Five years ago, when Hope Smith was pregnant with her first child with husband Robert F. Smith, the billionaire businessman who is on the cover of this year's T&C Philanthropy Issue, she asked a makeup artist friend how to prevent stretch marks. The advice? That she buy a giant tub of La Mer, slather it on, wrap herself in Saran wrap, and go to sleep like that every night. "I tried it the first night and I didn't last an hour," she says.
After her failed beauty experiment, Smith began to study ingredient lists on everything from drugstore products to high-end offers in search of something natural and plant-based she could use for her stretch marks. There were none, so she began doing her own ingredient research.
"That summer, I turned my kitchen into a lab and was making different versions of body butters," she says. "I wanted every piece of the product to just be beneficial for the skin." Friends took notice of Smith's KitchenAid mixes on Instagram and asked for samples. One of them, beauty entrepreneur and Violet Grey founder Cassandra Grey, encouraged Smith to turn her kitchen creations into a full-fledged brand.
That's how MUTHA was born (it's a play on the word "mother"). The company officially launched in the fall of 2019 with two products, a body butter and a body oil. Scaling up hasn't changed the standards Smith applies to what goes into her brand: only natural ingredients are found in MUTHA creations.
The stretch mark-targeting body butter, for example, is loaded with shea, cocoa, and mango butters, plus rosehip, avocado, and grapeseed oils. Later this month, MUTHA will unveil a face oil made up of 22 different oils, including sugarcane, olive, and Tsubaki oil, discovered on a trip to Japan.
Smith's philosophy is to never skimp on the good stuff. "When I make a product I want all of the expensive, best-for-you things up top," she says. "I don’t want to put water first or anything that’s not actually great for the skin."
MUTHA also has a philanthropic mission. A percentage of each sale goes to maternal and infant health programs at the International Medical Corps, a nonprofit Smith has been working with for five years. Their work involves training nurses and midwives in countries and villages with limited access to healthcare.
Though Smith has charted her own philanthropic course separate from husband, who is a generous giver to education (he pledged to pay off the student loans of Morehouse College's Class of 2019) and culture (his $20 million gift helped create DC's National Museum of African American History and Culture and he is the chairman of the board of Carnegie Hall), the couple do share a passion for various causes.
They're committed to breast cancer research and to lowering the statistics of prostate cancer among African-American men, who are more likely to be diagnosed with the disease than white men. They're also interested in providing access to medical care for those who can't afford it.
"One thing we're aligned on is building sustainable models," Smith says. "It’s not a one-time gift where we’re buying medical supplies, which is a great thing, but we’re actually training people on the ground that can make a difference for their lifetime and empower them."
Lately, Smith has been thinking about how MUTHA can best support the Black Lives Matter movement that goes beyond just writing a check. She has decided to create a product—specifics still pending—whose sales will go directly to a social justice organization like the Bail Project, a nonprofit that pays bail for those in need. (The Smiths have also personally donated to the organization.)
"We’re tying to figure out what product we see that will have enough profit margins to still be making a difference five years down the road," Smith says, "because this is an ongoing thing. Changes are going to happen over the next several years."
Leena Kim is an editor at Town & Country, where she covers travel, jewelry, education, weddings, and culture.
