Latest / Skin Anarchy / Shira Tabib, Founder of LULAAV Skincare

Transcript

Shira Tabib, Founder of LULAAV Skincare · Skin Anarchy

• 0:00
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• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful and so well crafted.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I can't wait to introduce you guys to Shira Tabib, who is the founder of Lulove Skincare.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome to the show, Shira.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited that you have the time for this.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for having me, Ecta.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: I really want to say that I absolutely love listening to your podcast and all of your interviews.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's just so exciting to be here.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think you're doing a phenomenal job, by the way, at shedding light on so many important topics within the beauty and skincare world.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, thank you so much.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: That means the world to me.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: It really does.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: I I try my best and it I really live for being able to interview amazing women such as yourself.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I can't wait.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: I want to learn all about you.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: I want to learn all about your career, your journey.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what led to Lulav?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you can get us started with just, you know, like the beginning of uh your journey in beauty.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sure.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: So before my journey in beauty, I was actually a project manager for a security integration firm.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: We did system design, engineering, installation of large access control systems, security systems, video surveillance.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: We did um a lot of biometrics for Fortune 500 companies, and I was traveling to many cities in the states as a project manager.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: From there, I worked as uh in software sales for a company that did CRM software, which is customer relationship management.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: So before my beauty life, I was in a completely different industry.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um from there I moved on to real estate development.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: We uh worked, I worked for a developer managing different real estate projects where we would um purchase a building that was pretty vacant and do large renovations and increase the occupancy.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: So these were just all stepping stones, I think, in just helping me develop my skills.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: And LULAB is really a culmination of all of these business and life experiences that eventually led to the development of Lulab.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so what led to that is about five years ago, my eldest daughter, who is now 12, started to be really interested in my skincare routine.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I started looking for a product for her.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: I was putting on my face serum, and I was looking for a safe and clean serum or face oil or moisturizer.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: I wasn't sure what it was really for a girl that age.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I could not find one on the market that was safe, clean, luxurious, smelled divine with certified organic ingredients, everything that I was looking for in like the face serum product.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so I just started to do my own research, really.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: I started um speaking to different people in the industry and um ordering different ingredients and turning my laundry room into my lab.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um before I knew it, I I was I was I was into it reading about different statistics, like the average woman uses 12 products a day that have 168 chemicals, and started really looking at a lot of the products in my home that had carcinogens or were endocrine disruptors, um, cancerous, and included different ingredients that I didn't really understand, like phthalates and synthetic fragrances, parabens and sulfates, just to name a few, that I knew that something wasn't right.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: I did not want this on my daughter's skin, on my skin, and started understanding that 60 about 60% of what you put on your largest organ goes into your blood.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think in 27 seconds, which was just mind-boggling to me.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, so that's sort of how I got started that summer.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: I actually took my two daughters back to Israel, my home country, my homeland.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: And we visited, yes, and we visited my Persian grandmother who raised me actually every summer.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: My parents were entrepreneurs in New York.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: I was raised in New York, and they sent me to Israel every summer to live um in her small farming village, which is where my father grew up.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: They left, my family left Iran in 1950 through Turkey.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, were Persian Jews, and they made their way to Israel.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: They were merchants in Iran, so their wealth was invested in rugs that they brought with them from Iran in 1950.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: And during their trip, the carpets were stolen during their journey from Iran through Turkey to Israel.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: So it left the family in a very difficult financial position.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and they eventually made their way to Israel to this small farming village.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where my father was raised with his three siblings.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: They they lived on a dirt floor, there was an outhouse, there was no insulation.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: And my father, you know, recalls being able to see the stars at night through the cracks in the wood framing along the side of his bed.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm really proud of the journey that my family endured, and I feel really fortunate that I had the opportunity to learn about this journey.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so I grew anyway, so I grew up with living at my grandma's house and uh during the summers and having all my aunts around and my cousins and learning about a lot of these skincare products that her grandmother taught her, so it's sort of generation to generation about many skin curative ingredients that they use to make their own skincare products.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: So she took these recipes from old world Persia and brought them with her.