Oh, my loves. I’ve seriously been dying to share this news with you. I cannot believe it’s been such a long time coming, but I hope you’ll see, as you read, why this is THE MOST EXCITING NEWS EVER, and why I had to wait so agonizingly long to share it with you. I am really, really bad at keeping secrets (and probably have the worst poker face ever), so this has been really, VERY difficult to keep to myself.
THE BACKSTORY:
As a bestselling author and founder of this award-winning little company and blog, The Organic Life, I’ve has been researching, testing and writing about organic skincare for nearly seven years. My own journey started in my mid-twenties, when I began facing painful, cystic acne. I realized that not only did none of my dermatologist recommended products work to treat it, but I also realized that they contained high levels of toxins and fillers that further irritated my skin.
As a biologist, I knew that were better, natural way to treat my skin issues. After experimenting in my kitchen at home, I found incredible natural remedies that worked not just to treat – but they worked to cure my skin problems – completely!
Since foregoing conventional skin treatments and taking my health into my own hands, my skincare treatments have been featured worldwide by popular media outlets such as Forbes, Glamour, Teen Vogue, The CW, PIX News, Readers Digest, Womens Health, Livestrong and Womans Day Magazine.
I began receiving emails from blog readers every day, asking me to create skincare around different, intimate, personal beauty needs. All this buzz around my organic DIY beauty creations inspired me to develop toxin-free alternatives to the most needed skincare items.
I began a four-year research and development process, drawing on my own experience as a biologist, woman and organic skincare novice turned guru. Myself, alongside natural skincare veterans, set out to create a conscious beauty line that would address the toughest skincare and beauty needs, from organic body enhancement to fine lines to stubborn acne.
THE BUILD:
Since January, you guys may have seen us steadily growing as I shared many parts of my journey on Instagram: whether I am packing your boxes to ship, hand-making your products, shopping for glassware, pouring your batches, sourcing ingredients, up late nights hand-writing notes or sharing a ten-foot-long list of post office receipts, I’ve been having a ton of fun creating this line and sharing steps of the process with you along the way. I went from filling a handful of orders a week to filling truckloads of orders a day – an exciting (and sometimes terrifying and exhausting!) growth for a small business being run, pretty much single-handedly, by one person.
Through this hard work and dedication, Genetix was born.
So, why did it take me nine whole months to “come out” about having an organic skincare line of my own?
Well, for starters, I simply wanted to make sure people liked it! It can be a scary process when you first launch something – anything! I had some nerves, honestly. This is my baby, and I’d never done anything like it before. I’m a perfectionist (Virgo! Hi!), and I knew from my other business ventures that it helps if you can grow slowly, so that was my largest goal.
THE LAUNCH:
We quietly launched at the beginning of January and I have been involved in every single second of every single step of the business. I’m really proud of the way things have come together, from our customer feedback to our brand mission to our aesthetic, but for the last nine months I wanted to make sure every treasured customer was 100% satisfied. I wanted to make sure what was in my brain would translate into something people would not just buy or like, but use every day and love. I want to help women create new, healthy rituals that can help their self esteem and possibly save their life.
Now, I can definitely, proudly and humbly say I do that. I can honestly say that after doing every single job by myself (including customer service), our flagship product, Genetix Organic Enhancement Oil, has quickly earned cult status the world over. We’ve had thousands of orders (and re-orders!) and our first powerful potion has exceeded everyone’s expectations of quality, effectiveness and customer satisfaction at every turn.
TODAY:
Today, our Enhancement Oil has gained hundreds of positive, five star reviews. It doesn’t just work for me – it works for thousands of people just like me! We are carried and recommended by doctors, dermatologists, chiropractors and celebrity estheticians all around the globe. Genetix has landed to customers in over 100 countries. We’ve even been approached by some of the largest retailers in the world (we are holding off on big box retail for reasons I’ll definitely share with you later down the road).
We just launched on the largest e-commerce platform in the world, so we can be delivered same-day to your doorstep! With all this in place, I feel comfortable that we truly have something worth sharing and moreover, seriously have something worth shouting about from the rooftops!
