Jenny Evans & Kirsten Ludwig, Beauty Grass
Jenny Evans, Co-Founder of Saving Faces and creator of BeautyGrass Longtime esthetician Jenny Evans, who has long delighted customers at her Marina del Rey, CA-based salon with her hand-crafted, medicinal and therapeutic recipes, launched her high-end, clean, CBD-infused line of skincare products called BeautyGrass in March of 2019 to bring nature’s magic to the masses.
Kirsten Ludwig is President and Founder of IN GOOD CO (http://weareingoodco.com), a culture-conscious brand consultancy that aligns people and organizations around a purpose, creates connections, and inspires action. Her global collective of creatives, strategists, designers, thinkers and makers work with startups, Fortune 500s, and nonprofits to create and align internal and external cultures and build visionary brands.
BeautyGrass is an all-natural, plant-based, CBD-infused skincare line founded by LA beauty guru, Jenny Evans, in partnership with IN GOOD CO. Inspired by the bounty of the Plant Kingdom and powerful ancient wisdoms, BeautyGrass launched in 2018 as a celebration of vibrant self love. Using the purest, most powerful ingredients our planet has to offer, BeautyGrass is a high-end yet approachable brand with spirit — immediately recognizable and pioneering within a fast-growing space.
https://www.beautygrass.com/
https://www.savingfacesskin.com/
http://weareingoodco.com/
https://www.instagram.com/livebeautygrass/
https://www.facebook.com/livebeautygrass
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:01] You're listening to Thinking Outside the Bud where we speak with entrepreneurs investors thought leaders researchers advocates and policymakers who are finding new and exciting ways for cannabis to positively impact business society and culture. And now, here is your host Business Coach Bruce Eckfeldt.
[00:00:30] Are you a CEO looking to scale your company faster and easier. Checkout Thrive Roundtable thrive combines a moderated peer group mastermind expert one on one coaching access to proven growth tools and a 24/7 support community created by Inc. Award winning CEO and certified scaling up business coach Bruce Eckfeldt. Thrive will help you grow your business more quickly and with less drama. For details on the program visit Eckfeldt.com/thrive. That's E C K F E L D T.com/thrive.
[00:01:05] Welcome, everyone. This is Thinking Outside the Bud. I'm Bruce Eckfeldt. I'm your host. And we have two guests today, Kirsten Ludwig and Jenny Evans. And they are founders of Beauty Grass, which was a CBD line. We're going to learn more about that, about the work that they're doing. We're going to talk about beauty. We're going to talk about CBD. Two really interesting topics.
[00:01:23] I think the whole CBD space is fascinating. It's a big part of the cannabis space and it's undergoing lots of change with farm bills and passenger rail regulations and legislation. So I'm really curious to see how this space grows over the coming months, coming years. And I'm really excited to have Kirsten and Jenny on with that.
[00:01:41] Welcome to the program. Thanks for being on. Thank you. We're happy to be here. Thank you. So why don't we talk a little bit about background? What were you both doing professionally? How did the idea of starting a CBD beauty line come into play? What was the origination story for you?
[00:01:57] Well, I. This is Jenny. I've owned a skin care business for the past 20 years. So creating my line was just it happened pretty organically. Really wanting to create a clean skincare line and looking at ingredients that were really impactful to the skin.
[00:02:16] I stumbled upon cannabis and some of the benefits that it does internally, a pop artosis wise. And I just knew that this was going to be the next real power ingredient in not just skin care, but obviously what's happened now and pretty much everything.
[00:02:33] What did you see that cannabis does that was so interesting from a skin care point of view? Like what it what is it? What is it you're trying to do with skin care products? How does cannabis CBD kind of add to that? And what way does it do that?
