Lela Barker, founder of Bella Lucce “globally inspired skincare”, manufactures her line of products in Irmo, SC and distributes them globally.

Lela Barker didn’t ever get her MBA. She didn’t study business in college. She always had an entrepreneurial spirit, but she never knew it would take her this far.

Barker is the founder of Bella Lucce, a line of upscale, hand-made skincare products, now manufactured and distributed in Irmo, SC. The line launched in fall 2003, and ever since then, the company keeps growing, and growing.

Barker started her business after she found out her sister had a benign tumor in her breast. Doctors told her sister that many skincare products include preservatives linked to carcinogens. Barker was horrified and decided to get proactive.

Barker told herself and her sister, “We have to get this junk out of our system.” So with some preliminary Internet research, Barker started cooking up bath and body treats. “It started out as a great hobby,” Barker said, “ and I decided to take the hobby into a business.”

With only $500 in start–up capital, Barker began intensive research on healthy skincare ingredients from around the globe and ways to produce and develop her line. At the time, she was working out of her Knoxville, TN home, where she lived with her two young daughters. During this time, she reconnected with her high school sweetheart, who lived and worked in Irmo. Last summer, they got married, and Barker moved her business to Irmo.

Barker says that 80–90% of her business is direct to spas, and the other sales are direct to consumers, including big name celebrities like Marcia Cross of Desperate Housewives , Topher Grace of That 70’s Show , and Laura Linney. She has also had the honor of having her products included in the gift baskets at the 2004 Billboard Music Awards and the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Her products are now sold in 35 states, and several countries including Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada. In Columbia, her products are available at Tullulah on Devine Street and on the Web

at www.bellalucce.com.

Photo by Amanda Taylor