Latest / Skin Anarchy / E.280: Cultivating clean beauty habits without compromising results ft. Jill Rowe

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E.280: Cultivating clean beauty habits without compromising results ft. Jill Rowe · Skin Anarchy

• 0:00
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• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: Hi guys, welcome back to Skincare Anarchy.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Today's guest is an amazing guest because I just discovered this brand and I've been loving it.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: I've been looking for actually more herbal-based um skincare lines that are still very like efficacious and science-backed.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: So this is truly like the holy grail of all of that.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: So without further ado, I want to introduce you guys to Jill Rowe, who is the founder of Cultivate Apothecary.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the show, Jill.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so excited we're doing this.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: I am too.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: I love what you're doing.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: I love the transparency and the range of guests that you have on.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I'm very excited to be here.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: What a compliment.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: I really appreciate that.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, that's that's the goal.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want any fluff, you know.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: We have enough of that in the industry.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: So um, Jill, I want to get started with you telling us about your background because the brand is just so chic and beautiful and well crafted.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I just want to know like all the things that kind of led up to it, you know.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there's so many, but it's it's something that I was speaking about uh recently.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the idea when from a very young age, probably 18, 19 years old, um, what I was shown through my relationships or when I um moved to New York City when I was 20, was that I was meeting people that were very singular in what they wanted for their lives.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: They were very passionate about something, um, whether it was art or film or music or sports, restaurants, whatever it was, I was finding all these people that it was their one thing that they loved doing and they devoted all their time and energy to it.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I just wasn't that person.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to know about everything and I wanted to learn about everything.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I would take these deep dives.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: My first deep dive um when I was 17 years old was into fashion, and then it was in art, the art world in New York City.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, then it was film, independent film and film production, then it was restaurants.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: I opened up my own restaurant in upstate New York, and then I ran um uh the amazing Union Square Cafe in New York City for eight years.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: I became a sommelier, I was a chef.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, I just never there wasn't that one through line for me.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I found it very frustrating for many years, but I just kept wanting to learn, and so that's what I did.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I met someone in 2010 that's just really changed my viewpoint about that.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, Oh, you're a multi-passionate.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, What?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: She said, Yeah, you're a multi-passionate.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: There's not just one thing you're passionate about, you're passionate about everything, and those things all drive who you are and feed into how you see the world and how you share your gifts with the world, and that changed everything for me.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, and you know what?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: I this is such an ironic conversation.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's it's actually beautiful timing.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: And see, Jill, this is why I believe like the universe always does things at the right time.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I honestly, the other day, I you will not believe it exactly what you said, because I'm always thinking of like what I can uh publish as quotes on my other podcast.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I wrote down a quote or you know, I guess uh sentence, and it literally said what you just described, which is I don't know why people think that having a career means one thing for the rest of your life.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like your career is what you do throughout your life, and that can be, you know, it could change every year, it could change every 10 years.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: You just do what you like, you know, and what you think you're good at.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I love that.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: I love that you brought that up.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh uh yeah, and and the thing that's great about that, and again, everybody should be who they are.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's the most important thing.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody has to be a multi-passionate like me, uh, to be seen as like, oh, that's what I should do.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's really whatever fuels the individual.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: But what's important is to really feel uh comfortable in your own skin and doing the things that uh mean to you, because that's what will matter to the person who's on the receiving end, whether it's a product or a service or you know, art or food or whatever it is, that will shine through if you truly believe and are passionate about what you're doing.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um so for me, the I was always that.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: And the through line now, in terms of circling back to your to your question, is all of those things in the design of the product, the detail, the art of it.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: My my um life partner is the does all the photography and did a lot of the branding.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: And um, there's just this idea that I have enough life behind me to know exactly what I want and what I don't want.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not trying to compete with anyone else.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: I just want people to experience the fullest version of what I have to offer.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think I believe I've done that through this brand and the opportunity to literally grow the majority of the botanicals that I put and formulate into the products.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think it all shines through um as a very clear idea of what our brand, what the brand is, what the ethos is, and what we want to share with everyone.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I feel very fortunate.