Latest / Skin Anarchy / Brook Harvey-Taylor, founder of PACIFICA Beauty

Transcript

Brook Harvey-Taylor, founder of PACIFICA Beauty · Skin Anarchy

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hi guys, welcome back to School Care Anarchy.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is your host, Ekta, and today I have an amazing guest.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: I am obsessed with her line.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think we all are.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know everyone out there has heard of Pacifica Beauty.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: So without further ado, I want to introduce you guys to Brooke Harvey Taylor, who is the founder of this iconic, iconic line.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome to the show, Brooke.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so, so humbled and honored to have you here.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Really sweet.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm super happy to be here and and thanks for having me.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's true, my pleasure.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to get started if you could take us back and um tell us how the whole concept came together for you for Pacifica, um, the whole journey.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I can't tell our story without kind without going back to my childhood.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think it really formed so much of what became Pacifica.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I think for a lot of a lot of people, our our formative years really have defined a lot of brands out there.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, I grew up on in Montana on a little cattle ranch, and we really lived with nature.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so I got to connect with nature in a really um intense way.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: And my mom grew a garden, we canned our own food, we raised our own animals, um, and I had a horse, and I would ride around on my horse and imagine that I was uh like an herbal healer.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: That was one of the games I used to love to play.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so um, and then my sister and I were 4-H kids, which means, if you know, um, that we would raise a pet an animal, which we would basically turn into a pet, but we would raise a pig or a lamb or a baby calf, and those animals would eventually sadly go to slaughter.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: But for us, they became our pets, and they, because it's cold, they wound up sometimes sleeping in our room sometimes.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so I really became attached to the animals.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: And uh my mom would tell us that we're selling them at the um, you know, to someone else, but really often I think they would wind up in our freezer, and that gave me a really different perspective once I realized as one and once I got older, and um, I really started understanding that these animals were being raised for food and that it would it just felt wrong to me.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I started thinking about um, you know, animal rights and animal activism, and that really defined uh Pacifica.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: So when we started Pacifica um from day one, we were 100% vegan, cruelty-free, it was really, really important to me.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, I I love that it's that you said vegan because I feel like you know, I'm gonna ask you this and we can address it later, but I've never understood like truly what a vegan brand is.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I want you to call it, but yeah.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm happy to get into that.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but then when I went to college at the University of Oregon, I I apprenticed with an aromatherapist and I learned a lot about really the healing arts, healing art of essential oils and scent.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: And um I became obsessed much more with the perfuming side, even though you know she was using the oils for healing.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: I would be in the back room and I just would start perfuming.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so I would take the jasmine and blend it with the sandalwood and with the patchouli.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I became really, really interested in the art of perfuming and especially with naturals.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so when she she actually moved back to England, the woman I apprenticed for and left me her entire kit.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was this beautiful wooden box full of essential oils she collected from all over the world, and she left them for me.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so that became my first perfuming kit.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so I started perfuming, and it was such an incredible gift.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I would sell my perfumes to my friends and then to at a few Grateful Dead concerts, and then see most of us had lemonade stands at a perfumery.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's how I started.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: I started the little perfumery.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, that was those were the uh seven first products that Pacifica launched.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I I wound up meeting my my husband who became my business partner, and he was he was always an entrepreneur, and he's like, don't you know, go back to waiting tables or or bartending or whatever.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: I did all sorts of odd jobs while I was in college, and he said, just start a brand, start your own company, start your start these perfumes.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so he um he was super inspirational that way.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then um we came up with the name one one day, driving to our favorite surf spot, and um we were listening to um Astrid Gioberto, and and it was uh the word Pacifica was in one of the songs, one of the one of the lyrics.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so that became the name of Pacifica.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and that as a surfer, yeah, thank you.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And as a surfer, I am really connected to the ocean and I I love surfing, and I just you know, so that felt like the right name.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Plus, it's an anagram, a and if you take the P off, it's it's same forwards as it is backwards.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it's this sort of to me circular, um, meaningful name.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, wow.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that actually.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I never had put that together, but now I'm going to like look for it.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and our moon, our the sea is also a half, a tiny little moon sliver, so there's a lot of meaning in the name Pacifica for me.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, um, yeah.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, I I was just always excited about natural products.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the other thing that that for me, you know, was really important was um when I was younger, also I was able to work in a natural food store, and I was really, I was always looking at beauty products, and um, even Dr.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Bronner's was still a was around then, and uh Rachel Perry, that early brand, and I would stock the shelves and imagine what it would be like to have my own beauty brand.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's you know, Pacifica's been um, I think, really in my heart and soul since I was a young person.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's really exciting that 25 years later we're still here.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, you know, still here is an understatement.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love that.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think, you know, this is a perfect example for, you know, I really believe that when you do something from your heart, it it's everlasting.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's timeless.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I when I I know when I first discovered your line, um, I was just a target and I was just looking for um sheet masks, actually.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm a huge uh fan of sheet masks.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And um I remember I picked up every single one because it was all like, you know, I remember seeing it, I was like, everything sounds good, you know?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: So it was such a cool moment.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, in just that as a consumer, like having that experience, I could tell right there how much love that you've put into this line because it really connects with a consumer.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: So like that that's what really intrigues me about your line.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to actually dive into um, you know, the whole idea of like, you know, what uh products you wanted to come out with first.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, what was what was the real like the key, the backbone of the brand?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we well, the first products that I launched were were the perfumes.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: So that was to me, that's always really the core of Pacifica is our fragrances and our scents.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And they mean a lot to me.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: There's always this undercurrent of aromatherapy happening.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, all of our skincare uses 100% natural origin scents.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: So, and and we really focus in on clean, we don't use phthalates, but those were our first products and what were our perfumes.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we also um one kind of cool thing that I think a lot of people don't know about us is at the time it was really hard to find a filler of that would make perfumes using what I wanted to use, which was uh corn grain alcohol and all a natural grain alcohol versus you know basic alcohols that were out on the market at the time.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so we started our own factory, and so we we started our own perfumery and our own factory and were able to make our own perfumes, and so those were early products for us that led into um body butters and then body because the perfumes naturally were trans naturally naturally transitioned into body care, and then from there, you know, using these great ingredients that I was really um careful in choosing, it led to creating skincare.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so the skincare became we launched skincare about, I would say, like seven years into the start of the brand, and that became our our biggest category and our biggest growth category, and that's where we spent a lot of time focusing in because the skincare ingredients now really lead to everything else we're doing.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now we're using the skincare ingredients in our body care, we use it in our in our makeup, we use it everywhere.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's it's been this um, I would say, kind of, you know, inspirational the inspiration really was the sense.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then those just led to the other categories that we're in now.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I really love that.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that um every time you guys come out with a product, it's like for me, it's like super hyped, right?
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know the quality is there and I know that um everything that comes out from your brand, it's something that I connect with, not only like, you know, aesthetically, but also like, you know, just it works for my skin.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I I for me, like one of the biggest, I think, aha moments where I realized that Pacifica was a wonderful skincare line, was when I had used your green tea mask.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I had like this terrible breakout, you know what I mean?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like just from traveling.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember I put it on and it instantly, like the next day, my skin was completely clear.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I really want to know um, in terms of like sourcing your ingredients and working with um the ingredients that you work with, what has that what's the process with that been?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, um, can you tell us more about that?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so when we launched, when we our first national retailer was Whole Foods, and Whole Foods has a very stringent know list and has really strict guidelines for brands.