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: And when I visited her during the summers, I learned all about these amazing ingredients.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they would they would be, she had a cold press.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I remember sitting in her kitchen and taking, you know, the dates off the date tree in her gardens, um, and make and the petals from the roses in her garden and making a a lot of you she basically made all of her skincare products on her own.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, so it was so we we she made a lot of ingredients from a lot of products from um like roses and dates.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: They have there were apricot trees in the village, um, plums, we would take papaya, watermelon, and cold press them.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I, you know, that summer I learned a I I it sort of all came back to me growing up, visiting my grandma, learning about the beauty that my ancestors and the rituals that they had and a lot of the cold pressing.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I just I never imagined that the time spent with at my grandmother's side would later provide the foundational spring springboard for Lulav.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: So that I came home and really began a deep dive about botanicals and clean beauty.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: And as I said before, you know, started speaking with a lot of professionals in the clean beauty space.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I want to actually I just I knew that I I want to take a minute and actually address um the cultural aspect of this because I know that um in Middle Eastern cultures and you know um eastern cultures, even, you know, I'm from India, um from very North India, actually.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: My family is in dates and a lot of the uh the fruits and the and the ingredients you're talking about.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very familiar with them because you know, I also my my whole family's from uh rural India.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: So like I often think about this, and it it really kind of sets in now that I we're living in this first world country and this, you know, fast-paced world that you know, people say it takes a village to raise a child.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think it takes a village to raise a human being in general and to teach that human being about the necessities that we all need in life.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of that is, you know, just the organic foods and the way that life is in the villages and the way that people take pride in, you know, their agricultural land and the the trees that grow and the, you know what I mean?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like all of those little things that play into their life and their, you know, just livelihood.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, all of that.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: It there's a lot of pride, you know, that goes into that.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, just I just to relate to you, like, you know, my I I talk to my dad and my mom all the time about, you know, their life in rural India and they always talk about very similar things, you know.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: They talk about how, you know, my dad at night used to go into the fields because we had agricultural land and he would um you know have to guard the camels out there because you know, there were thieves at night and they would come and they would steal, they're trying to steal the camels.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I think about them like that's like another lifetime, you know what I mean?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's it's so beautiful, you know.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to, I wanted to like comment on that because I think that people people need to understand that, you know, when you when we're dealing with skincare and beauty products that are derived from a cultural, um, you know, like a multicultural point of view, there's a lot more in that story than just ingredients.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of it's a lot of love and it's a lot of love from that culture and a lot of uh, you know, just tradition and wisdom from that culture that comes in.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I really, really love that you you've incorporated that aspect um and carried that forward before, you know, as you created your wine.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I I want I want to let you continue, but I just wanted to add that little tidbit in there and call it.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's it's so true, and thank you so much for saying that.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: And that's really what the Lula brand is all about.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's really about honoring my um my my Persian anthem, right?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the Fertile Crescent is um is an area with you know rich, bountiful um soil where it's um it's called the actually the cradle of civilization.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's where you know, it's where everything started really, and the ingredients that come, the the plants that come from that part of the world are brought into this world through this amazing nutrient-rich soil.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so I knew that I wanted to incorporate that and my heritage and all these rituals that my ancestors passed down from generation to generation and bottle it up just like my grandma did.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: So, actually, the formula of the serum is my grandmother's formula.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: It has almost all of the ingredients that um she would incorporate into her own homemade rose serum.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I really want and thank you for that.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I really want to honor my my grandmother, my ancestors, and uh, they were doing something right, as I was saying before.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: They had these botanicals that they revered for thousands of years before labs existed, right?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so the Fertile Crescent land has beautiful botanic, some of the most amazing botanicals in the world, powerful plants.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: It comes from Mother Earth, and I wanted to bottle it up with the almost transparency and you know, in an unadultered way.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it was all about taking these age-old methods and then preserving the potency of each of the source plants' vital nutrients, um, you know, just like my grandma made it.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: I really love that.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: I want to actually ask you though, because this is a question that I really have about um, you know, especially uh products such as yours where you're taking these um amazing recipes that are really kind of, you know, um, they've been used before, but obviously, you know, when your grandmother made it, it was fresh, it was right there, and you know, I'm guessing she would use it right then and there.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: But now we live in a world where we have to bottle things up and be able to use them right over months and months.