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think, I think when you, you know, were going through and explaining your background, I mean, it really kind of said everything I needed to know because the brand is extremely well crafted.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like I've said, you know, already.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just about creating a brand that's founded in herbalism and and has this, you know, unique, like, you know, basically what the name says, this apothecary approach to finding the cool herbs and the new um, you know, treatments.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's you've had that, right?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: You've captured that essence, but it's got this beautiful chemistry and the science um feel to it as well.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I really appreciate that because I'm not gonna lie, I'm someone I've always loved apothecaries, like no joke.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like I was that college student that was always looking for like the next one, you know, and um back then it wasn't a big deal, like people weren't really, you know, into it.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then it blew up in pop culture, and then you have all these, you know, TV shows and everyone talking about the, you know, what's an apothecary and what's the concept, and they have it all wrong.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: But I feel like when I look at your brand, you really captured that.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I would love for you to like go through um that vision, you know, like just what in your mind is the purpose of an apothecary and how does that play into the brand vision?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, when we were thinking about the name, um, it took us a while to really decide on what we wanted to do, but we did understand that we wanted it to be very um classic.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then when you go back to classic ideas, you think, well, what is it that people did with oils and or herbs or anything that you would do both internally and externally for wellness?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was considered uh you would go to an apothecary.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you would find an um, you know, an expert that this is what they did and they knew how to create products specifically for what you were asking to be um healed or improved upon in any particular way, whether it was spiritual or physical, emotional, all of those things.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: So we did um light on that uh name pretty quickly.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then with cultivate, we you know, we have an organic farm and we literally cultivate the soil, we cultivate the seeds, we do, we cultivate our world is very if you've seen the website and and gone to the website for Stonegate Farm, you can see it's a very curated, cultivated way of living.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's taken years and years to create.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so we were uh, you know, building on the ideas of foundations of what already came, you know, literally from the ground up.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And and so we knew it, you as with many things, you know it when you hit upon it in terms of what the name is, but we do think it it fully um exemplifies what it is that we do here.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's very clear when you go to the website and you see, you know, everything that's growing and how we do it and the transparency of doing it all the way from seed to serum.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's the idea what we want to share with people.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And especially we have an on-farm apothecary, so people can come on the weekends and really do a walkabout with me, and I can walk them through the fields and show them what we grow, what we use it for, why it's important, um, how we blend and put things together.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: We've just created an um on-farm uh lab.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: We had a small one, but now we've built a much bigger one.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I can really even allow the brand to grow further and um develop new products that we'll be growing actually this season through some things we're experimenting with.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I actually I'm always curious when founders tell me, like, you know, you found this new sustainable way to just, you know, not only have the brand, but also make sure that, you know, what you're growing is what you're putting in it and that the quality is there, right?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think with sourcing, you know, that's always one of my big questions for brands is like, well, how do you know that what you're getting is really what it is?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so your approach, I I find it to be very um refined, you know, in that way.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: So in terms of running that, like, you know, like having that, how is it with production then?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, is does it sometimes get like overwhelming?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: Or how does that work if you're growing your own stuff and you're you know churning out product?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like yeah, it's a it well we yeah, it's a lot of work, uh, especially when season starts.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um our season, our growing season is um we'll start, we'll start uh sowing thousands and thousands of seeds in the next three to four weeks.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then our our growing season usually ends depending on nature, um, end of October.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so yeah, it's a long six months and it it is a lot of work.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um I would say that we are able to do it in a way that we have uh a program that Matthew, who is my uh life partner, has been um doing for over 12 years, uh, which is an apprentice program that we offer here at the farm to teach people, young people, how to do small-scale sustainable farming and how to do organic farming and how to uh create and run a small business based on agriculture or anything that you would grow.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we do usually, we're in the midst actually now of uh doing interviews for our apprenticeship program this season.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: And what that uh affords us is two extra hands.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: They live here with us on the farm for six months, and that allows us to teach them what we do and uh have their hands along with ours in all the work that it does take.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um then once they have, you know, gotten their feet wet and they have an understanding of what we do and how we do it, I can step back a little bit more and then formulate and do the things that I need to do and fulfill.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we also, with the bigger lab being built, I will be bringing on someone who will come in and do fulfillment with me on a regular basis as we grow.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I have someone that I'll be working with.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's just been myself and Matthew helping me when necessary.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, it's a lot of work.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's but it's beautiful work.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's not even work.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know how they say that it sounds cliche, but I love doing it.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, honestly, Jill, that's why I asked because I feel like there's a lot of excuses out there, you know, in terms of like, well, how do I produce a truly sustainable product?