On this episode, Indie chats with Follain Founder & CEO Tara Foley, who shares insight on founding a clean beauty retailer, where clean beauty is going and how the clean community can get there together.
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Welcome to come and clean with indie Lee, a podcast series about living with passion, acting with purpose and being fully present. I'm your host, Indie Lee. I am so excited today I'm chatting with Tara Foley from Follain. And one of the coolest parts about doing this podcast is that I get to have conversations with my friends. And maybe it's because I'm inviting my friends onto my podcast. Maybe that's what, but I don't know the tariff way. You know, I'm totally girl a total girl crush. And for those of you who are listening to this, FYI, we tried to start this podcast earlier, but we were so catching up on our lives that we had to push it back a half an hour because we need to catch up. But that's the beauty of a podcast and the beauty of being able to do this is to talk with friends. So thank you Tara for joining me this morning. In the It's
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in the midst of so much so much right now. So, thank you so much for having me. Honestly, there's nobody I'd rather be chatting with than you right now. The girl crushes so mutual,
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and the friendship is so deep. I feel like I can really be myself with you. And so to that extent, I'm super excited to be here this morning. That makes me feel so good. Thank you. And you should always be yourself because you're, I can say because I think we have an explicit rating. You're a badass, like you are one of those incredible women who saw something that needed to be changed and just didn't say it, but did it and is is creating this incredible awareness and and to that extent, I mean, for those of you who don't know anything about clean beauty, Tara was really I think the first one to come out with a clean retailer, as a clean retailer, to showcase clean brands, mostly Indian Brands pardon the pun for me. But then put together a really stringent protocol on, you know, what would be allowed and continues to this day. And I know this personally, nothing goes into our store unless terror tests it. And I think that's a testament to you. I also can't imagine how many products you test,
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right bathroom as a disaster.
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Maybe on my bathroom at
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this point, so Oh, yeah, you know, I kind of feel like you should have your own bathroom.
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I should, I should move for that. But that's right. Indeed, we, I oftentimes say that we're the first clean beauty retailer. And in some ways that's not true, because there were a lot of other stores selling cleaning products. But why the reason why I say it is because we were the first to have that list of ingredients that weren't allowed within our four walls. And so that's really why what I believe made us the first clean beauty retailers we took a stand. We built what we call our restricted substance list. When we opened with a whole advisory group of researchers and scientists and it's it I don't believe that one single person can know it all and do it all when it comes to something like environmental health something that big so we work with experts on packaging experts on endocrine disruption experts on green chemistry and we built that list and honestly that was kind of the the work of the work before opening Follain that it was of course, trying to convince brands like you guys to come and be sold with us because I was just this you know, punk kid at the time, who didn't have a background and beauty did not have a background in retail and even in business. I just knew that there needed to be change and that retail was going to be the right first step to do it. When did
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Follain open its website and then open the store.
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We actually opened our store well, so it started with my blog, which started in plain sight So I so going back before even the store in 2009 actually before that, I was in a pretty dark place living in New York City. It trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I was going through just a really tough time, it was a recession everything and and I started focusing on fitness and nutrition for the first time then really taking care of myself. And it was there was a lot of learning involved because I did not grow up in an organic household. And I just basically had to teach myself how to cook. I was going to, you know, spinning classes that turned into racing triathlons, I went really, really deep. And in that process, I kind of my eyes were open to the fact that the beauty products that I was using and loved didn't sync up with the values I had built for nutrition and fitness. And so I thought it was really weird that nobody was talking about it. And so I built a blog in 2009. Basically just to share what I was learning with friends and family. Family members, and whoever wanted to tell to listen and I became pretty obsessed. The more and more I learned, you know about ingredients and the discrepancy in laws and regulations between the EU, Japan, Canada and here, the more I learned about the fact that these clean products and natural products were actually incredibly effective, especially like as I determined the ingredients for different skin types. So I became pretty obsessed. I also knew that with a public policy degree and like no work experience, I wasn't gonna be able to do anything. So I spent two years basically giving myself I call it like, a Cliff's notes version of your MBA. Yeah, yeah, I got my MBA, I worked on a lavender farm in France, which was not glamorous at all. And then I worked for a skincare developer up in Maine. And then after all of that, there still was no clean beauty store. And so I did a lot of work into opening Follain we opened with a store first In July 2013, and then we actually didn't launch our first version of our website until July 2014. That's right. I think it's
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I get confused with the blog and the website.
