Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandy Searcy.
Brandy, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I struggled with acne throughout my teens and into my 20s. I tried it all: benzoyl peroxide, oral antibiotics, Accutane. What all three of those have in common is that they aren’t good for you. Benzoyl peroxide is an oxidizer (as opposed to an anti-oxidant). Oral antibiotics? My poor microbiome!
What was I thinking?
Accutane was the last straw. I stopped in the middle of my first round of treatment and reversed course on my approach to dealing with my acne. I made a conscious effort to only use “clean” skincare products. “Clean” of course means different things to different people. For me, “clean” means no silicones, no photo-oxidizers or photo-sensitizers, no formaldehyde forming preservatives, and of course, no parabens or other known endocrine disruptors. Little did I know at the time, but that decision resulted in me starting my own skincare company.
I still remember walking down aisles at grocery stores and through high end boutiques (where I couldn’t afford the products anyway but looking didn’t cost anything) picking up every face lotion on the shelf and putting it back because it contained an ingredient (or several ingredients) that didn’t meet my clean standard.
So, in 2008, I decided to start making my own skincare products. Now, here’s where I should pause and say I’m a chemical engineer hailing from Georgia Tech, and after I graduated from college, I didn’t have a clue that the field of formulation development even existed.
I spent a couple of years trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, spent a bit of time working at the Centers for Disease Control, thought I’d go back to school and get a higher degree in organic synthesis, and then, BAM! I wound up landing a job in formulation development.
Since that time, I’ve formulated herbicides, pharmaceuticals, and skincare products. I have about 10 years of pharmaceutical formulation development experience, and I now have about 11 years of experience in skincare product formulation. In 2018, I decided to commit to my vision of sharing my skincare products with the world and so, I started accepting online sales that year.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I still have a day job because I’m not sure how to make ends meet financially otherwise. So, for me, the time crunch has been one of my biggest hurdles and is trumped only by the fact that I’m an engineer (SO many Office Space references…), which means I don’t have a clue how to market the fantastic products I’ve created.
Pairing my day job with the normal responsibilities of life outside of work and with a strong DIY mentality has resulted in me constantly feeling like I’m behind on everything associated with marketing and branding since I had convinced myself I could figure it all out.
I have only recently started to realize that I should outsource some of the things I don’t know how to do or don’t know how to do well like building a website and creating a cohesive brand image, so there are some pretty big changes for the brand planned later in 2019 and leading into 2020 to help provide a better customer experience on the website and a more cohesive brand look.
I’ve also had a few major life events. One was my grandmother’s diagnosis with a rare form of melanoma (amelanotic melanoma) in 2016. Back then, even though I hadn’t launched yet, I was in the middle of developing products and setting up stability trials to be sure my products had sufficient shelf-life.
I was already incredibly focused on the long-term effects of every ingredient I used in my products. After her diagnosis, I turned up my research a notch and started researching metabolic pathways, even more, to further ensure (to the best of my ability) that I was selecting “beneficial for life” ingredients instead of simply “beneficial for cosmetic purposes” or “beneficial for the day” ingredients.
The second major life event was a personal diagnosis with an autoimmune condition in 2018. After my diagnosis, I was in a type of limbo where my hormone levels weren’t abnormal enough for Western medicine to treat, but I was still having symptoms that I refused to live with.
So, I spent a crazy amount of time researching immunity and learning about how the body balances (or modulates) the formation of different types of immune cells and how much our diets impact the composition of cells within our immune system.
That research not only helped me in my struggle with my autoimmune condition, it also led me to a deeper understanding of how topically applied ingredients can impact immune responses for autoimmune conditions with topical presentations, such as psoriasis, rosacea, and eczema, and what I learned from that research has guided some of the new product development at Return to Eden, so I consider my diagnosis a blessing in disguise.
Please tell us about your business.
Return to Eden Cosmetics is focused on offering clean skincare products that are so packed with the ingredients you want and so loaded with anti-oxidants that you can stop doing that 11+ step skincare routine every morning and night.
I am a minimalist when it comes to skincare. My night time routine is 3 steps (cleanse, tone, then apply leave on product). My morning routine is even simpler (tone, then apply leave on product). I have never had time for or understood the need for a ton of extra products and wholeheartedly feel that a well formulated product has all the ingredients you need in it anyways.
Return to Eden offers a day and night lotion that is suitable for everybody, whether you have acne prone, sensitive, or “normal” skin, and then we offer extra “mix ins” that you can combine and mix in your hand with the face lotion to customize your products to match your skin’s needs or the skin feel you want.
That way, in a single application of either lotion alone or lotion with oil free serum (or an oil blend) combined, you’re applying beneficial skin ingredients and achieving the skin feel you want.
Our oil free silicone free serums have a hefty amount of hyaluronic acid leaving you with that slippery/satiny skin feel so you can just go ahead and stop using your makeup primer and substitute one of these serums instead.
And, all of our products that may be used as day time products contain either traditional anti-oxidants like vitamin C and resveratrol or a peptide that has been shown to reverse the effects of UV exposure.
Return to Eden is also committed to sustainably sourced ingredients, and our major ingredient suppliers have some impressive sustainability and Fair Trade certifications. All our products are made in small batches right here in southern California, and even as the company grows, we have no plans to move production elsewhere.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Return to Eden does not conduct any testing on animals, and we also do not perform clinical trials. For product development, we rely on peer reviewed research. Thanks to my work in the pharmaceutical industry, I’ve also learned how to read patents and how to glean information from those patents to aid in product development without infringing on the patent itself. This results in high quality products that we can offer at a lower price point because we didn’t spend millions on testing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://returntoedencosmetics.com
- Email: info@returntoedencosmetics.com
- Instagram: @returntoedencosmetics
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReturntoEdenCosmetics/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/returntoedencos
Image Credit:
All of the dogs in the pictures provided are rescues
The Rescued Dog Alumni
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