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: So when it came to that aspect of, you know, moving into this more um, you know, chemistry-based formula where you had to really package your serum and you had to really, you know, be able to distribute it and all the things that come with like age, right?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: And and time when it comes to the um the viability of the ingredients.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what were some of the the hurdles or the some of the things that you had to kind of walk through with your chemist or your lab when you were formulating?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I actually went what happened is I'll back up, and that's a great question, Ecka.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: I started playing around with different ingredients, as I was saying, in my home lab, and started wearing my serum out.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I would um meet, you know, another mom for lunch or dinner or just you know, running around getting stuff for the kids.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: And she would stop me and say, Oh my gosh, your skin looks so amazing.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: What are you wearing?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's so funny you say that.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: This is my serum.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: I just made it this morning, you know, it's totally fresh.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I'd love a sample.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I started throughout the last few years sampling out my serum to a lot of the women in my community.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: And that's really how the word started to get out.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: I wasn't necessarily even planning on doing anything with this.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: I was just minding my own business, looking for a product for my daughter.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, before I knew it, I had over a hundred women just in my community, you know, outside my door calling me, asking me, when are you having another batch made?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: And that's really when I started to look for a lab to start to help me out, you know, outsource the um the formulation.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and so I finally eventually found a lab that understood, you know, that had the same ethos and understood my brand story and how I was looking for mostly certified organic ingredients and how that was really important to me.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I think I went through about four different labs that I could eventually, I eventually found one that I felt like I could really partner with.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um so that that was that was difficult because I I wanted to make sure that I I partnered with a lab where we where I knew exactly where the ingredients were coming from.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, we work with farms that practice biodynamic farming whenever the ingredient is not certified organic, because not every farm, some of these are mom and pop farms in different countries and they can't necessarily afford to have um organic certification.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I wanted to understand the you know extraction press, extraction process of every ingredient, how it's farmed, and make sure that we have paper, all the paperwork, all the documentation for every one of our ingredients.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um so that was definitely a big hurdle.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um another one is you know, I wanted to build a brand that was result that's result driven, not margin-driven.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: So it's I really learned it's a of paramount importance that you know you do your own legwork, educate yourself.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what I started doing with a lot of the women in my community, is a lot of them did not necessarily even understand what clean beauty was.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I educated myself, and I think that's important to then educate others in your community about clean beauty.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it's it's a reason why it took about five years to create the Lulab brand, you know, from these from the ingredients, the lab, and then the packaging.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: I knew that we wanted to use, you know, to premium eco-friendly materials, and I knew it won, I wanted it to be, you know, something beautiful.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um I wanted the paper to be recyclable.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: We have a gorgeous soft touch paper.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: We're FSC certified.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um our ink is gold organic ink.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you know, the bottles are are glass, so they're recyclable.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: And we actually had them sprayed so in uh to protect the ingredients from UV rays as well.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um so yeah, that you know, it's all our ingredients are are vegan, we're leaping bunny certified.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I'm really and we're always committed investing in sustainable packaging practices.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's that's really important.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then, you know, the philanthropy part was always big to me.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm the first in my family to go to college, actually.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I felt like it was really important to dedicate a portion of our annual revenues to not-for-profits.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: So we do that by focusing on organizations that focus on education and preparing young girls to face, you know, the world with self-confidence and equality.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um in my family, yes, in my family, um education is of the utmost importance.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: And um so anyway, yes, I'm I'm very passionate about the idea of giving to others and elevating girls and women through education.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's really important.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a that's a long answer to your question.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I love that.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that, you know, you and I are very similar.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: I have a very similar interest and um passion and and a very uh special place in my heart for the education of young young ladies.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that, you know, anyone listening out there, if you want to get involved in some sort of philanthropic, uh philanthropic uh sorry initiative, then you know, this is a group, that's a great one because, you know, there are so many things that we need to do in terms of educating our youth and especially girls.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, in third world countries, not even third, I hate saying the word third world, but like in developing countries or countries that are overpopulated, you know, girls are left out.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have you know education uh available to them the way they should.