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Yeah. And that's when we met Andy was right around when we launched our website. Yeah, we started to do pop ups. We had our we opened up pop up in Nantucket, we opened our second store at that point, we're starting to do pop ups in 2014.
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And now look at you.
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I mean, we've, it's
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lievable. You know, it's so funny. So I know this as, as a founder of a brand, the way it looks like to me and I'm like, Oh, I'm not where I want to be, and I should be here and this, that and the other thing, but you have to give yourself a lot of credit because photoline is a name that everybody knows in the clean and a lot in the conventional world. I mean, I cannot tell you how many people who said I learned how to go clean after meeting Tara Had a consult with Tara. Her team spent the time your team is not just associates they're educators.
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Exactly. Always since day one.
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We know I remember. I mean, I can remember meeting with you. I remember the first training I did with your team. And we when we got pizza, oh, by the way, we were freezing, but it was all about ingredients and education. And the beauty part was kind of a side benefit. Mm hmm. The, the the cool part of the beauty part.
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Oh, that's exactly right. We, we in many ways feel like we have a huge weight on our shoulders and a lot of responsibility because, as the first clean retailer, we were starting this conversation with people for the first time and, and we know that women will switch beauty products all the time. And if they go to any big conventional beauty retailer and try a product and that product doesn't work for them, they just move on to the next one. We're kind of as women Just I guess programmed to do that. But then if you try to clean something branded as clean or natural for the first time, and it didn't work for them, they would say, okay, clean beauty doesn't work for my skin. And so we felt a lot of pressure to learn everything possible about all of the ingredients, not just the unsafe stuff, that's table stakes, but the the beautiful ingredients like the ones you use Indy, so rows have been squalene and these really beautiful ingredients. We are trying to learn what works best for different skin types and concerns so we could do our job.
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And I think that's why so many people trust you is because your entire team is doing the job. Yes. And and then you built this incredible hub of a website that then continues so for those who cannot go to a store can go to the website and and still be a part of your community.
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Yep,
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that's and the education on the site is just still I mean, I go to I read it I love it. And I'm fairly knowledgeable in the cleaning industry.
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Oh, just fairly know you're incredibly knowledgeable. Just a dab I'll
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dabble here dabble there. But I think that's the coolest part about Follain. And there's what I also love. And I'd have to say I found this and I'll be honest, I found this with pretty much every clean retailer. There's no judgment. There's no judgment if you mix and match, you know, you know me, I'm an 8020 gal. Oh, I say now I'm probably 90 9010 because beauty is getting so like makeup. They're really, um, but it's okay. No one's judging you. If you have that Tom Ford lipstick in your bag. It's just you and I have always had the same mantra. I know the risks. I make the choice. Yep. Yep, that's exactly right. And so I think it's just it's been really cool to watch Follain's, evolution to where it is. Now, so if you compared them to now what do you think the biggest shift has been?
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Um, I think the biggest shift has been in customer knowledge. And, and, and innovation. So those are the two biggest shifts. So the, when we first started, we were basically spending the majority of our time convincing people to try these products. So I called the store full name because it was too early to call the green beauty store something that would scare people away. And so essentially, when we first opened, we were these cute boutiques that people would come in, and we would trick them into buying clean products. Great. So they're like, oh, brands, they thought they were discovering the hot new thing and we would match them up to the right thing for their skin and we they would be buying it we'd be like, oh, surprise, this is much better for you
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and the planet. Well, listen, same thing we so we say, I'll never forget this Rebecca and I used to say, you know, we're we're a skincare line. Oh and we happen to Be clean? Yes. And that's definitely the approach then because we had to say, that's what we did, because people did not believe that you could get efficacy with beauty. Yep. And but that's so funny. So that and then now,
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now we, you know, screaming from the mountaintops, but now it's it's so interesting because now every huge conventional retailer has gotten into clean in a really robust way, which is amazing, because that just shows the progress that we've all been making collectively. But it's made us think, Okay, what, what makes us different, right? And really what makes us different is that we because we started having those one on one conversations with customers so long ago, we just know so much again, about the ingredients and we we just are really great for somebody that wants to go incredibly deep on the education. And so that's been a harder thing to figure out how to communicate, but there's just has been a huge shift in consumer perception when it comes to these products. And we've been very, very, very grateful to see so many people getting on board now and actually caring. I actually still think that there's so much room and so on. Yes, so many more people. And there's there's people that think that it's still think it's not effective, or they they've, I guess, like determined certain things about clean beauty as a whole and the types of people that use clean beauty. And that's really unfortunate to me, because this is just healthier products for everybody. Absolutely.
