How Lia Cardoso Built Skin Leaf Cosmetics to Prove Plant-Based Skincare Can Perform at the Highest Level

Meet Lia Cardoso, founder of Skin Leaf Cosmetics, a clean botanical skincare brand built in Portugal for the conscious consumer who believes skin thrives with plants, not excess. After fifteen years as a professional makeup artist, Lia launched the brand in 2020 with a single conviction: slow beauty, done with intention, can outperform anything mass-produced.

What makes Lia's story stand out is not just the brand itself, it is the foundation underneath it. Skin Leaf was born out of grief, survival, and the belief that what we leave behind matters more than what we accumulate. That intention shows up in every formula, every award, and every conversation she has about her work.

Please share a brief introduction and your business:

I'm Lia Cardoso, founder and CEO of Skin Leaf Cosmetics, and after 15 years working as a professional makeup artist, I launched the brand in Portugal in 2020 with a simple conviction: skin thrives with plants, not excess. Skin Leaf is a clean, botanical skincare brand built for the conscious consumer, slow beauty, done with intention.

Take us back to when you launched. What was your marketing strategy?

Honestly? There was no strategy. I launched Skin Leaf the way most real businesses start, with the community already in front of me. As a makeup artist and teacher, my students were my first customers. Word spread naturally, social media followed, and within a year I had a website and my first resellers across Portugal. It wasn't planned. It was organic in every sense of the word. Looking back, that's very on-brand for Skin Leaf.

Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

Not at all. Entrepreneurship found me through necessity. After losing my second son in 2011, I went through a period of profound grief that affected my mental health and, with it, my financial stability. I carried debt, I struggled to hold a job, and I needed something that could sustain my family on my terms. Makeup gave me that, I could work and earn within the hour. But somewhere between the early survival years and filling hotel rooms with makeup students, something shifted. I realised I wasn't just keeping the lights on, I was building something. That's when I knew I was no longer an employee holding on. I was an entrepreneur ready to scale. When Covid arrived, Skin Leaf Cosmetics was born.

Are you a mamaprenista?

I don't have any advice , just a lesson and a quote I've heard once from Alex Box, an amazing makeup artist: "Your family comes first, work is going to be there always but family won't."

What accomplishments are you the most proud of to date in your business?

The awards. Not for the recognition itself, but for what they represent, the proof that plant-based formulas can perform at the highest level. Every time one of our products is acknowledged for its effectiveness, it confirms that we are moving in the right direction. In an industry that still underestimates clean beauty, that validation means everything.

What is one thing you wish you had known when you started your Entreprenista journey?

Not everyone has your best interest at heart, you need to protect your work and energy. And not being afraid of showing emotions and owning my story.

When hiring, what is your go-to interview question?

What was your biggest problem or pain and how did you overcome it?

What did you do before starting your own business?

Before Skin Leaf, I spent fifteen years as a professional makeup artist in Portugal, specialising in natural beauty and glam. That duality, the effortless and the elevated, shaped everything about how I think about skin. Working so closely with people taught me that confidence starts with skin that feels healthy, not just covered.

What made you take the leap to start your own business?

Legacy. I wanted to build something my son could one day be part of and something that honours the son I lost. Covid reminded me that everything can change in an instant, and that was the final push I needed. Skin Leaf was never just a business. It was a declaration. A mark on the world built with intention, with grief, with love, and with the belief that what we leave behind matters more than what we accumulate. That's what gets me up every morning.

Do you have any recent wins?

Our Sensitive Facial Oil and Deep Facial Cleansing Oil won the Editor's Choice at the Beauty Short List Awards in 2025.

What's one app on your phone that you cannot live without?

Canva, Bible app and Spotify.

Who are your customers?

Our customers are women who have outgrown impulse buys. They read labels, choose consciously, and believe that what they put on their skin matters as much as what they put in their body.

What's your top productivity tip?

Protect your energy like it's your most valuable asset because it is. As a founder, mother, and someone who has rebuilt herself more than once, I've learned that productivity isn't about doing more. It's about doing what matters with full presence. When you're clear on your purpose, the noise falls away.

What's your favorite business tool?

Canva for sure.

What's your approach to work-life balance?

I don't chase balance, I chase alignment. There were years of my life where survival was the only goal, and balance was a luxury I couldn't afford. Now that I have choice, I make sure that what I build serves my life, not the other way around. Skin Leaf was created with intention, and I run it the same way. When work feels like purpose, the line between work and life stops feeling like a conflict.

How do you avoid burn-out?

I've experienced burnout. I know what it costs. So now I listen to my body before it forces me to stop. I protect my rest, I move slowly and intentionally, which is also the philosophy behind Skin Leaf. A brand can only be as sustainable as the person building it. Slow beauty isn't just a product ethos. It's how I live.

What advice do you have for aspiring Entreprenistas?

If you want to start a business, start a business. There's no ideal moment to launch a business. Do it. Don't let fear stop your dreams because it's better to die trying to succeed than die without trying in the first place.

Lia's story is a reminder that the most enduring brands are often the ones built from the deepest parts of a founder's life, not the most polished plans. Skin Leaf grew out of grief, survival, and intention, and that foundation is exactly why it can hold up to the highest performance standards in clean beauty. We are so glad to have her in the Entreprenista community and cannot wait to watch Skin Leaf Cosmetics continue to grow.

Want to connect with founders like Lia? Visit the EntreprenistaLeague to explore our community and discover more stories of women building businesses that truly matter.