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they don't get propped up like uh little boys do, you know, they're not encouraged to go out there and and start a career and to go to college and to, you know, advance their their life in a in an academic way.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I really, really love that you mentioned that.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then that makes love even more, you know, special to me because it that that's a beautiful, beautiful initiative.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, I want to I want to actually um ask you because I know that there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of buzz in this industry around data and like, you know, just the efficacy of extracts and and just you know plant-based uh formulations.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to ask you about that, just your opinion, because I think that, you know, for me personally, I'll I'll tell you this, you know, I I strongly believe in the power of plants.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, obviously, you know, we have gotten some of the best pharmacotherapies that are available to us in modern medicine from obviously plants and things that grow out of the ground, you know.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: So like uh I have a I have a very um very big passion for this area of skin health because I think there's a lot of untopped potential here.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I know that your serum, for example.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Utilizes so many wonderful extracts.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: I know that there's date extract in there, which I know dates are a huge, you know, they have so many amazing properties when it comes to anti-inflammatory effects if you take them like, you know, orally or systemically.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure about the topical application of the extract, but I'm sure that there's something there.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: The literature just isn't there yet that I can see at least.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I would love for you to give us some facts that you found um when you were doing your research about um some of the ingredients that you wanted to incorporate and you know, uh, how was that whole journey of uh diving into the science aspect of all of this?
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sure.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's a great question because I think that the power of plans to ingest them as well as topically are so, so powerful.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: So during my research, I what I did is I started going back to Israel more often and sitting with my grandma and just doing a deep dive and learning uh more about the ingredients that her grandma has you know told her about and included in many of these um products that they made.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: And um first of all, date, I I didn't realize it, but date fruit extract is first of all found all over the fertile crescent.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: And for those of you who don't know, um the fertile crescent is um it's it includes Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Iran.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: So it's so what I wanted to do was bottle up ingredients and botanicals from the mineral-rich soil and abundant harvests from in from that area.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um so date fruit extract, it's has vitamins C and D that help with skin elasticity.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, what I love about it is that it has something called phytohormones, which are plant-derived molecules, and they activate the skin cells and to make collagen.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then and what collagen does is it boosts the repair of the skin.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: So it takes and it with these natural molecules, it boosts the production of hyaluronic acid, which you naturally have, and then it's a it's a substance that basically gets gives the skin its water holding capacity capacity.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and date fruit extract, as you were saying, Ekta, is super anti-inflammatory and detoxifying.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I grew up going to Israel every summer, drinking tea and eating dates.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that was there was no sugar in my grandma's house that wasn't sugar.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Dates were a huge thing in our culture too.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: Man, my mother to this day, like we always have dates in the house.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's like something you just you eat, and she's always like, you need to eat two or three of these a day.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, make sure, you know.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's like a well-known fact, I feel like, in Middle Eastern and Eastern cultures that it's an amazing, amazing uh source of so many great ingredients and nutrition.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: The nutritional value of dates is is really high.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I I you know I agree with you.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, dates are amazing.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I actually knew that I wanted that to be one of our top, top hero ingredients, no question.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I actually bottled it, and we have a proprietary by it's called the Bioactive Flora Complex.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's our Lulalu Lav brand's proprietary blend, and our date fruits are brought in from Israel, and they're macerated and certified organic sunflower oil.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's an extensive infusion process.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it's the it's basically optimized to capture the potent bioactives of the super, of a super, it's really is a super fruit.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um so it's called the bioactive floral complex.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's abundant in phytomes, and that's what it does.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: It really we we pour it into our serotonin and collagen regeneration.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, as I said before, it has the antioxidants, it repairs the skin from free radical damage as much as you can do that.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it has essential amino acids, it promotes skin repair, and it's super, super hydrating.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: And the other ingredient that I really wanted to bottle up, and for those of you who try the serum, has a gorgeous rose scent that's not too intense.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted the serum to smell like my gorgeous grandmother.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like her skin was illuminating.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: It was like, it was just it was like a ray of sunshine every time I saw her.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: Not only her skin, but her smell.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: So when you walk into her house, I actually have a photo of her gar of one of her gardens on my website, and it was lined with rose bushes.