Introducing Georgie Cleeve and George Gordon, founder and co-founder of nutritional skincare brand, OSKIA. Founded in 2009, this brand focuses on giving skin the minerals, vitamins, proteins and omegas it needs, before layering incredible actives and targeted ingredients on top. We sat down with Georgie and George to discuss the brand, their routines and their long-standing love of Brora.

Can you tell us about yourselves and your brand?

We’re Georgie Cleeve and George Gordon, wife and husband, founder and co-founder of OSKIA. Georgie is the founder and the one with the original idea and the science; George is the recovering corporate lawyer who left share purchase agreements for serums and joined her to build the business side, sixteen years ago now. OSKIA is a nutritional skincare brand formulated and manufactured at our own factory in Wales. Instead of starting with an active ingredient promising to fix a problem overnight, we look at the nutrients skin needs to work properly.
 
What is it like living and working in the Welsh countryside?

It’s been Georgie’s 30 year plan to return to the area, and George’s 20 year plan! We set the factory up in Monmouth when we launched, convinced the secret to achieving incredible products was to do the hard work ourselves rather than outsource the manufacturing, and whilst it comes with a huge amount of additional work compared to almost all of our competitors, it’s been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. We’ve lived here for 6 years or so, on the Monmouthshire/Herefordshire border. We’re in England by a mile, which suits George, but we can see the Brecon Beacons, which satisfies Georgie’s deep Welsh roots. We love the house as it is - unbelievably characterful, very old and a everything a bit lop-sided - but we are on the cusp of a few changes such as bringing in some old, external service quarters into the house itself, rather than scuttling across a windy courtyard.

What’s your morning routine?

Well it’s chaotic! No 5am mindful moments for either of us, it’s all about getting the children properly breakfasted and out of the door on time. Skincare wise, George’s routine is mercifully simple. Georgie’s is the proper version, though again simple, as our products can contain up to 40 actives so the number of products can be minimal - Renaissance Cleansing Gel, Isotonic Hydra-Serum and our Renaissance 360 moisturiser. I don’t wear makeup so the Nutri-Bronze is a life saviour as it gives my skin life and a glow without looking made-up. And of course there is always a handful of project products that require testing.

What’s your evening routine?

Cleanse off the day with the same Renaissance Cleansing Gel, then if a Sunday evening, the Renaissance Mask to brighten and smooth. We have recently launched Midnight Elixir, which has rather wiped away the need for any other products. Designed for women my age (50!) it’s like applying a pair of Brora Cashmere Socks after a night in heels. We try very, very hard indeed to keep phones out of the room, but books are positively encouraged!
 
What do you eat in a day for skin health?

We are not precious about it, three children and a factory to run does not leave much room for wellness rituals, but the philosophy that built OSKIA applies here too: feed yourself properly and the skin follows. We don’t pre-buy for the week as feel very strongly that we should eat what our body tells us at the time. Lots of oily fish, plenty of vegetables, good fats, and Georgie takes the MSM Bio-Plus capsules daily, which is really where this whole business started, and Lactoferrin during the winter to keep all sniffles at bay. We are both at the age where protein is crucial, so imagination goes into finding interesting sources other than just steak and chicken.

How does your skin impact your confidence?

Hugely! This really is the corner stone of the brand, and whatever we feel we ‘should’ say, how you feel really does really directly come from how we feel we look. Which is why we change clothes, perfume, makeup.  Discovering a supplement that transformed my joints, and my skin, had a hugely positive impact on my confidence. It changed how I felt about myself, enough to build a business around it. The impact that better skin has on confidence is probably the words in the stick of rock that runs through the whole OSKIA approach and underpins everything we do.
 
How important is sleep and relaxation?
 
My bed is one of my favourite parts of the house and going to bed one of my favourite parts of the day. We were both night owls in our 20s/30s/40s, but we can’t get enough of sleep now. How much? Honestly, way less than we would like, and rarely undisturbed. It is clearly one of the main challenges of modern life, and should be - along with good nutrition, exercise (and of course a great skincare routine) one of life’s non-negotiables. Like everyone, we are always looking at ways to sleep deeper for longer.

Can you tell us about how OSKIA started?

It starts with Georgie’s father, who started one of Europe’s first equine supplement businesses, and had introduced MSM, a form of sulphur, into the European market 30 years ago to treat damaged joints in racehorses. When Georgie badly damaged the cartilage in her knees after a string of skiing accidents, he suggested she try it herself- the human guinea pig. Two things happened. Her knees improved far more than any surgeon expected. And, quite unexpectedly, her skin did too: the adolescent rosacea and acne she had struggled with cleared up. MSM boosts the body’s own collagen production, boosts glutathione products, is a strong anti-inflammatory, and it improves how efficiently skin cells detoxify, the same three things that had healed her joints. Georgie was seventeen or eighteen at the time, and the idea stayed with her through university and her time at Conde Nast, until she eventually spent four years properly researching the effects of nutrients on the skin’s biological processes. That became the concept of nutritional skincare: feeding the skin with a blend of cellular nutrients, that improve how the skin works - great for longevity and hits skin health at its core. We now have acne ranges, anti-pollution, pigmentation, and a wonderful spa range. George, meanwhile, was a corporate lawyer focusing on M&A. Over a long dinner on our honeymoon, and then quite a few more conversations and dinners later, we realised we should build the business together, Georgie on product and vision, George on the business and legal side. Nine months later we launched on the shelves of Liberty of London, a wonderful place to launch brand. We now sell globally and can be found in retailers from Space NK to Harvey Nichols, and spas from Cliveden to Mandarin Oriental in Dubia.