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's that's how our brand grew up with this Whole Foods No List as essentially our ingredient um Bible and and guidepost.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so every ingredient that we use has to meet those standards.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm also really, really excited about naturally natural ingredients and natural extracts and naturally derived ingredients and thinking about, you know, I'm really inspired by the food industry and what happens there.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: There, it's it's exciting to think about bringing that to skincare and the textures and the experience that you get with with uh different formulations.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're always thinking about, for instance, one thing that we've recently launched is a mushroom.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's our Wake Up Beautiful product, and we use mushrooms in there.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: And mushrooms are great and known as anti-inflammatories, really incredible adaptogenic ingredients.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so using that in skincare brings us other elements.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: So we're also using the retinoids and we're using melatonin and we're using these ingredients that are known as really incredible skincare ingredients, but then bumping it, boosting it with that mushroom helps create this, I would say, much more um well-rounded product, different formulations, something that's a little more innovative and that's not currently on the market.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how we think about everything that we're doing is is this already out there?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: And if so, why would we do it if we can't improve it, if we can't bring something more interesting to the table.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we're really, really careful around thinking about how we um craft essentially, really carefully craft every single formula.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'm I can see that.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, for me, I think what's intriguing is very rarely do I see a brand that people keep coming back to.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know, you know, if if you know what I mean, but like in the skincare industry, we have so many, you know, obviously so many products and so many brands and so many companies, but you know, oftentimes I notice that people will buy something and then they won't really go back and repurchase it.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: But with your line, I know like my I can only speak for myself and I know I've repurchased multiple times.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: So how did you um, in terms of, you know, getting into Target and reaching a demographic of people, um, what was that process like for you from the business end?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think that's something that, you know, um I would love to educate brands more about because I don't think any, you know, most people understand how to do that.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, getting into a retailer is uh it's an interesting process.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: And we actually early on, um, even getting into Whole Foods was a was a process where you meet with the buyer, you do a lot of testing.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: We did um testing in different stores to make sure the product products resonate with people.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I think back to your point on repurchase rate, it's we actually do see that in our own data that we have our consumer in the last, usually it's in one year, has purchased three or more products for from us, which is a really high rate of return and exciting.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I think that's if you're starting out a brand or you're a new brand, it's really important to make sure that your products do get repurchased.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Because to your, again, to your point, there's so much newness on the market.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much to choose from.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: And everything's there's a lot of exciting brands on the market right now.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you're going to launch a brand, just make sure that you're doing it with a lot of integrity, that you're using a really good formula, that it's it's not just something that is you've picked off the shelf and it's just turnkey.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's something that you've really put some effort into, finding your point of difference, finding your story, finding your reason why before you even want to launch it at a retailer.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: I would say even I recommend brands do digital launches first because then you can really get a read on is that a product that's going to win in the market?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Is it interesting to the consumer?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: And once you have that data, that's a lot easier to take to a retailer and to show them, you know, this is this is what's happening for my brand.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that can also open doors for you.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, I didn't know that.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's really good advice.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope everyone listening out there, I hope you took notes because, you know, that's that's really, really important, I think, to understand.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many new founders, and um, that's you know, that's why I asked you because that's one of the biggest questions that I get, and I have no idea.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but you know, I shifting gears a little bit, I want to talk about the range of products that you have, because one thing that I I think is very interesting is that there's a little bit for everybody um in terms of age groups.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think if you're, you know, if you're a teenager, you can go and get something wonderful.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in your 30s, you can get something that you really like and you think is going to benefit and you know, so on.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: So when you were coming out with more products, and as you've been coming out, how have you designed that?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's your strategy been?
