08.18.2021
Episode 189: Joan Sutton, CEO and Co-Founder of 707 Flora
Summary
A love of beauty, trusting in her mentors and a willingness to learn led my guest, Joan Sutton, to co-creating 707 Flora. From a start at Lancôme, to a luxury spa in Beverly Hills, Joan followed in the footsteps of her mentors as she went from the world of retail beauty, to beauty treatments in spas, and finally to owning her own brand! What she learned was incredible.
Transcript
| Announcer | Welcome to Where Brains Meet Beauty®, hosted by Jodi Katz, founder and creative director of Base Beauty Creative Agency. |
| Jodi Katz | Hey everybody, it's Jodi Katz, your host of Where Brains Meet Beauty® podcast. Welcome back to the show. This week's episode features Joan Sutton. She is the CEO and founding partner of 707 Flora. And if you missed last week's episode, it featured the founder of Fitish CBD skincare, Jenna Owens. Hope you enjoy the show. Hey, everybody. I'm so excited to be here with Joan Sutton. She is the CEO and founding partner of 707 Flora. Welcome to Where Brains Meet Beauty®. |
| Joan Sutton | Thank you so much. So excited to be here. |
| Jodi Katz | So, full disclosure for our listeners. Joan is a client of Base Beauty and we're so excited to help shepherd her business growth forward. And I'm so glad Joan that you are excited to be on the show. |
| Joan Sutton | We are so excited to and look forward to partnering with you in a lot of different ways. |
| Jodi Katz | So, Joan, let's go back in time, way, way, way back in time for my first question, which is my favorite question on the show since our whole show is about career journey. If someone asked your 11-year-old self, what do you want to be when you grow up? What is your answer? |
| Joan Sutton | Well, I always wanted to be a veterinarian because I love the animals. And then I quickly realized that as a veterinarian, you see the sick animals and I'm so sensitive and it would always break my heart. So, when any animal is sick, so I decided that wasn't the journey for me. And when I was in high school, my girlfriends and I, we were all using these CoverGirl compacts. And so went to the store and got them. And then I saw an older friend's sister had a Lancôme compact. And I looked at the CoverGirl and I looked at the Lancôme and I was like, "Wow." There was something about the click that it made when it closed. And there was just this luxurious packaging and it was shiny. And the sponge that it came with. And that's when I knew. And I think I was 16 years old and I had just started working. And that compact at that time was $20 and the CoverGirl compact was $3. And I literally got a job because I said, "I have to get this compact." And that's where I started falling in love with beauty and realized that I couldn't do it for a living because I was obsessed with it and really noticed all the details and loved everything about that. |
| Jodi Katz | Well, what was that job at 16 that propelled you to get that beautiful compact? |
| Joan Sutton | Washing dishes at a pizza place. We're at $3 an hour. So I had to work what, like by the time taxes were out, like a full shift for that one compact, but it was so worth it. |
| Jodi Katz | I love hearing first job stories. My first job was babysitting at age 13, I made so much money babysitting and I can't believe that people would let me stay home as a 13-year-old with their children. Some of which were in cribs. And I knew nothing, but it's so fun to have a job as a teenager and earn your money for the things you want. |
| Joan Sutton | Absolutely. I've always been that way. And I was looking through recently, some old... My mom used to save all of the work we did in kindergarten and things in elementary school. And I found a report I did literally, I think I was in the second grade and it was all about how I wanted to work and how a career was so important to me. And it would give me the freedom to have what I want. And I thought, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe at such a young age that I was already thinking about that." And for me, I feel so lucky that I fell in love with beauty at such a young age while I was in high school. And so, it's never really been like work to me. I've been so passionate about it, whether it's making... I'm a product developer. So, I make for other people and now for myself, my own brand. And it's like to me, like Disneyland as a child working in the beauty industry, I am obsessed and I work a lot and I love every second of it. |
| Jodi Katz | Well, let's go back in time to your first job in beauty. How did you get that first job? And where was it? |
