The Shower Ritual That Sparked Iskra Lawrence’s Saltair Beauty Brand
The Austin-based model and Saltair founder shares how motherhood, ritual and accessible luxury inspired one of the fastest-growing body care brands
Many great ideas aren’t born in the boardroom, but in quiet moments, like the shower. Such was the case for model and entrepreneur Iskra Lawrence and the idea that would become her now-thriving skincare company, Saltair.
“After having my first baby, I went through a period where I didn’t feel like myself,” she says. “I wasn’t showing up in the ways I used to, and everything felt very much like survival mode. I remember realizing that something as small as taking a proper shower — actually being present in it — was the first step in feeling like me again.”
In those few uninterrupted minutes, Lawrence began to notice the power of scent and ritual.
“I noticed how something as simple as body wash or oil could shift your mood, transport you and give you five minutes of escape,” she says. “It sounds small, but it felt transformative at the time. And it made me think: ‘Why isn’t there a brand that makes those everyday moments feel luxurious, grounding and accessible to everyone?’ We all deserve that, even if it’s just five minutes in the shower.”
About a year later, in early 2022, Saltair was born.
Making everyday self-care feel luxurious
From the outset, the vision was clear: “accessible luxury for every body.” Lawrence explains, “I wanted Saltair to feel like a daily escape — something sensorial, beautiful and effective — but also inclusive in every sense of the word. Not just who it’s for, but how it’s priced and experienced.”
Accessibility, she emphasizes, was essential. “I wanted people to use these products every day, build rituals around them and not feel like they had to save them for special occasions.”
Just a few years later, that vision has translated into tangible growth. Saltair, which initially found its audience on TikTok Shop, now lines the shelves of Target and Ulta Beauty stores nationwide. Earlier this year, it made its international debut at Space NK in London — the retailer, Lawrence notes, that first sparked her love for beauty growing up.
“Those were all huge milestone moments that made me pause and realize how far we’ve come,” she says. “But it was also the smaller moments — seeing people repurchase, hearing real stories or spotting it in someone’s shower unprompted. That’s when it really started to feel real.”
Building Saltair
As the brand has scaled, its core ethos has remained intact. “It’s deepened more than anything,” Lawrence says. “In the beginning, it was about creating amazing products, and now it’s also about building a community and a brand that people feel emotionally connected to. We’ve leaned even more into fragrance, storytelling and rituals. It’s become bigger than just products. It’s about how Saltair can motivate your self-care, too.”
Lawrence’s own path to entrepreneurship has been layered. Raised in London and modeling since she was a teenager, she moved to New York, where she met her partner, Philip Payne — a former University of Texas football player turned music executive — at a Grammy party. The couple moved to Austin in 2020.
Since then, she’s built a community here she calls “the village,” and balances the responsibilities of helming Saltair with life at home with her two children, Alpha and Prima. Like many working mothers, Lawrence says her definition of self-care has evolved.
“I’ve really had to redefine what it looks like. It’s not always big moments — it’s the small ones,” she says, admitting, “Letting go of perfection has probably been the biggest shift for me.”
She’s also becoming more intentional about sharing her journey, saying, “I’m doing better at sharing my wins online in the hopes that it inspires more women and moms to chase their dreams, see career pivots as a superpower and embrace failures as lessons.”
You can follow her journey @iskra on Instagram.