Our Chat With Beauty Heroes Founder Jeannie Jarnot
Who better to chat with during Earth Month than Beauty Heroes founder Jeannie Jarnot, who happens to be one of our beauty heroes. Jeannie has made it her mission to educate her customers and community on the importance of using clean, safe, and environmentally-conscious products, and to seek out brands that are transparent about their ingredients and committed to making a positive impact on our shared planet. We cover a lot, but you definitely don't want to miss the "one thing [Jeannie] think[s] everyone needs to acknowledge about truly clean beauty."
Can you tell us about your personal journey to clean beauty and what drives you to help others discover it as well?
My interest in ingredients and the impact they have on our health goes way back to about 1997. I had gotten my first job as an Assistant Spa Director and began working heavily with products in treatments like hydrotherapy, thalassotherapy, facials, nail services, massage and more. I had heard that there were ingredients that could be harmful to our health, so I just started asking questions of the brands we were working with. There was no internet at the time, so I was relying on what I was being told. My concern back then was that I didn’t want to use harmful ingredients on paying clients in the spa I was working in. But also, I didn’t want the therapists working with the products to be exposed to harmful ingredients.
As I developed in my career, and as more information became available, I discovered that there were so many unknowns in this industry. It led me to seek out brands who were being transparent about their ingredients, and whose founders really cared about people’s health. You can tell if a brand genuinely cares. You just need to ask questions and listen. Eventually, I started working with some incredible brands, and that inspired me to want to help other people discover them as well.
As many know, Beauty Heroes holds one of the highest standards for ingredients across clean beauty. How did you come to define these standards and how have they evolved over time?
We do, but that’s not by design, it’s by accident. Basically, when I learn that an ingredient is harmful to people or the environment, I don’t ignore it. Our standard evolved over time to consider the impact that an ingredient has on our environment. That’s the next level of ingredient awareness, and something not a lot of people are talking about yet. But it is a significant issue. We just have so many issues we are tackling in the beauty and personal care industry, this one hasn’t received a lot of attention, yet. The big point of differentiation between our standard and other standards is that we don’t allow non-biodegradable ingredients such as petroleum-based ingredients, silicones and acrylates. These ingredients persist and can bioaccumulate in our oceans, rivers, ground water and aquatic life. They disrupt the ecosystem and infiltrate our marine plants and animals. It’s an invisible problem right now, but we’re paying an environmental toll. I hope this issue gets more awareness soon.
Tell us more about the "Blue Beauty" movement.
Blue Beauty is defined as a movement for beauty brands to find ways within their companies to make a positive impact on the environment. It means going beyond sustainability. ‘Blue’ initiatives focus on going above and beyond reducing packaging and removing environmentally harmful ingredients. Some examples might be working with regeneratively grown farms to source ingredients, offsetting more plastic or carbon than a company is generating, giving back to environmental organizations in a significant way, planting trees or sea forests. The spectrum of green to blue has many shades and we’ve seen many ways companies are taking action to build sustainability into their business models.
It's Earth Month! How are you and Beauty Heroes celebrating and what are some of your non-negotiable eco-friendly best-practices in business and in life?
We are having a great Earth Day event in our Novato store on April 22nd, 2023, with some of our brands who are helping us live lighter on the planet.
At Beauty Heroes, there are several ways that we practice being friendlier to the earth:
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Disallow petroleum-based and silicone-based ingredients.
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Use un-branded shipping boxes, using the smallest packaging possible for every order.
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We ship via the postal service, which is already coming to your house every day, so no extra trip.
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We offset the carbon generated by shipping for every order.
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We offset 1 pound of plastic with every order with our partner rePurpose Global.
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We are partnered with PACT Collective to collect unrecyclable beauty packaging.
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We are partnered with Provenance to provide sustainability claim transparency for our community.
What do you wish more people knew about clean beauty and how would you convince someone who isn't interested in making it a priority about its importance?
There’s just one thing that I think everyone needs to acknowledge about truly clean beauty; it performs better, full stop. If you don’t care about your health or the health of the planet, just know, that truly clean products are made with ingredients that work better and give you a better result.
You opened your first brick and mortar store back in 2019 - what have been some of the biggest challenges and rewards of that adventure?
The biggest challenge was covid, no doubt. The biggest reward has been hearing from people firsthand how the products we sell have changed their lives for the better. Working in the store never gets old. People are so happy they’ve found Beauty Heroes, and that has been a great surprise and fulfillment.
Tell us about your EVOLVh routine and favorite products.
My hair is thick, colored and I have a somewhat oily scalp. So – I use UltraShine Shampoo and Conditioner followed by SmartStart Leave-In Conditioner – it’s a game changer. I then add a pump of SuperFinish Polishing Balm, it’s lightweight, but tames frizz. My hair loves it.
What's next for Beauty Heroes and what are you most excited about each day?
I’m most excited to figure out how we can reach more people and build our community. We serve a global community – and I love being able to reach people here in Northern California and all around the world. I also look forward to working closely with brands to tell their new stories. I’m never bored!