| Joan Sutton | I worked for Lancôme Cosmetics, which was funny. And I had a job. I was 19 years old and I had a job in the mall working for Victoria's Secret. And I ran into, I would always look at the cosmetic girls that had worked at the time, it was a department store that's no longer around, but equivalent to like a Macy's. And the cosmetic girls, the Lauder girls and the Lancôme girls would all sit together. And I was like, "God, I want to be them." And it just seems such like such a big dream. And anyway, I befriended them. And when there was an opening, they came time for me to interview, and I was so excited. And it's funny because the person who interviewed me on that day, I'm still very close friends with. And she has been a mentor for me and has helped me throughout my career. And I've known her... I'm 51 now. So, I've known her for over 30 years and she's been an incredible resource, friend and mentor for me. So, I feel very lucky. |
| Jodi Katz | That's so cool. Do you want to give her a shout out? |
| Joan Sutton | Sure. It's Kimber Maderazzo and she owns her own company, but she's done so much for my career and she's a real force to be reckoned with in the beauty industry. |
| Jodi Katz | So it sounds like the interview went well and you got that job. |
| Joan Sutton | Yes. I got that job and within six months, she promoted me to the business manager. Six months after that, I got another promotion. So, I had found my niche and I was so happy and I grew with her. And then when it came time... So, she was also growing in her career and she got a big promotion. And then she ended up leaving the company. And I was devastated because this was who I wanted to be. I looked at her like, "Oh my gosh, if that could only be me." And so, she left and I lost contact with her for a few years. I was still with Lancôme and she came back and said, "I'm working for this new brand. They're an amazing company. I think you'd be perfect. Will you come work?" And I was like, "Okay, what kind of job is it?" And she said, "It's for a spa in Beverly Hills. And they're really great with skincare." And I said, "Okay." So I said, "Sure, of course, if you're saying it, definitely it's of interest." So, I went in and met Aida Thibiant and interviewed with her. And she is a very, she's the grande dame of beauty. She was like... For those of you who don't know who she is, she's from the seventies, Eastern European who really started the spa industry in the US in the early seventies. Anyway, so I met with her and it was this little spa and I thought, "How much do they sell?" Because I was used to the hustle and bustle of the department store. And she said the sales or what she told me was like more than what we were doing in the department store. And I sat on those shelves and I said, "Okay." I just kind of closed my eyes and said, "I trust you. You've never steered me wrong." I went like this and covered my eyes and was holding her hand, just said, "All right, let's do it." And literally, that was the best move I made in my entire career because that gave me the foundation to everything I know. And working for Aida Thibiant was like getting a PhD in beauty because she was also not only product developing and have her spa, which retail and service, but she also was a manufacturer. So, that opened up the whole world for me of manufacturing and product development. And that's what really was the impetus to my whole career now and to me, even having my own brand. |
| Jodi Katz | How wonderful that this human to human connection that you had with your first boss really grew in blossomed into this amazing career. And you're just like trusting people and just riding the wave and how it can lead to such opportunity. |
| Joan Sutton | Yeah, absolutely. And I'm all about relationships and I really feel that I like to pay it forward. So when I have someone who comes to me and is really interested in beauty, you can tell who's willing to put into the work and who's not. There were a time where I had three jobs, I grew up very humbly and not with a lot of money. So, everything I've built, I've built on my own. And like I said, it was always a pleasure for me to work. So, if I work seven days a week, it was no big deal. It was always my focus. And so when I find somebody who has that kind of drive, I take them under my wing and only hope that I can give them some sort of guidance or help that I was lucky enough to receive from Kimber, and then ultimately Aida Thibiant who took me under her wing, and that was just like that was the biggest win of all for me in the beauty industry, to be able to work with her and learn from her was just incredible. |
| Jodi Katz | So, what was the biggest difference you saw in the retail experience in the department store versus in Aida's Spa where you mentioned, it didn't look the same, right? It didn't have the characteristics of like fancy beauty merchandising. |
