Motherhood Identity Series with Kim van Haaster, Founder & CEO of Bloomeffects

Kim van Haaster’s story could so easily be told as a beautiful founder fairytale: a New York beauty executive meets a Dutch tulip farmer on a dance floor in Ibiza, moves to the Netherlands for love, finds herself surrounded by fields of flowers and turns one of the world’s most recognizable symbols of beauty into a skincare brand.

That version might be good enough to turn into the next romcom, but it would miss the point. After all, Kim’s story is so much more than just a love story—or even a beauty story—and it’s definitely not just a tulip story.

Kim is the Founder & CEO of Bloomeffects, the clean, sustainable, Amsterdam-based beauty brand built around the regenerative power of Dutch tulips. She’s Vietnamese-Chinese, Australian-born, New York-trained and now raising her daughters in the Netherlands while building a brand rooted in family farming, science, sustainability and the kind of long-game resilience motherhood seems to demand from us over and over again.

What makes Kim’s story so compelling is that every chapter seems to hold a contradiction. She’s a beauty founder who built a brand because her own skin needed something gentler. She’s a mother who talks honestly about guilt, ambition and the constant pull between work and home. She’s a global citizen raising children in Dutch culture while making sure they understand their Asian heritage. Last, but certainly not least, she’s a founder in an industry obsessed with speed, who built a brand around a flower that takes years to bloom.

In Kim’s world, a tulip seed can take seven years to become a bulb and produce its first flower. Bloomeffects’ road to Ulta Beauty also took seven years. That symmetry feels almost too neat until you hear Kim talk about it—about the years of no’s, the need to keep going, the grit she inherited from her Vietnamese immigrant mother and the way motherhood has made her both more focused and less willing to waste time.

In this conversation, Kim talks about building a brand while growing a family, what Dutch motherhood has taught her about independence and letting go, how pregnancy changed the way she thought about beauty, why mothers deserve products that feel both effective and joyful and what the beauty industry still gets wrong about women who are expected to do everything.

Here’s Kim.

I actually haven’t thought about this until being asked this question. It’s not my favorite term, but I’d say I’m in the “mom-trepreneur” stage of my life. As both an entrepreneur and mother, both roles help shape my identity while also taking up the bulk of my days and nights. I’m honored to wear both hats, though, and most days, no matter how tiring or busy, are incredibly rewarding.

Yes, for sure! When developing the original Bloomeffects products—like our beloved Royal Tulip Nectar that we launched with—I was very pregnant and selfishly wanted to avoid certain ingredients in my beauty routine during this sensitive time. I suffer from eczema, and, while pregnant, I had to stop using the cortisone I had been using for decades. Our Royal Tulip Nectar really saved my skin; I used it as a nourishing salve and ointment to soothe my flaky, dry skin. This was the kickstart to uphold conscious beauty pillars that are now at the heart of our brand. At our core, we offer ethically sourced ingredients that are kinder to your skin and the environment – it’s a win, win.

I’m a global citizen in that regard and our company structure is a true reflection of this. We have a team of people supporting us all over the world. Bloomeffects never sleeps and our team can work from the comfort of their home wherever they are in the world. This does tend to mean we all have to be flexible with time zones when scheduling calls, but that’s a small sacrifice for having the flexibility to work from all over the globe. I believe in empowering the team to be deliverables-oriented vs. a clock-on, clock-off mentality. Clocking in 9-5 doesn’t mean anything if you’re not delivering. Instead, we empower our team to be disciplined in work-life balance and to determine a schedule that works best for them.

For me, personally, in the Netherlands, it means I work early mornings to connect with Australia, I take a longer lunch break between 11-2PM before the US wakes up, and work through the afternoon. I’m always carving out time for dinner/bath time and bed time with the kids, as I’m a true night owl!

My grit and determination to succeed derives from my Vietnamese immigrant/refugee mother. I always remind myself and those around me the importance of grit and inner fortitude as things don’t happen overnight and we have to keep striving. For my girls, I try to help them understand why they look different from other Dutch kids and remind them of their roots.

Last Christmas, we visited Vietnam to expose them to my heritage and culture. As an AAPI founder, I try to be as active as I can be in the AAPI community and celebrate not only in May, but all year round.

For sure! It quite literally takes seven years for a tulip seed to turn into a bulb and yield its first flower. Interestingly, it took us seven years to launch into Ulta Beauty, so patience has really paid off in all aspects of my journey. On a personal level, I struggled to have a successful pregnancy several times before we had Eva, so that metaphor for my pregnancy journey really hits home, too.

It certainly did; not just around the ingredients used or avoided, but in how we design our products to be used. As a busy mum, skincare might be the only 5-10 minutes of self care you get each day, so there needs to be joy in the ritual. That’s why our Bloomeffects textures are fun and demonstrable. It is important to me to have products that are multifunctional, not because it saves you money, but also time. As mums, efficiency is key!