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I agree. And I love what you said also for the planet. And that's also been I know a huge thing for you, since you started is also about sustainability. It's it's never been one or the other. It's how do we do both? Yeah. So I know when you started you, you did all this research, right to make sure you knew everything about the ingredients. How do you keep up with it? I mean, I know it's a struggle and I'm lucky because you know, I have to And we work with these great chemists. How do you as a store, keep up with it,
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we still have that advisory kind of group that we tap into. So we have we have some formal publicly listed on our website advisors from the from environmental health and green chemistry spaces that we chat with every so often. And then we have some informal advisors from the beauty industry that we kind of chat with also just to keep us abreast of like developments and innovation and everything else like that. And us making our own line actually has been really helpful for me to get closer to like the feasibility because what was happening was I was I was pushing really hard on certain things in the supply chain. And then once I started making once we started making a little bit more of our own products, I started realizing that the timeline for certain ingredients might be a little bit tougher. So that has happened and then to be completely honest, like we couldn't do better. Listen, there's always room for improvement. And that's the incredible thing about growth.
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Yeah, and and learning in general is you don't have to ever stop and we shouldn't ever stop. But acknowledging that we're always can do better. And we're going to try harder and reach. That's, that's the beauty of this journey called life. But your segway was perfect. Because bowling, I was really excited because bowling has brought out a number of products, which are amazing, by the way, like well done. But has that changed? I was you like, really went right into my question, which was perfect. Thank you for the layup. But how does that change how you look at what you can bring in and what's doable, and as you push brands and knowing that, you know, I'll give the example when we decided to formulate a certain preservative out it wasn't as simple as just switching like you have to make sure the entire product still works.
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Yeah, that's exactly so. So in some ways, we've always had that products because we when we launched our store in 2013 we always had our refill service and we've slowly added in over the years ago I can't believe how long ago that was seven years ago that we which is crazy to me and but as we over the years we've we've slowly integrated in products to fill always to fill a need that our customer was basically saying there was like there was a gap in our assortment. So it started with the I mean, we always had the refill stubs but then it started with things like lip balms that were in a different format like little things like body scrubbing up to like random random formats and things that the customer wanted
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one of my favorite body scrubs. Oh, you're the lip and I have four of your candles.
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Oh, the candles are
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something that people don't realize are can be incredibly bad and I agree. You need clean burning candles. But anyhow so we so we started to come out with them slowly to fill customer needs and then once we had pretty good assortment of like 10 or so body products and candles and things, customers started to approach us saying, you know, I would love to see a line of skincare products that made it easier for my friends and family members who are skeptical about clean to basically start their clean journey. And we we kept on hearing this over and over again, because we have a store of products that are incredibly gorgeous, like Indy Lee products and all the other brands we carry. And then some people just wanted things were quite frankly a little bit more basic, like your stuff addresses. Beautiful, beautiful needs, and they're robust, and I use them. And there were people that wanted kind of like the entry line to Follain and most retailers, quite frankly have these entry lines. And we tossed around the idea about building a skincare line and then as you know, so well once you like have enough conversations with a chemist and you get excited about enough you can't take yourself out of that. You just got to go You have to go and really do
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it then and expensive,
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very expensive, but it's often
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on exotic bring out things that complement each other and that can address different skin types. And they've got to work together. And then what's the story? And and that's
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all that's been the work of the work. Right. So that was what we didn't realize is that it's much more like you just said, it's much more nuanced. So then we're like, oh, we'll build a line. We're skincare experts. We're actually unique in the clean beauty retail space, because skincare has always been the bulk of our business. I agree. Oh, we're skincare experts. We can just do this quickly. We'll just build an entry line and it will be great.
