Hi Gemma, it’s so great to meet you, talk us through…
What does a typical day in the life of Gemma look like?
Every day is quite different depending on what’s happening in the business at the time, which is something I enjoy. The interior design side of the business is always fast-paced and busy, and although my focus has shifted more towards the product side now, I still like to stay closely involved and have the final say on the designs going out. I’ll often start the day by reviewing the team’s projects and feeding back my thoughts and direction.
By around 9am, I like to have cleared all of my overnight emails. Because we work with manufacturers all over the world, I often wake up to 15-20 messages that need attention, so getting on top of that early helps set the tone for the day.
I then usually spend one to two hours focusing on marketing – looking at where we’re at with campaigns, checking our social channels, and planning ahead with the team to make sure everything feels current and proactive.
After that, my attention turns to our retail partners, including reviewing stock levels, pricing, and ongoing relationships. A big part of my current focus is also on our NPD pipeline, making sure we’re developing the right products and moving things forward in a way that feels true to the brand and where we want to go next for Lifestyle Home Collection.
Who or what inspires you?
I’m really inspired by the people I’m surrounded by day-to-day, particularly through a community I’m part of called Buy Women Built. It brings together so many incredible female founders – both huge, established brands and smaller, emerging ones – and it’s such a supportive space where we all genuinely help each other navigate the realities of running a business.
Closer to home, I’m lucky to have met Tracy Mort MBE whilst on QVC, who is very local to me and has been incredibly generous with her time and advice. That kind of kindness and willingness to support others really stays with you.
I’m also hugely inspired by what Olivia Ferdi has achieved with Trip – it’s a brilliant example of building a modern, disruptive brand with real clarity and purpose.
Emma Grede is another constant source of inspiration for me. Her drive, business acumen
and ability to scale brands globally is incredibly impressive. And then there’s Karen Brady – she was, and still is, the original icon for me.
What advice would you give to other female entrepreneurs?
My biggest piece of advice would be to join a community or network for support. There are so many brilliant female business networks and founder groups out there, and having that support around you is invaluable. Starting a business can feel quite lonely in the early days, so being able to connect with people who understand the challenges and share advice makes such a difference. Building a strong network early on is incredibly important.
The other thing I would say is to prioritise cash flow from the very beginning. It’s easy to become focused on turnover and growth, but ultimately cash flow is what keeps a business healthy and sustainable.
What is the key to your success in 3 words?
Choosing just three is tricky – but I would go with resilience, determination and multitasking.
Building a business comes with constant challenges and unpredictability, so resilience is essential. Determination keeps you pushing forward even when things feel difficult, and multitasking is a skill you quickly learn as a founder – most days I wear multiple hats and jump from one task to another.
I’m a huge fan of your products & am never not amazed at the quality of your products. It’s clear that quality is important to your brand, was this a conscious decision?
Yes, absolutely it was. Quality was, and still is, everything to me – it was the very first pillar of the brand. There are thousands of diffusers on the market, including many cheaper alternatives, but from day one I was always positioning premium over pounds.
While designing interiors for clients, I became increasingly aware of the lack of high-quality home fragrance products that could genuinely sit comfortably within the spaces I was creating. I was constantly using diffusers as part of my styling work because fragrance has such a powerful impact on a room – it instantly creates atmosphere and elevates the overall feel of a space. But I found that so many products simply didn’t perform to the standard I needed them to.
They would dry up within weeks, lose their scent strength far too quickly, or evaporate because of alcohol-based formulas. Some would even risk damaging surfaces if they spilled. At a glance, many of these products looked beautiful, but underneath that they failed on so many fronts.
In many ways, I was creating the product for myself because I was frustrated by the mass- produced products already out there. There is absolutely a market for those kinds of
products, but it was never where I wanted Lifestyle Home Collection to sit as a brand. I wanted to create something that was beautiful, long-lasting and genuinely premium in performance – something that matched the standard of the interiors themselves.
I’ve always believed that premium products will always have a place in the market, and ultimately quality is what keeps customers coming back. When I realised the kind of product I wanted didn’t really exist, I decided to create it myself.
Your background in Interiors is clearly a reason why the products look so good, did you see a gap in the market for a more aesthetic edge to candles & diffusers?
Yes, definitely. Everything has always been considered from a designer’s perspective – size, quality, aesthetics, practicality and performance. Coming from an interiors background, I naturally viewed home fragrance as part of the overall design of a space, rather than just an accessory.
At the time, I felt there was a real gap in the market for products that combined strong visual impact with genuine luxury performance. A lot of home fragrance products either looked beautiful but lacked longevity, or performed well but didn’t feel elevated enough aesthetically.
That’s really where the idea behind Lifestyle Home Collection came from. We’ve become best recognised for our statement XXL reed diffusers and candles because the proposition was very simple, but very deliberate: oversized, long-lasting luxury fragrance products that not only filled a room with scent, but also became part of the interior itself. I wanted them to feel as though they belonged in beautifully designed spaces and made just as much impact visually as they did through fragrance.
From your collection, do you have a favourite item? I LOVE the XXL Diffuser in Sable!
Amber Fie will always have a special place for me because it was the very first product I designed at the table and the first fragrance we created in the lab. In many ways, it really is the heart of Lifestyle Home Collection.
It’s my dream diffuser and candle – it’s exactly the kind of product I had been searching for myself but couldn’t find on the market. The fragrance feels luxurious and timeless, and aesthetically it works beautifully throughout the home, which was incredibly important to me from the beginning.
It actually sits all throughout my own house, so it’s definitely the scent I connect with most personally. It’s also gone on to become our bestselling fragrance and hero product, which makes it even more special because clearly our customers love it just as much as I do.
Hopes, dreams & aspirations for the future?
Growing Lifestyle Home Collection into a recognised global name within the home fragrance space is my biggest aim. We’ve built such a strong foundation already and now I’m focusing on expansion into new countries and retailers. We’ve already moved into the US and UAE markets and I’m really excited about what the future could look like. I would love to see our products stocked in iconic retailers such as Selfridges, Liberty and Harrods here in the UK, as those are brands and spaces that align so naturally with the level of quality and luxury we’ve worked hard to create.
Ultimately, my aspiration is to continue building a brand that people genuinely connect with – one that is recognised not only for beautiful aesthetics, but for exceptional quality and performance too. I want to be a global brand that is known far and wide.
To view the Lifestyle Home Collection range please visit: