The Scoop with Emma Lewisham: Moving to London and a Retail Expansion

Welcome to the Scoop: a weekly email series in which I quiz fashion insiders on the stories of the week. This will be a way for the Vogue Business community to synthesize and reflect on the latest headlines and get a little inside scoop every Friday.

This week’s guest is Emma Lewisham. Emma founded her namesake brand in 2019, with a vision to create really good skincare products that come in circular packaging. Refills are somewhat of a cliché now, but when I was introduced to the brand in 2023, I thought the Supernatural Blemish Face Serum’s cocktail dispenser was mind-bogglingly innovative.

Emma started the brand in New Zealand, where she is from. But since launching in the UK three years ago, it’s really become a favorite of London’s fashion scene. Which may have something to do with this week’s scoop.

Hi Emma, what’s the scoop?

We have two retail launches next week. We are expanding further into the US with our launch in Bluemercury on Tuesday, which is exciting and sort of deepening our presence in the region. But we are also deepening our presence in the UK by launching in Cult Beauty.

We very much see the brand being around in 100 years time, so we want to be very deliberate when it comes to our expansion. It takes a lot of investment to do well in the US, and it’s a more fragmented market. We are very drawn to Bluemercury because they are focused on the luxury end, especially when it comes to their in-store service and staffing model.

Our maturation in the UK and Europe is further ahead, so launching in Cult Beauty is more about reach. I am also going to be moving to London later this year, to support the UK, the US and European markets.

We’ve got two scoops then! You are expanding your retail network and moving both your family and your company headquarters to the UK. How long has this been in the works?

The UK market isn’t one that you succeed in overnight. They want to see if you stand by what you’ve said, which takes blood, sweat and tears, and showing up and being prepared to roll up your sleeves. I’ve traveled to the UK at least two to three times a year since we launched to keep a consistent presence, and we’ve had a UK team since day one. We’ve also hired a head of retail for both the UK and Europe — she used to work at Sunday Riley, and she’s brilliant.

I also feel a kindred spirit with London and the UK. I love the network of people that I’ve built around me there and the brand and our team, and I really love the culture and our customers. So as much as we’re moving for business reasons, there’s definitely an appeal from a personal and family point of view. It’s just such a wonderful, inspiring place.

Since we are on the topic of expansion, Rhode just launched in Australia. Drawing on some lessons you’ve learned in your journey, how do you build a truly global beauty brand?

I think it sounds deceptively simple, but fundamentally, you have to have a product that is genuinely exceptional and your brand needs to have a real point of view. It’s such a competitive industry, and there has to be such depth to your offer to cut through. And a throughline would be to offer genuine problem-solving.

The other thing I’d say is you need to be really clear on what your vision is and work toward that. I talk to so many brand founders, and you’d be surprised by how many don’t know where they want to be in two years time, let alone in five, 10, 100 years. So again, deceptively simple, but be really clear on what you’re trying to achieve.