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No, I can attest to that. I thought when I if I built it, they will come right. But that's not necessarily how that works.
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Well, anyhow, the line has evolved quite a bit because as you and I were talking about before we got on today, the we started talking to Ulta last summer and about all sorts of different When possible things that we could do together and they were excited by this line that we were building for ourselves and, and so now we because of that we've started to sell our product line in not just Ulta but a number of other retailers and and it's fun we're learning
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this as a whole it's a big that's another just another channel though but I do think there's something very unique about that because that gives fully in the visibility in different channels like I've always said, just like any portfolio, it's really important to diversify. So you have the stores you have an incredible website as a hub. But now you also have products which then are in stores so people see Follain but then they see there's a store Follain. So there is that multi omni channel component a Follain now.
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That's exactly right. And and I think and I think we were kind of surprised ourselves when we were developing these products because I think because we care so deeply. We started off developing him as this like, basic entry level line to fill in and then Once we formulated them we were like oh wow, this stuff works and we did clinicals on some of them really this stuff is actually really good So, so it has legs the full name brand products has legs and here's
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I know how many how many products are in the full lean like you're
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late. Well what's interesting is it's very mixed because we have these heritage body products which we've always add the refillable soap and the scrub and everything we just mentioned the candles. So we had nine of those products before moving into skincare and now we have eight skincare products and we're actually about
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to launch a couple more. Oh my gosh. So for those of you who are on audio Hold on, she's showing us the moisturizer I wanted people know that okay size or the toning Miss and the two masks or the masks, which, like you're really providing a routine for everyone and people were like, I don't understand Andy Lee is talking about another skincare brand. Yes. Let me just go out here and say ice support all brands, I love trying other brands, I love supporting other brands, other founders. It's just not all about me. I think that would be kind of silly to close myself off to using incredible other brands. So no, I'm, I guess I tell you go by full name brands.
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So amazing for saying that. And I, we obviously feel the same way. And I think it's really important to have that deep down because this we need to going back to what we said earlier in the conversation. Clean beauty still has a lot of work to do in terms of awareness. And we're only going to do it if we hold hands and do it together.
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We all rise with the tide.
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That's exactly right. I mean, so many brands that full name carries have called me when they're when they're thinking about going and you to when they're thinking about brands, so for all to everything, and I'm like yes, do it, do it, do it, do it. I mean, we have to all do this together. Otherwise, people are just going to move on and think of clean beauty as a trend. And this is Ultimately for your health and for the health of the planet. This isn't a trend.
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No, this is here to stay in. And I do think as difficult as legislature is to change. We are people are creating change by voting with their dollars. Yes. And the more supply and demand, the more people demand it, the more we're going to see it. I'll never forget you said something in the past is your job. Is that that clean beauty? There is no such thing as clean beauty. I think your word was like, it's just beauty and it happens to all be clean. Yeah. And the only way that's going to happen is if there are other founders and have led brands, and even the legacy brands bring out clean lines, like as we make this shift, instead of tearing one another down. Let's all raise one another up. There's plenty of room like for those of you who are listening who are like, oh, should I come in like oh my gosh, should I start a line? Yes. If that's what your passion is, come on in the water's fine. We don't bite.
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I believe that. If some has enough conviction in something that makes their product line or their brand. different enough from everything out there. We need it. I grant and you need conviction, by the way, because it's a lot of hard work.
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And money. I just want to put that out there.
