Hope Dworaczyk Smith
The Mutha founder believes in minimal beauty for maximal good.
Written by Laura Regensdorf

In a way, the skin care line Mutha started with a flashback to adolescence. That time of growth spurts and hormonal changes is when Hope Dworaczyk Smith got her first stretch marks—practically a blight, to a self-conscious teen. Years later, while pregnant, the possibility of their return loomed. “I couldn't imagine being uncomfortable in my own skin the way I was during puberty,
” says Smith. She took matters into her own hands, assembling a spreadsheet of skin-friendly ingredients and ordering raw materials in comically large five-gallon tubs. The resulting body butter did the trick, and samples found their way to friends-of-friends, which led Cassandra Grey to intervene. “She sat me down in Malibu”—at the house the Smiths lost in January’s devastating LA fires—“and told me, ‘You have got to make this into a brand.’”
Now a mother of four kids under 10 and based in Palm Beach, Smith continues to guide Mutha’s lineup with multitasking women in mind. The products are all clinically tested in Germany, and the formulas are solution-minded, allowing for concise routines. “I just want to know that what I’m spending time on is going to give me results at this point in my life,” she says. “Every minute counts.” Of course, name aside, Mutha is a line for everyone whose skin needs nourishment. The older boys have used the body butter since they were babies. The twin 5-year-old girls are budding beauty savants. “When they put on their eye cream, they’re patting it in with their fingers,” Smith says with a laugh. “By the time they’re 10, they’ll probably be telling me what to make.”