the world's best and little-known brands
Before Lucy Goff even launched her wellness and skincare company, her premise was for the brand to be a four-letter word. “There wasn’t much available in the four letter space in 2018,” she smiles. Six years on, Lyma (taken from ancient Greek word 'lema') is now an eight-figure business.
Goff’s life changed nearly a decade ago when she was introduced to Paul Clayton, a leader in nutritional science as she recovered from septicaemia and six weeks in hospital following the birth of her first child.
“Once the infection was gone the pharmaceutical world couldn’t help me, as their benchmark of me being well was that I didn’t have septicaemia,” she recalls, “but there was this grey area where I couldn’t function.
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“Paul led me to this small hidden set of supplements that genuinely worked. My life started to turn and I felt myself again. It proved the impetus in a supplement industry that has been built on hope and marketing that here was something that actually worked.”
It spawned the launch of Goff's supplements, launched in 2018 and billed as the first pharmaceutical grade formulation in the industry. Then came the Lyma laser, released in 2020, a product creating new potential for clinic-grade home skin regeneration (no goggles needed). A third product arrived last year, a skincare cream engineered to work alongside the laser as well as a standalone anti-aging protocol.
Goff says it is the most active skincare on the market, with over 80% of the formulation made up of active ingredients, with 20% made up of the stabilisers and water emulsifiers. Normally, adds Goff, the skincare industry works on the reverse.
Goff, who is dyslexic, started her career as a secretary at the Daily Express’ fashion department before being asked to be a stylist at the newspaper. “Once I learned to type I realised I was more capable than I thought and the creativity came out in writing,” she says.
Journalism also taught her to question everything, before she moved into PR for Selfridges and witnessed the attributes needed for different brands to be successful.
“Lyma was launched as a product that was light years ahead in efficacy than anything else on the market,” says Goff. “But that’s not enough if you want to launch a brand. Immersion of a brand that’s relevant culturally is the true benchmark of whether something will work culturally.
“Jo Malone de-commoditised the candle as a luxury statement for the home, repackaged it as a scented candle that was something so obvious that nobody else had done before. Walking into people’s homes and subconsciously smelling the candle you thought ‘this woman has got her life in order’.
“That’s why I created Lyma, to have this solid, copper vessel you could house a supplement in and show in the home and people will automatically look and think ‘she’s done her research, she wants the best’. It is these brand reminders in the home that make all the difference.”
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Following the success of Lyma’s flagship supplement, Goff admitted that then selling 100 lasers in the first year would have been marked as a success, given it was an “unknown brand launching a £2,000 innocuous laser device”.
However, Goff says: “What I underestimated was the enormous trust that had been built by the consumer taking the supplement for 18 months. We sold £1.5m of product within the first week of launch. I knew then the power of what we had created.”
Further, when Lyma launched its £500 skincare product, that has a one month’s use, it yielded a waiting list of 30,000 people. Science-backed messaging as well as celebrity backing from the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Kim Kardashian certainly helped.
With 40% growth, Lyma, which hit £23.2m in revenue in 2022, was subsequently named 11th fastest-growing company in the UK by the Sunday Times and the first ever King’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade last year.
“It’s a pinch me moment of the lives we have changed through the products,” admits Goff. “We have grown virally and organically through the perimenopausal woman whose life has gone a bit downhill. HRT [hormone replacement therapy] is amazing but not the full solution. You really need to rely on supplementation or an effective skincare tool.
“You don't realise how debilitating not being able to sleep is or feeling uncontrollably stressed or feeling depressed because you don’t want your skin to age. Nobody sees their heart, liver or bones aging on a daily basis.
"The skin is the only benchmark that we have that can really affect the mind to visibly see that things are starting to age in your body. The fact we are offering a solution to anti-aging some might perceive to be fickle but to millions of people it’s really real."
While the US is currently Lyma’s biggest market, the company — Goff entered the pandemic with five employees and emerged with nearly 30 — is based in London with nearly 50 staff. She adds: “Brands are built on a visual playbook, but we are an emotional one. It’s hard to globalise that from different offices, it has to come from one hub."
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Six years since forming the British welltech brand, Goff says she never set out to launch a business and admits that she is continually learning.
“Being a mother is one thing but I feel quite maternal to the people in Lyma,” she adds.
“There are intense challenges, intense elation and this is a journey you have to take everybody on. It’s how you come together as a team which means success or not.”
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