Sahajan’s Founder Looks Back on the Brand’s First Decade
In honour of the milestone, Lisa Mattam reflects on the whirlwind journey of bringing an Ayurvedic brand to Sephora Canada.
The word “Sahajan” is derived from the Hindi term for “intuitive.” It’s fitting, as founder and CEO Lisa Mattam was certainly on to something when she launched her pioneering skincare brand a decade ago. In 2015, upon mentioning now-buzzy ingredients like ashwagandha and turmeric, Mattam would be met with blank stares. She recalls attending her first meetings with beauty journalists and having to spell the word “Ayurveda” for everyone. But fast-forward to 2025 and Ayurveda is now its own beauty category, with the global Ayurvedic market value expected to reach $28.7 billion by 2028.
Before entering the beauty space, Mattam worked as a pharmaceutical exec. She was inspired to pivot when she discovered her three-year-old daughter playing with her face creams. Worried about what the ingredients in the products might do to her toddler’s delicate skin, she quickly redirected her into playing with some all-natural products her parents had brought home from India.
“It was an interesting point of reflection for me,” says Mattam. “I remember thinking, ‘If my skincare isn’t good enough for my toddler, it probably isn’t good enough for me.’ And then I was like, ‘If this is what I really believe in, I need to spend some time here.’”
Although her parents never used the term “Ayurveda,” Mattam quickly realized that she had grown up on the tenets of the 5,000 year-old science of holistic healing. Her parents are from Kerala, in the south of India—an area widely acknowledged as the epicentre of Ayurveda. “My dad did yoga before it was popular and always had a thing against drinking cold water. I thought these were just quirks of his,” she laughs.
As Mattam began to research the ingredients in Ayurvedic skincare products, an idea emerged. “I decided I could take these old-world ingredients that I believed in and prove them with modern science,” she says. Back then, people were buying skincare either for results or because they were ‘natural,’ not both, she explains. “That became the connector.”
Mattam turned to a chemist she knew from her years in big pharma and started a small lab to test ingredients and formulations based on Ayurvedic principles. “Sahajan has demonstrated that a niche brand with a strong foundational story and philosophy—one that stays true to its DNA—can appeal to broader audiences in large retailers,” says Jane Nugent, senior vice-president of merchandising at Sephora Canada. And skincare enthusiasts are excited to have an Ayurvedic brand available at their beauty go-to, she adds, pointing out that many shoppers are purchasing a full routine from the seven-product collection, not just one-off items to try out.
In the early days, so-called “natural” products were still the stuff of indie shops and health-food stores. Mattam says she had to fight to be taken seriously next to conventional brands. “We were one of the first ‘clean beauty’ brands to clinically test our products for efficacy—something that wasn’t done at the time,” she says. Sahajan’s first retail partners were Well.ca, The Shopping Channel and Credo Beauty in the United States, and growth was slow and steady until an editor from O Magazine took notice of the brand. “She said her favourite thing to do during the pandemic was use our Brightening Mask,” says Mattam. From there, things heated up like spicy turmeric wellness shots.
“We’re like a 10-year overnight success,” says Mattam. “I often joke that I wouldn’t recommend that founders follow my path because it was certainly a long route.” Although the brand’s success has been years in the making, the past few have seen explosive growth for Sahajan. In 2023, it launched global partnerships with luxury hotels The St. Regis, The Ritz, W Hotels and JW Marriott, and its products are now carried in over 200,000 guest rooms around the world. Items on offer to travellers include the brand’s Golden Milk Cleanser along with a new range of SKUs designed for the partnerships, including Unwind Bath Salts and Shanti Pillow Mist.
In the fall of 2023, Mattam did her first investor raise, which brought in several venture funds, including Wonderment Ventures (which has backed other beauty brands, such as fellow Canadian company Everist). She also landed a number of angel investors (individuals who provide seed money to early-stage companies, often in exchange for equity) whose contributions have gone beyond the bottom line.
“In some ways, they’ve felt like kismet,” she says of investments by longtime Lululemon executive Celeste Burgoyne, Indian-born Canadian poet Rupi Kaur and Australian actor Yvonne Strahovski. The latter discovered Sahajan while working on the set of The Handmaid’s Tale, which was filmed in Toronto. “She fell in love with it,” says Mattam. “Her team reached out and said she couldn’t stop thinking about it and would like to get more involved.” Strahovski became not just an investor but also a spokesperson for the brand.
When Sahajan entered Sephora Canada last spring as the retailer’s inaugural Ayurvedic skincare brand, Mattam marked a major milestone in her journey. “There’s no better partner in Canada to help us get our products into people’s hands and really experience what I believe to be the magic, but also the efficacy, of Ayurveda,” she says.
What’s next? In short, Ayurveda for all, starting with south of the border. “We have a strong U.S. presence, but there is a lot of room for growth there and then truly around the globe,” says Mattam. “One question I always get asked is whether Sahajan is made for South Asians, and my answer is no. I hope that people with South Asian heritage feel a strong connection, but it’s for everyone. My mission has always been Ayurveda for the world.”
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This article first appeared in FASHION’s April 2025 issue. Find out more here.
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Karen Robock is an award-winning journalist who has been reporting on beauty, health and wellness for nearly two decades. She has written about everything from manicure trends to birth trauma and been published in dozens of magazines and newspapers in Canada and the U.S., including Canadian Living and Prevention. Between writing assignments, she makes time for her two kids, two dogs, and a dedicated skincare routine. You can see more of her work at karenrobock.com.
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