juice beauty, clean skincare

Juice Beauty – Organic Botanical Juices that Nourish Your Skin, with Karen Behnke

Juice Beauty is a California-based organic beauty company that has partnered with Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop on skincare. We spoke with its founder, Karen Behnke.

Parvati Magazine: You state that the base of all of your products is “juice botanicals”. What is in the juice?

Karen Behnke: When I started studying conventional chemical beauty (petroleum byproduct base) and natural beauty (water base), it didn’t make sense to me to have occlusive glycols laced with dioxane or water, which dilutes the ingredients. So my concept was to start each product with an organic botanical juice base such as organic grapeseed, aloe, shea, jojoba, etc. that is already packed with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals and then add more powerful ingredients to that base, so every organic drop would feed the skin!

PMAG: Juice Beauty uses local organic farming for many of its ingredients and solar power during production. How important is it to keep your footprint light?

KB: It is very important to us and can be seen in everything we do at Juice Beauty – from where we manufacture our products, to our sustainable headquarters.

We manufacture locally in California, our distribution center is just north of our headquarters and we try to source as many ingredients as possible from the Western region of the U.S. We support organic farming to limit synthetic and pesticide use so this residue doesn’t end up on our skin or on our planet, all while supporting our communities and donating to nonprofit causes. We also utilize recyclable and recycled containers, print our packaging with soy ink, and manufacture with solar and wind power.

Additionally, in 2018, Juice Beauty will break ground on a sustainable farm in Sonoma where we will grow some of our most important brand ingredients, which will allow our chemists and marketing team to experiment, be inspired, and generally be closer to our crops, therefore limiting transport fuel waste.

PMAG: Winter months call for increased care for dry and chapped skin, but also for sun protection from UV rays that reflect off the snow. What do you recommend?

KB: During the colder months, it’s important to ramp up your hydration! To make sure you are getting the most out of your moisturizers and serums, since your skin is drier in the winter, it’s even more important to exfoliate to turn over those skin cells.
Follow a simple skincare regimen: 1. Cleanse. 2. Treat daily with a serum and treat 1-2x weekly with a peel. 3. Moisturize in the morning with SPF and in the evening with a non-SPF moisturizer.

PMAG: Gwyneth Paltrow is the Creative Director of your makeup line, while Juice Beauty collaborated with goop to create their skincare line. Tell us about this co-creative relationship and how it has enhanced your makeup line.

KB: When we decided to have a top celebrity partner, we wanted someone who authentically believed in our mission. Gwyneth embodied not only the entrepreneurial spirit and business savvy we were looking for, but also the true passion for clean, organic beauty but also fun living. Gwyneth is the ultimate strategic business partner and she has truly enhanced what Juice Beauty stands for – creating authentically organic formulations that perform better than conventional chemically laden products. Gwyneth has been involved in our makeup product development from start to finish and loved how we could get bright colors with crushed rose petals, purple carrot, argan husks and more, instead of synthetic dyes.

PMAG: Your GREEN APPLE Peel, now patented, received critical acclaim and catapulted Juice Beauty into the hands of celebrities. Tell us about this award-winning product and how to use it.

KB: Juice Beauty’s Green Apple Peel has transformed my skin! In my teens through my thirties, I spent countless hours in the Michigan and California sun training for triathlons without sunblock and I developed lots of sunspots and hyperpigmentation as a result. Since using Green Apple Peel and Green Apple Serum, my sunspots are gone! Juice Beauty’s Green Apple Peels should be used 1-2x/week, at night after cleansing. Apply it like a mask on your face, neck, décolleté, and tops of your hands! Leave it on for 10-20 minutes, rinse off with warm water, and follow with your favorite Juice Beauty Serum and then nighttime moisturizer and eye cream. It’s okay to turn a bit pink and you will notice a difference in your skin tone and texture immediately and definitely over time!

Juice Beauty-Karen Behnke

Karen Behnke developed an interest in personal care products upon becoming pregnant with her first child. Karen subsequently launched Juice Beauty. Previously, from 1996 to 2003, Karen led the healthy lifestyles investment strategy for private equity firms. Karen completed Harvard/MIT‘s multi-year executive business summer school “Giants” program; and has received many awards throughout her career. JuiceBeauty.com