Georgia Geminder wears many hats as a mother, wife, daughter, model, Forbes 30 under 30 businesswoman and the founder of personal care company, Gem.
But it’s her Gem business that is moving into the stratospheres of success in 2024.
The impressive 30-year-old launched Gem in 2020, at the onset of the global pandemic.
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The idea for the brand and the products started a few years before that when Georgia was working as a model in Los Angeles.
“I noticed a massive shift in beauty towards better for you, yet efficacious products and I saw every category getting a makeover,” Georgia tells Best Picks.
Georgia says that everything from “skincare to makeup, and even toilet cleaning supplies were getting a makeover, except oral care”.
“I thought it was so ironic cause we brush our teeth every day, twice a day and no one is really looking at the ingredients nor questioning what’s in them,” she said.
Spotting a gap in the market, Georgia wanted to create a “better for you, yet beautiful and effacious range for consumers who were looking for a next -gen oral care product that they were proud to showcase on their bathroom vanity”.
Launching in 2020, Gem was hugely successful — being stocked in the likes of Priceline, Myer, Mecca, Adore Beauty and on her own website.
Until now, Gem has been solely focused on oral care, but Georgia has an “obsession with going into mundane, boring categories and making them better and more beautiful”.
Enter her latest invention: body care and skin-loving deodorants, designed to make the every day a little bit more special.
The collection of four different scented deodorants are made from hyaluronic acid, shea butter and vitamin E.
The deodorants come in delicious scents including Coconut and Vanilla, Macadamia and Vanilla, Cool Fresh (which is described as a ‘boyfriend scent’) and Santal, and they cost just $10 each.
Georgia’s biggest ‘pinch-me moment’ came this year when Gem launched its new line of deodorants into Woolworths.
Prior to starting Gem, Georgia had a stint working at Remedy Kombucha and that’s where she caught the “start-up bug”.
“When I left Remedy, I wanted to launch a business, but I wasn’t sure which industry I should launch it into,” Georgia says.
The process for creating the first ever Gem product was intense:
“I read a lot of clinical studies and research papers, really going deep into oral care,” Georgia explains.
“I even researched the first toothpaste ever invented by the Ancient Egyptians, which used eggshells, before finding our star ingredient.”
“Our star ingredient is hydroxyapatite which is the enamel remineralizing agent.”
“Then I thought, what do people do every day? They brush their teeth.”
According to Georgia, the most important thing for her is that Gem’s “products have really thoughtful science backed ingredients and are always efficacy focused”.
Georgia says that it’s equally important that the product “not only look beautiful but also perform and that’s what has been so pivotal in my journey”.
When it comes to her latest invention — the deodorants — work has been painstaking.
“I tried about 55 samples before we got to where we are at now, my suppliers said I was absolutely crazy,” Georgia says.
“But you really only have one opportunity with the consumer and if they don’t have an enjoyable first experience with the brand, they won’t come back and repurchase.”
The inspiration behind moving into body care from oral care came from Gem’s loyal customer base.
“I really listened to what my consumers were telling me,” she says.
“I saw them saying we need a better for you body care range that we are proud to showcase on our vanity wall.”
Georgia has big plans for the future and says her overarching vision for her what she likes to call the ‘Gempire’ is “to upgrade everything in the bathroom”.
“We’ve got lots of exciting things in the pipeline, our direction is towards upgrading everything in the bathroom and really turning your routine into rituals,” she says.
The brand also recently launched in UK pharmacies like Boots, which was another exciting milestone for Georgia.
While Georgia started Gem using money she had saved up from her modelling days, her family company also backs the business.
She says there have been challenges along the way.
Georgia says balancing business and a nine-month-old is a constant struggle:
“It’s a big issue for women in the workforce and as a female founder, having to take time off when you have children is really stressful,” she says.
“When I am at work, I am giving 150 per cent to the business but when I am at home, I am giving my daughter 150 per cent.”
However, the female founder says she has “resolved herself to the fact that I am never going to be the perfect businesswoman nor the perfect mother”.
Georgia explains that it’s important for women to be kind to themselves and surround themselves with a great team.
Gem’s head office is located in Melbourne, and she currently employs a team of six full-timers and two employees who work freelance, with the team tripling the past year.
Georgia calls her husband, George, the ‘unofficial CFO’ and says he supports her every single day.
Georgia likes to keep it in the family and works closely with her cousin, a graphic designer, who helped create the aesthetic for Gem.
When it comes to giving advice to other females wanting or thinking of starting their own business, Georgia’s best advice is to “just show up and keep going”.
Showing up is 99 per cent of it and whilst you will face adversity and challenges, the reward will be worth it in the end,” she says.
For more information and to shop Gem, head here now.
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