| Joan Sutton | Well, I will say that there's not a better job to start out in the beauty industry than behind the counter. I always call it the front line of the beauty industry. You're like the Marines you are working for that sale. That is somebody that you're grabbing off the floor that maybe is walking by, you've got goals to meet, you've got pressure. You've got brands to compete with and you've gift with purchase, which is a whole big thing. We started this whole presale thing where you're selling before you even have the gift. The pressure's incredible. The competition is fierce and there's a lot of competition. So you got to really work for it. When you're in the spa, it's a little bit different. You have women that are making appointments to do facials or body treatments or hair, we were full service, so we did it all. And they're already investing in their beauty. So they're in Beverly Hills. So they're paying top dollar. So they're buying a facial for $200, $300. So, of course, I would tell the aestheticians, because I was manager of the spa and I would tell them, "You have to sell them products." And the estheticians would say, "I don't talk about the products." They were all with their accents, very European. "I do not sell the products. I'm an artist." And I said... And I would always, it was always a battle to say, "Listen, you have this captive audience. They're investing into their skincare. You are their guru for skincare. If you don't sell them skincare, not only you're doing them a disservice, it's your job to tell them what you want, but you're also losing a sale because somebody who spends $200 for a facial is going to go down the street to Neiman's or Barneys or whatever and they're going to buy a skincare because they're not using an eye cream or a cleanser or a mask, so you can take the sale or you can give it away." So, the challenge wasn't getting the business, the challenge was motivating the staff and really incentivizing them beyond commission because money always doesn't talk, but really empowering them with, "It's your job. And the customers are going to appreciate you more because they'll be using the skincare for 30 days. They come back to you once and they see a big improvement. So you're actually helping them improve their skin." So, I think that was the biggest challenge is they're bigger sales because they're buying the whole regimen. So, they want these amazing results from their facial to last. So, you're getting bigger sales and more loyal clients in a spa, but your battle is getting the people to sell it. In the department store, you have the people to sell it that are fiercely on top of each other. We'd call them sharks, right? Everybody's trying to make the commission, everybody's trying to do that, but there's not as much business. And you fight for the loyalty of the customer, it's not built-in. So, there were two very different business models. And like I said, anybody who starts behind the counter, I always have a huge amount of respect for, and as time goes by brick and mortar and department stores are even harder to sell in. So, I have a huge amount of respect. It is not an easy job. |
| Jodi Katz | When you spoke about the reluctance of the estheticians to sell, it made me think of myself and my own journey. So, I didn't start my own agency to be a salesperson. I didn't even know what that meant, but as the founder of the company, as you know, Joan you're a salesperson now too, right? But I was so uncomfortable with it and someone who is a great salesperson, Erin Syswerda. So shout out to Erin. She sells things that are not related to beauty, but she's a talented salesperson. She said, "Jodi, you have something that they really need. So you just need to tell them that you have it and you can help them." And when she told me that, once I sort of repositioned what selling is, it made me so excited for it. And then I understood that it's fun. And I would imagine that once the esthetician heard your advice, which is like, "They can get the best products from you, or they can go down the street and they don't even know what they're buying." I would imagine it probably changed their minds. |
| Joan Sutton | It absolutely did. And it was a huge breakthrough for the business. And I did very well there because of my philosophy, because for me, I am so excited and enthusiastic about the products that I make, about beauty in general, or even if it's not my product, but I see something that's so cool, I can't wait to talk about it. I can't wait to tell everybody about it. So for me, the selling just comes from my heart because I love it and I want to share it. And I think that the aestheticians started getting some of that. It's infectious too, right? You create a momentum where you're at. And so, I was creating that momentum of excitement. We have the best skincare, but then also showing them the payoff. And ultimately when they saw the results based on what they were making after they have had that little flip in their brain, that it really did help. And it changed our business completely. |
| Jodi Katz | Well, I want to talk about all these legendary places where you worked, but I kind of want to jump ahead to a story I read about you that talks about rekindling an old flame led you to 707 Flora. So, since our show is about career journey, but personal journey also, I need to hear the story. |