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Yeah, it's just like being an entrepreneur in any space. It's, it's all consuming
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it is. And I wouldn't change any of it. But it doesn't mean it's not a lot of work. So perfect segue into my next thing. I love this. You were really good at this. too well, but probably, which is a good thing. So okay, founder, entrepreneur, wife, Mom, do you get to carve out any time honestly, and I'll be I'll speak for myself. So you, I don't often I don't do it enough. I admit it. My meditation is what I do. Do you get to
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and if you do, wow, I want to learn more about your meditation. So I can take pointers from you. One that anytime I carving out for myself is something that I've really been working on over the past few months that we've all been at home. And I'm hoping to use it as a jumping off point for once we get out of our homes, I don't know if it's going to be feasible because I don't know we'll see I hopefully the world has changed to a certain extent and it's more socially acceptable to to take care of yourself in a deeper way. But it's it's been really hard as an as a all the things you just mentioned, like wearing all those hats, but also as somebody who's so incredibly passionate about each of those hats, like I'm just a, I just want to pour my whole self into everything I do. And that's and I get disappointed with myself when I'm not you know, pouring my whole self into Follain or pouring my whole self into being a mom and and it's it's hard. That's the hardest part
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of balance. I you've asked me in the past what how do I see balance and I and I always say there is no such thing? Yeah, there isn't. I am 100% you know this 100% That, you know, sometimes 9010 but there's never a 5050. And I can't really say that there's a lot of 100% for me for me. Yes. But yet, all those things I mentioned are what Fill my cup. So that is what makes me happy. Like, I love what I do. So I don't mind working, because it doesn't feel like work because I'm passionate about it. But I but I do have to work really hard to be mindful about the chatter of I'm not doing enough bla bla bla bla bla bla, because yeah, I still have that too. And I'm going to always have it and I think that's, that's probably what's driven me to where we are now. Um, but the meditation I will tell you it, it does.
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Tell me a little bit about your practice. Is it something you do multiple times a day in the same space every day?
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Not in the same space? Um, but I do it. I do it twice a day. It is transcendental meditation. So I have a mantra that I say over and over in my head and sometimes when I just can't get there I use a noise machine when I go to sleep. Because for so long my son would be playing video games or talking too loud. So I and my dogs snores. So I had to have a, an even if it's just listening to the sound of the noise machine, it helps quiet that noise in my head. That's right. That's where that beauty comes in for me is that quieting the internal chatter so I can kind of get straight
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it's interesting work that's that's so awesome and and good to hear. Like, I feel like it's just still work. Yeah, it's still working work. Oh, yeah, it's not easy.
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And I've been doing it for years
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since I've been working from out since we're all at home right now. One of the things I've felt like I've had a little bit more space to do is when I get overwhelmed when that would happen in the office, I I honestly didn't know what to do. Sometimes I would go for a walk outside and that was helpful. But here I'm literally just like going into another I'm in a teeny little room in my attic right now. But I just go to the other side of the room and I just close my eyes and just take some deep breaths. And that's not a problem. This
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is meditation. Don't let anybody else tell you it's not listening. Singing a song can be a form of meditation. Right? Right. You know, listening to music can be a form of meditation, if you're stopping the internal dialogue that is going, you know, a million miles an hour to settle yourself that is a form of meditation. And I think people don't like they feel like there's no one way there's there has to be one way to do it. And there's so many ways to do it. But if you can get centered and find a little bit more energy, yes for yourself, and get your blood pressure to go. That's why I do it every morning and every night.
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Yeah, I guess I'll start calling that meditation. So I am that is now that I'm home. And the other thing that I've been doing that's, that's for myself, and it's something I always do now that it's warmer out in New England where where are we Both hours, I make sure that I walk outside once a day every day without my shoes on I and some people
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do ground and that's awesome.
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Yeah and I think it's it's been really important sometimes I'll eat my lunch outside and do that sometimes I literally just am like I haven't done it yet today I'm gonna go do it and that's also been incredibly helpful and impactful for me during this time
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was like a scientific there's not even there is a there's significant science behind that and the importance of it. It's something I should take a nod from you on because I find that there are times I just don't get it from my desk or a door I don't put to take the time and even if my greenhouse which Yes, I'm very privileged I have a very big greenhouse, but I don't take off my shoes probably because I'm afraid the dog the kids haven't cleaned up after the dog so but but although I hear that's good luck.
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They get nervous about like the Legos and the toys
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like that Polly pockets were the bane of my existence for many, many years.
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Yours.
