Three Ships Beauty was founded by Laura Burget and Connie Lo, both of whom were still college students when the idea for the company came about. At the time, Laura had developed an interest in natural beauty and was using coconut oil as a natural makeup remover. While the oil was super effective, Laura found it to be extremely messy and started looking for an equally natural alternative in a more convenient format. Unfortunately, Laura quickly discovered that almost everything was out of her budget; as a college student, she couldn’t afford to pay $80 for a cleanser. She also realized how much greenwashing and misleading information was prevalent in the beauty industry. After graduating, Laura decided to start tinkering around in her kitchen and develop her coconut oil-based cleansing oils.

Around that time, one of Laura’s college friends introduced her to Connie — a clean beauty fanatic since fifth grade — and the pair decided to meet up for a sushi dinner. What was intended to be a quick 30-minute chat turned into a three-hour business meeting, and Laura and Connie became co-founders that same night. While working their respective full-time jobs, Laura and Connie each invested $2,000 of their own savings and launched their beauty brand under the name “NIU BODY” in March of 2017. They met up on nights and weekends to mix, pour, and label their own products in Connie’s condo kitchen, after which they would transport the finished goods via streetcar to Laura’s apartment and ship them out to customers. From lugging suitcases of product to farmers’ markets to rebranding during a global pandemic to appearing on Dragon’s Den (a.k.a. Canada’s version of Shark Tank), Laura and Connie have done it all. Today, the Three Ships Beauty team — Forbes 30 Under 30 and EY Entrepreneur of the Year winners — continues to promote transparent and natural beauty through their lovingly-crafted, clean-label, and affordable skincare products.