Clean Hair Products and Beauty with Lynn Power of MASAMI

Lynn Power Interview

Kat: [00:00:00] Hi, Lynn, welcome to the show.

Lynn Power: [00:00:01] Hi, thank you for having me. 

 Kat: [00:00:03] Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and what took you from advertising executive to starting your own clean beauty company? 

 Lynn Power: [00:00:13] Sure. And that’s just a really big question. So I’m going to try to be succinct.  So I, as you said, I was an advertising executive.

I spent 30 years in the business. I joined advertising right out of college in 1989 and it was still very. Mad men, very testosterone heavy. But I really loved it. I had a quite a successful career. I worked my way up to the point where I was CEO of J Walter Thompson, New York, which was a very large  old, it was oldest ad agency in the world.

Actually, it was like 153 years old. Which is crazy when you think about that. And $2 billion company,  but I found this was in 2018. I found that I was not super happy. They don’t always tell you that being the boss is not always super fun, cause you deal with a lot of the problems of, HR issues, legal issues, finance and that, wasn’t what got me super excited.

I liked building brands and I liked creating things and I had gotten really far away from that. Long story short, I left in 2018 and I was actually doing a little bit of consulting for startups, which was awesome because I felt I could really make an impact and I was really enjoying it. And then the universe intervened and I met my co-founder.

In the summer of 2018, I actually met him through my husband. They had been working together. James is was a creative producer and had spent a really long part of his career in beauty at Clairol. And had been working on these formulations on the side, literally like by himself for 10 years.

 He had gone to my husband and asked him Hey, could I get some help or some advice on what to do? I think I have these formulations ready.  And my husband was like, I know nothing about beauty.  You need to talk to Lynn. So he connected the two of us. And then I met James and his husband actually Masa who our brand is named after.

 And I was very cynical and very skeptical because when you work in advertising a long time, most of the time you end up working on brands and products where you have to make them sound better than they are.    And in this case, I tried the products and I love them. I was absolutely blown away.

So that convinced me. And then we just decided, okay, we’re going to partner together and launch this, launch the brand.  And really it was 2018, but it officially launched in February of 2020 at New York fashion week. Cause it took us a good 18 months to get, the brand name, the packaging, the e-commerce strategy, the website, all that stuff you need, as you probably know.

  We launched last year, right before COVID.

Kat: [00:02:53] What a fun time to start a new business.

 What is your definition of clean 

beauty? 

 Lynn Power: [00:03:00] Yeah, it’s an interesting one because people are talking a lot about clean beauty and how it’s becoming more the norm and not just a trend, although interestingly, in hair, 90%  of the products on the market still have what we would consider toxic ingredients in them.

So it’s clearly not taking over as the, majority of of the market. But for us, clean beauty is really just simply products that are good for you and good for the environment. And it’s tricky because there are so many different definitions. Every retailer has their own.

The EU is completely different than the us. You look at  credo versus whole foods  versus on and on, and you can drive yourself nuts.  But I think if you just keep a very simple philosophy of, looking for things that are good for you, good for the environment,  you’ll pretty much be steered in the right direction.

Kat: [00:03:53] So there is no clean beauty standard, which means we’re left  to our own devices to figure it out. 

 Lynn Power: [00:04:02] Sadly. Yes. And I think the reason is because there are a lot of ingredients where the jury is just still out, there is not conclusive evidence and there’s just different philosophies about how to manage that.

In the EU, for example, there are over 1300 ingredients that are banned in cosmetics and in the US there are 11. So just that contrast is  pretty shocking. But it speaks to the fact that no one can agree outside of those 11, which things should be on the list and which shouldn’t.

It’s very tricky as a consumer. I’ll tell you that when I started to get into it, and as we were formulating our products, you could literally take everything out , because there’s always somebody that’s saying something isn’t good. But I think you just need to be very pragmatic and educate yourself around.