Also, I knew it was totally unrealistic to do all those jobs myself long-term, so I’ve been spending the last few months building an amazing team that can help me through each process. I’ve finally found those people, which has REALLY taken a lot of stress off of me. That was a long time coming. I’m happy to let the professionals do what they’re best at (although I am eagerly learning). Not that letting others help means that I am in any way hands off. Quite the opposite – I have a hand in everything, this is 100% still my baby and I create, touch and inspect every single product before it goes out. But letting others help means that each step gets done correctly and efficiently, rather than quickly or urgently. I finally have time to enjoy my work, and oh yeah – I finally have the time to tell you about it now, too! 😉
Third, of course, is that I’ve been testing and reviewing skincare for nearly seven years now. I am dear, close friends with so many incredible green beauty skincare owners and founders, who I love and respect very much. Maybe it’s silly, but I didn’t want them to think or feel that I would in any way “forget about them” to focus on my own thing. After all, they were the inspiration behind my transition to green beauty in the first place!
So, for the last nine months, while running my own business and inventing, sourcing, labeling, packing, shipping and following up about my own products, I’ve shared about nearly a hundred different brands – literally. A quick search of just my recent press articles I’ve written for various media outlets, brings up literally about twenty-five brands that aren’t mine, just in the last few articles, written in the past few months. Podcasts, interviews and a search through my blog or my instagram brings up dozens upon dozens more that I’ve mentioned and will continue to love and support. That will never, ever change.
Instead of competing with my friends (who, let’s face it, already have a lot of bases covered in the industry), I’ve chosen to fill niches I did not see in my own beauty cabinet. That is why my flagship product is an organic breast enhancement oil – the first and only of its kind. All of our products are completely differentiated from the brands I know and love, while continuing to be effective and pure.
WHAT’S IMPORTANT:
For me, it’s important to grow properly and with focus on our individual customer needs, rather than on profit. I wanted women to have a healthy, natural choice in the crusade for healthy beauty. Genetix products are developed to give women the shape and beauty they desire – without any harmful side effects. As a company, we are committed to delivering 100% organic products that change your life for the better. I’m so proud that we’re a small, woman-owned, woman-staffed company. We are committed to employing and featuring women of color, creating an all-inclusive work environment and a positive social media space. All of our product are vegan and cruelty-free. We don’t test on animals and we are totally safe for humans of all ages and genders. We do not mass manufacture our products, preferring instead to create and ship each and every batch by hand.
Genetix philosophy extends to our supply chain. Our ingredients are hand-picked from organic, reliable sources that we trust and know personally, or grown on our own organic, pesticide-free gardens in Southern California. I believe that the quality of ingredients determines the effectiveness of the product, so we use GMO-free, organic and handcrafted sources only. Our oils are solar-infused to ensure potency and effectiveness.
Whether the issue is humanity, social equality, healthy ingredients, womens rights, poverty, water pollution, population growth or fair trade, Genetix aspires to operate as a model for how a business can have a positive impact in every area it touches. We donate 5% of our profits to social causes that span from cancer to womens rights to the environment.
Our company is big on responsibility and I believe that the way we treat our environment is intrinsically linked to how we run our company. We strive to be paperless whenever possible and when we do hand-wrap our products or send notes, we do so on recycled paper only. I encourage you to recycle or reuse any and all items you may receive from us, as they are all recyclable in nature.
We are change makers. We are women who care about the planet. Our original, luxurious potions perform with timeless herbs that support feminine beauty and health. We aim to be a global standard for conscious operation in business.
We’ve grown steadily but mightily. Genetix is set to launch our line of melatonin-enriched, scent-free face serums and other beauty products in the coming months, and I hope you’ll continue to support me on this amazing (and sleepless and often frightening and crazy but totally-well-worth-it) journey. We’ve already gotten incredible feedback on the batches we’ve sent out to beauty experts to test, and I can’t wait to share my journey of creating those with you, too! I truly believe that when one person succeeds, we all succeed. I am so proud of this company and so excited for this next chapter in my life.
THANKS TO YOU:
Don’t forget: each one of these products was inspired by you guys! It was inspired by emails I received from women telling me that if I made this or that product, they would love to buy it. Inspired by you sharing your frustrations with skin issues. Letting me test on you. Giving me support. Giving me feedback. It’s been such a community experience, and I couldn’t have done it without you. I’m humbled and thankful and so excited.
Thank you all for your continued unwavering love and support. I’ve never taken it for granted. I’m so excited to share my journey as CEO of this incredible company that I am so, so very proud of, and to watch this baby grow. I know so many of you have been with me for years – some of you for over a decade. I am so happy to share this with you and so incredibly grateful to have you be a part of it.
Stay beautiful and blooming. We’re here now, to help.
Love always,
Tara
