Women Making History: Carolyn Li Ming Geh
by Megan Montgomery
What do you do when the products you want to use aren’t on the market? If you’re Carolyn Li Ming Geh (Li), you invent them.
While Li had always had sensitive skin, it wasn’t until she moved from Malaysia to Canada for college that her skin sensitivities got worse. As a child, Li’s father, an engineer, instilled in her a love for creating things using natural ingredients instead of chemicals, including food items such as soymilk and yogurt. Li struggled to find skincare products that worked for her so she decided to tap into her childhood experience of sourcing her own raw plant-based ingredients, including guava fruit, turmeric root, cajeput, tamanu, vetiver, rice, and coconut, and developing a few formulas to address her skincare needs.
“While I was getting my Master’s degree in Neuroscience,” Li says, “I was scouted to be a double on a TV show, which eventually led to a contract with a top modeling agency in New York City. As a model, I had to be even more diligent about my skincare routine and I continued to refine my formula by combining ancient traditions with modern science. Some of the make-up artists that I was working with kept telling me that I had great skin and asking me about the products that I used on my skin.”
When Li informed them that she made her own products, they strongly encouraged her to launch her own skincare line. As Li prayed about taking the leap to start her own business, Li decided to launch a skincare service brand that was not just nourishing for the skin, but also good for the soul. She wanted her skincare line to encourage women that beauty is much more than just skincare. With that purpose , Li Organics (www.liorganics.com) was officially launched in Jan 2019.
Li had also had a dream many years earlier that had never left her and in that dream she built a school. She decided that 10 percent of her company’s profits would go to building classrooms and schools in poverty zones. Attending school had always been a joy for her and opened up a lot of opportunities for her to go to Canada and the U.S. and then later travel to many other countries, which opened her up to a much broader world beyond her village.
“I want children to have the opportunity to go to school, get an education, and dream as big as they possibly can,” says Li. “I encourage everyone reading this to pay attention to the dreams on your heart as they might be there for a reason that’s much bigger that you. We also get to support local communities on the island of Penang in Malaysia, where our products are handcrafted in small batches using time-tested, traditional methods. We take no shortcuts to create the best product possible. These products are the very best nature has to offer, and I hope they nourish and make everyone who uses them even more beautiful than they already are. My promise is that we will never compromise on the quality, source, or safety of our ingredients, and you’ll certainly see that in the results!”