 Really, I would say  the main things that are not good. And obviously if you have specific allergies, if you have  gluten issues or if you’re allergic to night shades or whatever it is, you have to make sure that stuff’s not in your products,  but in general, I think, as a consumer, if you just look at the labels and start to educate yourself about what’s inside.

And try to avoid the main things that are not good, that everybody agrees. You’re at least going to be making huge progress.  Because, like I said, most of the products in the markets still have  the main bad things in them. 

Kat: [00:05:27] So even though,  the market has been asking for more clean beauty, why do you think 

most, of the big beauty brands in the U S especially are still nowhere near.

Lynn Power: [00:05:38] It’s a really good question. And I have to say, when I was in my advertising world, I worked on some of those brands, right? Like I worked on L’Oreal. I worked on nexus. I worked on a bunch and It’s very hard for them to rethink their legacy and their formulations. And they, it’s a little bit like new Coke versus old Coke.

You don’t want to introduce the new Coke and have people go, oh my God, it’s not the same. And we don’t like it anymore. So there’s a reticence to, change the product experience. And I think the the other issues that a lot of clean products are not super high-performing because when you take out the sulfates, especially the sulfates, but sulfates, parabens, and phthalates, those are usually the things that give people the performance cue.

The lather, the squeaky clean, the things that we’ve been trained to look for. And so I think for some of those big brands, finding the alternative ingredients that are going to still keep that experience the same without totally changing it is not super easy. I think it’s getting easier now because there are more options.

There are more alternative. Natural ingredients that you can choose,  but it’s still not like a no brainer. It took my partner 10 years to figure it out,  so I think that’s the tricky thing, when you have a built-in consumer base who like your products, the way they are.

It’s hard. So I think a lot of those companies, what they’re doing is rather than changing their core formulas, they’re creating versions or a sub line, or sub-brand, that is the natural one. And hopefully we’ll start to see that takeover.  For the unnatural one. You know what I mean?

Kat: [00:07:20] What is the difference between clean beauty and conscious  beauty? 

Lynn Power: [00:07:25] Conscious beauty is a term that just started popping up over the last, I don’t know, year or so, which I really love because clean beauty really speaks to, what’s in the formulations. But conscious beauty is about your impact overall and your footprint as a brand.

And that means that all your decisions, if you’re really buying into conscious beauty, all your decisions really should be conscious and thoughtful. And, you should think through your packaging decisions, you should think through your supply chain and where you’re getting and sourcing your ingredients from, you should think through your customer experience and your packaging, and in the sense of

the cardboard and, what you’re using to pack your products.  I think that is actually a more holistic and more sustainable and eco-friendly approach to think that way, as opposed to just be focused on your formulations and making them clean. Cause there are a lot of clean

beauty products. And you probably know of a bunch in skincare, especially cause there’s so many now where their packaging is not super sustainable or it’s not easy to recycle or, they’re solving one problem, but they’re not looking  at the whole ecosystem of what they really should be thinking about.

And it’s hard. Our products are in plastic. It’s irked me from the very beginning of our launch.  It’s hard when you’re in the shower though, because you can’t have glass without risking somebody getting injured. So we actually just launched a large size, sustainable refillable. Bottle, that’s ceramic.

It’s almost like a swell bottle ceramic, but with refill pouches  and, that’s our way of trying to move the conversation. But that’s not the only solve we have to keep looking for.  What else can we, do? You know what I mean? What are there other materials we can use to make our packaging that  are not plastic that degrade easier?

There’s a lot of options now. Algae or sugar cane, but, they’re not ready yet for like our kind of liquid holding that type of liquid. They would basically just turn into a mess after, six months of sitting in your shower. 

  Kat: [00:09:38] I came across that because I went through my whole sustainability kick a while back.

And that problem that, okay, what about the bottles in the shower? They can’t be glass. Cause then I’ll break. It I’ll hurt myself or whatever. So then I don’t know how much  wasted time thinking about alternative methods. And then I thought, okay, maybe a little thing that you mount on because I saw them, I think it was on Aesop or something like that.