Motherhood has taught me there’s only so much you can actually control and if you sweat the small stuff, you’ll burn out! Mother nature and kids are similar in that way—they will be who and what they will be. You can be present, guide and control the surroundings but there is a point where you have to let them play out their own way. As a Dutch tulip farmer, my husband Hein says this all the time; “So much of the quality of the harvest is down to the weather and climate, even with the best farming practices!”

It has always been interesting to me that if you have a skin condition, you are marketed to as a patient with that “silent white coat” endorsement. These cues are often sterile white packaging and marketed as “medical grade” skincare. Just because I have eczema doesn’t mean I want to be spoken to as a patient and my products must look like prescription drugs for a solution. I want to know the products work, but I also want beautiful packaging, fun textures, and a brand story that I can emotionally connect with. These are all elements that we offer to our Bloomeffects community, ensuring our consumers not only feel good about the skincare they are purchasing but witnessing visible results.

For me, it was hyperpigmentation - which I understand is very common in women my age and with Vietnamese/Chinese heritage. I’m now so much more aware of the sun and wearing sunscreen all year round (even indoors!). I prefer tinted sunscreens like our Bloomeffects Tulipscreen Dew Serum SPF 50 to help control my hyperpigmentation and I double down with the Bloomeffects Royal Tulip Vitamin C Facial Oil to brighten. My eczema has improved a ton over the years - perhaps I grew out of it, or it could be a nod to the Bloomeffects Royal Tulip Nectar I’ve consistently used for the last 8 years.

Absolutely! I used to wear makeup daily with lash extensions, and dressed in corporate attire to the office. Motherhood itself wasn’t the sole changing factor—the change in culture moving from NYC to the Netherlands during this stage in life was a huge factor towards this. The Dutch are very laid back, don’t wear makeup, and dress casually—I’m in my Dutch era!

Where there’s a will, there’s a way! An essential part of growing tulips is to chop them down. The plant realizes its seed box is gone, and instead of dying, it then grows its bulb bigger which multiples the bulb into baby bulbs ensuring the survival of its species. For me as a founder, I’ve encountered years and years of ‘no’s’, and just like the tulip, you can chop me down but I’ll find a way to come back year after year - a true testament to the origin story of Bloomeffects entering Ulta Beauty.

Definitely. When the idea of staying in bed or watching my own Netflix show that I chose became a luxury and preferred ‘fun’ rather than going out, I knew I was truly in motherhood.

There’s so much! I’ve heard that Dutch kids are the happiest kids in the world. They practice active and independent play from a very young age, kids ride their bikes from 3 years old, and by 8 years old a lot of them ride to school on their own. They’re not taught to simply submit to authority figures, instead they are encouraged to ask questions and present logic.

Healthy eating is easier for kids here because everything has an ABC scale, which they are taught to recognize in the grocery store very early in school. Being a helicopter mum is not the Dutch way; here, I’ve learned to empower my girls to make the right choices but also fail to pick themselves up and learn from mistakes (in a safe and controlled environment!).

There are quite a few things I’ve learned from Dutch culture that American mums could benefit from. Firstly, one of the main methods of transportation in the Netherlands - riding a bike; it’s great for exercise and the environment! When it comes to skincare and makeup, less is more. And lastly, find balance that works for you. Nothing is ever 50/50 but it’s important to try to define your balance.

The hardest part of being both a founder and a mum is the constant pull from both sides—and the guilt that comes with it. When I’m traveling or fully immersed in work, I feel mum guilt for being away from my children. When I’m with my kids, I sometimes feel founder guilt, like I should be doing more or making different choices for the business. It can feel like I’m always trying to balance two things that both matter deeply. No matter how long I’ve been away, the moment I walk through the door and get those overwhelming hugs and excited little cheers, it completely melts me. That welcome home is the most beautiful reminder of what really matters.

As a founder, I’m intentional about ensuring everything I do is worth my time, because every minute I work is taking me away from my family and kids. I want my work to feel meaningful and impactful—where the juice is worth the squeeze. My greatest fear is wasting time as it’s so precious these days.

My grit is truly what kept me going. I had to believe in myself and my ability to get myself and the Bloomeffects brand where it is today.

The emotional reality of being a female founder is that you’re lonely and everyone looks to you for the answers or direction. You have to be humble when things are going well, and share the spotlight with everyone. When chaos erupts, the buck stops with you!

The beauty industry tends to set standards that mums can do it all and that’s the norm. It’s not normal to expect anyone to do most of the household work and run a company, but that’s what’s portrayed by society. There’s compromises and trade offs everywhere, and no one can determine what’s the right balance for you except you.

I want my children to understand that their mum was the first Asian woman to come into a predominantly white male industry (tulip growing) and saw an opportunity to diversify and make something out of it on her own. Tulip farming is not only generational but patriarchal, and I truly revolutionized that!

Motherhood has made me realize I don’t have the bandwidth for the small nuances that don’t deserve my energy. Now, I’m more resilient; having seen it all and heard it all, I’m more sure of myself and my abilities with successful experiences to back it up.