My own health journey made me question everything I thought I knew about wellness and ultimately inspired me to create the brand I couldn't find.

I'm Gulgoona Malik, founder of ÈM.SM London, mother of four, and a former corporate professional whose life took an unexpected turn. 

I never planned to build a wellness brand. Two weeks before my twin boys were born in August 2024, I was given an ultimatum by my corporate job: relocate abroad to continue my career or stay in the UK & leave the job. I chose to live with my family in the UK. At the time, it felt like one chapter had ended. Looking back, it became the beginning of something far more meaningful. 

Long before that moment, my relationship with health had already been shaped by personal experience. As a teenager, I faced a life-threatening illness. Years later came another serious health challenge, followed by a diagnosis of coeliac disease,an autoimmune condition that has resulted in multiple hospital admissions after accidental gluten exposure.All those experiences changed the way I viewed health forever. Nutrition stopped being something I thought about occasionally and became something I had to think about every single day.

Years later, as a busy mother of four, I noticed something that didn't make sense. I would happily spend twenty minutes on my skincare routine every morning and evening, carefully following a ritual designed to help me look my best. Yet when it came to looking after the rest of my body, the part that allows me to think, move, work, care for my family and simply feel well, it was often an afterthought. 

That contradiction led me to ask a simple question: why have we made skincare a beautiful daily ritual,
while health still feels like a chore? 

I believed wellness deserved the same care, intention and pride. That belief became ÈM.SM.