One of those stores, they had these little things where you mount the little pump bottles that were glass and you can mount it on the wall and then pump it out. But of course, if you’re renting, then you don’t have that option. And you do have to install it.

 So that can make that like a big barrier, but yeah, that is a definite problem that people have been considering what do you do in the shower to make it safe? 

Lynn Power: [00:10:26] Yeah. And and I think you’re right. Cause we looked at that option too, of making them like hotels have them mounted, but to your point it was just like that’s not going to work for a lot of people.

So, ours are standalone.  They’re they’re a little bit heavy because of what they are. They’re big. Cause the idea is you want to have them for a really long time, you don’t want to have to just buy them and then next year have to buy new ones.

You want to have them for 10 years or 20 years, so we designed them to really be something that you would want to have in your shower. Cause I also feel like. From a design perspective, bad design is just as expensive and takes just as much time to do as good design. Like you don’t need bad design.

I like having aesthetically nice things  and I like, I take pleasure and, seeing it Kind of elevating my bathroom experience. And so that was part of it too. It’s we want something beautiful, not just functional, it should actually be something that gives you a little bit of joy in your life that, you look at it and you, you feel satisfied.

Kat: [00:11:29] Why is it important for your hair care to be 

 clean?

Lynn Power: [00:11:33]  Yeah. I think people get skincare because they think, okay, you rub it into your skin. It absorbs. So it’s a little more intuitive, but people assume that your hair is more topical. You put the shampoo in the conditioner on you just wash it off.

But in reality many of us when you shampoo are actually. Rubbing that shampoo into your scalp and your scalp is actually one of the most absorbent parts of your body. So whatever you’ve got going on in there, and you’re doing it multiple times a week, if you think about it so whatever you’ve got going on in those products, you’re really putting it in, rubbing it in.

And yes, then you’re washing it off, but it’s basically, gonna be able to potentially wreak havoc on you and your hair. So take sulphates for example they can create acne. They can create irritation, they can make your scalps super dry. And all of a sudden you’re flaking.

They can create your hair will be like straw potentially. Like you just have issues. And I actually have a friend who  had developed very severe allergies  and skin issues and scalp issues. And didn’t really know why  and went through this whole litany of tests because you go and get all those allergen tests and found out it was her beauty products.

 Which is the last thing she expected, she thought it was going to be like a gluten allergy or, the things that people talk about these days. And in fact it wasn’t, it was her beauty product. So as soon as she switched to clean skin and clean haircare, her issues resolved and and that’s pretty extreme to have it be detrimental that you it’s, it was for her, it was pretty debilitating. Actually. She had a lot of issues not just with rashes and irritation, but she’s felt, she just felt awful, her overall health, just her immune systems, didn’t like it, 

Kat: [00:13:21] Yeah, my husband is very sensitive to shampoos and conditioners and he’ll get an eczema, rash around his scalp if he uses the wrong one.

So we have to be very careful about what he uses,  but I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of indie hair care brands that have been popping up mainly cause I have curly hair naturally, even though I straightened it sometimes,  but in the curlier community, we have a lot of ingredients that we have to avoid and all the mainstream brands in the stores they’ll include all those ingredients. Cause maybe they’re cheaper or they just feel like it’s more effective. And they don’t understand that when you have curly hair, you wash it less and it can build up more and cause more irritation. If you have those specific ingredients.

And I have seen company after company, that’s like a little indie brand get bought up and then immediately they switch it to all the other ingredients and then you can’t use it anymore. Have you noticed that there’s any other ingredients that customers want to avoid, but the big name brand companies just keep adding in.

 Lynn Power: [00:14:24] Yeah, that’s a really interesting problem. You’re bringing up.. Because, I think those indie brands would not be happy, to know that they’re being reformulated with bad stuff. And if we ever get bought, I’m going to have to put a clause in our contract that says you cannot change the basic formulations.