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Have you done like consumer surveys or like because you really do have something for everybody?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: We we actually do a lot of listening.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we we do consumer surveys internally.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we ever depending on six or four months, we'll do a survey on our social channels where we ask our consumers, you know, what their demographic is, what they're thinking about, what they love.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of opportunities to write in what they're missing, what they think we could launch in.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we really listen to those, and they have a lot of meaning for me because we don't launch a new category unless we feel like we really have the permission to do that from our consumer and that they would follow us into that new category.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: So we do spend a lot of time being really thoughtful about how we launch and how we think about newness.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: But the other thing that I think is important and is a point of difference for Pacifica is we think about skincare differently.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that because we approach it from more situational skin care, so it's not about my skin's oily or my skin's dry.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone has a skin type for sure, but your skin type changes over the years and it also changes depending on the season.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: It changes depending on what you're eating.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's hormonal.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're really thinking about these different situations and back to our masks.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like we have a stress mask, and we have our wake-up beautiful mask, and we have our dreamy youth mask, and they're each designed for some like one person could probably use all of the masks at any given point in their skincare research.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I know, I've done it.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because you have these situations where you're like, oh man, I was up all night, my skin's so stressed.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: I was up studying or whatever.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: I use your mask for multi-masking, like no joke.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's beautiful, everything layers so beautifully.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I just wanted to chime in.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: No, but that's and that's how we think about skincare.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just you're this age and you're the skin type.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: This is for you.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's much more about um, where what's what is your skin's situation at the moment?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Are you having a breakout?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Are you having you know a lot of dryness?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's product there that can address those needs versus this is your line that you will use forever.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: I really don't believe that.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that the the skincare consumer today also is excited to try new things and is excited to experiment and we offer that opportunity.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I actually no, I was going to say that that's how we think about skincare.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's you know, it's it's just a little bit different.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, it definitely is.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: I completely agree.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually was going to ask you about the accessibility component of your of your strategy and your brand, because what you know, it's a beautiful thing that you guys are available in something somewhere like Target, where you know, so many people can access your products.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, for me personally, I think that's a very important aspect of any beauty product because, you know, let's be honest, teenagers and young women and men that, you know, are discovering what they think beauty is, that's where they go, you know, like uh pharmacies or you know, convenience stores or where, you know, retail stores.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to, I, you know, I want I want to talk about that a little bit in terms of just the accessibility and how you decided on price points, um, how you decided on, you know, what products will be, you know, marketed when.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, do you see what I'm trying to say?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like no, listen, accessibility is a huge thing for us.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I I I truly believe that everyone deserves the best ingredients um at prices that they can afford.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really a core value for our brand.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I, you know, I speaking of retailers, there have been times when retailers have, you know, for instance, there's a big, there's a really cool green or clean beauty retailer right now that that didn't decide not to carry Pacifica.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason was because they said, you're too cheap, you're too available everywhere, and which we're not available everywhere.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: We're at Whole Foods, Target, and and Ulta.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: But their position was, you know, we're we're more special.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Clean beauty is more special.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, that's that is exactly opposite of how I see clean beauty.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: The real, the reality for me is I really want to change this industry.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: I really want to be effective in making sure that everyone, no matter what, how what you can afford, has access to the best ingredients.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: That you can you can find it where you want it, you can find it when you want it, you can find it at the price point that works for you.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's been a huge um part of how we think about our formulas and a huge part of how we even think about where the brand lives.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: And Target is a really meaningful retailer to us because they serve the consumer that um that's there for convenience, but is also there to discover.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that's, you know, they then they're offering a wide range of price points.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's it's um it fits really well with with our values and our positioning.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: But I also because I don't really don't think clean beauty is should be this narrow, um, exclusive club.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's really for everyone.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we've been able to do that.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: I completely agree.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: I completely agree.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, I think that that's an excellent point.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I know on some of my previous episodes, I've actually just been very blunt and said, what does clean beauty actually mean?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like honestly, you know, because everyone's got their own definition of it.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I know, um, you know, going back to my original question that I had earlier about veganism, um, I want you to tell me more about that because I I'm very confused about the line between a vegan brand and a clean brand.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And do they overlap?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, can you can you tell us more about that?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: So vegan and clean are not the same.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I so a brand could be one or the other or both.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I do think to your question about clean that there are a lot of different definitions.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Retailers have their own definitions of what's clean.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, clean used to be a word that we in the natural product space, uh, we used the word clean to define ingredients that weren't necessarily natural, but that were still ingredients we would use.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: It was much more of a kind of um lab term versus a consumer-facing term.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that shifted a little bit in the last several years.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but it's really for us, again, we go back to the Whole Foods know list.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: We've also added several ingredients to that.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: And the whole point is really we do believe in using naturally derived ingredients whenever we can.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: And we also think about using ingredients that are more sustainable.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: For instance, we've just launched a vegan collagen line, and our vegan collagen is a lab-grown um collagen that starts with a fermentation coming from sugar.