Dear Friends,
We were contacted by Natural Awakenings Magazine to do an interview for their current issue (November 2015). Excerpts from this interview made it into the article featuring natural and organic skincare companies. Here is the full text of the interview, including text that did not make it into the magazine due to space restrictions.
When/how/why did you start your business?
We started thinking about it a few years back because we were both looking for natural yet highly effective products without preservatives and could not find any on the market. It took quite a long time to create and perfect the products we currently have in our assortment and once we were ready, the Golden Phae Cosmetics was launched. We concentrate on anti-aging, restorative and soothing aspect of skincare, since it seems to be a concern for so many people.
How do you categorize your products (USDA certified organic, made with organic ingredients or all natural)?
Most of the ingredients we use in our products are organic, except for very few that are not available from certified organic suppliers. We then make sure that those ingredients are food grade, and we rigorously inspect them for quality. If they meet our expectations, we are able to include them in our formulas. If not, we continue searching for the highest quality materials. We prefer using fair trade, raw, or minimally processed ingredients in all our formulations.
Who are the official founders/partners?
Originally it was just the two of us, Lana Finley and Olga Garcia. As we got busier and busier our husbands had to join in to support the business. So, right now there are four of us and it seems to be working really well. Each of us has a designated area of expertise, so we can control everything in house. This ensures quality is never compromised.
What are backgrounds and educations?
Lana spent over 20 years working at the environmental protection agency and doing scientific research. She holds a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering. She has accumulated a profound amount of knowledge on both chemical and natural materials. This is what allows us to have formulas that surpass all expectations in their efficacy while being completely pure and devoid of any chemical components. Lana has run several successful businesses prior to moving to the United States.
Olga holds a Bachelor’s Degrees in Management, Marketing and Distribution and has spent her career running various businesses in Personal Care and Beauty industry. Her education and experience are invaluable to the enterprise. Having run several successful Beauty stores has fully prepared her to take on this new endeavor. Having worked directly with thousands of individual consumers, she knows exactly what the beauty customer is looking for and how important it is that the client doesn’t compromise her health in search of the next best beauty product.
What can you tell me about the advantages and disadvantages of your cosmetics and natural cosmetics in general?
The main advantage of using natural cosmetics, especially skincare, is that, when formulated correctly, it is much more potent than conventional cosmetics and are mostly free of side effects. I want to emphasize the fact that it has to be formulated properly. Here at Golden Phae we ensure that the formulas are highly effective, which allows our clients to see dramatic improvements in their skin in a very short period of time. Some clients start getting complements the very next day! Imagine what it can do for their self-esteem!
Conventional skincare still uses lots of chemical ingredients, mostly because they are a lot less expensive and can be produced in huge quantities quickly. Their shelf life is longer because of the slew of preservatives used in the formulas, so it is good for business. However, our cells cannot utilize chemicals. They just don’t recognize them as useful materials, so they store them and continue accumulate them until the cell dies. The only useful materials skin cells can utilize are natural ingredients. Oils, plant butters and herbs offer a rich and varied source of hydration, nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants, terpenes, carotenoids and flavonoids.
As far as disadvantages go, a truly natural product tends to have a much shorter shelf life than the conventional skincare products – because we don’t use any preservatives our products have a shelf life of only about two years. Therefore, it is inconvenient for many manufacturers to produce large batches of natural product and many find that producing small batches to be cost prohibitive. Additionally, every ingredient is a little bit different, depending on its origin, time of harvest and many other minute things that make production a labor intensive process, very much like creating a piece of artwork. We constantly monitor each batch of product as it is going through the stages of production. If at any point it is not perfect, we start from scratch so there is a lot of waste of materials. However, for the client it means meticulous attention to detail and perfect product every single time.
What are the challenges of starting your business in the green/natural cosmetics industry?
Many people think that naturals do not work as effectively as conventional skincare products. For some reason, may in today’s society feel that advances in chemical industry should also be reflected in our makeup bag but nothing could be further from the truth. Natural ingredients are very effective, much more so than the synthetics, because your cells can actually do something good with them. The problem is that the majority of natural products are formulated in such a way that by the time the product makes its way to the consumer’s shopping bag, most of the ingredients are already oxidized and therefore have lost their effectiveness. This is where our formulas shine – by using only ingredients low in free oxygen we can ensure that all beneficial components are alive and well for many months.