But I would say phthalates are the other one that hides. And they’re known to have endocrine disruptor qualities.  There’s a lot of studies that have different issues with phthalates, including cancer, which is awful. But the reason that they’re a tricky one is because they can lurk in fragrance.

So even if a brand takes it out of their core formulation,  if you have a fragrance in your product you do not have to label what is in your fragrance based on the US regulations. So in other words, all I have to put on my packaging is that I have a fragrance. So fragrance tends to be one of the places that phthalates happen to lurk. Most fragrances actually have them. What we did in ours, cause we have a fragrance, but our fragrance is naturally derived and phthalate free. We call that out on our packaging because  otherwise you won’t be as a consumer. You won’t know. You’ll have no way of knowing that’s in there.

Cause it’s not on there. You would have to probably email. Customer service at the brand and ask them if their fragrance is phthalate free and that’s a pain, who wants to do that? And good luck even getting an answer. That’s one that is definitely one to watch for, I would say.

And if a brand is truly transparent, they’ll call it out. They’ll make a point of saying. We don’t have it. I think it’s the brands that don’t say anything  or they’ll call out something else. They’ll go, we don’t have sulfates, but they won’t mention the other stuff.

 Then you go, that’s interesting. Why would they only call out one thing and not the rest? And by the rest, I really mean it’s the top three things. Our sulfates, parabens and phthalates, because those have all been known to create health issues or environmental issues or both. And so those to me are the ones that as a consumer, you just avoid those.

 And you’re going to basically be able to clean up most of your products. There are other things that are also, like I said, on the list and not good, but you’ll go crazy. If you just try to figure out, the research on your own.  

Kat: [00:16:54] Why are so many clean beauty brands more expensive?

 Lynn Power: [00:16:59] Yeah, I get that question a fair amount, because our products are not super cheap, right? We’re $38 for a 10 ounce shampoo  and conditioner, but for us, we use super high quality ingredients that we trace. So we have a  very visible supply chain and our main ingredient Mekabu comes from a Japanese family seaweed company.

Where they harvest it from local fishermen, they dry it, they radiate it. They powder it down and then they ship it to us. So unfortunately it’s not like a super cheap process to do it, to get it. Especially our type of seaweed is not one of the top consumed known seaweeds in Japan. Obviously they know it’s a known seaweed there, but it’s not a high volume seaweed, I should say, in terms of consumption.

I think the challenge that a lot of clean beauty brands have is when we’re looking for alternative ingredients to replace the bad stuff they can be really expensive and hard to source. And so our formulations are quite expensive. And we just decided for us that’s okay. We’d rather have quality  and know that we’re getting our ingredients from a good source.

Then skimp on that to make our products cheaper. Hopefully over time as clean beauty becomes more mainstream,  some of those costs will come down. That’s what I would hope because more and more people will be looking for those ingredients. So there’ll be more demand and therefore, hopefully, better pricing for brands to be able to incorporate those into their products.

 Kat: [00:18:32] Do expiration dates matter in beauty?

  Lynn Power: [00:18:36] They really do. Not like literally oh, it expired on this exact day. I have to throw it out that day.  In general. Yes. Because products can erode and degrade and change in terms of their efficacy. SPF is a classic one where, you really don’t want to use sunscreen that’s expired because it may not work and you’re not getting the benefit.  And  I think it’s more, the chemistry can actually change as well at the pH can change over time. So I do think when you’re thinking about cleaning up your beauty routine, one of the first things that I always counsel people is just look and see what’s in your cabinet.

Because you’ll be shocked. I did this a couple of years ago, back in 2018 and I had products that were,  I’m embarrassed, but 20 years old, some of the stuff in there was just, oh my God, it was bad. So just going through that exercise of cleaning out the old stuff  and then starting to look at the labels and bringing in better stuff is a really cathartic.

