[
intro music].
So, first of all, two questions,
what was the first product that you developed and how do you go about testing
not on animals?
How do you do testing in a safe way? Right?
What is that process? A little bit about that process?
Sure. Well, the good news is most ingredients have already,
were already tested for safety years ago.
And we've been leaping bunny cruelty-free, I think since 2012,
when I knew there was such a certification.
But it was very easy by reading what you can use.
I mean, my beginning products were very rudimentary. They were not these,
the products that I have right now, you know? I had my little mini lab,
but it was nothing like that. You know,
it was just mixing these two oils and adding some essential oils,
working with some salts. And,
but one of the first products that I formulated was something called the Coconut
Citrus Scrub, which is still in the line to this day.
And I created it in my kitchen. And at first my batches were made like that.
And, the truth is, and this is really scary,
you don't actually need to have any testing to go on shelf.
The onus is on- Now, that is not what we do just FYI.
But the onus is really on the brand.
And even if someone calls and said,
"I got sick," it's up to the brand to decide whether or not they're going to
take it off the market. It's very different than what's happening in Europe,
where, you know, if a consumer says,
"I don't like this ingredient list,
I don't think this is right," everybody has to pull it off the shelves.
It's very different. But my manufacturer,
I mean, he's been making cosmetic products for years,
he knew, "Okay, well,
you have to have various testing and it has to sit in an incubator and you have
to do, you know, freeze and thaw tests to make sure it's stable," et cetera. So,
you know, it was very easy for us to do that type of testing.
But in terms of ingredients, we already knew that they were safe.
We were using sugar, coconut oil, lavender, jojoba,
things like that. And we weren't using, I would say,
not as sophisticated as we are now, when we first started.
Now we have an entire regulatory, you know,
I have someone who's in charge of regulatory and we also test to much higher,
obviously higher standards. We're doing RIPT testing, so patch testing,
et cetera.
So there's a whole protocol that's out there that you're able to test for
safety.
And it does not have to involve animals of any type and involves me,
I guess I'm an animal, I guess that counts. But yeah, I mean,
a lot of our products are something called COSMOS certified,
which is a global certification,
because there's really no regulation over the word,
"clean," "natural," "natural derived."
So we wanted to get an external certification and we went with COSMOS,
which is really very strong over in Europe.
And they are mandating that every ingredient that we're using has to be COSMOS
certified. So it's looking at the agricultural processes, the manufacturing,
how they're manufactured, how the vats are cleaned,
because if you're using all these clean products and in clean ingredients,
but you're cleaning with dirty on the VAT, you know, dirty products,
that's going into the water table. You know,
it's very much the antithesis of who we're saying we are.
So it takes in that entire process to the components that we're using.
The packaging that our, you know, our boxes, everything.
So we are pretty strong on that. And we do formulate to an EU directive.
So all 1,300 plus ingredients that are banned in the EU are banned in
our ingredient list.
When you, so, you know, next season is coming up,
how do you come up with new, where does the idea come for a new product?
Well, you! I mean, what do you
need? Me? Yeah! What do you need? I'm a bad judge, but like,
does it start with you saying like, "Well, you know, coconut with this,
like lavender," like how do you think about, you know,
what the next product will be? Like, how does, where does that,
how do you think like, "Well, this is a good ingredient."
Where's the inspiration? Yeah. And how do you know,
do you already have a set of, is there a hundred ingredients that you could use?
Is there-.
Oh, there are thousands of ingredients that you can use. I mean, think about it.
There's 1,300 ingredients banned in the US there are thousands we can use.
Do you have little jars sitting somewhere, and then you're like-.
I do have a little lab. I do, but I'm not doing that anymore. I mean,
I just have the essential oils, but back then I did.
What we're doing is looking at what is missing in our product,
like our product lineup. So, okay, we have this, you know,
our skew list and we're looking, okay,
we have X amount of cleansers and they're people for sensitive skin.
People are looking for products, for clarity.
People who are perhaps looking for more radiance in their life, right?
So you have those classifications and we're like, okay, do we have cleansers?
Do we have toners? Do we have exfoliants?
So do we have the products for various different skin concerns, serums,
et cetera?
So not only are we looking at a ritual and making sure that there's a full
ritual in place,
but the ritual can address all types of skin concerns out there.
And then you start to say, okay, where are the gaps?
But then you start to look at trends. What makes sense? What's coming up?
Where are people looking? You know, masks were very in at one point, you know,
sheet masks. Okay, is that something that we want to go into?
Are there new ingredients that make sense that maybe we can take a look
at either reinvent a formula,
or maybe we have an area to go into that we haven't. Last year,
we entered into the wellness category to say, okay,
we want to bring in a body washes and body oils,
and we have a thermogenic muscle recovery,
et cetera.
We have those kinds of products out there because we realize that wellness is a
part of self care and self care should just not be your face.
You need to think about if your skin is your largest organ,
you need to think about how you can take all of it and allows us the
conversation to say, how are you taking care of yourself?
Little did we know there would be a pandemic and we definitely need distress
meditation mist and I-recover mind and body gel and all
those things and sleep products.
So pillow mists and overnight facial oils using essential oils
from that are known within the aroma therapeutic world to have
benefits, you know, like calming, et cetera, lavender, lavendulas,
things like that. So it's a very big process.
And we have a group that's involved in product development and we say, okay,
what are our fans asking for? So if I'm going,
doing all the talks that I do and these masterclasses,
what are they asking me for? Like, "Indie,
could you just come out with this?" So there's that portion.
So like almost crowdsourcing information.
It's taking a look at what the trends are.
It's if there's new ingredients that are coming out that we think would be a
great fit for us. Okay. What could we bring that into? So it's really,
it's a huge process.
Do you run into a lot of like skeptics though that are like, you know,
why do we do the, you know, there's still the sort of brands that people know.
And then do you find that you have to kind of claw your way in?
Or do you think that trends are changing,
that people are just like farm to table and certainly with the pandemic,
this idea of self care, you know, we're working on another project,
which has to do with bringing non-traditional medicines into the mainstream,
right?
So are we in a moment of trend now where people
are kind of tying it all together? That we do everything matters.
And you know,
are you seeing more of an appetite and more market for the work that you're
doing? The products you're creating?
I think the answer of whether or not this is a trend came out years ago.
It's no longer even considered trend. Clean beauty is here to stay.
And if there's a, if there's a question it's very easy to say, "Well,
let's take a look at those mainstream conventional
brands," right? The bigger brands.
And they are either developing or purchasing and investing in clean beauty
brands because they have to. Because people are demanding transp.rency,
they're demanding information and it's out there.
So- And people are realizing you don't longer have to, like I said,
in the beginning, you don't have to trade on efficacy to go clean.
It's not like it used to be when I first started where it was like literally
mashed products in a jar, you've got STEM cells and our products,
you're using ceramides and peptides and things that are plant derived,
that it's no longer considered a trend. I'm not bucking up against that.
Like in the beginning, I would say, "here's a beautiful skincare line and oh,
and we have to be clean." Now you can lead with,
"we're a clean line," because that's what people are looking for. And I mean,
you've got retailers,
which I know one is right across the street from your office, like Credo,
which we've been in since they opened. I was one of their original brands.
But there are retailers that are booming and expanding
that are only carrying clean products. But then you also have the Sephora's,
the Ulta's, the Nordstrom's, the Neiman's,
the Blue Mercury's of the world that have and are bringing in dedicated
sections to clean beauty.
And so it's very easy to see it's no longer just this trend.
It is now here to stay and it's going to continue to grow.
[Outro music]