How effective are they?
In order for the naturals to be as effective as nature has designed them to be, three conditions must be met.
First of all, the ingredients must work together to increase each other’s efficacy. They should not be randomly selected, as some plants don’t play nice with others and can actually negate each other’s strengths.
Secondly, the active ingredients must be able to penetrate the skin surface and reach deep into the derma, where the cells can absorb them. Many natural ingredients, including oils, are unable to do so on their own because of the size of their molecules. Instead, they just sit on top of the skin. They are like wagons without a locomotive. They must be attached to a molecule that will ensure “safe passage” for them through the cell membranes. Here at Golden Phae, we have been able to do exactly that. The active ingredients are attached to monosaccharaides that skin cells readily accept, which ensures increased absorption levels. People who have tried to use coconut and other oils on their skin are familiar with the effect – longer oil molecules cover the skin and soften and protect, but not necessarily absorb. However, to receive an anti-aging effect, it is not enough. The product must penetrate deeper, so proper formulation is critical.
And last but not least, the product must be active and potent when it gets to the client. It must not contain ingredients that could oxidize all the valuable active ingredients. Conventional skincare products that contains water or glycerin as first or second ingredient have too much oxygen for anything of value to survive and be effective. This free oxygen reacts with beneficial ingredients very quickly, and then unfortunately the product is no longer effective. It may look nice and smell great, but it will provide little to none actual benefit to the client.
However, if all three conditions are met, the results can be impressive. We see clients’ skin undergo a dramatic transformation. After several weeks the client’s skin starts to rebuild itself from inside out and once the process is underway, the clients can feel and see a real difference in the look of their fine lines, under eye area and appearance of their neck and décolleté areas.
How do you source your ingredients and where are they from? What are the special considerations when finding a supplier?
We use ingredients from all over the globe, but only from suppliers that adhere to the highest quality standards. We research every single ingredient that goes into our formula, since even one problematic ingredient can compromise the performance of the entire batch of product. Once received, each ingredient undergoes rigorous testing to ensure its quality and efficacy.
Our main star ingredient is Sea Buckthorn oil from Siberia. It has amazing regenerative properties and is widely used in Eastern medicine. The Latin name for it is HippoPhae, and it is so important to us, that we derived our Company name – Golden Phae, from it. The berries of this plant are a deep golden color, and that’s how you can tell that you are getting a high quality material—the color and consistency of the oil are so distinct. We only use Sea Buckthorn Oil from one area in Siberia because we know the supplier and know we can trust them to deliver the best quality product.
Another one of our favorite ingredients in Cupuacu Butter from Africa. This amazing butter is a natural substitute for synthetic Hyaluronic Acid. It is highly prized for delivering more encapsulated water into the depths of the skin layers than synthetic Hyaluronic Acid used in conventional skincare does. 23 molecules of water are encapsulated in every molecule of Cupuacu Butter, like peas in a pod. This ensures that they don’t evaporate from the skin surface, but get delivered where they can be used by our skin cells.
Every product also has a specific herbal complex that corresponds to its purpose. Our herbs are sourced from the organic farms from all over the world, so we try and support the United States suppliers as well any time we can! When formulating each Herbal Complex we ensure that the herbs work together synergistically. Not all plants work well together, so it is crucial to select the ones that complement each other to increase the product efficacy. It is a rather delicate process that requires lengthy research and testing.
What is your commitment to being not only good for the cosmetic user, but the environment or community?
What a great question! By using naturals and manufacturing the products in a chemical free-way, not only we as a company, but even our clients can do so much for the environment! Currently tons and tons of chemicals and silicones are being deposited into our water planet’s water reserves. Using only natural ingredients means the end of this process. Manufacturing of truly natural products does not require high levels of electricity consumption, chemical cleansing agents and the like.
We also offer free education seminars to our local community by partnering with the retail outlets in the area. Our seminars range from living a chemical free lifestyle to anti aging benefits of various ingredients and products.
To complete our interview I would like to encourage all your readers to give their own skin a chance! It is amazing what our own cells can do for us if we provide them with the right skincare routine.