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: How do I do this the correct way?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: How do I make this happen?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's too much to know.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have the time.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: These are the things that people, you know, a lot of entrepreneurs go through.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm I'm sorry, but it's a lot of excuses, right?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to create a brand and you want to make sure you're truly sustainable, truly, you know, following the ethics of what you believe in in terms of taking care of our planet, then there are ways, you know, we don't have to cut corners.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why I'm I wanted to ask you that, because if there's anyone listening and you're in the middle of creating your own brand, you really should think about, well, where is my sustainability at?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like how am I approaching it?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: And if it's something that you're overwhelmed by, then I would go and you know, try to figure out how you can do it yourself.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: And until you figure that out, don't come out with a brand.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I say that, you know, it's like you gotta like like you said, it's a lot of work, but you have to, you know, think it out and you have to make sure that what you're doing is, you know, it's a sustainable long-term project and it has to be done right.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm really glad to see, like, you know, you're an entrepreneur that's done it right, and then you're, you know, that's something I want to highlight for people who because this this industry, we have a new skincare line every day.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it is it, you know, I I think the thing that makes me anxious about that is yes, do I think that the majority of people coming out with skincare lines are have uh, you know, positive intent?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't think that they understand, even if if the majority of these new brands are clean and they're sourcing um clean ingredients, you have to consider how many clean ingredients there are out there in the world and what that is going to do to all kinds of things.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like who is taking care of these if it gets to a point where um people need to produce more and more and more.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Believe me, they're not going to be doing it ethically.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: They're not going to be doing it without pesticides that are not that are harmful because you can't.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: You, you know, doing it organically is very hard.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it's also there's a fair amount of loss if you don't know what you're doing in terms of pest management and things like that.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: So we wouldn't have even considered doing a brand if we didn't, you know, we went deeply, deeply through what is our sustainability, what is our carbon footprint, how can we even do this so that it works and we're not impacting the planet?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because we didn't need to create a skincare brand, meaning there's lots of things we've done in the world.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: We're a bit older.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't need to go and do something, you know, as if we were 30 years old.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, what do you want to do?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Should we do this?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it was very thoughtful and it was based on lots of experience that I already had and passions that uh that are shared here at the farm, and the fact that we can grow exactly.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: We did all the research on what are the most potent, um highly effective effective botanicals, and can we grow them here?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we did.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we even have the choice of absolutely everything we grow here, when it gets harvested, how it gets um uh produced in terms of its efficacy and timing of when those flowers get harvested.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: You can't always do that on big farms.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: You harvest because you have to harvest.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: I harvest with my small crew when I know it's time.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: I go out there and I see the time of day, I see that they're ready to be harvested or not, and that's when I do it.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's you can't do that on big production.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that that's the thing, Joe.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's funny that you say that because I don't think people understand.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like when, you know, back in the day when civilizations grew their own food and their own, you know, all they had was land, right?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: Remember, like people used to pass down pieces of land, you know, that was inheritance.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: And the reason for that was so that your next generation has land to grow food on.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: And to be able to do that kind of thing, you have to watch your crops.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: You have to, it's like, you know, it's like what the cliche says, right?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's like watching a child grow up.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: You have to really know how, you know, the plants are doing and how they're growing and what they're growing in, what does the soil contain, you know, how much of nitrogen and you know, oxygen and all the different gases mixed, what's the perfect, all those little details is something you should know.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: And the reason I'm even harping on this so much is because me being Indian American, I see a lot of um like Ayurveda brands that like to fit, they want to fit into this herbal category.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm gonna tell you a story.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: My mother grew up in rural India, and she, when she was a little girl, she rubbed like this plant on her eyes that had pesticide on it, which is something you brought up earlier, pesticides, right?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: And that whatever that was, that drug, it actually caused her eyes to like shrink a little bit.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: So it was like that harmful.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: And when I say, and the reason I say that is because I've seen how things are like, you know, cultivated and grown in the agricultural areas in third world countries firsthand.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I can tell you that the precautions and all of that that we want them to take.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that we love saying things like, well, we're supporting other nations, and that's beautiful, but make sure that you can say at the end of the day, my products do not have pesticides on them, they don't have added chemicals on them.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm sorry, but you can't do that if you're not in the field and looking out exactly what you're doing through the whole process.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: So that's like you know what I mean?