 And good exercise to do. And I do think, like I said, if something expired a month ago and you love the product, like   that’s fine, you don’t have to throw it out. But I think many of us have products that are years old that are just hiding in our cabinets because while also working in the industry, I have a lot of brands and products,  I just have a lot yeah. Yeah. I was really glad to do that. Like I said, it felt very cathartic  and I’ll go to an event, I’ll get product.

So my cabinet. Probably look a little crazier than most and then once you go through that exercise, it can be quite liberating.  Then I feel like it’s a little bit of a reset, it gives you an opportunity to rethink some of those choices that you’re making everyday.

Cause when you think about beauty,  You’re using these products constantly. I am hardcore skincare person. I’m putting stuff on multiple things on every morning, every night, every day,  if I’m, I will never miss a day with my skincare. Cause I just, it makes me feel icky. If I like go to sleep without washing my face, I would never do that.

 When you think about the impact of how much you’re using these products it really does help, to know peace of mind that you are  using products that are good for you. 

Kat: [00:20:47] So I’ve noticed a lot of people making.  Hair or skincare products and they don’t want to use preservatives.

 They just store it in the refrigerator and then remake it after a couple days.  I was wondering why haven’t  big name brands or  even new up and coming brands got it into that because  if we don’t like preservatives, why not just have it as something you have to buy every week. Wouldn’t that make more money over time?

What is the pushback on having products that you just have to refrigerate? 

 Lynn Power: [00:21:18] That’s an interesting concept. I know that lush was doing that for awhile and there are a couple of brands that have tried it out. I think it’s just trying to get consumers to shift their behavior is not easy. And it’s like us launching our big ceramic sustainable bottle, which is beautiful, but getting people, even though they say they want to, be more sustainable and recycle and they care about.

 They still end up buying our plastic bottle. Like it’s like getting people to actually follow through with behavior is really hard.  And I would imagine that in that case of having to refrigerate and then replenish  the tricky thing would be. Just the the convenience aspect of that, but I’m sure someone could solve that.

Amazon has drones now they could just drop your new product  into your yard and there you go. So I’m sure somebody, we will figure that out. Maybe you’ve just given a really good idea. You’ve thrown that out there and somebody will listen and and make it happen because that would be really exciting.

And it would be a different way for people to think about almost like you’re saying like food, what, what goes in your body, but also on your body, if you think about it more like food,  you’re going to think it’s gross. Some of the stuff that you’re doing now, right?   Like it’s a total reframe.

Kat: [00:22:30] I’ve seen some influencers online. They put  small, cute pink, usually little refrigerators in their bathrooms so they can store their products in there. And I’m just thinking, why not just have replenishable auto-ship products, no preservatives, nothing. The company would make more cause they would sell more.

You always have a fresh product. It’ll be smaller. Take up less space in the little fridge. 

 Lynn Power: [00:22:53] I think it’s a great idea. I think it’s super interesting and I bet we’re going to see somebody do it soon because you’re right. Those fridges have become a thing. I see them all over now. So  if that’s already starting to take hold then yeah.

Take it to the next step and really get the use out of those fridges by creating products that  need it. 

Kat: [00:23:12] Do you also think that some of the pushback for clean beauty comes from the cosmetic chemists themselves just stuck in their ways, not wanting to find cleaner preservatives or less toxic ingredient.

 Lynn Power: [00:23:24] Oh, I’m sure it does. Because if you think about it, it’s like human nature. You know what you know, and you know what works and you go back to what works.  I feel like in our case, we’re really lucky. We have a really great chemist  who is constantly looking for alternative ingredients,  even to the point where, when she couldn’t find  a quality of aloe that she was satisfied with. They started making their own organic aloe,  which goes in our product. And what I like about them is.  Whenever we have, a retailer say, oh, we won’t take this type of ingredient or or there’s a question because there are so many about a certain formulations, certain ingradient, whatever.