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so that ingredient, if you think about it, that ingredient is super cool because it's not using land, it's or as much land, right?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's not using a ton of water, it's not using an animal.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so I love the idea about thinking of thinking about ingredients in a much bigger way.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how is this serving our planet?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: How and our core value as a brand is compassion.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: So for compassion for Animals, the planet, and people.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's how we think about everything.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Everything has to go through that lens of compassion.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: And back to veganism.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so, so a vegan brand would be, and I used to have to explain this all the time, and now you know it's getting more and more trendy.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I love it, all ships rise in this world.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that um, but for a vegan brand, that means you're not using any animal ingredients.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: You're not using carmine, which is a beetle, you're not using beeswax, you're not using lanolin, so you're not using any of these ingredients that came from an animal or were processed um as a byproduct of an animal.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what vegan means.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then cruelty free, which you can be cruelty-free and not vegan right now.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: To me, they are they should go hand in hand, but cruelty-free means that your ingredi your ingredients were not tested on animals.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that term really for us is much more broad.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: To us, it means, you know, you I don't see how you could be cruelty-free and not vegan because Yeah, yeah, I don't either.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: That makes no sense to me.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but that's currently the definition is they can be, they're separate, they're they're defined differently.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I I this is interesting to me because this makes me think that, you know, the idea of sustainability comes up quite often in the beauty industry.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what you just described to me, all of that should fit into the umbrella of sustainability.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you are able to preserve, you know, the are the animals of this planet, if you're able to preserve the natural resources, all of that should fall under sustainability.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I think for me, um, brands that use that as like a marketing word, you know, it really bothers me because, like you said, there it's like you can't pick and choose what you want to do, right?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you can't create new words just to justify it.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: You have to actually, I think, do it from the ground up.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And what you described, I think that's the best definition of I've heard, you know, of uh clean beauty.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I agree with you.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I one data point would be the University of Ox of Oxford did this really cool study, and they found that cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce your carbon footprint by up to 73%, which is huge.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so, I mean, imagine even if we're doing half of that, or if people are thinking about eating a vegan diet half that time, or thinking about using vegan products, you know, thinking about not relying on animals to the extent that we currently do in our in our world, um, we could really have a huge environmental impact on the planet and really affect climate change.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's really important to your point around sustainability that we are thinking that this is a part of that conversation and that using um not using animal ingredients and thinking about how we're considering our footprint on the planet has to be part of the conversation.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: And we know as a brand, we don't have what I like to say, we don't have the luxury anymore to ignore sustainability.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: And brands have done that for so many years.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: And brands at this point need to be really conscientious and really come together and and think about how we're going to leave um, not leave a footprint or a carbon footprint on the planet, how we're going to improve it and how we're thinking about it every single day.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's it's just not um okay not to be thinking about that anymore.
• 25:24
  unknown: Right.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't okay in the beginning.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's really not okay now.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: We have enough information, there's enough really great ingredients, there's enough support on the supply chain side for everyone to be far more sustainable than they are.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, I completely agree with you.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that, you know, saying things like I'm 30% sustainable or I'm 70%, that I don't understand those claims either, you know.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like you either are sustainable or you're not.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, again, I'm still trying to figure out the real definition of sustainability.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of brands are, you know, and so when I look at something like your brand, but so I look at Pacifica, I think it could be a great blueprint for a lot of the newer brands coming up.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really for me, I think that's more beneficial to this industry, right?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Is this collaborative effort to learn from one another.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, have you ever collaborated with other smaller brands before or um given advice or any kind of mentorship?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, actually, I was lucky enough to um do a mentorship program this year.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm a member of a group that does mentors mentorship programs, and they um it's called Beauty United, and they do mentorship programs for um smaller brands.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I was lucky enough to do one this year with uh an amazing brand.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I um I also really believe in collaboration and especially around sustainability.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that really without collaboration, we're we're missing the mark, and that it's to I I love that you're saying it's not about marketing and it really isn't a marketing race, it's a race to save our planet.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so if we're not working together as an industry and and helping each other, then we're we're not going to get there fast enough.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: And really it is, we we have to speed things up and we have to be thinking about it with everything we do.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: And listen, we're not perfect at all.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, and I think that that's the thing that's where we all need to come together is you know, we we are using, you know, we use we have plastic tubes right now.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: They're PCR, and we're moving to PCR where we're not, we've been able to take over, I think I I can't even tell you how many pounds of virgin plastic out of the waste stream in the last five years by migrating to PCR to glass, um, we've incorporated some aluminum, we're really thinking about these things, but there's no right answer and there's nothing that's perfect.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a matter of making sure you're on that journey.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that if small brands could work with bigger brands and, you know, share like the small brands can share kind of their secrets to being nimble, and the big brands can share their purchasing power, you know, we could really make some effective changes.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we have, we've we've partnered both with um our retailers that we've worked with around ideas and helped be bring some thought leadership to the table.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: We've we've worked with smaller brands and I do really believe in collaboration, and I think it's the right way to work together.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Plus, I I'm a hardcore feminist, and I think that women helping women is important.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I thank you for saying that on air.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for saying that.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I I I because I'm honestly, you know, I'm not gonna lie to you.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: I this is something that I really think people need to hear more from like, you know, successful women because we talk about this all the time, but no one it I feel like there's a huge lack of action, you know what I mean?
