Skincare That's Not Skin Deep: How Monday Muse's Founder Is Changing The Narrative In Skincare

Lune Martens spent much of her childhood at the dermatologist's office with her mother. At first, the visits consisted of consultations on childhood rashes and eczema, but as she hit her teens, they turned to acne and breakouts. At the time, it was normal: it felt like every one of her classmates dealt with troublesome skin.

Eventually, those teenage breakouts began to subside, "and I thought, okay, this phase in my life is over," Martens tells me on an early spring morning.

But at 21, everything changed. One morning, Martens, then a student at university, woke up with what looked like a rash, followed by breakouts that just "got worse and worse and worse," she says. And thus began a nearly four-year journey to find something — anything — that would work to clear and support her skin. When her breakouts were at their worst, Martens was going to doctors and dermatologists, trying all sorts of protocols to try and calm her skin: prescription creams, antibiotics, peels, acupuncture, and even stool tests. Nothing seemed to work. So, when she finally made two key discoveries that truly made a difference for her skin, she knew she had to share that knowledge with the world.

Martens didn't know it at the time, but that difficult period would ultimately lead her to found one of the most innovative new skincare brands, Monday Muse. It's a brand that doesn't just treat the skin as a stand-alone, surface-level issue, but instead addresses the entire underlying biological ecosystem, from the gut to the skin barrier.

This founder has firsthand experience with the deep impact taht troublesome skin can have on the psyche, and if she can help someone else out of that endless chasm, she's all in. "I just know the relief it gives you when you feel like you've found something that your skin agrees with. It goes much deeper than people realise," she says. "We do make a real impact."

The discoveries that changed everything

Martens' first "big discovery", as she calls it, regarding her skin health was the idea that she needed to take a much gentler approach to her skin and support the skin barrier. While gentle hydration and skin barrier health are buzzy topics right now, thanks to the boom in Korean beauty products, this concept was still revolutionary in Martens' circles at the time. "Seven, eight years ago, it was very much still the scrubs, the strong, active ingredients. And if your skin is already on the sensitive side, or your skin barrier's already inflamed, it can just make it even worse, which was very much the case for me." So, she tried something different — gentle barrier support — and it's now a central tenet to Monday Muse's product line.

There's deep intention and careful curation behind each formulation, which is partly why Monday Muse's line is small, with only one to two product launches yearly. Each product is made from scratch, with independent cosmetic chemists, using clinically-backed botanicals and biomimetic actives that support the skin barrier while also helping maintain a delicate skin microbiome balance.

The brand takes its "inside-out" approach seriously, finding lesser-known ingredients, like the micro-algae astaxanthin and extracts from the Noni plant, that can minimise the risk of irritation and have great clinical data behind them. The products are formulated with cold-pressed oils instead of refined ones, and Martens and her team focus intensely on the quality of the raw materials sourced.

"There's nothing else like it in the world," Martens says of her products. "I don't want to launch another retinol. I don't want to launch another vitamin C serum. There's so much out there."

And it's not just about gentle formulations and quality ingredients. Skin health is directly tied to other health markers. When she learned this during her own skincare journey, Martens started focusing on her gut health, meeting with a nutritionist to figure out exactly how her gut-skin connection was influencing what happened on the surface. "It feels like many people are much more educated about this. But for me, it was such a foreign concept," she says. "I never thought whatever was happening on the outside had any connection to the inside, let alone my gut health. It seems like such an odd connection, but now we all know how important the gut is for everything."

That's why Monday Muse approaches skincare through supplementation as well as gentle, quality, topical products.

Trusting the mission

Starting a new skincare brand as a 24-year-old is not for the faint of heart. But with some encouragement from her father, Martens, who had just completed a master's degree in fashion and luxury brand management in London, decided to take the leap. She started small, getting a diploma in skincare formulations, and found a great chemist, with whom she still works today. She also started educating herself on compliance, cosmetic regulations, and the endless nitty-gritty of launching a beauty brand, before creating her own formulations with the chemist.

At the back of her mind, there was always the same thought: how could she help other people with her newfound understanding of the importance of gentle skincare and the gut-skin connection?

"It always goes back to helping other people," says Martens. "I went through this myself in my 20s, when you feel so self-conscious about your skin."

Recently, Monday Muse has started getting a lot more attention, which excites Martens. The company was featured on billboards splashed across London earlier this year, recently reached the benchmark of selling over 5 million capsules of their bestselling Skin Clarity Complex, and Martens has even started getting recognised in restaurants.

Founder's stack

Like any founder whose brand is borne from a place of deep conviction, Martens only uses her own skincare products for daily cleansing and hydration.

In the mornings, she forgoes washing her face ("a little bit controversial!" she says) so as not to strip her skin of too many oils, and instead goes straight to Monday Muse's iconic face cream, The Cocktail, followed by The Nectar face oil, both of which "sit really beautifully" under a skin tint, she says. At night, Martens will use The Cleanser, a gentle formulation made with red algae, aloe vera, and probiotics to clean her face, followed by another round of The Cocktail and The Nectar for added hydration. A few times a week, Martens uses The Powder, an exfoliant with natural enzymes and turmeric, which she says makes her skin as soft as a baby's.

Most days, Martens also takes the brand's supplement, The Skin, which has probiotics, zinc, and vitamins A, B5, and B6 to support blemish-prone skin and help promote a healthy gut balance.

If she's eating lactose or dairy, Martens will add in The Core, another of the brand's supplements designed to support digestion and debloating. "I will take it, usually once a day with my big, largest meal," she says.

When it comes to the rest of her supplement stack, Martens like to take Nordic Health Foods' L-glutamine powder on an empty stomach to bolster her gut lining, and Puresport's magnesium glycinate a few nights per week or while traveling.

Advice to founders

Starting your own brand has a lot of really high highs, and low lows. "There's almost nothing in between," says Martens. "You really have to build up a lot of resilience and grit." This is also why founders need to believe whole-heartedly in their mission. For her part, Martens' passion is clear. She literally lights up when she talks about hearing from customers — their before-and-afters, the five-star reviews thanking the brand for helping with their skin and changing their lives. But it's not all sunshine and roses.

Last year, Martens got married, and even that life-changing, momentous occasion didn't stop the founder's grind. "There's not a day that goes by that I have put my 'out of office' [message] on, nor do I want to. If there's a problem I need to know," she says. That's just how things go when you found a business that you care deeply about, with customers who trust you to deliver.

So, over the past five years, there have been a lot of sleepless nights for Martens. After all, it can be hard to untangle your self-worth from a company created from your own blood, sweat, and tears. But it's something Martens has consciously worked on over the past few years: letting the waves wash over her as she firmly stands her ground behind the brand's core mission.

Martens' take on startup philosophy is refreshing, and reflects the same ethos that drives Monday Muse. While most founders famously try to "move fast and break things", Martens recommends a more thoughtful approach, especially when dealing with something as sensitive as like people's skincare or health. "I've seen a lot of brands come and go over the years, and sometimes when you climb really fast, you also fall really fast," she says.

Her advice? Take your time and really get it right. This will make a world of difference. After all, health doesn't happen overnight. It's a conscious, intentional commitment you make, day in and day out. Kind of like a solid skincare routine.

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