They always have a point of view because they’ve read the latest research.  They are up to speed on what is now on the watch list from the EU, because basically what the EU does is if there’s a question  they’ll put an ingredient before they ban it, they’ll put an ingredient on the watch list  and then they’ll review all the research and whatnot, and then they’ll come out with a recommendation.

So our chemist is like very on top of what’s on that list. But I think to your point, I bet a lot of chemists are not because it’s a lot of work. Staying informed and staying on top of that and  finding those alternative ingredients is not easy. And actually I was having a conversation with our chemists recently.

 Where they were saying that there were a couple of our ingredients that have become harder to find and source. And part of the issue is that the ingredient manufacturers  still get their volume, even though we all think clean beauty is a movement.  The volume still comes from the big brands like we were talking about earlier, who don’t necessarily want those other ingredients.

  So   the ingredient manufacturers focus on  those big  ingredients that people buy a lot of,  and not the little ingredients that I need. Cause they’re more, unique and whatever. They’re natural. So it’s harder to find the stuff that I need.  Because the ingredient manufacturers just don’t care so much or focus on it because that’s not where they make their money.

 So that’s a little depressing, but I, again, I hope it’s one of those things that as more,  I think, indie beauty brands, like I, I do think it’s going to be the small brands like us that are pushing.  The industry forward and it’s not  one of us that’s going to do it on our own, but a bunch of us  that hopefully will start to catch on and then  consumers will just increase their demand for what they want and force some of the big brands to comply.

I think we’ll see that over time. It’s just going to take a little while, unfortunately. 

Kat: [00:26:05] Let’s go back to fragrances. What exactly are companies allowed to hide  in the word fragrance? Is it just anything they want? 

Lynn Power: [00:26:14] Pretty much, because you only have to list that you have a fragrance on your package.

 Now, certain clean beauty retailers won’t take any brands with fragrance, like Cap Beauty. Won’t take a brand that has a fragrance. I struggled with that a little bit, because I do like a good fragrance and especially for hair, I feel like people want their hair to smell nice.  So I think if you can make the fragrance Create it to be, like I said, naturally derived phthalate free, so that you’re being as  responsible as possible.

When you’re creating the fragrance, you can still give people a better experience and deliver that great fragrance, but not have it be bad for you. But I think for a lot of beauty retailers, that’s a lot of work to figure out  because.  They would have to go back and try to dissect what’s in some of these fragrances and  there’s a lack of transparency.

So I think that’s why some of them just say no fragrance because they don’t want to deal.

Kat: [00:27:11] I’ve seen a lot of people do the switch to essential oils cause they think those are more natural and will have less problems. The fact is a lot of people have actually more sensitivities to essential oils  than to some of these  phthalate free fragrances. 

Lynn Power: [00:27:28] Yeah. This is the thing just because something’s natural doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good for you or it’s not going to give you allergies. And also organic, organic is good in the sense that, it was, made without pesticides, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s  not going to give you an allergy again.

 I think in general,  Natural is better than not natural most of the time. Although there are plenty of chemicals that are perfectly fine, that are not necessarily  natural, but are not bad for you. So it doesn’t mean that chemicals should be vilified. And on the  other side, not all natural products are, arsenic is a natural product. It’s not good for you. So just because it’s natural doesn’t necessarily mean it’s something that you should ingest or use in high quantities. It really is about understanding, what’s what it is. Is it good for you? Is it something you need to be careful about? And  taking a little bit of that education into your own hands, to not just relying on the brand, to tell you.

  Kat: [00:28:30] Why are a sulfates and phthalates so bad? What kind of health issues do they cause? 

Lynn Power: [00:28:35] We talked about sulfates earlier. It is definitely it’s basically a detergent. I think when people think about what is a sulfate, there’s basically your laundry detergent. And your shampoo, not that different, they’re essentially detergent.