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'm glad that you brought that up.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I I I agree with you.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think that it's um, I love uh the Madeline Albright quote.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: I have it on my Instagram that there's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women, that it's really something.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I just think it's really important for us to to lend a hand wherever we can and to again, we're all going to improve our own lives by helping others.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's um, you know, it's really important to think about it that way.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's not, it's life is not a competition.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: I 100% agree with you.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one thing I'm gonna ask you, and this is very random, um, but for me, it's very close to my heart.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when I was doing um, I was actually originally an influencer for skincare, and it was just for fun, you know, it was for me.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um I love photography.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember I had one of your masks, and um, again, with the masks, I'm obsessed.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, I was holding it up and it was such a beautiful night.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember it was like the sunset was just beginning, and um, you know, I held up your packaging and it literally matched what I was seeing out there in nature.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I, and I know it sounds corny, but for me in that moment, I took that snap and I was like, this is brilliant because the way the aesthetic of your, you know, your packaging and everything, it just it connected so well, right?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, like when you were coming up with that idea, your packaging, your look, your aesthetic, um, what were some of the things that you considered?
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because it, you know, for me, it does connect with nature a lot.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: So oh, I love that you say that.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: We actually, I have an incredible design team on staff who one of them I've been with for 10 years, and the other one is one of my best friends who I've known since I was 16.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm so lucky to work with these incredible artists.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: And we do things like take pictures of sunset, send them to each other, like and we say, let's create a gradient that looks like this.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so, so I love that you've noticed that because that is where we get our inspiration is from.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna send you, I'm gonna send you my picture.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: I still have to do it.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, please do.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but totally, I mean, that's and that's how we think about things.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: And we are always going back to like we're we're launching a a new collection right now that we're working on, and we are we pulled out images, like we have this teensy, teensy little butterfly on the package that's butterflies can be kind of corny and kind of goofy, but it's the it's a sensitive skin line.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so we brought in that little tiny imagery that we've really buried and hidden, but it's there.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have a lot of symbolism in our art as well.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: And if you kind of look around, you can see things, and there's often um like a little lotus that for us um stands for compassion, and there's a lot of other there's a lot of layers to the art that we that we have on our packaging.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: I like that.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: I love how much you know thought goes behind that.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's beautiful, that's absolutely beautiful.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, you know, honestly, it's it's such a pleasure speaking to you, um, Brooke.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: I I could talk to you for hours and I would love to have you back.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you guys have a product launch or anything, I just would love to talk to you again.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for your time.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thanks for having me again.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: I loved it.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: I loved it.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone out there listening, if you have not already, please go check out Pacifica Beauty.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is truly one of the best lines out there.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: Could not rave enough about it.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: And let us know what you think of this episode or the products or any questions you have for Brooks team.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Leave them in the comments below and we will pass them along.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: And stay tuned for the next episode.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 32:28
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• 32:30
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• 32:35
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• 32:38
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• 32:52
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• 33:23
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• 33:30
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• 33:35
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