| Joan Sutton | It is a crazy story. So my business partner Wesley Titus, he's somebody that I dated when I was in my early twenties and I was working for Lancôme Cosmetics at the time. So, really early twenties. I think I was barely, I don't know, 21, 22, something like that. Anyway, so we dated off and on for a few years and then just lost contact in our lives, went separate places. And so, it was one of those things. We were in our early twenties. So then cut to, I don't know, 20 years later, I get this message from Facebook that it's from Wesley and it says, "Hey, is this Joan Sutton?" I'm like, "Yeah, this is me." And it was just so funny to reconnect after all those years. And so, we talked on the phone that night literally, I have it on my... I screenshot it because I couldn't believe it. We talked for four hours. I sent it to my two best friends, roommates at the time was like, "Oh my God, can you believe I got in contact with Wesley Titus?" And it was just like this weird thing. And then all of a sudden we went out like within that week and it's very odd to have somebody in your life that's new because you haven't been in contact with them for 20 years. But at the same time is so nostalgic, like family. He is the whole reason why I even started the brand because I don't think I would have had the nerve or courage to do it by myself. But what happened was he took me to... He had been in the cannabis industry. I always joke and say for longer than he should have been. He's got as much cannabis experience as I have beauty. So it's a long time. And so, he took me to an event it's kind of cliche. It was on 420 and it was a Cannabis Cup. And I thought, "I don't know if I really want to go." Even though cannabis was a part of my life, it's always been sort of, I've been like a closet cannabis person. I've always been a career person, super motivated and people judge you all the time. So I always kept that separate. So, I thought, "I don't know if I want to go." Like, "Okay, we'll go. Why not?" And so he took me there and he's really connected. Like he is the golden key to the cannabis kingdom. He knows everybody. So, there's all these awards, which are very scientific and technical. And he introduces me to these guys who were these award winners that were doing extractions. So, we start talking about terpenes, which terpenes is the chemical constituent that makes flavor and fragrance. And I'm very familiar with them because I've developed a lot of fragrances in my time. And it's the same. You can get terpenes from basil or from lemons. There can be synthetic, or you can get them from cannabis, which gives it that smell, like we all know about that skunky kind of smell. That's terpenes at work and there's a lot of different kinds. Anyway, so we started getting into this huge discussion about terpenes and I was saying, "Oh, that's what we use for... We use CO2 critical extraction for oils from plants and basil when we get the limonene" and they were just blown away like I had sort of revealed, it was like I was behind the curtain. I had revealed all of this stuff because they thought this was all new for cannabis. And I said, "No, it's been around since the 1800s, since Gattefosse aromatherapy has been around forever." So then I educated them a little bit about some of the equipment that they use, the processes. And I was just like, "Oh my God." I was so happy to have this really meaty conversation about terpenes of all things, I never would have expected it. So then, Wesley at the same time was just kind of standing back and his wheels are turning, going, "Okay, this is a good thing here." And then I start to see a couple of brands around that are more pain relief because it was cannabis, it was THC, and that was it. After that, I think both of our heads were spinning. And I thought... I never in my life wanted to have a brand. I've developed literally probably a thousand products to market. And I never wanted to have my own brand because I know too much. I know how much money it takes. I know the effort that goes in, I know the competition, all of it. And I thought, "Why would I want to do that?" Because I don't have this... I'm not independently wealthy to just start a brand because it's fun and I want one and I like product." There was also nothing like drawing me to it. The world doesn't need another skincare line. It doesn't need... But after Wesley took me to this convention, I thought, "Wow, this is a game-changer. This is going to fundamentally change skincare and I want to be at the forefront because I love cannabis. I love skincare. I love Wesley. This is a perfect match for us." And that's how it started. And that was at the beginning of 2017, long before the Farm Bill passed. And so two weeks later I put my house on the market. I had it for 17 years in LA. So, you can imagine it had a lot of equity. And we sold that house. I bought a house together with Wesley up in Humboldt County to really embed myself into the cannabis culture, he knows it well, but I was the newbie. And just learned everything out about it from the dirt, literally the soil. We have a farm in Humboldt and my mom jokes and calls me green acres because I'm a city girl, but I quickly learned the way of the country. And there's nothing more special than being connected to the plant and seeing the magic and the possibilities that it can bring to the world, not just in skincare, but in a lot of different ways. But that's how that all started. Like it's just been an incredible journey and I feel very blessed and lucky for the way everything happened. |