 It can be extremely irritating. You talked about your husband getting eczema. That’s probably from the sulfates, I would guess. There could be other things going on too, but the sulfates can irritate your skin, dry out your skin, create a flaky scalp just change your ecosystem of your skin and your hair and strip your hair of its natural oils. And so that’s why sulfates are just not needed. You really don’t need it. You can find products without it, that perform just as good that aren’t going to do that stuff. Phthalates and parabens, are basically a preservatives.

And the challenge with parabens and not all parabens are the same. That’s the other tricky thing is we tend to group things in these buckets of  everything’s bad or everything’s good. And the reality is it’s never that easy. There are some parabens that have been shown to be perfectly fine, but I think in general, you’re better avoiding it if you don’t need it, because as a consumer trying to figure out which thing is okay and not okay, is not easy.

I would just say, if you can find products that don’t have it, that you like that work, then that’s better, but parabens are actually an endocrine disruptor so they can create reproduction issues. They’re linked to cancer. There’s all sorts of health things that can happen.

And, like I said, most people don’t attribute that to their beauty products. They just assume there’s other things they’re doing  that are creating their health issues. But in many cases it’s a direct link to the products you’re putting on your body. 

Kat: [00:30:24] Are there any other ingredients that we should look out for?

Lynn Power: [00:30:28] I would say if you focus on those three, you’re going to capture the bulk of the baddies. There are always going to be more there’s, like mineral oil is not necessarily a good thing. Most products are formulated with extracts, which is high concentration liquid that activates is the active ingredient. And like for us, we actually formulate our products with Mekabu powder, not extract. And I do think  I don’t have any studies on this, so I can’t say it conclusively, but I do think the powder is  healthier because it delivers the benefit of hydrating your hair essentially acts like a sponge.

But without that highly concentrated hit that you get with putting it in as an extract where it’s going to be more likely to absorb in.

 Kat: [00:31:17] What are some of the really good for you type of ingredients that we should look for. 

 Lynn Power: [00:31:22] Ooh, that’s a good one. Obviously I’m very pro seaweed, because our Mekabu is a seaweed and seaweeds are amazing in terms of the nutritional value, the Japanese and any Asian cultures consume them in their diets daily.

It’s just a staple. And I don’t know if people know, but Japan has a longest life expectancy in the world. So clearly they’re doing something right in terms of their diet and seaweed is just one part of that. But I think it’s proven over and over again to have just enormous health benefits.

But I think there are a lot of other really great ingredients. Aloe I mentioned earlier is one that does a lot for overall hydration and moisture and health. And then, there’s things like grape seed oil is something we use apricot oil. There are a lot of things that are heavy in antioxidants like blueberry extract.

So those types of ingredients can really supplement and enhance the performance and the benefits of your products. So those are good. Those are good  sort of alternative ingredients to be looking for sure. 

 Kat: [00:32:28] What are some other than yours, top clean beauty brands that you would recommend?

Lynn Power: [00:32:33] There’s so many I’ve been finding more and more all the time. And there are a few that I really love. I’m partial to codex C O D E X. And also Roamer skincare is amazing. And  what I like about Codex is for me, the the product isn’t sticky,  it’s like a moisturizer that, isn’t a greasy sticky moisturizer, but it’s clean.

And with Roamer, it’s basically a skincare regimen. Which is very easy to follow works for pretty much every skin type and it’s gender neutral too. I can get it for my son who’s 20 and needs some skincare help and feel good about it. That I’m giving him something that that is going to be good for him.

And then there are oh my God, I’m obsessed with this lip mask by The Sexiest Beauty.  They make a lip mask that is crazy. It’s so good. And oh, and then there’s a brand that I just started playing around with called Lamik, L a M I K.  And they are a vegan cosmetic brand.   So that’s another one.

That’s just, the products are amazing. And there’s no lack of products to try, I guess that’s the good thing. It’s a cool time now to be experimenting because there’s just so much interesting stuff out there.

