NOT JUST SKIN DEEP
NERISSA LOW
LIHT ORGANICS PTE LTD
“A critical ingredient of success is always be able to look forward to the future, and never rest on your laurels. This journey is all about continuous learning and evolution.”
Ask Nerissa Low what LIHT is and she would tell you it’s “about beauty from the inside out.” The name is an acronym for Living in Her Time — apart from being about quality products, it aims to create a brand that will empower women to radiate their inner light and shine with their greatest potential. And while the company’s line of organic cosmetics enhance the users’ physical beauty, the 36-year-old proprietor believes that beauty should also radiate from within.
Once plagued with a severe acne condition, Nerissa had to go to a dermatologist every month and was prescribed long-term medication that potentially had adverse side effects on her organ health; she even had to go for a blood test every three months just to ensure the organs were functioning well. The episode spurred her to take matters into her own hands — she started to find for a solution and eventually arrived at organic, chemical-free skincare products, but yet there wasn’t any organic makeup that was effective or fit her criteria of safety. LIHT was therefore born to fill the market gap.
Tell us a little more about LIHT’s line of products.
We want to be known globally as the leading organic makeup brand, and our products go against the grain and challenge the norm. Where traditional cosmetics are known to have harmful effects on your skin and body, we create something that looks good, feels good, and is in fact good for you. We are very stringent in our criteria in terms of safety, performance, and functionality. We also use FDA-approved ingredients so our customers have no fear about ingesting our makeup!
For a relatively young company, LIHT has managed to secure strong investor funding. How was this achieved?
We have a strong brand story with products that have low competition in an industry with a huge market potential. These numbers coupled with great opportunities that we already have on hand gives investors confidence that the company will soar to greater heights within a short period of time. My initial investors are also my friends who have known me for a long time, they have seen my work ethic, networking ability, and determination over the years, and have always associated me with success and being able to make things happen. They trust that I have their best interests at heart and I would never offer a proposition that I wasn’t confident about. That is how I managed to raise one million dollars at pre-revenue stage, and we are currently raising another USD3m to fund a new market entry opportunity that is already on
the table.
To what would you attribute your success? What mindset do you adopt?
Resilience and passion. Without these, it would be easy to burn out and give up in this journey. I see adversity as lessons I have to learn in order to move ahead, and I always take a step back to see how these challenges are necessary for me to learn the right lessons that build strength, unwavering integrity, and determination so I am more prepared for what lies ahead.
What motivates you?
My dream to build/ fund foundations for animal conservation. I love animals and it pains me to see the suffering they go through for our mistakes
What are your expansion plans for the business?
We have plans for a major launch in the Middle East, China and Hong Kong. We also have partnership opportunities popping up regularly, and part of the challenge is navigating which ones are aligned with our brand, which to put on the back burner, and which are perfect for where we are at the moment in order to ensure that we don’t expand too fast without the proper foundations.
What is your key to building a strong business foundation?
By ensuring that as the founder and CEO, I have a solid foundation myself. I am clear of who I am and what I want to achieve, and I surround myself with mentors to guide me and friends who ground me and keep me on a firm compass. This forms a strong guiding force in decision-making, and will translate into our company culture as we start to expand.
