It is hard to imagine today with organic-certified beauty products readily available a time when launching a high-performance organic skincare brand would have required the founder to make the market, educating customers to the benefits of organic beauty.

Now, barely a week passes without us hearing of a big brand in the personal care industry buying up clean, green, organic beauty brands as well as creating their own ranges on the naturals' spectrum. However, we might not know just how difficult it was for organic brands entering the market a couple of decades ago when their voices and valid claims would fall on deaf ears.

Our guest in this episode, serial wellness entrepreneur Karen Behnke, took a leap of faith back in 2004 to start a high-performance organic skincare brand under the name 'Juice Beauty'. Now a highly-acclaimed international beauty brand, Juice Beauty offers award-winning skincare and make-up products that meet rigorous USA organic regulations.

Karen's declared mission at the outset was to create high-performance organic skincare with scientifically-proven efficacy that was also backed by solid eco values. She found herself in the early noughties pitching Juice Beauty against an industry largely sceptical of natural and organic products' ability to match, let alone exceed the benefits of traditional personal care products whose formulas were composed largely of synthetic ingredients.

As an exemplar for emerging, organic beauty brands, Karen talks us through the secrets of success in building and growing a truly high-performance organic skincare brand. She explains that it is as important as ever, if not more so, to stay true to your declared, transparent mission and ensure you create truly high-performance organic skincare products that do deliver on promise.

In this episode on high-performance organic skincare, you'll find out about:

• Why it's best not to rush your products to market. Dedicating budget, time and effort to creating something innovative can be key to your brand's point of difference in the market.
• Why efficacy is the holy grail of high-performance organic skincare if you wish to grow your beauty business and gain loyal customers in the increasingly crowded naturals' sector.
• Why budgeting for scientific tests to prove any efficacy claims your formulations offer can be the most important decision you make in starting an organic skincare brand.
• Formulating high-performance skincare is also about creating the right emotional and sensual consumer experiences. How a cream, for example, glides on - the 'slip' - is just one criterion that customers will review your products' performance on.
• Why transparency in how and where you source ingredients - from field to supplier - gives you more control over your supply chain, valuable insights into the provenance of your organic products and messages that can empower your brand.

Key take-outs include:

• Science-led innovation helps you stay ahead in the organic beauty sector.
• Be aware that any organic, vegan, or other business claims will be investigated, so ensure you have a declared mission statement and principles guiding your business from the start.
• Decide which certification and/or claims are more important to your mission - whether vegan, sustainability, ethical business and so on - and be prepared to go the extra mile to ensure your brand adheres rigorously to your mission.
• Consumers are very demanding these days so understand the implications of any 'way of life' you or your brand project in your marketing messages.

You might like to see some of our other podcasts and articles on aspects of sourcing and formulating with high-performance organic skincare ingredients, including:

Sourcing sustainable organic skincare ingredients (podcast with Jem Skelding of Naissance) How to research cosmetic ingredients for organic skincare How to make a high-performance vitamin E serum The benefits of vitamin C in high-performance skincare

Find out more about Juice Beauty, its range of high-performance organic skincare products and make-up and its commitment to sustainable, organic practices:

Juice Beauty website. Juice Beauty on Facebook. Juice Beauty on Instagram. Juice Beauty on Twitter. Juice Beauty on Youtube. Juice Beauty on Pinterest.

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