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: So she smelled not only like when you got close to her, she smelled of roses, but also every time I landed every summer, school ended June 23rd, June 24th.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: I was in Israel, you know, in her gardens.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: And it the whole the village like smelt of her rose gardens.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: It was amazing.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I knew I wanted to bottle that up, and I and I did.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm reminded of my grandma actually passed away this year.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm reminded of her every, every day, every morning and every night when I put the serum on.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: So it really transports me to her gardens.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so she would make her own rose perfume, her own rose oils from the rose petals that she harvested from her gardens.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: She she also made a lovely rose water, which um rose water is very is very common in a lot of Middle Eastern um traditions and rituals.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um and we would wash our hands with the rose oil that she made.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: So that's really a foundational hero ingredient for Lulav.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: And roses have unbelievable skincare benefits.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: They it's super moisturizing, it smooths, affirms, and repairs the skin.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's also anti-inflammatory.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, roses have a lot of antioxidants that prevent the pores from getting clogged.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's an excellent astringent.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: It helps shrink a large uh size of the pores and prevents dirt accumulation.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's an antioxidant.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's it's what roses do for the skin are endless.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_02: It promotes cell turnover and it it really stimulates the skin back into production.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um you have to create a mist.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: You have to promise me you have to create because seriously, you know, I want to I want that like in my on my vanity.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's the beautiful smell of roses from your grandmother's garden in a mist form.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like I would love that.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like everyone listening would too.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, how amazing is that?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you just spritz it on and you smell like roses, and you, and yeah, you're right.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've I've seen the literature, I know exactly what you're talking about.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: Roses are a huge, you know, untapped like resource when it comes to skin health.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I I really am so glad that you're promoting um the use of rose extract and and just using them in our overall, you know, health and routine and and whatnot, because it's it again, you know, it goes back to science is always rooted.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: See, this is how I see science, you know, and I'm not trying to rant or anything, but honestly, Shira, like when I the more I study science, I've spent my whole life as a scientist, and I the more I study it, the more I realize that everything we possibly could need, everything we possibly could want in terms of healing or you know, helping our body, our skin, or whatever you're trying to work on, it already exists.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: And science is just the discovery of what already exists.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: So for us to not use these plants and these beautiful, um, you know, natural resources that are growing, and obviously in a sustainable way, right?
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: But like to not utilize them and to not explore their benefits is it's a huge injustice.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we should we should be doing that.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I love that.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: I love that you've used something so tried and true in your product.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, thank you so much.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, absolutely.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um these ingredients come from Mother Earth.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: So uh what you know, what could be better than that?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_02: And look, and I and I do think that there is some science to it as well.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: And that's one of the reasons why I also wanted to outsource the the production and the formulation of the product is because um I wanted to also go through all the proper testing and make sure, as I said before, that we have all the paperwork and all the proper certifications.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, these the this these are my ancestors' formulations.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is they literally took these botanicals from Mother Earth and bottled it.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: So um, so yeah, so I I wanted that for I want that for my daughters as well.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it was important for me to bring them back to Israel and learn about their Persian heritage.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, and now we I take my children back every year, at least once or twice a year.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, we're doing the same thing.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: We're going back to my grandma's village and we're sitting with my aunts and my cousins and you know, eating the dates and making the rose oil.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: I was just in Israel right before my grandma passed away.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, putting I have photos of myself putting her, my my one of my rose oils on her.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and by the way, you mentioned the mist before.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: So we we have plans to roll out more products within the Lulav brand.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um that's something that we're working on.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Exciting.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, uh, you know, uh, just take a minute.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: My deepest condolences um about the passing of your grandmother.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um, I'm really sorry.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: I know that must be very difficult for you, and especially uh, you know, as she has such a central role in the in the brand.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I'm you know, my my best wishes and the best vibes go out to you and your family for that.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I actually, you know, I want to ask you though, um, Sherra, is that, you know, what are your opinion?
