In the bustling heart of Toronto, Three Ships Beauty is charting a new course for natural skincare. What began in 2017 in Connie Lo’s apartment kitchen with her co-founder Laura Thompson has evolved into a rapidly growing brand that’s helping to redefine clean beauty standards across Canada and the U.S.
The company’s journey started with Lo’s personal struggle with acne at age 12. After trying countless synthetic products that only worsened her skin and her confidence, she turned to her mother’s holistic wisdom.
“My mom brought me to my local Whole Foods and a farmer’s market, teaching me how different ingredients from the earth could help,” Lo recalls. “I started to make my own face masks and suddenly my skin began improving.”
This early experience planted the seed for what would become Three Ships Beauty. After meeting Laura, a chemical engineer, through a mutual friend, the two began crafting natural skincare products, starting with local farmers market sales before evolving into Three Ships – named for their three pillars of uncensorship (ingredient transparency), leadership (advocating for legal “natural” standards), and partnership (collaboration with customers and quality retailers).
The company expanded its omnichannel strategy by launching sales on Amazon in 2021, which complemented its new branding efforts and growing sales. While they maintain a strong presence in over 1,000 retail locations, including Whole Foods and specialty beauty retailers, Amazon has become an increasingly important channel for reaching customers where they shop, Lo says.
Three Ships leverages several key Amazon tools to drive growth, including:
• Brand Tailored Promotions to reach new customer segments with coupons or targeted promotions.
• Brand Analytics to understand the customer journey and track customer loyalty trends over time.
• Search Query Performance to monitor how their key category terms are performing week over week.
“We use those insights directly to inform our advertising and SEO strategy,” Lo adds. “This helps us stay competitive in search rankings and allows us to refine our campaigns for the best ROI.”
This data-driven approach has yielded impressive results – the company has seen 100% year-over-year sales growth each month in 2025, which Lo says was “made possible by all the tools Amazon provides.”
Their recent Prime Day performance underscores their momentum. Sales increased five-fold in Canada and doubled in the U.S. The event also brought in triple-digit growth from new-to-brand customers.
Knowing that beauty consumers want products they can trust, the company’s commitment to clean beauty is rigorous – their products avoid over 1,900 potential toxins and undergo clinical testing for sensitive skin. Three Ships is also firmly committed to sustainability and innovation. They use upcycled ingredients wherever possible – from repurposed blueberries in their serum to bruised avocados in their biodegradable eye masks, which dissolve in water, offering a zero-waste alternative to traditional single-use products.
The company maintains strong local roots while growing globally. Their 20-person team is primarily based in Toronto, where they operate an office downtown and a warehouse in Brampton. They manufacture most products locally through co-manufacturers, owning 100% of their formulas – a rarity in the cosmetics industry where many brands rely on white-label products.
Looking ahead, Three Ships is poised for continued growth. As one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies (recognized by The Globe and Mail), they’re proving that clean beauty can be both effective and accessible.
“We’re not just creating skincare products,” Lo reflects. “We’re building a movement for transparency in natural beauty, and Amazon helps us reach customers who share our values.”