A 14-year-old from Hobsons Bay has became the youngest entrepreneur to appear on Channel 10’s Shark Tank show.
Izzi Dymalovski started her company, Luv Ur Self, when she was eight and now has a Brooklyn warehouse distributing her Luv Ur Skin skin care range to Priceline stores across the country.
While the sharks didn’t bite at the offer of a 20 per cent business stake for $65,000, Izzi said being in the tank was a positive experience.
So how did the teen entrepreneur start a successful national skin care brand at just eight years old?
“I did a lot of dance concerts and I always wanted to take my make-up off using my mum’s products,” Izzi said.
“But she wouldn’t let me because they had a lot of chemicals in them and they were really harmful for my skin.
“So she said, ‘You have to use baby products,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not a baby, I don’t want to use baby products’. We had a bit of an argument and she’s like, ‘Fine, go make your own then’. “She didn’t realise how seriously I’d take it.”
Izzi enlisted the help of some of her mum’s chemist friends who helped her formulate the first batch.
Luv Ur Skin is the only tween range made with plant extract plantolin, from the Australian native centipeda cunninghamii, commonly known as ‘old man weed’.
“It’s going really well, so we sell online and now we’re nationwide in all Priceline stores,” Izzi said. “It’s really one of the only ranges that is suitable to girls’ skin because it’s all natural and Australian-made.”
Izzi has also developed the Luv Ur Body accessory range, which includes glow-in-the-dark glitter nail polish and silicone shoelaces that don’t need tying.