[00:02:46] Well, CBD in particular is a super potent antioxidant. So really fighting free radical damage. We live in Los Angeles, even though we're on the west side. You know, we still are. We need to worry about pollution and environmental factors and CBD, something that really protects skin. Also, it's got a natural omega spectrum, which is amazing for, you know, building blocks of the skin. It's got a natural source of vitamin D, which is really crucial for the skin as well. It's just super high in vitamins A, B and C. So to me, it's an ingredient that truly should be transdermal. You know, whether you ingest it, you vape it. However, people are using CBD in espresso shots. I believe that the best way to protect the body is through transdermal. So that's why it's really, you know, one of the one of the most potent ingredients in beauty bass.
[00:03:43] Yeah. And talk to us about really what part of the planet you're using or how are you going from a plant to what actually goes into your product? What's the what's the processing look like or what are you what's your strategy or what kind of processing techniques are using and how does that impact or your choices there? How does that impact the product that you're actually the end product you're developing?
[00:04:02] Well, when I first learned about cannabis in particular in skin care, this is about seven years ago where the extracts weren't readily available. So what I would do is I would actually cook down my own plant matter. So I've sort of I've gotten to see how it really affects the skin in particular with just my own extracts.
[00:04:30] I'm obviously not a chemist or a scientist, but I basically was using my own Rick Simpson oil in my first early stages of cannabis. And then once I was able to get my hands on CBD, for instance, like an isolate or a broad spectrum and all these different constituents, they could break down out of the out of the CBD. I always went back to the Rick Simpson oil. That was the best real effect on the skin. So when choosing the best CBD for beauty grass, it really was CO2, full flower, full plant extract. So we we don't use an isolate. We don't you know, I believe that the turbines and, you know, all of these other constituents of CBD in the full spectrum, they really work cohesively with the skin like you. One works with another, need that are beings for them to really drive into into the dermis.
[00:05:25] Got it. And as you kind of figured out, sort of the chemistry or the. The product that you wanted to create. Walk us through a little bit about the how how do you actually go about introducing this line mean? So, you know, having existing skin. Caroline, was that helpful? Was not helpful, did it? What kind of challenges or or where did it go from a product and business development point of view? How did that how did that journey take place?
[00:05:47] Well, you know, I I luckily had this built in guinea pig system with called my clients. And I could really experiment.
[00:05:56] And obviously, certain types of extracts, cannabis extracts, some people love it. And some people are turned off by the smell. So I really started working with essential oils in certain types of carrier oils to essentially mask or not necessarily mask, but just sort of accompany and almost using the cannabis as a note in a perfume. Interesting. So people weren't so like, oh, you just used weed on me or you that like some of the some of the early concoctions that I made, you could really smell the candidate. So it just trial and error started playing with all these different blends. And what's interesting is beauty grass has a real it has a certain scent to it like it. It's a real mind body experience. Like not only does it calm the nervous system. You know, it just you feel good. You feel happy when you use it.
[00:06:51] Yeah. So there's more it's more than just kind of the chemical effect on the skin. It's a whole experience trial process that makes the product what it is. Definitely.
[00:07:00] Totally. And then and then Jenny and I came together because it was something that she'd kind of wanted to get off the ground. And it was very, very personal to her beauty grass. And, you know, I run a brand consultancy and creative studio called in Good Co and came together originally. We were gonna look at the packaging that she had something to do and kind of that kind of thing and then quickly really found that it's kind of the perfect partnership. My team and I are so invested and excited and really believe in kind of the amazing things that Jenny's able to create and produce and really that overall experience and you know, from a brand perspective to really create something that is that that's such an amazing level, such an elevated level. And that's kind of really, you know, delivers on it was just kind of an amazing opportunity. So that's kind of how the partnership ultimately came together.
[00:07:45] And talk to me about the brand side, because I think that's it's it's such an interesting facet of developing cannabis based products based on the history of cannabis space, where cannabis is legal legally, the kind of complexity of the product space. How do you go about thinking about brand for a product like this? What were some of the considerations you had?