Where does the name OSKIA come from?

It comes from two Ancient Greek words, Oiso meaning roughly ‘to deliver nutrition’ and Kaloni, meaning ‘Beauty’. Oiso is also the etymological starting point of Oesophagus - not a sexy word but closely tied to the idea of delivering nutrients. So OSKIA really means ‘to deliver beauty nutritionally’ so represents both exactly the aim of the products we design, plus it’s pronounceable in most countries in the world!
 
Can you explain how nutritional skincare works?

Most skincare works from the outside in, an active ingredient designed to correct one specific problem. Nutritional skincare starts from the inside the cells out: skin is an organ, and like any other organ all its biological processers are affected by nutrients. This is why we eat. Feed it first, then treat it, pre-emptively wherever possible. I see our products like a cake – full of different ingredients. In our case, up to 40 actives, as each process in the skin, whether it is collagen or hyaluronic acid production, involve numerous different processes and nutrients. For example, for collagen – you need Zinc, Sulphur (MSM), a few particular amino acids, plus the messengers to tell your cells it’s collagen-making time. I find it absolutely fascinating. It’s rather like a biological jigsaw puzzle.
 
What advice would you give to someone looking to build a skincare routine?

Start with your skin type and age, then look at your concerns, and then only buy products formulated for these three. All good routines need to start with barrier repair and protection – that is anti-oxidant protection for DNA and mitochondria production, rather than just SPF. 

How has OSKIA changed since its inception in 2009?

Enormously, and not at all. The philosophy has not moved an inch. We were advocating skin health and improving the skin’s cellular efficiency (we called it bio-hacking) way before nutrition and longevity became buzzwords. We have gone from two people with an idea to a sizeable and wonderful team split between our factory in Monmouth and our sales and marketing team in London, selling into the UK, Europe and the UAE, with the US and further UAE growth next on the list. The range has grown enormously, we harness every more fascinating, pioneering ingredients, but every product still has to earn its place by that original nutritional logic and a real need for it to exist. We don’t launch new products just for the sake of attention.
 
What are the fundamental values of OSKIA?

Help people feel good about themselves through healthy, good skin. Honest products. Back everything with genuine science rather than trend. And run the business the way we would want to be treated ourselves, which, being a family business in every sense, tends to mean thinking in years rather than quarters.
 
What is your proudest achievement for OSKIA?

Probably that, in an ever more congested industry, with new brands launching every day and playing to a quick-fix audience, that we’re not only still here but growing every year, still run by the two of us, sixteen years and three children later. It started as an idea from Georgie’s own experience, and it is now a serious business with an incredible, growing team and customers all over the world. We don’t pause to reflect on that as much as we should. I should also mention the awards (over 250), including two products having just been given Icon status in the recent Beauty Bible Iconic Edition (the Oscars of the beauty world) - but we’re not very good at blowing our own trumpet.

How has the consumer’s mindset towards skincare changed since your inception in 2009?

When we started, nutritional skincare needed explaining from scratch. Now nutrition and wellness are part of the mainstream conversation, and consumers are far more literate about ingredients and far less patient with vague marketing claims. People want to know why something works, not just that it does, which suits us, because we have always had to explain ourselves from first principles anyway. But we have a growing frustration with what we call UPB - ultra-processed beauty – celebrity or influencer founder, backed by big money, bright packaging, same formulas as 30 other contract-manufactured brands - no authenticity. But that is a reality of the current market and it certainly serves to keep driving us forward.
 
What’s coming up next for OSKIA?

Keep innovating while remaining completely true to who we are and our brand values. Continued international growth across incredible Spas and Hotels as well as our amazing retail partners. Stay independent and make long-term decisions for the benefit of the brand and our fabulous team.
 
What are your earliest memories of Brora?

Brora is synonymous in our family - I feel I’ve grown up with it - our children certainly have. Lots of jumpers, lots of hand warmers! So we’ve been huge fans of and advocates for Brora for 20 years, and we had an office in Sloane Square for many years just so we could pop into the Chelsea store and stock-up.

What do you love about Brora?

The lack of fuss, and the sense of tradition but with a modern emphasis. Brora does the thing British style is supposed to do well and often does not: proper materials, made to last, without shouting overtly about it. It’s not ‘made to look’ classically British. It doesn’t have to try. It is classically British. Those are hugely inspiring values.

What is your go-to outfit for a work day or a family day?

Work day is smart-casual, I love jumpsuits, big trousers and experimenting with materials. We don’t often wear as much tweed as we did for the shoot! In Wales I’m never happier than in a lab-coat. Family day is whatever survives a dog, a rugby ball, mucking out, and at least one child deciding halfway through a walk that they are not wearing shoes anymore.
 
Where can people find out more about OSKIA?

Instagram – www.instagram.com/oskiaskincare
Website - www.oskiaskincare.com