The Founder

Hi, I’m Michelle Lavigne.

I’ve always been a creative person. I love making things, figuring out how they work, and finding ways to make them better.

Before Less & Lavish, I spent years working as a tattoo artist, where being patient, precise, and particular about the final result was simply part of the job.

Then I became a mom, and like a lot of women, I started paying much closer attention to the products I was bringing into our home and using on my family.

The problem was, I kept running into the same thing: products with beautifully simple ingredient lists didn’t always perform the way I wanted them to, while the products that worked incredibly well often weren’t as natural as I hoped.

So I started learning how to formulate them myself.

I enrolled in cosmetic formulation training, started experimenting, and very quickly became fascinated with the process.

What began as trying to create better products for my own family eventually became Less & Lavish.

But somewhere along the way, I realized that what I loved just as much as creating the finished products was figuring them out.

Why does one conditioner feel incredibly silky while another falls flat?

Why does changing one ingredient completely change the texture of a formula?

How do you make something feel luxurious without filling it with ingredients you don’t actually want?

Those are the kinds of questions that keep me curious.

And now I’m bringing more of that process into Less & Lavish.

Alongside my finished haircare products, I’m creating beginner-friendly formulation guides for women who are curious about making these kinds of products themselves.

You don’t have to be a cosmetic chemist.

You don’t have to be naturally “good at science.”

You just have to be curious, willing to learn, and excited by the idea of making something with your own hands.

My goal is to make formulation feel approachable, practical, and genuinely fun.

So whether you want to learn how to make it yourself, or you’d much rather let me do the formulating for you, you’re in the right place.

Thanks for being here and for being part of this next chapter of Less & Lavish.

With love and a little luxury,

Michelle