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what differentiates for me as a consumer, cultivate apothecary versus, oh, this brand is completely harvested and everything is sourced from India or China or wherever, you know, that's the difference.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I I just find it to be a very interesting topic, you know, in terms of like green beauty, herbal beauty, you know, all that stuff.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: I also think, you know, if you think about um organics, uh if you are, this is is in uh sort of a uh topic that we speak about a lot, but if you if you're uh shipping in lettuce from Salinas County in California to New York, by the time it gets here, it's chlorophyll.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: There is no more nutrient dense uh lettuce left in that lettuce.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's pretty, it tastes like lettuce, but there's no, there's really all the nutrients are gone by that one week, two week by the time you get it uh to the stores and that is purchased.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's no there there.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so the idea is is in some of the things that we grow, we grow a lot of our own food and we have a small supper program here, and we had a a CSA for 12 years.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um the nutrient dense, the proteins that are available in the the kale that we offer or the lettuces we offer are much, much, much higher than something that you would get as an organic uh ingredient, meaning no pesticides have been put on that lettuce that you've gotten shipped three weeks ago from California.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: So that speaks to also to the potency of what we have.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: I can um harvest, you know, our calendula, our chamomile, our comfrey, all of the things that we uh grow and cultivate here right at their peak and get them dried right away and get them right into an oil and and have them uh sit there, you know, they they they infuse for six to eight weeks in organic sunflower oil.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm through every moment of that process.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so I know and I've had people attest to the fact that it's the when you try our oils, they feel alive.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, they they aren't they don't just feel like these these kind of limp oils that you're putting on your skin.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: They have the energy in them.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it does make a difference.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's not easy, meaning not every brand can do that.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I understand that.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Nonetheless, I just don't think all these brands, you know, need to be doing what they're doing and saying that they're there's just too many out there.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's confusing the public.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it really is.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: No, it really is, and it's making it harder, Jill, to really keep track of sustainability.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: Let's be honest.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like the clean beauty movement, the natural beauty movement, herbal, organic, uh, you know, baptized, all this, all these words, right?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we don't know what that means because there are so many brands that are defining that those words in their own way.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: Every time a brand comes out, the meaning of clean changes.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: The meaning of organic changes, because it depends on what they're doing.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why it's like, you know, just stick to the brands that, you know, that you can track exactly where things come from.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's my, you know, for me, that's the general approach.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: If I can't put exactly on paper, write down, well, this brand, I like it because of these ingredients, because I know these ingredients come from blah, blah, blah.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: Then there's no point, you know what I mean, of like tooting the horn of Green Beauty, Clean Beauty, you know, all that jazz.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't want to work on that much, but I want to move on to the brand because it's truly a phenomenal line and I have been loving it.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you said, you can really feel the plants.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's crazy, but you're right.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: The energy and the the fresh feeling of it is so unique.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I'd love to uh learn what you went into it thinking about in terms of skin health.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like what were some of the things you really wanted to like target and make sure that you're covering in terms of like what consumers can experience?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the first products uh that I launched with were the serums, uh the awakened day serum and the moonlight evening serum.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: And my idea was I've been taking care of my skin since I was 18 years old.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I um had the benefit of living in Europe when I was that age and being introduced to European skincare brands that were very beautiful, most of them um considered organic back in the day, before that was uh uh.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: needed to be said.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: And they were very simple.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: You used something to gently clean your face.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: You used some sort of a toner or hydrosol and a moisturizer and you were done.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not into that you need 15 products to get your skin looking what it should look like and who has the time.