Welcome to In Conversation with… where Melaina, our wellness and travel editor, connects with thought leaders, vision seekers and changemakers in the wellness industry to lean into understanding our core wants and needs through practices that feel good. From learning about Human Design to the benefits of cold plunges, Melaina meets with folks who are changing the landscape for the better. Today, she sat down with Margot Grant Witz from Elizabeth Grant to learn all about the story of the brand, and her world of beauty.
What was the most surprising lesson your grandmother taught you that you had nothing (or everything!) to do with skincare?
Be charming, be charming, be charming. My grandmother always taught me that no one will ever forget how you made them feel, for both the good and the bad.
The truth is, most people walk into a room feeling at least a little uncomfortable. They’re wondering where they fit, whether they belong, or whether anyone will notice them. Being charming is the perfect icebreaker, both for you and for them. And charming doesn’t mean being the loudest or most charismatic person in the room. It means making someone else feel seen, comfortable and included.
My grandmother has always had this extraordinary ability to make people feel like they matter. It turns out that lesson has everything and nothing to do with skincare, because ultimately, both are about how you make someone feel.
You’ve traveled around the world to get the brand into people’s cosmetics bag worldwide, an incredible feat. Throughout your travels, was there a memorable beauty ritual you felt had to be in the Elizabeth Grant collection?
What travelling around the world has taught me is that beauty rituals may change from country to country, but the emotion behind them is remarkably universal.
There are places where skincare is incredibly ritualistic, where layering products and taking time with each step is part of everyday life. In other places, women want simplicity: something effective that fits into a busy morning before work, school drop-off or whatever else the day has in store. But wherever I have travelled, the conversation eventually comes back to the same thing: women want to look in the mirror and feel good about the person looking back at them.
So, I don’t know that there was one particular beauty ritual I saw somewhere in the world and thought, we have to bring this home. If anything, what I brought home was a greater understanding that skincare itself is a ritual. Those few minutes you take for yourself in the morning or at night can be about so much more than applying a cream or serum. It can be a small act of taking care of yourself, checking in with yourself and saying, I matter too.
That is something I want Elizabeth Grant Skin Care to give women everywhere. The products may be sitting in cosmetics bags and bathrooms around the world, but ultimately, what I hope we are helping women carry with them is confidence.
If you had to use only three skincare products for the rest of your life, what would they be?
Selfishly, they would all be Elizabeth Grant Skin Care products.
First, the Supreme Essence of Torricelumn™. I genuinely cannot imagine my skincare routine without it. Second, our Night Wonder Concentrate. And third, I’m going to cheat slightly because it’s a tie between our Hand & Foot Cream and our Caviar Milk Cleanser.
Apparently even when faced with a hypothetical skincare ultimatum, I still can’t choose just three.
If you could give your 18-year-old self one piece of advice, what would it be?
Nothing is forever.
The life you think you have planned, and even the things you feel completely defined or pained by, can change in a moment. And they will change.
You are going to meet so many different versions of yourself throughout your life. My hope is that, no matter which version you meet, you are proud of them and you like them. And in the moments when you don’t, remember that you are not anchored or cemented to who you are at that moment. You are allowed to change. You are allowed to grow. You are allowed to become someone new.
Life is big and grand and terrifying, but it is meant to be lived and loved.
Ultimately, be kind to yourself, both internally and externally. Because as much as you may think you are invincible, you are not replaceable.
Photo provided by Margot Grant Witz
Looking ahead, what’s the vision for Elizabeth Grant over the next five years, and what excites you most about the brand’s future?
What excites me most about the future of Elizabeth Grant Skin Care is the opportunity to introduce our brand, and everything it stands for, to new faces around the world.
We have been around for nearly 80 years and counting, and there is something incredibly powerful about taking that history and using it to help change the conversation around aging.
Aging is a blessing. Yet somewhere along the way, women were made to feel as though they should start disappearing after 40. That their relevance, visibility and beauty somehow have an expiration date. I fundamentally do not believe that.
Life is about having the privilege of living and growing older. And with Torricelumn™, our goal has always been to help you age the way you want to age, not simply the way Mother Nature tells you to.
From an ingredient and innovation perspective, there is so much happening within Elizabeth Grant Skin Care. We continue to work with incredible ingredients and actives designed to support the skin, help it recover and keep it looking and feeling its best. But for me, the bigger vision goes beyond what is inside the jar.
I want Elizabeth Grant Skin Care in bathrooms around the world. But even more than that, I want women around the world to look in the mirror and genuinely love the person looking back at them, regardless of their age or stage.
I want us to continue being part of changing the narrative from being anti-aging to being unapologetically pro-aging. We aren’t trying to stop time. We are helping women feel empowered in how they choose to meet it.
Mother Nature may be known for her beautiful sunsets, but when it comes to your aging journey, you get to decide how the light falls on you. Growing older is inevitable. Fading into the background is not.
Where can we find you and shop Elizabeth Grant Skin Care?
For all things Margot Grant Witz, from life advice to a friendly smile, you can find me @margotgrantwitz across every social media platform, from personal to professional.
For all things Elizabeth Grant Skin Care, you can find us @egskincare across every social media platform.
And, of course, you can find everything Elizabeth Grant Skin Care at www.elizabethgrant.com.
