Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brionne Beck. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Brionne, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I’m so happy as a business owner! I’ve had my fair share of ‘regular jobs’ so I don’t have to wonder if the grass is greener on the other side. It is true that it can be easier to collect a paycheck and having a ‘regular job’ offers a certain kind of security. However, being a maker allows me many freedoms! I create what I want to see more of in the world. I get to work in my own space, on my own time, with natural materials, designing my own brand. I love that I can control the whole process, start to finish. The flip side is that whatever goes wrong is also my problem. All in all, though, it’s totally worth it!

I like to think that I’m easy going but actually I’m rather strict when it comes to my skincare line. My hope is that the products I make can be a starting point for people when it comes to choosing healthier products and realizing that they can make eco-friendly choices that are just as good if not better for their skin. Being able to control which ingredients are used, how they’re sourced, what kind of packaging I use is all really important to me. I love that I get to make all of those decisions.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi! I’m Bri and I’m the creator of Unfiltered Skin Care. I formulate natural and organic skincare products, manufacture and package them at my studio in Bath, Maine. I started making my own products about ten years ago. I’ve always loved stretching my DIY knowledge and learning new skills. It was around this time that I started to become conscious of what was going into my everyday body care products. My skin has always been really sensitive and prone to rashes and eczema. My whole life, I just figured that there was something wrong with me. It never crossed my mind that something labeled as ‘for sensitive skin’ might contain a whole cocktail of synthetic chemicals that are known to irritate skin!

My goal with Unfiltered Skin Care has always been to provide a line of products that everyone can use, regardless of age or gender or skin-type; products filled with wholesome ingredients that help your skin to thrive and perform at its best. I do the heavy-lifting of researching ingredients and packaging so that other people don’t have to. When you buy Unfiltered products you can shop with confidence, and know that you’re putting good beneficial ingredients on your skin. I’ve always strived to be really transparent. The name, Unfiltered, represents that ideal to me.

I work mainly with plant materials – dried flowers and herbs, seaweed, floral hydrosols, organic carrier oils, plant butters, and pure organic essential oils. I believe that these plants have so many nutrients to offer us and they’re all we really need for healthy, radiant skin.

One person recently shared their story of using my face cream with me. They said that they’ve always struggled with acne so they were afraid to use a moisturizer. They hated wearing foundation all the time as it further inflamed their skin, but they felt like they needed something to hide behind. Now that they use the face cream, their skin feels so much better, and the acne has improved so much that they ditched the foundation!

It’s hearing stories like that, that let me know I’m doing things right. I just want to help people feel better, treat the planet better, and support other small businesses and organic agriculture.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

People ask me all the time how I learned how to do this. After college, I did a bit of traveling and became friends with a family that I met. Everything in their house is made from natural materials, they eat organic foods, and they don’t use any toxic cleaners. I had studied sustainable interior design in school so these thoughts weren’t completely foreign to me. However, spending time with them really forced me to carefully read labels and question what I was putting in my home and on my body.

I started making most of my household products, because I wanted to live a non-toxic lifestyle and because I was super broke. I found that it was much cheaper to make my own laundry detergent and household cleaners. Plus, then I knew exactly what was in them. I’ve always had really dry, itchy, sensitive skin. So naturally, the first body care product I made was body balm. There was a great natural product store that carried raw ingredients in bulk like cocoa butter, beeswax, shea butter, etc. I researched their moisturizing properties and started working with a few of them. It took a long time to perfect the ratio of materials and the texture!

It was so amazing to be able to make my own moisturizer and also have it be the best moisturizer I’d ever known! My skin was no longer itchy all the time which is something that until then, I hadn’t known was possible. From there, my obsession grew! Some things are still best-sellers (like the body balm). Some other things didn’t work out – such as the mascara that had me looking like a raccoon!

Learning how to manufacture products is a lot of trial and error. You have to give yourself a lot of room to make mistakes in the beginning. You have to see which methods work and which don’t. I come from a family of bakers. I’m used to experimenting with different ingredients in the kitchen. Making skincare doesn’t feel so different than experimenting with a new cake recipe. It’s all about getting the right ratio of ingredients, the right active ingredients, correct temperatures, and trusting yourself. I’ve learned so much plant knowledge along the way just by researching different plants and by talking with others. I love that there’s always so much more to learn!

I started off small, in my kitchen, wherever I was living at the time. I sold body balm and deodorant to people at street fairs in Portland, Oregon and in Portland, Maine. As my client list grew, I started acquiring larger mixing bowls and scales, buying raw materials in bulk, basically just slowly scaling up. Now I have a little studio in town. A whole space just for making skin care products! My heart skips a beat every time I open the door! No more sharing the kitchen sink or deciding whether to make dinner or face cream. (I’ve learned the hard way that you can’t do both at the same time!).

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Unfiltered Skin Care had been my side hustle for many years. It feels so good to finally be in a place where I can say, this is my full time job! For years, I would come home after work and then ‘get to work’ blending oils, and putting tiny labels on jars late into the night, wake up early the next morning and start all over again.

I graduated college with a degree in Interior Design during the great recession. Design jobs were hard to come by. Hardly anyone was hiring. I always kept one foot in the design world but I had to work so many different jobs just to pay the rent. I’ve cleaned houses, catered weddings, been a nanny, and hosted in restaurants. Unfiltered was the side hustle that had to come after all the other side hustles!

I started by selling my products to family and friends, and then to First Friday Art Walks downtown. In 2018, I signed up for my first proper craft fair. I decided that if I made any money, I would keep doing it but if I didn’t, it was time to pack it up – one less side hustle. Luckily, people loved my products and I made enough to buy more materials, pay myself for the first time, and sign up for more fairs! It’s big moments like that which start to shift your thinking. You start to believe in yourself, and your business, a little bit more. You learn to trust and reach a bit higher. I even gained my first wholesale account from that fair!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.unfilteredskincare.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unfilteredskincare/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unfilteredskincare

Image Credits
Emma Garcelon Sarah Sullivan