We recently connected with Jessica Glasner and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jessica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The idea for eNVy formulations sprouted in late 2019; I had gone through a gutwrenching break-up and divorce, just quit a job I’d been striving to attain for a decade… basically, I felt utterly lost and could no longer muster a sense of purpose. I have about a decade of pharmaceutical lab experience, I missed doing benchtop chemistry, and I’d been reading about CBD in research trials for inflammation reduction. A relevant note here, I was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in 2018, a condition I’ve watched my mother battle my entire life. So, I became interested in playing around with a CBD serum to treat my reddened cheeks, characteristic of Lupus. As I began searching for how to make a face serum and common ingredients, I found myself perplexed and irritated with learning how many ingredients in the popular, or expensive, or drugstore skincare products are there for texture and shelf-life stability, and how few include natural, good-for-your-skin ingredients. Moving forward, I knew I wanted to craft something simple without the potential skin irritants, and hormone disruptors… The final straw happened one day while I was at Target, and it dawned on me that there are 5+ aisles of skincare/make-up products… FIVE or more! Aisles filled with bright lights, beautifully photoshopped faces, and walls of wasteful packaging – I had had it. It was on this day that I decided to not only formulate a serum for myself that I trust, but to also craft a line of skincare products that are non-toxic, sustainably sourced and packaged, and really, to walk the talk. I believe that in an unregulated industry (skincare products in the US), there can be product and brand integrity, and I’ve got the background to do it.

Jessica, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up in low-income communities which translates to poorer education standards, so the fact that by my mid-30s I had earned two engineering degrees and over a decade of industry experience in biotech and engineering, is nothing short of a shock to others and even myself. I guess I had something to prove to myself. There is a systemic issue in the skincare industry in the US: no one is being honest. So few companies are making truly toxin-free skincare, with many touting “green” and “clean” … but they’re still making products with formulations based on profit margins, not consumer safety. My biotech background and advanced education, fueled by my obsession to improve or fix things, have empowered me to build this business: non-toxic skincare, transparency, education, and sustainability. I want to spread these values like wildfire. A novel aspect of eNVy formulations is the recycling program, and this is something I hope to scale and lead other companies to follow. The current model is that we will pay return shipping and give customers a 15% discount on a future purchase to return their empty bottles. We use high-quality glass bottles that can be cleaned, sterilized, and reused. We are trying to lead by example what a sustainable skincare business truly is.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

I manufacture/produce my own products – I start with raw ingredients and follow formulations I’ve developed from scratch to make everything. A strong chemistry background and a decade working in wet labs empowered me to teach myself how to make skincare formulations, and my chemical engineering background provides a foundation for scaling to larger volumes. Finding the right companies to partner with and trust for your raw ingredients, bottles, labels, etc… is daunting. I have constraints that drastically lowers the number of options for companies I will choose to purchase from/work with; my commitment to sustainable packaging for example, means I will only buy high quality glass bottles, with a preference for US-based companies. The following sets of filters have to be refined the hard way: trial and error. The best advice I can share for getting through this part is to conserve cash, opt to do as much on your own as you can, order things in small batches to determine quality without sinking yourself financially, and don’t be afraid to ask questions – chances are you’re new to this!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I wasted money on ads for the first few months, a total crapshoot with zero return and I didn’t learn much valuable insight, but I’ve discovered that organic, local growth has been tremendous for growing the business. I do a lot of farmer’s markets and pop-ups. These kinds of environments promote conversation and build trust, and when you’re trying to sell something you made, you’re asking people to trust that it’s good, and face-to-face conversation really supports this. As long as you’re genuinely invested in what you’re creating, it’ll become easier each time talking to people about it, and chances are really good that your passion and enthusiasm, coupled with a quality product will sell.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.envyformulations.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/envyformulations/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eNVyformulations/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/envy-formulations/?viewAsMember=true
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/eNVy_skincare

Image Credits
Lora Wagener Tiffany Kelterer