HELLO FRIENDS! I’m back with Part 2 of Clean Green Skin Care. It’s been a busy and short summer as you all can relate especially those who live in the north east. I personally live for summer. Soaking it all up! As promised here is my interview with founder of Kosmatology Dr. Janis Covey. She was so kind of sit down and talk clean and green! Also, she is dishing all the deets on clean skin care!
The Interview
Francesca: How did you first come up with the idea for Kosmatology?
Janis: So I never ever set out to start a skincare line and actually went to school to become a pharmacist. I have my doctorate in pharmacy and it wasn’t until my daughter was born, my youngest daughter who is now 8 years old. She had really bad eczema at 3 months old, so I’m taking her to the pediatrician and they are giving her steroid creams, I am not happy with that as a choice for her, she was so tiny to begin with. So I felt that covering her with steroid cream wasn’t the best choice for her.
Francesca: Yeah mother’s instinct.
Janis: So I started to do research, I started changing my diet to affect her, changed laundry detergent, bought a chemical free line of detergent, then a really clean brand, nothing was working. I’m thinking it has to be something else. When I went back to researching I noticed that a lot of the organic lotions I was buying had alcohol in them and I’m thinking maybe this is irritating her skin or maybe instead of helping alcohol is drying the skin and making it worse and not better. That’s when I started playing around with ingredients and came up with what is now our Grapefruit Lotion Bar.
Francesca: Which by the way is my favorite! I had developed chicken skin on the back of my arms and when we met you said try the Grapefruit Lotion Bar and I was skeptical but those bumps were gone. Like magic. I was amazed.
Janis: Grapefruit essential oil is great for soothing and so calming to the skin, really helps with all the irritations like eczema, chicken skin and prickly heat in the summer. It’s a great essential oil. It also has some antimicrobial properties to it. So for example with eczema when the skin opens up and can get infected it will help try to prevent that.
Francesca: Wow! All of the ingredients you use in your products, you can’t beat them. How do you determine them and where do you source them from?
Janis: So I like the formulas to be as simple as possible. I want minimal ingredients but high quality so I only have 3 companies that I work with and source my bulk ingredients from. They are highly reputable, you ask for any paperwork on any product it comes right over, all of my certificates of analysis, where it came from etc. I’d rather spend more on reputable ingredients from reputable sources.
Francesca: You get what you pay for! People may say well it’s expensive and I can go to the brand super store and get a soap for so much less. But look at what’s in your conventional soaps!
Janis: Exactly! I’m sure most of these conventional brands can make their hand soap for 4 cents a bottle. Many companies say that you should spend more on the packaging than the ingredients. I am the opposite, more goes into the ingredients than my packaging.
Francesca: I love that your packaging is simple and it is what it is! Why do you feel that your products are healthier or better alternatives to what is on the conventional market?
Janis: They are healthier in more than one way. Lets take for example shea butter, it has vitamins and nutrients that help your skin like vitamin A, vitamin E, and essential fatty acids, all that helps with nourishing your skin, collagen production. Mineral oil and petroleum oil does not give nourishing benefits to the skin. It may give you a nice slip but that’s it. That’s the difference between clean skin care products that use olive oil, shea butter, coconut oil, all of these great plant based oils that have the vitamins and fatty acids versus the conventional that are filled with mineral and petroleum based ingredients.
Francesca: Now in your professional opinion as a pharmacist, a scientist, what should we be avoiding on the largest organ of our body and why?
Janis: Antimicrobials, like triclosan, which is highly potent. The U.S. government is getting better about these ingredients. But the truth of the matter is they are not good for us at all. We are having a huge problem here in the USA with superbugs and antibiotics are starting to fail us. The fact is we need germs in our lives. There is research that says the cleaner you are and your environment is, the more likely to have seasonal, animal, and food allergies. We tend to be germaphobic and overly clean.
Francesca: Totally agree!
Janis: Also, there is a great study out there that says that when we let our kids eat without washing up after playing outside in the dirt is so good for them and builds a healthy immune system. Children that live on farms around lots of different animals and people who live in apartment buildings with a lot of other people, like a human petrie dish, they have great immune systems because their immune systems know what to react to and what not to because it was built properly.
Francesca: I was raised in NYC, maybe that’s why we never got sick as kids. LOL!
Janis: Yes. I have really bad seasonal allergies. I tease my mom because she was constantly cleaning, vacuuming and then I had my kids and we had a dog, hair everywhere, kids outside playing in the dirt. I didn’t have a fit if they didn’t wash up. But out of the 2 girls, only 1 of them have minor allergies. So it makes a difference.
Francesca: Is there anything specific that you know now that you wish you knew before you started this whole journey?
Janis: There is so much. But you have to move forward. Your body heals itself. You can start from today to make small changes. So you can’t be the crazy mom at a party where there are Goldfish and you cringe when your kids dive for the bowl.
Francesca: LOL! I love that. I agree with that. Make small changes everyday. As a mom and boss, what do you do for self-care time?
Janis: Oh I should take more time! So the girls are at a point where they don’t want me to read to them anymore. But I will curl up with them at the end of the day and we all have a book to read for at least 20 minutes. Loving that time.
Francesca: I love that you are local to us here in Connecticut. We are a little behind the green beauty trend here on the East Coast. Where do you see this green beauty industry going?
Janis: I think we are going to see more and more cleaner products on the market. Even mainstream companies are starting to reformulate their products. So companies will come and go but the ones who do it right will stick around!
Francesca: I read that you have preferred to grow your business slow. Where do you see Kosmatology in 3-5 years?
Janis: My ultimate goal is to open a store front. I would love to move out of our facility now, have manufacturing in the back and a store in the front, have a physical address where people can come see us. We would carry other green beauty items and clean household items. I want to continue with our website and get into some other green retailers.
Francesca: Sounds amazing Janis! I can’t wait. My last question…what is your favorite product that you make that you can’t live without?
Janis: I have 2…the lotion bar for one! It has been a lifesaver. And the travel size hand soap has been amazing. After 2 days of using public bathroom soap my youngest daughter’s eczema flares up. No more with our travel hand soap!
Francesca: That travel hand soap was brilliant! So thank you! Thank you for all you do to make this community better.
Where to Buy | Clean Green Skin Care
Well that wraps up my interview with Kosmatology maven Janis Covey. Take it from me she’s the sweetest and so are her products! I have personally been using the Grapefruit Lotion Bar, Mint your Feet, Hand Soap, Hand Sanitizer and I can honestly say they are amazing products. No drying out or nasty chemicals ever used! Summer is winding down so go check out all the clean skin care products at www.kosmatology.com. An added bonus for my readers, a discount code GREENGLAMGIRL.
Green Glam Girl 