BC Business
Founder Vivian Lam also prioritizes charitable partnerships.
When Vivian Lam was 36 weeks pregnant with her first child, she got a red rash around her baby bump. It flared up after she scratched it, leaving her with angry, itchy spots all over her body.
“After a couple of biopsies they realized that it’s something called PUPPP rash,” she says. “It happens once in 160 pregnancies. It’s just that my case was super severe, like head-to-toe. I actually contemplated not having another pregnancy because of it. I tried more than a dozen over-the-counter products that claim to calm itchy skin, even topical and oral steroids, and nothing gave me relief aside from colloidal oatmeal.”
As someone who has been moisturizing since age 10, Lam felt the need to create a solution, and she wanted colloidal oatmeal to be a part of it. When her baby was born with eczema, she started thinking about natural alternatives to steroids that could help treat the condition.
So, despite her claims of being “not very entrepreneurial,” the Blanche Macdonald and SFU alumni launched Vancouver-based Naetal Skincare in 2021 to create balms and oils that might help moms dealing with sensitive skin conditions. The natural and non-toxic skincare line is made with soothing ingredients like organic calendula for expectant and postpartum moms as well as their babies. In two years, the business scaled from five to nine products with offerings like baby butters, belly butters, skin serums, bath herbs and more.
Lam recalls testing the products on herself during her second pregnancy. “My skin was itchy but then it calmed down from my serum and the butters. And then I had a lot of other pregnant and postpartum moms and even babies use it.”
Giving back is a priority for the mom of (almost) three. She herself is raising two children with hearing needs, so for every Original Serum sold, Naetal donates 10 percent of the proceeds to BC Family Hearing Resource Society, Children’s Hearing & Speech Centre of BC and Deaf Children’s Society of BC. Naetal is also a partner of Kelowna-based nonprofit organization Mamas for Mamas, which supports mothers and caregivers facing poverty.