[00:08:06] How did you go about developing brand for the product, developing the brands of the product, you know, and so much of kind of the beauty of this journey has been very, very organic, which is very much, you know, it speaks to kind of Jenny and her personality and who she is. And once you meet her and have an experience with her, you get it. But it really, you know, we kind of went around the how we typically do, which is really from a very immersive workshop and really bringing all stakeholders and really understanding ultimately, you know, the route of the brand. Why are we creating this for us? There's a larger purpose and a reason for everything that we do, every brand that we work with, every client we work with. And it became a very organic and very emotional experience. Jenny, really cheers from your heart, really from her soul of what this is about. And my team and I really, really understood that that really spoke to us. And so it was just this amazing kind of co-creation and almost dance that we went through. Having this workshop coming back, you know, having that first presentation of here's some directions we think the brand can take, you know, seeing Jenny kind of eyes well up of how excited and how this really spoke to everything that she's been trying to create for years and just really being able to connect in that way. And it really continues to be that dance. It just felt really right. We've we've fortunately, you know, worked a lot in the clean beauty space and a lot of kind of food. So I think we kind of have that expertise of, you know, insights of who we're targeting, what's relevant out there, industry trends, things like that. So certainly we brought that to the table and I think mixed with really kind of the organic nature of beauty grass. It really all came together.
[00:09:30] Now tell us more about sort of the attributes or the ethos of what you're what are you kind of the foundation parts of the brand and what are you hoping to achieve and who are you hoping to really connect with and provide this brand for?
[00:09:42] Who's your kind of core customer target audience on us?
[00:09:44] Pretty much anyone will skin anyone that's really looking for true clean, non-toxic beauty products, people that really understand about. I think even though there's these organic natural lines out there, they're still filled with toxic chemicals and things that are going to disrupt our endocrine system. And I think anybody that's really looking for a simple leg, simple as in your skincare routine, shouldn't be complicated. It's really effective, powerful skincare with just amazing, dynamic, clean, clean, clean, clean ingredients.
[00:10:26] And I think we really position the brand is very aspiration. But still organic. So, for example, the launch party we had, you know, it was a complete hipster party and it was all at NexGen there and very, very cool. Great, diverse crowd. We were really, really stoked on, you know, Jenny also has kind of clients that are older, my mom, you know, the client of Jenny's, and she's seventy five. And so it's really kind of it really is this array. There's there's men out there that use it and they go, you know, they're the brown spots. I used to have that are completely gone. I think it's really about, you know, kind of a very, very elevated organic brand and positioning it that way in the marketplace. And then I think it's really when people use it or maybe they start using it through Jenny is life changing for them. And so I think it's it's kind of that nature of really word of mouth and really sharing something that once you have an amazing product in your cabinet, you can't not tell people about it.
[00:11:15] Talk to me about the clean side of it. I know, you know, we're dealing with all this sort of craziness and the vape side of this business and, you know, having tainted product or a product that contains all these issues. But, you know, from my skincare point of view, like what? What is it would you have to be worried about? Or one of the things that end up being a problem in terms of producing a product like this with with these, you know, whether it's things that are happening because of the cultivation process or the processing of of the product.
[00:11:42] You know, until a form that you can use on the actual beauty line, what are some of the things people need to be aware of? Or you don't have for in terms of problems or things that can be a problem and your in your skin care products. Oh, right.
[00:11:55] Well, I think that a couple of things come to mind. The quality the quality of CBD is everything.
[00:12:02] Not only people are using mostly isolates, I think out there in skin that I've seen in the skincare realm, either the broad spectrum, which has zero trace of THC. But I think two things. I think that if you're going to use it on your skin or use it on your body at all or internal, it should be non GMO organic CBD. Most of the stuff that I have seen out there basically comes from China and they are manufacturing it in a way they're using heavy machinery, which that just in and of itself, the harvesting of it is very toxic and high pollutants. So I think the quality of the product is really the actual CBD and where it comes from is really important. We work with only, you know, biodynamic organic farming. So that is that is pretty crucial.
[00:13:00] And how from a kind of supplier point of view, if these things are important, how I guess how have you approach the whole sourcing? How have you found a supply that you're happy with? What does that process look like? How have you developed those relationships and how is that not a part of the business?