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: Just you know, just as a woman uh from a multicultural background, you know, I I always want to ask this question because I, you know, obviously I have my own opinions, but what is your take on this whole idea of you know cultural appropriation of like, you know, especially our cultures, right?
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because I mean, there's just so much, so much wealth of you know, knowledge and um understanding when it comes to just the land and uh you know different types of extracts, fruits, you know, vegetables, herbs from these countries.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, how do you feel about that in the beauty industry and you know, seeing brands that may not fully understand those cultures, uh you you know, kind of like marketing those products?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: What are what is your opinion about them?
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I think that's a great question.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I've actually I live in a very international community, and the most amazing thing is when I walk out my door and I go into town, I see women of all different backgrounds wearing my serum.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I I love it.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: I love that these ingredients speak to pretty much almost every skin type.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I think in in general, I'm I'm really I'm looking more for truth and transparency, I would say.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think that you know we're growing, we grow up in in our homes seeing our parents use all these different ingredients and we we think that they're safe.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I think, you know, I think I think collectively we got so far from our roots as a people, and I think now we're coming back full circle, you know, and it happens with food awareness as well.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's going to be a ground soil of awareness about what we're putting on our skin.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think it's incumbent upon those of us who have done the work and understand the power and the ability of natural botanicals to be used as you know, the foundation of one's healthy skin regimen and just help spread the word.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_02: You know, where do our ingredients come from?
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: How are they processed?
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: How are they extracted?
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so you know, Lulab is really a brand for all.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_02: The Fertile Crescent is an area of people who are white, you know, um dark, uh purple, pink, and blue.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's like it's people from it's like it's people from from all over that came to this area and were, you know, we that's really where we all come from.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: So I just I really wanted to bottle up it, you know, ingredients from an area that is for everyone, that speaks to everyone, if that answers your question.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: It absolutely does.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: I love that you have created a line that is not only rooted in such a beautiful culture, but that that culture is being um spread in a way that is non, you know, it's not shaded with this, you know, stamp of, well, this is Persian or this is, you know, from this area.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's something for everyone.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: I really, really love that.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that is truly the epitome of true, you know, um being true to a culture and being true to uh, you know, being mindful of where things come from.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, in a world of isolation that we now live in because of COVID and so many different factors, I think that we often forget that there's a whole world out there and there's a lot of things, and there's a lot of things we don't know.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: And those things come from different cultures.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: And if the more we can learn and the more we can spread that awareness through, you know, through brands or ingredients or anything, you know, and whatever it is that we choose, I mean, the better.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I I often think that, you know, we we talk about things like literacy rate and like how the US has this like problem with you know children being educated enough compared to other countries and whatnot.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I always wonder, like, I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that they're you know, people here are not exposed to different cultures, they're not exposed to the idea of, you know, this comes from here in this part of the world, and this is what this part of the world is known for, and this is how the geography differs.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, so I really love that you talked about the fertile crust, and I love that you've really educated our listeners about, you know, just this idea that you know, different geography comes with a different level of, you know, uh what do you call it?
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like the different level of like, you know, what kind of uh ingredients and and things that you're gonna be able to cultivate from those areas.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: So that's very, very important to understand.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I fully back what you're doing.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think you're it's a beautiful, beautiful brand.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: The serum is absolutely wonderful.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've loved it since the day I tried it.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: So everyone listening, I hope you really go check out Lulav.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I can't wait for all of the new releases.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm super excited.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to have you on um when you roll out any any new releases.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: So um, you're always welcome on the show.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, and I want to thank you so much for your time and everyone listening.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: Please leave us some comments, some feedback if you relate to anything we talked about here, if you have any questions um for Shira's team, just you know, uh leave them in the comments and I will definitely pass them along.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: But thank you so much, Shira.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: This has been lovely.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for having me, Akta.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: Hey guys, so I hope you love that episode.
• 38:38
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• 38:43
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• 38:45
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• 38:52
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• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: 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.
• 39:07
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• 39:11
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• 39:15
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• 39:17
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• 39:21
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• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really a great place for all of you science geeks out there that want to learn a little bit more.
• 39:31
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• 39:38
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• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.