When I owned my beauty store Louche Lily, I was a bit of a hunter for new brands. I was the first in Canada to carry Vapour Organics, CV Skinlabs, Kimberly Sayer... Tata Harper was coming into their own and at the time I was only one of a few in the country to be a stockist (WIN!) and I was very fortunate to have an interview with Tata for the LL blog.
Though the store is long gone, I love that these posts can live on in the new format of my site 🙂
XO
Your background is in engineering – Was there a beginning spark to launch yourself into creating Skincare?
About ten years ago, my stepfather was diagnosed with cancer, and by being involved in his treatment and recovery process, I got my first exposure to the idea that the ingredients in the beauty and personal care products I used every day might not actually be very good for me. So I started to do some research, and I was shocked to discover that my daily skincare was full of synthetics, many of which had never been tested for safety. I started looking for an all-natural replacement for my high-tech antiaging skincare products, and I searched all over the world, but came up empty handed. There wasn’t anything out there that met my standards for high performance without the synthetics. So, I decided I needed to make it for myself – and I was sure there were other women out there looking for the same thing. So the line was born out of a need to create what I couldn’t find in the market!
I love that you’re so hands on with every step of the process- was this important to you from day one?
Yes, definitely – I wanted everything to happen in one place, so I could oversee the entire process and ensure total purity and freshness of every batch. All of our products are produced in a facility on my farm in Vermont, where all of our R&D and marketing offices are, too.
How on earth do you find the balance between yourself, family and the company?
By being super organized and sticking to my daily schedule, and by having an assistant to help me keep track of my calendar and all of the moving pieces! When you’re the founder of a fast-moving company, you just learn to make sacrifices, and to balance the best way you can. I always carve out time every day to spend with my kids, and a few minutes – even just five or ten – to spend by myself, to just relax.
One of the most noticeable first impressions that the senses pick up is that smell! Incredible! Where does that trademark scent come from? Who is in charge of that aromatic genius?
We actually don’t add fragrances to our products at all – what you are smelling is literally the scent bouquet of all of our floral ingredients! Our products’ efficacy is powered by botanical extracts, and so many of those are flowers, and those raw ingredients lend their fresh scents to the products. We don’t modify it at all, and of course our products are 100% natural, so there are zero synthetic fragrances in the formulas. I love the fact that our products have these unique natural scents – each one is different – because they contribute aromatic wellness benefits to your daily routine.
If you were to recommend one thing for a woman to try first in the Tata Harper line, what would that be?
I would say the Rejuvenating Serum – it’s our hero product, and has been the number one best seller since it was first released. It’s a daily antiaging collagen serum, and it’s an incredible multitasker – it does the work of seven antiaging products in one formula. It’s incredibly concentrated and is powered by 29 active ingredients. It feels amazing on the skin – it sinks right in and leaves a matte finish. But the results really speak for themselves. I’ve been using it every day for years.
What are some common misconceptions about natural, organic beauty products that you have found?
The most basic misconception is that they can’t be as effective as synthetic skincare products. That’s just incorrect – it all depends on the level of technology and the quality of ingredients. In my products, we only use the best of the best: ingredients that have been clinically proven to produce amazing results, and that are a fine enough quality and molecular weight where they penetrate the skin to deliver results where it matters. A lot of natural lines out there aren’t formulated to be high-performance, so they simply aren’t. But my line is different, because it was created with a team of 8 chemists whose specific goal was to make, from scratch, 100% natural formulas that worked just as well, if not better, than synthetic alternatives. And we did it – every product in my line is packed with active ingredients that deliver amazing, glowing skin and visible antiaging results!
Are there any tell-tale signs you would say to give away that a product is “green washed”?
It can be really hard to tell because marketing and packaging can be so effective at convincing you a product is natural when it’s not. Look for products that really promise to be 100% natural – that way, you know you aren’t dealing with any synthetics. A third-party certification helps – for example, our products are certified as Natural Cosmetics by Ecocert, which is an internationally recognized accreditation body that can vouch for your natural and organic claims. Or, you can look it up using a website (they also have an App!) called Skin Deep, where you see how the products ranks in terms of toxicity. It’s a really powerful tool for becoming a more informed consumer.