[00:13:15] I think I just I have a standard with all of the oils and everything that I source. So I think it just sort of I don't know how I've stumbled upon certain suppliers. I've reached out to certain certain brands that I like, you know, and I'll develop a relationship with either the, you know, the wrap and trip sort of work to find what farming, you know, what farms they're working with. But yeah, I mean, there's a ton of it out there. And I guess, you know, for me, it really trial and error, too. I've worked with Isolate.
[00:13:49] It worked with all these, you know, all the different types of CBD. And for me personally, this is just the full spectrum is where it's at. And in terms of ingesting or it's like you want all the good stuff, you want all the good juju in there, why isolate just just one thing out of there?
[00:14:05] So, yeah, and I'm I'm curious with with the background in having a beautiful Charolette before, I guess, what parts of that helped you to build this line and what kind of new surprises for you that were unique once you sort of working with cannabis products?
[00:14:20] Well, I had no idea how many roadblocks we would come across, even with just shipping, shipping, the amount of CBD to my state. You know, I've worked with a lot of farms in Colorado.
[00:14:35] And if you're ordering a kilo of CBD, even though CBD is legal in all states, it's the amount of even though it's under 3 percent per, you know, mg way of THC when you're shipping these large amounts, well, then you've exceeded that amount. So it's been kind of tricky, like getting exactly what I want, you know, quality wise and the amounts that I want.
[00:15:01] But I guess just as this space is becoming more legalized and more, I guess, accepted state by state. It's just it's sort of easier to to get your hands on the good quality stuff about other aspects of the business.
[00:15:17] You know, people once you've identified yourself as a cannabis related business, you can meet all sorts of obstacles and problems. What are some of the things that have that you've run into and how you. Come some of the challenges of just running a cannabis space business in terms of operations and on logistics.
[00:15:35] Mean, I think there's so many of them. You know, I think it's so interesting. People talk about it as kind of being the wild, wild West. And luckily, we'd had a little bit of experience in national cannabis space developing some lines prior. And we're going to be packaging, which is changing. Regulations are changing daily, et cetera. And you don't really understand what people say about the wild, wild West until you get in it. But, you know, for example, everything from, you know, trying to trademark names or open up bank accounts. You know, we had a merchant account and we lost our merchant account. And we had to wait until, you know, kind of a lot of stuff, kind of hand it over and be able to get another merchant account. Its website, staff, website and website, Shopify doesn't work with know like all of these types of things that you basically need a workaround. You need to jimmy every stage of the process from little tidbit B, things that you anticipate, but also the things that you don't anticipate like the Web site. It's a perfect example.
[00:16:27] Yeah, I hear people with know merchant services and Web sites where they got their running fine. That also it gets taken down because someone at some service provider decided that, you know, you're not no longer qualified because because you've got cannabis in your name or you're dealing with some kind of cannabis product.
[00:16:42] Yeah. And it's amazing that, you know, we're using CBD and it's a clean beauty line, yet it's still you know, we need to fill out the forms to get insurance and all of those types of things. And it's treated like cocaine is treated like a Schedule 1 narcotic street firearms, which is just, you know, obviously a bit crazy.
[00:16:59] Yes. I'm just about to I guess. What are you hoping for in terms of change, I guess? Is there any change in regulation or policy or or things that if we modified or modernized in terms of regulation and laws, that would really help, you know, your business or the CBD business, you know, skincare, our beauty business in general, is there anything that really needs attention from a regulatory point of view?
[00:17:22] Well, I mean, I think there's so many things that need regulation from a regulatory standpoint. I think that's probably a completely different conversation. As far as, you know, beauty products have not been regulated since, you know, umpteen years. And there's some brands out there that are doing a great job to try to get that conversation. You know, I think now the reality is, you know, you're basically skipping the government right now because they, you know, in my opinion, don't have the ability to say what's good for you and what's not good for you. So it's these clean beauty lines. These people whose mentors, these chemists are really creating brands that are good for you, that are clean. And I think for us, we just want more people to be able to get their hands on this and experience it. So I think, you know, being able to deal with it across state lines and just be really federally legal is going to help things. I think there's a big kind of education standpoint. You know, I think people on the coast right where in L.A., you know, we travel up to New York like people in those areas get it. They understand what's to be done. Doesn't to Jenny's point, you know, they're having it in their espresso shots. But I think there's people in between that are, you know, scared of it. And that I don't really understand the difference between CBD. What portion that is a cannabis and how that works. And, you know, I think, you know, it's just having having that conversation, having that knowledge base ground, you know, hasn't been part of your kind of challenge or strategy from a marketing and brand point of view.