| Jodi Katz | It's such a great story, Joan. And I'm having this moment where I'm thinking about Sliding Doors. You remember that movie. |
| Joan Sutton | Yes, I do. Oh, my God. I'm obsessed with that movie. |
| Jodi Katz | Can you imagine if no one mentioned the word terpene during that conversation? We might not be having this conversation right now. It's just like all the things coming together, right? Facebook, Wesley, this event, someone saying this word, having this conversation, it's incredible. |
| Joan Sutton | It really is. And I very much live in the moment. Try to live in the moment. And also try to take responsibility for where I'm at in my life. It's all a cumulation of these different decisions that we've made. And I feel like it's the right place. It's the right time. And I do feel like things happen that are meant to be. And also it's been incredible. Wesley and I continue to work on more things and he's doing some incredible things with cannabis. So, he'll be expanding the line to more THC down the road, we're working on that. It takes a while obviously, but that's going to be really exciting and we're going to be breaking boundaries and doing it together and having so much fun on the way. And who would think that I would be like on a farm, like with dirt animals and every wildlife and everything? But honestly, I couldn't be happier and I feel healthier and it all feels really good. |
| Jodi Katz | So now Joan you're in Aida shoes, right? She was running the business. It sounds like it was a business with a lot of different trajectories, a lot of different ways to make money. It sounds like you're actually setting the same thing up for yourself in this moment. What do you recall from your time working with her that's really helping you navigate this for yourself? |
| Joan Sutton | Oh my gosh. So much. Every day I think about her, we were close. I was like a daughter to her. She never had a daughter. I remained very close with her son, Patrick Thibiant. But there's so many things. There's relationships are always important. I think one of the things that I always take from her is that she was a guru. Literally, she had studied in the fifties in France at the forefront of skincare, made so many revolutionary discoveries and she always every year would go to different events at the Society of Cosmetic Chemists and travel around the world. And anything that would come up to, "Oh, I want to go to this. Oh, I want to go to this." And I'm thinking, "Really, another sunscreen convention?" And she's like, "Nevermind, it happens a lot where it changes so fast and you've got to be on top of it." And she always felt like she could learn something every single day. And this woman knew a lot. Obviously, just living the 80 whatever plus years in her life, that life experience as a woman and that journey that she went through from Europe to America and moving countries as an immigrant, but also building an empire. She built not only a beautiful spa in Beverly Hills, but a massive manufacturing facility which is one of the largest on the West Coast. So, seeing her challenge herself to learn every day was humbling and really made me realize very quickly that, "Wow, this journey is only... You're at the scratch, the surface of it." And so, I try to pick that up from her and learn from other women every day and support women. That was one thing that was important to her was supporting other women and embracing competition. When I would get upset and go, "Oh my gosh, they totally copied us." She's like, "That's flattery. There's enough business for everyone. The pie is big enough. Beauty is huge. Do what you love, believe in yourself, do it the best you can do and there's enough business for everyone." |
| Jodi Katz | So, it sounds like a kind of ego-free way to run a business, right? Like acknowledging that you don't know everything, that there's always something to learn. Also, acknowledging that you're not really in competition with other brands, right? Your customer will be drawn to you and that there's plenty of room like she said for other brands to survive. The lack of ego in that is really astounding, especially for someone who's running a business for people in Beverly Hills. |