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, it was this idea of how do I take care of people's skin day and night, very simply, very straightforwardly, but also to ritualize it.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is I think people do not take enough time to for themselves to just have a moment in the morning in the night before they go into their day and have so much going on and whether it's stress or parenthood or jobs or traveling or commuting or with the last several years COVID and dealing with their own health and possibly their family's health.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: You need those moments to just have for yourself.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so when we were formulating we kept that in mind we within the ingredients, within the aromatherapeutics and within the visuals.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: So we wanted to create something that you would feel very it would be very straightforward and very beautiful on your skin.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: It would be broken down into skin types.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we have three different day serums and three different night serums depending on your skin type and there's a quiz on the website that completely takes you all the way through to the best serum set for you.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then we did a very specific aromatherapeutics that were for day and for night.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: So the daytime is a lemon balm and chamomile and something uplifting and brightening to sort of you would put it on your face and then breathe it in to create to get the aromatherapeutics and it gives you this sort of sort of a talisman for the day, a set sort of scent to begin your day.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then in the evening it has things that are very uh warming and more nervine based to calm you down.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: We grow uh um uh alchamilomalis here and also uh helicristum and these are very calming nervines that we put on into the aromatherapy for the evening to allow you to just wind down.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: So it's these rituals that we want people to spend 10 20 minutes with you know morning and night to just kind of give yourself that love, that time, that reflection, that pause, but also doing something really beautiful for your skin.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: And we've had people share with us that they've they sleep better um whether it's has to do with what they're taking in scent wise or it's rather that they're literally just doing something and telling their mind over and over again it's time to wind down.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that's so that's how we we started with those core products and then when we expanded we knew that we would want to go to cleansers and we again we've done things that are very specific towards day very light and um beautiful light aromas of our infused botanicals and then the evening balm is a very beautiful rich balm that's made the base is this one of our very few products that we outsource but I loved it so much.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's called cupoisu butter.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: And um it's it's like a shea butter it's a nut butter from Brazil and it's 200 times more moisturizing than shea.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it it creates the base of the formulation and then I infuse it with four of our botanicals and then when you um put that on your hands the the warmth of your hands turns it immediately into an oil.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so it just wipes away the day in a very warm massaging sort of self-massaging way.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then you just have this very warming scent profile with that.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then we always knew we were going to do internal wellness.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: So our our first internal wellness product is called Be Well and that's made with our the majority of it is made with our um Aronia Melanocarpa berries that we grow here that are the highest antioxidant fruit in the world.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: So that's very very much about um your uh boosting your immune system we use aneshysop for your respiratory health and some local honey and it's just very straightforward a true tincture that's infused in organic alcohol.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that's our approach to our products is this idea of creating sort of the essentials of your inner and outer wellness.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: Oh and and that's a I love that you know I love that you're focused so much on this wellness aspect because I'm not gonna lie you know I think with skincare we've really gotten into this realm of like well it has to be this like active ridden you know what I mean the formula has to have like acids and retinols and all these ingredients in it for it to be considered like a good serum or a good oil or you know whatever people but that's just not true because you know I said it before you know ancient cultures their routines of self-care were really centered around this care this idea of wellness like you're saying it was about bathhouses and oils and anointing yourself and it was it's a whole different you know approach.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so when I look at a brand like yours I'm you know it really does make me gravitate towards that direction of self-care rather than just you know well what is this going to do for my skin immediately you know it's like what is this and that's why I think it's it's important to recognize because you know with all the tools out there, you know people do the guasha and they do the rollers and all that I think you should people you know consumers should go for brands that are more organic and herbal based because that's where you're really getting you know I don't know it it just makes more sense to me.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: You know you're not working with actives.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: You're not you're able to track like what the treatment is doing for you better.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it's definitely like about a niche you know that you have to I guess identify as a skincare consumer.