[00:18:38] Is the kind of educational BS or I guess I guess to what extent are you, you know, working, working with clients, looking with customers that need, you know, some level of education or kind of re-education on cannabis, some CBD and what it is and how it works and why it's beneficial.
[00:18:54] Talk to me about that.
[00:18:54] Yeah, I mean, I think we're lucky. You know, we are not an education game. I think that's a whole industry to be had. I think it's we're lucky that beauty grass is such kind of a cold product that people love it. They want to get their hands on it. They really understand how it works and what it can do. And, you know, we have kind of clients all over the US, all over the world. And Jenny obviously has her diverse client base. So we're we're fortunate in that we don't really have to educate people on it. I think people are learning about it both from going through this from the clean beauty line and learning about it that way. And also from understanding with what CBD can potentially do to your skin and learning about it from that standpoint. So I think for us, we just want more people to really understand what it can do and be educated in that so that they can use it. And, you know, it cures so many things that, you know, it's really amazing what it can do and how potent it is for so many challenges and just, you know, obviously day to day skin care of what it can do for people. So it's just like really wanting to evangelize and spread that word so you can help more people.
[00:19:50] And tell me a little bit more about the product line, I guess. How have you structured the product line? What what specific products have you developed? What are you looking to develop?
[00:19:57] What's your kind of strategy around the designing, designing the products? What goes into them and the different options?
[00:20:04] Well, there's three sort of main flagship products that we started with in CBD, just one of the many grasses actually that go into this product.
[00:20:13] So, you know, not just a clever play on cannabis, but really it is Beatie grassers Vanderveer, which has these long, amazing roots like grounding. So like I said, mind, body, spirit. This product, really. Taps into all three of those things. There's something called Golden High Cleanser, which is an oil based cleanser that has I think it has thirty seven different or so. It's it's herbal infused from full moon to full moon, which sounds a little woo-woo, but it's true. So and that's that's just it's a cleanser. It's a cleanser for the whole body. But I mean, there's so many purposes for for the Golden Heights that kind of repairs the nail bad. It's amazing for your hair for split ends. You can you can basically use it on any part of the body. But that's the the oil cleanser is lit from within, which has two hundred milligrams of CBD and the one ounce. And it's really a product that I created to drive that CBD into the dermis with these certain types of carriers. It's got watermelon seed, fractionated coconut. It's got pomegranate oil, mido foam, rose hip supercritical, CO2 extracted sea buckthorn.
[00:21:36] This product makes me so happy when I use it. It smells like happiness. It smells. You know, it's got a tiny bit of like the note of the CBD. And that it has honeysuckle. It's got beautiful Clementine. It's just like a feel good. You know, it's it's in it's it's medicine. It is powerful, powerful on the skin. It lightens brown spots. It's amazing for firming. It's a potent antioxidant. It really makes the skin just super glowy. And it's very healing. Like it's. It can speak, you know, rapid speed, acne. It's got. Chris, I'm just just so many beautiful essential oils in this product. And then there's also the radical seeker honey mask, which I've used honey in my facials for the past 20 years. And I do this at all technique of like pressing the honey into the skin of honey. Just raw honey has life active enzymes. And when you press them into the skin, that activates the enzymes. So you're really driving the CBD. You've got this enzymatic thing happening with the skin and it's all infused with herbs.
[00:22:45] It's got purple powder. It got go to cola, has licorice root, has all these amazing herbs and just a massive amount of probiotics.
