We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cory and Nicol Varona. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nicol below.
Cory and Nicol, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
The beauty industry is known for its lack of regulation but as our brands first customers we took it upon ourselves to go beyond just cutting out parabens, sulfates and silicones from our formulas. During our own transformation to embracing our curly hair, we tried many products that were not formulated with clean ingredients. We knew we wanted to design products that not only performed well but that were made with the highest quality and cleanest ingredients. For us, clean means more than removing a few toxic ingredients. It means “claro” or clear and clean in all the ways. Formula, scent, hand feel, hair feel, recyclable packaging and a “no” list that goes beyond sulfates, parabens and silicones. We might be a small company, but we are currently working with Novi, a product development platform, that helps beauty brands get certified with clean beauty policies. All our formulations have been reviewed by this third-party platform to make sure we comply with the highest clean beauty standards.
Cory and Nicol, 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?
We are Cory and Nicol Varona, Hermanas and immigrants from the Dominican Republic (DR), redefining how curly hair products are created to help Latina women love their curls and themselves. We straightened our hair to feel beautiful, and the damage resulted. Our curl transformation led us to design luxe and clean products for curly Latina women. Our mission is to honor them in their real, most raw, authentic self to help them transform their life. Our formulations perform beyond synthetics with high quality, safe and effective ingredients.
Our products were designed with ingredients from nuestra tierra, DR, like mangoes and hibiscus flowers. We use innovative ingredients found in skin care like Marula oil and carrot root in both of our styling products. Currently, we have our Ultra-Defined Curls Leave in and Ultra-Defined Styling Gel. The leave-in cream was created for the ultimate definition and hydration, leaving your curls soft and shiny. Our styling gel is made so you can fall in love with your hair. Created to add moisture, definition and frizz control. Both products are designed to help your styling last longer while leaving your curls soft and bouncy. We combined the best from science and nature to give our customers the best hair care experience, we created two styling products that can be used on their own for outstanding results or paired together for a more defined style. What makes our products truly special, besides the amazing ingredients is having them designed by curly women for curly women. Also, our company has a commitment to working with talented women who help us create our wonderful products. From our chemists to our marketing agency and graphic designers. This company has been built from the ground up by women whose passion and motivation comes from helping other women flourish.
In 2023, we will grow our collection with new products, focusing on the scalp’s health. We are two Latina sisters who moved to this country without knowing what the future was going to look like for us. We started our brand with limited resources, no beauty experience and our savings. We didn’t let that stop us from going after our dreams. Today, we help Latinas love their curls and themselves. Bringing a different take on luxe curly hair products, with products that do what they say. Our mission is to keep creating innovative products that make Latina women feel seen and represented. Our dream is to live in a world where beauty is not measured by Eurocentric standards but rather embraces the natural beauty that makes us all unique.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Supply chain is a risk for most beauty brands, regardless of their size, but it is incredibly challenging for a small startup like ours. Launching a new brand in the middle of the pandemic was a huge challenge for us, as supply chain issues delayed our production. COVID-19 also affected manufacturing labor shortage which added additional strain to our plans. We had to pivot and delay our launch for a whole year which increased our startup costs. Our original plan was to launch a full collection, but all the changes made us pivot and focus on just two styling products. Despite all the challenges we launched in March of 2021. We endured a lot of hurdles that made us think we couldn’t do it, but we persisted. Looking back that was the best move we could’ve made starting our brand and testing the market as newbies in the beauty industry. As women founders, we are resourceful and resilient. We encourage others to never give. You won’t know what’s on the other side of fear unless you take the leap of faith. We are a self-funded business and are using our life savings to grow and expand our business. Being a small business owner is not easy, but we are on a mission to help other women transform their lives and claim confidence in their natural beauty.
How’d you meet your business partner?
We are sisters. We have known each other since birth. We always knew we wanted to start a business but never in a million years would we have guessed a curly hair brand. We are outsiders to the industry, but our connection and unmatched partnership makes us a great team. Our mission is to redesign how curly hair products are made to help women love their curls and themselves.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dnorganics.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dnorganics/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dnorganics/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dn-organics
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@dnorganics?lang=en
Image Credits
Holiday images (red theme) – Photography by Maya Serres Product photography – Photography by Nathan Bonslaver