Kathy Kiedrzynski, a beauty therapist and mother of two launched the beauty supplement brand Kiyomee Blends in July 2020, amidst the COVID pandemic whilst in lockdown in Melbourne.
Kathy saw a gap in the market for high quality, luxurious skin supplements and wanted to help people restore confidence in themselves by using a natural path to healing.
Kiyomee Blends saw fast success, making six figures within the first 6 months of operation.
Launching the brand during the COVID lockdown was no easy task. My family would be around the kitchen table, helping me pack orders as they came. They were amazing and stuck by me through it all.
We spoke to Kathy about launching a business during COVID and seeing fast success.
Can you tell us a little bit about your career before you started Kiyomee Blends
I actually was studying Law when I finished year 12 but my passion was in beauty. After beauty school I worked in a few salons and just hated the constant need to compete with your peers. So, in 2003 I went out on my own and started Belle Vous Day Spa, it was a place where our clients would feel comfortable to return and not have products pushed on them due to staff targets, they could turn up with no makeup and feel confident, babies were welcome and clients felt safe with us knowing the extensive training and industry knowledge we had.
I am a Beauty Therapist by trade and heart and with 21 years under my belt, I felt it was time to pamper from within and that is why I created Kiyomee Blends.
Was there a particular spark or a significant turning point that led you to start your business?
After 21 years in the beauty industry, I’ve seen a gap in education and nurturing our bodies and simplifying self-care, that could revitalise and nourish our bodies from within. I wanted to help women restore their natural inner glow.
With so many products and brands on the market, it can be confusing to choose which best suits you. Which is what inspired me to redefine the future of simple and tasty ingestible beauty.
You launched your beauty supplement brand during Melbourne’s COVID lockdown in 2020, how did that add to the hurdles you faced starting a business?
It came with its challenges and added many extra hurdles you may not usually face. Things like meetings face to face were non-existent and everything had to be corresponded via zoom, pretty much you relied on postage for samples, emails and the entire setup and running of a business had to be taken online.
We couldn’t have tastings with our distributors and had to solely depend on relationships and reputation to actually get our products into the hands of people. There were postage delays, wrong products sent which in turn meant waiting again, you couldn’t set anything up directly and cross it off your list, it became quite the waiting game as 100% of the business had to be launched whilst in lockdown.
Who or what was integral to you overcoming these hurdles?
My family played a huge role in making this happen, we’d use our daily walks during these lockdowns to get brochures into letterboxes, late nights packing gift boxes for influencers to enjoy and share to help us get some recognition and be seen. Our marketing and creative team were amazing in creating brand awareness and communication with our small community to encourage referrals to help us launch.
Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently when you were first starting out?
I’ve learnt a lot over the last 18 months and have had many lessons that have made me so much stronger. In a perfect world I would implement the things I have learnt but would I change anything, probably not as it’s made me the person I am today. In years to come I’ll be able to look back on some of the learnings I have now and be grateful for them.
The beauty market is notoriously competitive, how is Kiyomee Blends unique?
We pride ourselves on education, transparency and creating trustworthy holistic beauty blends that taste amazing and nourish your body from within. Although we are a very new growing business, we have built ongoing relationships with a like-minded community that loves and shares our range. We don’t have endless cash piles for influencer marketing, and advertising so we rely heavily on the integrity of our beautiful community we have built. We get to work with amazing influential athletes, TV personalities, beauty businesses, gyms, Pilates and yoga studios based solely on their love for all things Kiyomee.
One of the biggest keys to our success was creating a safe space where people could share their concerns about their skincare journey. We wanted to support them ensuring we answered any questions, giving them a good understanding of our products and how there is still hope.
Where do you see yourself and your business in 10 years?
Kiyomee Blends in particular has a few surprises that will cater to the whole family’s nourishing needs, that can easily be incorporated daily and with no fuss. We hope to really break into the market and be recognised as a well-known trusted brand with only our customers’ needs in mind. Within the next two years, we are hoping to have launched another two products within our current skin-loving line and launch into the healing of our bodies with a completely new wellness range that will cater for specific health needs such as sleep, skin inflammation and we’ll keep the rest a surprise.
We will also be launching a skincare line that has been used within my salon for the last 12 months and it has changed people’s lives. I am also opening a Wellness Hub that will tie all the above together, so stay tuned to see how holistic health and wellness will come together in one amazing space for all.
How do you personally measure success?
For me real success is based on the happiness of our community. It’s the text messages and calls I receive sharing their journey and how I’ve played a role in helping them regain their confidence back, whether it be physically or emotionally.
When my family is happy and my community is feeling its best, it drives me to keep on bringing more awareness and help put a smile on their faces. Seeing our name on shakers in the gym, t-shirts walking past through the park just makes me happy beyond words.
How many people are on your team, and do you have any tips on hiring and growing a team?
We currently have a team of 6 within our small Kiyomee Family, and each brings something unique to the company. I have tried to hire enthusiastic entrepreneurial experts in various fields, this way I know they are driven and always performing their best to create and share diverse parts of the business. I think paying your team well and quite intensive interviewing is a must to ensure you hire those that truly fit and share similar values and purpose for life and across your business.
What do you want to achieve next?
I am really focused on launching my new wellness space I briefly touched on above. I want to create a peaceful retreat, a haven for contemplation and recovery. The ultimate space for rejuvenation of mind, body, and spirit. To incorporate my holistic wellness supplements, beauty treatments and fitness all in one space.
We Are Emersyn uses an inclusive definition “female” and “women” and we welcome trans people, women, genderqueer women, and non-binary people who identify, have identified, or have been identified as female, women, or non-binary.