| Joan Sutton | Yeah. It's a interesting thing because you have to have the confidence because you're dealing with... At the time, I was dealing with every celebrity that you could imagine, from Cher to Madonna, to Diana Ross, like massive, iconic, not just the day to day celebrities in LA, but really iconic peak women and having the confidence to treat them and do the best that you can do and run that business so it's successful and have that strength and drive, but at the same time, be humble and realize not take yourself so seriously and continue to do the work and continue to study and continue to challenge yourself and those around you. |
| Jodi Katz | So, on that theme, how do you, when you were like at the forefront of this industry, you're literally in the neck of the woods of this business, but you moved yourself into the zone where all this is happening. How do you keep educating yourself when you guys are actually at the front, right? So it's not like you're following along at this point, you're really leading. So, how do you keep evolving and educating and growing? |
| Joan Sutton | A lot of different ways. For example, today, there was a great seminar on sustainability and hemp and the connection between the two. It was with Society of Cosmetic Chemists. I unfortunately wasn't able to do it because I had other appointments in this, but I had my colleague take it who is... I call her my sustainability guru so that she could then inform me. So, I put my... And then if I have a marketing seminar that I can't go to, I'll send somebody to marketing. So, not only I still would try to take it myself if I was available, I would have, but if not, I have those around me also helping to contribute and educate me as well. The other thing is with Wesley up in Humboldt, we're surrounded by... That is literally the cannabis capital of the world, not just US, but literally of the world, like his friends that are all these award winners for cannabis, they go to Europe and people are asking him for autographs. That's how it's the epicenter. So, there's so much when he takes me to places. And when we're with different manufacturers or different farms, there's always something that I learned from those people, whether it's something about the plant or their processes, or even operationally how they're doing things, I'm trying to be a sponge and watch those around me to see what they're doing and what might work for us and taking those skills and transferring them to our 707 Flora brand. |
| Jodi Katz | All right. So, my last question for you, and maybe this is going to sound a little simple, but I think it's probably what a lot of people are thinking since you've developed, like you said, thousands of products through the years. So now you learn about the powers of CBD. What are we missing as skincare customers in our lives without CBD in our skincare? I ask because you're falling in love with this and the possibilities. So what have I been missing? What am I lacking, I guess by this kind of old world of skincare versus the CBD new world of skincare? |
| Joan Sutton | Well, here's the best thing of all is that you don't have to give up anything and you can have more. And that's really what I set out to do. When we first started the brand, there were two buckets of people that were entering in this business. The skincare people that knew a lot about skincare, the things we love, delivery systems, efficacy, moisturization, anti-aging, but they don't really understand the plant. So it was like, "Give me give me whatever and I'll throw it in there because I've got to launch a product in six months because it's the hot new thing." Then you have the cannabis people and they understand the plant better than anybody and that generationally understand the plant and made homemade recipes, that lack the sophistication of delivery systems, formulation, textures, and characteristics, the smells, the penetration, all of that. So, what I wanted to do is combine them both. And the reason why, and to get to your question, what have we been missing? I feel like CBD is not a one-hit wonder. I wouldn't just put it into cream and say, "Use it. It's going to change your life." It's not that. You still need the other things in your skincare that you're accustomed to. I'm a huge fan of hyaluronic acid, peptides, seaweed, algaes, different types of superfood and clean ingredients for the skin, all of that's in there. But what CBD is doing to take it to the next level is it's helping to balance the skin. So CBD is a regulator, whether you're taking it internally or you're using it topically, what it is doing is it's regulating the cells on a cellular level. So, inflammation is an easy example because it's easy to visualize. When our skin is inflamed, it gets puffy and it gets red. The CBD signals to that cell to downregulate the inflammation, so to help make it less puffy, less red. If you had dry skin, we have what's called the NMF of