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I couldn't recommend it more though, Andy. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna take the advice on meditation from you and you take the advice on grounding for me and I feel like if we both
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in a minute, we're gonna check in with each other on a regular basis. I love that. Okay, so are there any Is there anything new that you're excited about? That's on horizon? Now I understand that's a very difficult question given that we don't know when we're going to be able to get out of our houses for a significant amount of time and listen, launching new things is very difficult right now. All those things, but is there anything that you can share that you are excited about? And and by the way, it could be that you decorated another room in your house like that's okay. It doesn't have to be well,
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I wish I decorated a room and
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I wish I had a greenhouse like you. But we honestly it is. It's I'm glad you addressed it. It is kind of a tough time to even think about being excited about things with everything going on in the world. That being said, we we had Been working on a few more products to round out this this line of folding skincare and so I don't know exactly when we're going to be launching them, but we will be launching them soon. Amazing. That's always like a like we were talking about before, it's almost like we get we, we you and I gave birth to these brands. So seeing the extensions and the diffusions and the next steps and seeing how it evolves and watching people try them and give feedback. That's that is just such an important part of, of what we do. So I
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agree when someone tries a product and they're like, Oh my gosh, this changed how I look at my skincare routine or I'm now take time for myself. That's everything. That's why I started this like it was really to help empower people to live the healthiest version of their life, whether it's my products or anybody else's it was just to keep that connection. Okay.
29:49
And I have to add one more thing, please. So we also, or maybe this is something to be talking about later, but I we also as part of everything going on in the world. In our awareness building and education of ourselves and our team, we decided to take the pledge to dedicate percent of our shelf space to them. And so as part of that, we haven't honestly been very vocal about it yet, but we will be. You called me out earlier in deeper for doing before saying and so we actually have been having lots of conversations with black owned brands to bring into our portfolio. And that's
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super exciting. That is incredible. Congratulations. And thank you for making that pledge. You know, for me, it's a personal thing, and I think it's amazing and I I'm loving. I'm loving that there is a lot of positive that is coming out of this. I'm, I'm trying to find silver linings and a lot of darkness. Yeah, and I think as long as we all stay in conversation, and again, look for how do we lift voices and amplify voices, a lot of good can come it's not going to make up for what's happened in the past. But at least maybe we can be a part of the generation. So starting to make some change, real substantial change that will stay. So that's what I'm,
31:09
that's beautifully said Andy and and I couldn't agree with you more and we just we have you and I both have always considered ourselves changemakers and positive people and on the right side of history, but we also I think, are all using this time to look and see what we can do better and, and that's all that's all we can do.
31:30
That's it and that's that's it, we're looking at our supplier supply change, how can what can we do differently as well? And we'll continue to challenge ourselves as we can. Yes, no, I'm so that's I am excited to see the changes that we're doing internally to. Okay, so tell me what is your current? Like, what are you currently passionate about? Do you have time to be passionate about anything I know I'm finding it difficult. I'm passionate about the fact that I grew purple cauliflower. So I just want to put this perspective. Like, it's not a big thing. It's one cauliflower that I'm babying and taking pictures on a daily basis, but I am passionate about my cauliflower.
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I honestly I need a cauliflower right now. I feel like the stuff I'm passionate about is is still too big and I need a cauliflower. Like
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I need something that I got in my little loofa plant. I told you before. I'm so excited. I tried growing loofa I've done it. I had done it for years. And then when I wasn't in the greenhouse because I was doing the brand. I just didn't start the seeds early enough whatnot. So I started them inside early. I had out of 12 seats. I had three only one now is still there and I'm coddling this thing. I'm seeing little like the little things the grabbers that trellis up so I'm like okay, so that by the way, so FYI, that's what I'm passionate about.
32:52
That's amazing. I mean I mine is kind of related, but it's just I I think all of this kind of deep down so Started for, for me from my deep passion for being outdoors. And maybe that's like where the grounding came from. That's like what I automatically do when I'm done the work day when I'll go outside with my kids and I just I need to be outside I need to be like, I mean, I should live on a mountain somewhere basically, if I could, I would do that. And so during this time, it's really given me a ton to think about being outside more than I ever was before and thinking about how that needs to drive everything I do at Follain and everything I do as a person and protecting that And so again, like it's a macro, but it's something that's
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important too. Oh 100% so I wonder does that fall into also what's giving you purpose?