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like what kind of product do I want and I want it to be herbal or I want it to be organic and oil based then these are the brands I can go for.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I I think they're great for oil based category because I've been I've been loving all the products like they're very soothing like you said you know they really help you unwind and it makes you just you know feel like you're in nature right like that's that's the main thing.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what people under I hope more and more people especially if anything is good is coming out of COVID that it's that people have prioritized their health.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: I hope that that is one of the good things that's come out of something that's been very devastating for uh the world.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: But uh what I think people underestimate is the um the element of the psychology of your brain that uh contributes to your wellness and what I mean by that is if you're just running 10K a day or whatever you're doing but that you're you're coming home and you're stressed out or you're not eating well or you're not sleeping well, just because you're running you're not you're not healthy, you're not well.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I think if people understand how important the approach is their mental approach to their wellness meaning if they take the time for themselves to do things that are you know calming meditation you know walking their dog whatever it is but being very present to the moment of that the the wellness that is within you to have I think people would have a different approach.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: So to your to your sort of argument about the actives it yes possibly putting actives on your skin may make you you have a little bit more of a glow but to what end?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: If the rest of you is not happy if your life is not happy if to what end if you have glowy cheeks?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean we're not here to do that.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's lots of brands out there that will give you that ours will too in its way but it's much more about a very uh holistic approach to your wellness and really thinking about and being intentional but intentional in the ways you care for yourself.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes yes and I completely back that up honestly because I'm not gonna lie you know half of medicine if I'm being honest and I think a lot of uh people in medicine would agree is it's about how you feel if you don't feel good or like you know try to feel good in terms of your vibe and your emotions and just your inner well-being you're not going to see a lot of healing take place or the way it should or as swiftly as it should happen.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: These are things that have been well documented at this point in you know in the medical community we might not be you know shouting it off the rooftops, you know, because people start thinking of things like law of attraction and all that stuff gets jumbled up but the truth is your body reacts to or it responds to the thoughts you have to the feelings you feel you know and the the way you your whole inner being feels so I'm a hundred percent on board with the wellness aspect and the self truly self-care aspect and I think that's you know that actually should be talked about a lot more in this space rather than the active you know like yeah I agree I agree yeah um well you know Jill I want to actually uh ask you like what is some of what is your advice um for everybody who's kind of making a big deal about the clean beauty green beauty movement you know like what would you say like what what would you say your contribution would be to that argument you know of like harping on words or harping on like you know just the image aspect of it all like like what do you think about all that well I think yeah I I think we as a brand try not to get caught up in um trendy words like anti-aging and and things that I think are to be honest with you I think they are belittling to the consumer um because we do age everybody ages we lit we die we we're born and we die there's an end game to all of this and to have people think that they um should not feel comfortable in the skin they're in um because of their age uh I don't agree with that aspect of it uh so we tend not to do the the sort of the those trendy words such as that um in terms of the green again I mean you know I I've literally seen gluten free stickers on an apple.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean you know I mean you know I'm I'm being serious.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like I remember going into store going yeah yeah yeah apples are gluten free but people get so caught up people don't have time this speaks again to taking time to be your own wellness advocate.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: People do not take the time A and they think they don't have the time they wanted to just go to the grocery store this says gluten free I think that's good for me I'm gonna get that this says it's organic I'm gonna get that well I will say to that and with clean beauty and the green beauty and all the words that people uh put on their products to shout at you to make that that purchase easier for you as a customer you're doing yourself a disservice if you do not look at the back of that bottle and the back of that package and see what's in that and clearly understand what's in that.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: When I was first thinking about formulating and what I wanted um I had already been very much about looking at ingredients and only using brands on my own skin that I that I understood what was in it and felt comfortable with what I was putting on my skin.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: But I would stand in aisles with my iPhone looking up ingredients going, oh my God, I could be here 20 minutes just trying to figure out what these words mean.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: So what another thing that we did with our brand and I remember calling up the FDA and having a very funny conversation with the gentleman who who answered the phone because he's like this is really interesting you're calling me about this and I was like well I didn't know what else I was supposed to do.