  Kat: [00:33:45] I remember a few years ago when I was looking into makeup that was cleaner without the toxins, I have a hormone problems. I have PCOS.  So I have to try to avoid all the endocrine, disruptors, all the preservatives, all that stuff, just to be extra careful. And I found one brand that was called 100% Pure.

 And I didn’t get any acne from it. It was great. The only problem is it does not perform as well as    the ones that have all the extra stuff that you don’t want.  So we’re still at that place where it’s coming. We’re finding alternatives, but it’s not perfect yet. And maybe the ones that are just like way above my budget right now,  but it is definitely getting to the place where we can have a full face, and full body, hair, everything without all the extra toxins.

Lynn Power: [00:34:34] I think you’re right. You may have to do a little more digging to find the products that work for you. But I do think there are some out there now that perform really well and you don’t need to have the bad stuff in there. So it’s it’s nice to not have to have worry about that trade off. Do I want the performance and risk, having some health.  Things going on or do I, do I get the clean one that doesn’t work as well? But now I think you don’t really have to trade that off  so much. And inher, that was the same case too. When we launched people we’re actually in a salon called spoken wheel and people were amazed that they were amazed that our products perform as well as they.

 Cause they had been looking for an alternative   to bring into their salon that was clean and they just felt like a lot of the clean products on the market were just not great.  They’re watery. They don’t really work very well, and I think it’s to your point, I think we’re getting there.

I think we’re starting to  find these products that actually can do both.

Kat: [00:35:31] What is next for your brand? Are you thinking of new products in the future? 

Lynn Power: [00:35:36] Yeah, we are. So we’re just launching our bottle, which we talked about already, but that’s for me, like my baby, it took us like a year and a half to figure that out and to make it and that whole thing.  But coming up next, we actually have a hair mask  and it’s going to be interesting cause it’s a little different than.

A hair mask that you may have experienced in the past.  It’s more jelly-like in terms of its texture. And again, we’ve used really good, pure natural ingredients. And so that’s in development. We’re hopefully getting  our first prototype to be able to test on people. In the next month, and then, it’ll take us a couple months to refine it and get it into market, but  that’s exciting.

And then we’ve got a couple other products in the pipeline too, for us, it’s also about just continuing to push sustainability.  So looking at our packaging again, look, just anything that can help us live into being a brand that cares about the ocean.  No, we do have the, our foundation, the Masami Institute, which gives back to fund ocean research, but we would love to do more, how can we continue to build that mission and just take it to the next level?

That’s what I would really love to figure out.  So if anyone has any ideas, send them my way.

Kat: [00:36:47] Tell everyone where they can find you online, which social media platforms are you guys most active? 

 Lynn Power: [00:36:54] Yeah. Sure. We are at lovemasami.com, L O V E M A S A M i.com is our website and we are active on pretty much every social media platform.

So we are Instagram Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter. Ticktock  of course LinkedIn. And our handle is love Masami hair on all of them and YouTube. And we’re very good about helping people with questions or issues they may have. So if anyone does have a hair  question Drop us a note DMs on Instagram, whatever.

And we will see if we can give you some hair tips  or advice. 

  Kat: [00:37:35] Awesome. So that’s great. I’m going to put all that in the show notes. Is there anything else you’d like to leave the audience? 

 Lynn Power: [00:37:41] No I really appreciate you talking about clean beauty and our journey and why it’s important. Cause I really do think once you get clued into what clean beauty is, it’s hard to go back.

So I, I appreciate the opportunity to share and educate, and I really hope people embrace it. And I think, like I said, there are a lot of products now that hopefully you’ll find something that you love. And I would love to just hear how people are doing, on their own personal, clean beauty journey.

  Kat: [00:38:14] Awesome.  Thank you so much for your time. 

 Lynn Power: [00:38:16] Thank you.