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Yes,
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yeah, it absolutely my Lupin cauliflower isn't giving me purpose, but because mine was very granular, but
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I love it
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and sometimes We need to be more granular and focused, especially in business and everything I love that you can kind of have that focus.
34:06
So is that what's bringing you purpose? Like?
34:09
I think actually, my my purpose is much more into the current day and into the specific situation we're in. It's kind of going back to what I was talking about with the pledge we took. But over the past few weeks, I have realized that there's so many inequities in terms of the conversation that's had about, you know, non toxic and clean beauty with different groups of individuals and communities. And so I think it's I think over the past few weeks, I have been excited more than ever by the opportunity to go deeper into new communities and share this message.
34:45
That is incredible time and so needed
34:49
their organizations. I mean, environmental racism is a real thing and their innovations that are that are dedicated to talking about the issues that that black community He's faced with reproductive issues with everything because there's a there is a unfair and inequitable distribution of products targeted and marketed to women of color with ingredients like formaldehyde for hair straighteners and hydroquinone, for skin lighteners and everything that we obviously I've always banned, but we've never we've never we've never with purpose and targeted those communities. And I think the time is, is now and that's been the biggest learning that
35:32
I've amazing
35:34
way over the past few weeks and I'm just trying to figure out how we take that next step.
35:38
That's incredible. That's that's that's so important and they're
35:42
right there with me once we figure it out.
35:44
So get ready. I'm you know what, for me it is finding where am I not addressing how can I make sure that we continue to be inclusive and taking a look at prices and as you know, we've we've lowered prices to make sure that if things are bad portable to more people as we realize, and you know, it's not because I'm like, hey, let's just lose facet prices, because obviously I can't take a loss on things. And I don't know. I mean, I know you understand how expensive clean ingredients and has we go through Cosmos certification on process on products and whatnot. But as we have more products that have shared ingredients, we can get economies and then pass on that savings, which I hope will allow us to open up for more opportunities, but I do think and also the education part that's part for what I'd like to do is how do I how do I, you know, educate others and how do I amplify other people's voices more with this platform that I have? Okay, and what are you this is gonna be I think I know the answer, but what are you currently practicing in order to be more present?
36:50
I yeah, it is probably that that idea of grounding and getting outside breathing fresh air, but most importantly, you know, having my feet or hands usually my feet literally touch the ground and there's a lot like you said there's a lot of science on on on that and is not necessary. I wasn't doing it necessarily for that science and for the trend or anything, I think I was doing it just because it felt right and, and it is something that now I realized brings me back and helps me get through the rest of my day every day.
37:22
And then by the way, that is a form of meditation and new. Okay, I could talk to you on and on and on. And I can't thank you enough during all that's going on to spend time with me this morning. And more importantly, thank you for your friendship.
37:43
Like I said, Indeed, this is all mutual and of all people that I could be spending time with during a time like this. You know, so personally, you're affected personally by this. I mean, we all are in this together but the heaviness and the weight. It really is. helps me be around resilient people and you are one of the most resilient people I know. Thank you.
38:04
Well, I love you too. So thank you guys, I will be putting all all info on the show notes but I do want to make sure you say it so people were driving, what's the best way for people to find you.
38:19
Please look at Follain. That's fo Ll AI n on Instagram follain.com our website I'm also TC o Foley on Instagram, if you want to see my grounding, and my kids and everything
38:33
on tech tech, I just want to share that with
38:34
you to do tic tocs there's so much fun.
38:38
There's so much fun that that we will have a conversation about that when I hit and record because I can't get it yet. But I will put all these in the show notes. So guys, thank you for listening today and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Thanks again for listening to coming clean with Andy Lee. As always, if you have comments and suggestions for additional guests Please feel free to email me at coming clean at indie lead.com. And if you liked what you heard, subscribe and feel free to leave us a rating. Thank you
Transcribed by https://otter.ai