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to find out if legally I could put on the back of my labels the ingredients in English and not put in these names that people are like I don't know what that is and he said sure you can and I was like thank you so the back of our ingredients are all in English.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: They're not the Latin name they're they're very straightforward now you may not be familiar with some of the flowers um but we tried to even put them in some of their common names so that it would make it easier.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: So we really wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to understand what was in our products how we make them who we are and uh make it a easier decision but a healthy decision for the consumer.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I hope I answered your question but for me yeah you just have to really be very clear and transparent and understand the customer and what their um life is like um and make it easier for them if you want to be in in out there in the world and doing something that's as much of a service for the consumer as it is hopefully a successful business model for the brand.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah no that's I love that you did that though with the naming because honestly like you know for those of us like who are into botany I love botany by the way like I took it in college you know I I've always loved it and people who really enjoy it like that it just gives you something else to like kind of indulge in as part of you know it like keeps it going right yeah like the idea of like the self-care and time for yourself going because you might you know you might be using your skincare and doing your skincare routines then you look up you know sunflower seed oil and what it really does and like where does it grow you know and all that stuff it's just interesting.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think there's never you know knowledge and interest in learning is never going to go out of style.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, amongst all the trends and everything that people like I don't know I guess they use to determine what they buy.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean of everything if you find a brand that's like really interesting knowledge wise and you know intriguing I think that's like the best trend in the world.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean that's the whole idea of in my head at least of like beauty products and uh you know that fun aspect what we just talked about.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I love it.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: I think this I mean I love your brand Jill honestly I can say and I I'm so excited we had a chance to sit down and really chat about all these aspects.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: I mean you've definitely you know enlightened me a lot and I hope everyone listening you've learned a lot about the brand but also just these naming conventions and how to not get caught up so leave us your comments and any questions you have for Jill's team and we will definitely pass them along.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: But um yeah I hope you guys enjoyed the show we'll be back next time.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you Jill thank you so much it was a pleasure thank you thank you hey fam thank you so much for tuning in again I'm so excited that we are still climbing the ranks uh we are now in the top 50 on Apple Podcasts um I know it fluctuates every day but we definitely hit um our high recently in terms of uh our ranking and just how how much love we've been getting from all of you so I want to just say thank you from the bottom of my heart it means so much to see Skincare anarchy taking off and to see such an interest um developing in the kind of material that we're putting out there so thank you to everyone who listens in to anyone who recommends us it means so much and if you guys have anyone that you'd like to see on our show please feel free to email us our main email address iscreenarkypodcast.com we are open to all suggestions um but I also wanted to announce that you know I've personally been going through a lot of things lately as well and you know things have been a little lucky for me so this episode right here much of my life right now so you know it's really nice to know that I have a whole coming talk to you guys and always these episodes I just want to say thank you and I hope you guys have been loving the content I hope you've been learning from the content that's always our main goal is to provide real information facts only you know and stories straight from the colours is amazing so stay tuned um and enjoy the show this is a really really cool episode and also if you guys are open to it we are now looking for sponsors who would like to support Scooter and I can help us grow.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_02: We are fully self-funded business and we do not have any kind of financing or any kind of um you know kind of contributions in that way so we fully rely on our sponsors and our listeners um who want to sponsor us.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're interested in that please shoot me an email directly my email is ecta at screencare anarchy podcast dot com and yeah thank you guys so much enjoy your uh day and I will be back with a lot more episodes we should be publishing a lot more very very soon so stay tuned thanks guys hey guys so I hope you love that episode please make sure to hit subscribe if you're tuning in to us on any podcast platform we are available on so many different platforms so wherever it is that you're tuning in just go hit subscribe you will be immediately notified when we publish new episodes this way you're able to tune in to amazing insights from experts brand founders industry leaders authors all the wonderful people that we host and that's very important for me because I love to hear from you guys and really understand what you love and what you want to hear more of.
• 40:20
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• 40:27
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• 40:33
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• 40:43
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• 40:50
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• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.