our skin. It's a natural moisturization factor where our skin is resilient organ is trying to moisturize itself. When that doesn't happen and we're dry and you're using CBD, it's going to try and upregulate that moisture. So, it's a down-regulator and up-regulator for different things that are happening on the skin, so on a cellular level. So it gives your skin a balance. So, if you ask me, "What have you been missing in your skincare with CBD?" I would say, "Use the skincare that you love. The things, if you love peptides... I'm getting wrinkles now, all of that, I want all of that anti-aging." But using CBD will give your skin a different feeling of balance, a different softness because it's moisturizing and hydrating and regulating the cells on the basal layer of the skin, which is where we have CB receptors in our skin, which is how it works. So, it really will give... You'll notice a certain softness that builds up into the skin. So, not a softness of like it's oilier skin, but more soft to the touch. And maybe you're oily on your T-zone and you get more of a slip on your skin there, you're going to notice it's going to be a little softer, a little less oilier, so it helps to balance out that T-zone. So it helps to regulate your skin. It helps it to be normal. It helps it do what your skin is trying to do anyway, which is to be in homeostasis. And that's really what it's all about. CBD is bringing the body and the skin into balance. |
| Jodi Katz | Okay. Now my real last question. Okay. So you and Wesley are in the heart of this, working with the people who are like literally harvesting and processing and whatnot, hanging out with CBD superstars around the world. But my guess is there's a real big problem of I guess I'll call it CBD washing, right? Like we had greenwashing where it's just like misinformation and ingredients put into products just for marketing purposes with really no efficacy. How do you guys approach this idea of like a world where CBD washing is happening, but you're doing it in the way that you think is going to create efficacy? How do you manage that? |
| Joan Sutton | Well, there's a few different things. First of all, education is hugely important. I think that there's so much information, like you said, misinformation and good information. So it's hard for the consumer to filter through that. I think it's our responsibility as a brand to educate as much as possible. And I think transparency's important. And with CBD, one of the things that we are challenged with is to make sure that people can see all of the testing results. We have a special page on our website where you can type in the batch number and you could see everything about that batch. Exactly what cannabinoids are in there. Exactly how much CBD is in there. You see it all, so you can see there is safety testing. So I think it's really about educating the consumer, being transparent and being responsible, being ethically responsible. One thing drives me crazy is that I see all of these brands that are coming out, like I said, fast to market, they're skincare people. They're like just throw something in there. We need to put a pot leaf on the skincare so it can sell. And they're going to put like hemp seed oil in a product. And then they put all these marijuana leaves and then they throw it on Amazon. Well, Amazon doesn't let you sell CBD. So if anything you buy off Amazon, it's not CBD or it's misinformation first of all. Secondly, they're marketing it to the consumer and they're playing on this lack of information. It's not even ignorance because it's just lack of information that's out there, making the consumer believe that they're buying a CBD product because there's a pot leaf on it and they're positioning it as that. But in reality, it's hemp seed oil, which hemp seed oil is great. We've been using that for 50 years in cosmetics. It's very hydrating. It has great fatty acids, omega-3s and omega-6s, gamma-GLAs, the gamma-Linolenic acid. It's rich in that, but it's not CBD and CBD is what is actually regulating the skin and so you're not going to get that same benefit. So, that's what drives me crazy about it is hemp seed isn't bad, but don't trick the consumer because then it makes us have to not only educate people, but reeducate people and that's a challenge. |
| Jodi Katz | Joan, I am so grateful for your wisdom. We could talk for hours. I know for sure, because we've done it. So, thank you so much for sharing with us and my listeners today. |
| Joan Sutton | Thank you so much. It's my pleasure. |
| Jodi Katz | And for our listeners, I hope you enjoyed this interview with Joan. Please subscribe to our series on iTunes and for updates about the show, follow us on Instagram @wherebrainsmeetbeautypodcast. |
| Announcer | Thanks for listening to Where Brains Meet Beauty® with Jodi Katz. Tune in again for more authentic conversations with beauty leaders. |
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