[00:22:55] So it's basically, you know, in the bank of your microbiome, like, you know, restoring protecting the microbiome, you know, CBD to is antibacterial. So it's it's you know, it's got all these it's like a Band-Aid for for the skin. So those are the three flagship products.
[00:23:10] And then we've got two products that are coming out right before the holidays, which is what's called the sacred south, which is like an everything south. So you can use it for any kind of pain, rheumatic joints. I love it. I wear it on my feet before I put on high heels. I get like some longevity to the heels. It's amazing just for the skin p._m._s and it kind of cramps or like I said, any any joint or or or pain relief.
[00:23:41] And it's it's pretty potent. It's got five hundred milligrams of CBD. So and that's like just it's very cute. Just drives. Yeah. It's pretty instant actually. The pain relief. And then we've got a soak which I love. It's called them clearing tides. Soak has 200 milligrams.
[00:24:00] It's Himalayan salt, magnesium, just a beautiful cell supporting relaxing kind of ritual for you know, I would say it's like before bed. My kids it's like it's a beautiful ritual for four kids just to calm the nerves and settle in, you know, settle in for a nice night's sleep.
[00:24:20] Talk to me about the ritual side, because I'm curious about how you know that these you know, you can see these as individual products. You can also see them as a group of products that work together a particular way. I mean, what's how do you how do you suggest or how do you see people using these as develop a real daily routine for themselves?
[00:24:37] Well, I love I love just bringing my clients back to ritualistic skincare and just rituals in general in the society where we want everything so fast and big. Wait in line for five minutes anywhere. And so the thought of like somebody wiping their face down with like a target. Why? You know, I'm like, oh, my God. We have every day we have this opportunity to look our best, you know? And people are taking these shortcuts with Botox and fillers. And I need to peel. And, you know, it's like, no. Now, let's go back to the basics. Let's go back to what works. And, you know, each product that is created is really designed to have this beautiful opportunity to create a ritual for yourself. For instance, the oil cleanser, you use it dry. So for the women, you've just. Pull your hair back. Wash your hands and really work the oil into to the skin and you know, the way I teach my clients how to how to use an oil cleansers, you wipe it down with a washcloth like a wet, warm washcloth. Just that ritual alone is probably my favorite way. I can never cleanse my fake face with anything else. After doing that ritual, because you truly feel how your skin and the epidermis should feel after after after cleansing with an oil in particular. And then the honey to the honey is just like it's super weird to, you know, to teach people how to use it. But like pressing this like green honey into their skin. Like once you do it, once, you're sort of hooked on it. But like when you look at the product dating, like, how am I supposed to use that? But that in and of itself to like just creating some time to mask, creating some time to do it 20 minutes, so creating some time to rub a bomb on your feet. These are all opportunities for us to nurture ourselves and to get back to, you know, get back to simple, simple things that work like let's not be, you know, let's not shortcut ourselves.
[00:26:41] This is almost as much of a state of mind that you take when you're doing it as the product itself. Definitely.
[00:26:47] People wanna find out more information about you, about the products. What's the best way to get that beauty?
[00:26:52] Beautygrasscom is where they can look at all the amazing ingredients and a little bit about the brand. The salon that I work out of is called Saving Faces Skin Care in Marina del Rey. SavingFacesSkin.com
[00:27:08] And that's on there. You can you're you're doing online purchasing and shipping from the web.
[00:27:16] Grass and Instagram is live. Live. Beauty grass.
[00:27:20] Then I will put the all those URLs in the show notes so people can click through and I'll make sure that both In Good Co and the beauty grass links are in there so people can click through and find out more information. Kurson. Jenny, this has been a pleasure. Thank you so much for taking some time to speak with me today.
[00:27:39] Great. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you. Been a lot of fun.
[00:27:43] You've been listening to Thinking Outside the Bud with Business Coach Bruce Eckfeldt to find a full list of podcast episodes. Download the tools and worksheets and access other great content. Visit the Web site at thinkingoutsidethebud.com. And don't forget to sign up for the free newsletter at thinkingoutsidethebud.com/newsletter.