Hydrate Your Midlife Skin with Skincare Guru Kari Gran
Show Snapshot:
Goodbye estrogen, hello dry midlife skin!
Want dewy, hydrated, nourished, glowy skin?
Meet clean beauty leader Kari Gran, the founder of Kari Gran Skin Care, an organic skincare line that offers maximum hydration in a minimal process.
Women-owned and operated, hand poured in small batches in Seattle, the cult-favorite line is carried at clean beauty stockists across the U.S. such as Credo Beauty, ONDA, and big box retailers like Saks.
We talk serums, cleansers, lip whips, sun care, and Kari’s no-BS approach to skincare and life.
Use code KATIE20 at checkout to receive 20% off your Kari Gran purchase plus free shipping.
In This Episode We Cover:
How an unexpected health challenge in her late-20s led Kari to formulate skin care products to quench her uber dry skin.
Struggling with dry skin? Time to give hydration-boosting plant oils a try.
Surprise! Not all oils in cosmetics are equal. Check your beauty products for cheap oils like paraffin, petroleum, or mineral oil—which are occlusive and can keep the skin from breathing.
Product junkie? Time to adopt a less-is-more approach to skin care.
Skin needs change by season, time of day, and by climate. The core KG System—a cleansing oil, serum, and hydrating tonic—allows for mix-and-match customization.
Why we all should be anti-anti-aging. Time to ignore the steady drumbeat of fear around aging.
Beauty bag upgrade: Vitamin C serums, Algica, and Lip Whips—oh my!
The midlife mantra we all need— No A**holes, No-BS. Hear, hear!
Quotable:
The Lip Whip.. put us on the map. It had a cult following, and it still does... I had been making lip products in my kitchen for about 25 years, based on a Martha Stewart Magazine article. Fun fact: we’ve been in the magazine, and so that was an “Oh my god” moment.
We have a really simple, less is more, approach. And honestly, with the exception of a few additions, the line is what I created over 10 years ago. The focus is to cleanse, hydrate, protect your skin, and then just go on with your life.
Transcript:
Katie Fogarty [0:30]:
Welcome to A Certain Age, a show for women who are unafraid to age out loud. Do you want to look good, feel great, take care of yourself, but have it be simple and easy? Of course, you do, right? Who doesn’t love simplicity? Especially when it delivers what can be so elusive in midlife: dewy, hydrated, nourished, glow-y skin. When it comes to skincare, I am two things, lazy and dry, like Sahara Desert dry. Which is why I’m thrilled to be a new convert of the Kari Gran organic skincare line which offers maximum hydration in a minimal process.
I am equally thrilled to have Kari as a guest on today’s show. Women-owned and operated, hand poured in small batches in Seattle, the cult-favorite line can be found at clean beauty stockists across the country such as Credo Beauty, ONDA, and big box retailers like Saks. Kari Gran wins raves from Allure, Harper’s BAZAAR, and Cosmopolitan. If you want a less is more, easy, breezy, skin and beauty routine, believe in supporting brands that are anti-anti-aging, and love a good founder backstory, stick around, this show is for you. Welcome, Kari.
Kari Gran [1:47]:
Thank you. Thanks for having me, Katie.
Katie [1:49]:
I’m so excited. We’re going to dive into your product line, we’re going to talk about what made you launch this skincare brand, but I want to start actually with a very quick and fun story. I am a big fan of Bossa Bars, which is a sponsor of this show, they make a wonderful menopause energy bar. And the founder, Julie Gordon White, does an Instagram Live every couple of weeks that she calls the Meno Lounge. She features wonderful experts and speakers; I would encourage everyone who is listening to go check out Bossa Bars. I was watching one of these Lives one day and I was like, “Who is that woman with the most incredible skin?” And I tapped on to figure out who it was, and it was Kari. [laughs]
Kari [2:36]:
Well, that is so nice!
Katie [2:39]:
Yes, I mean this is exactly how it happened. I was like, “Her skin is stunning, it just glows and is so well cared for and so beautiful.” And then you came on as a sponsor of the show! I’m so thrilled.
I believe in your products, I’ve been using them, and I love them. I know that they work, I’ve been on Zooms with you, I’ve gotten to see you during the Meno Lounge, your skin absolutely glows, you’ve obviously taken care of it now that you’re bringing these wonderful products to the rest of us so we can do it too. I would love it if you shared with our listeners why you got into skincare, why Kari Gran?
Kari [3:20]:
Okay. Well, first of all, I happen to love Bossa Bars too [Katie laughs] and I think Julie is doing such great work for this community, as are you, so thank you.
So, what made me get into this? I’ll start by just saying that I have been a lifelong beauty junkie... love, love, love the category. But when I was 29, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune form of thyroid disease, both Graves and Hashimoto’s. And so, that was really my entry into having super dry skin that normally comes as you get a little bit older. So, my business partner, Lisa, likes to call it the “Poor little sick girl story” which, you know, just is something that outwardly, you may not appear like you don’t feel well, but I really didn’t feel well.
And so, fast forward into my early 40s, I decided to career pivot. I was a super burned-out real estate agent that had essentially worked for 20 years without taking any real time off. So, coupled with having some autoimmune issues, it was the ultimate super burnout. And because I loved the category of beauty and I hadn’t really been able to find something that made my dry skin a little bit happier, I started experimenting and playing with oils.
Women in other parts of the world have used oil on their skin forever, so this isn’t something that I dreamed up on my own. But in America, what’s interesting is that for my generation especially, I’ll be 54 in November, it was all about oil phobia and if you use oil on your skin, it will make you break out.
Katie [5:16]:
Yes, absolutely. That was definitely part of the messaging.
Kari [5:20]:
Right. So, we're all like, “Ahh! It’s got to be oil free.” And really what I found was not all oils are created equal and the cosmetics industry, in particular, uses a lot of mineral oil which is a petroleum derivative, and it doesn’t really do great things for our skin because it acts like saran wrap, essentially. It’s an occlusive, it’s got a really big molecular structure and so if you have an open cut or a wound, it's great for helping to heal, but then you really want your skin to breathe. It’s a really cheap ingredient so it’s used in a lot of products. So, if you’re oil phobic, just check your ingredients deck and if it has paraffin, petroleum, or mineral oil listed, that might not be the best oil for you.
So, back to the whole plant oil thing. I was playing with those and what I found was it actually made my skin feel really good because I had gotten, especially in my early 40s, I was putting on cream at night and it felt great for five minutes, and then I felt dry again. What I didn’t realize is that a cream or a lotion is probably, at minimum, 70-75% water, and in a daytime formula that’s lightweight it can be up to 90%. So, that’s what was happening I was putting it on, it felt great, and then I was dry again.
So, to make a long story short, I discovered oils, they made my skin feel really good. I was burned out, I left real estate, and I took a year off and, in that year, I formulated the line for myself. I gave it to Lisa, who is my business partner, she also was in the real estate business, as a gift and it was honestly her idea to turn this into a business because she’s 10 years older than I am. So, at the time I was early 40s, she was early 50s, and she said, “I really like the way this makes my skin feel. You love this category; you don’t have a job. Why don’t we give it a go? We know a lot of women that we can test this on that are in our age group, and if you find a job in the interim, great. If not, let’s try it.”
Katie [7:42]:
This is such a fabulous story. I love having a good friend nudge you into entrepreneurship. I think everything is more fun with friends. I love that she identified that this was a passion for you and that there was an opportunity in the category. Because it’s kind of amazing to go from mixing this by yourself to soothe your own skin to landing on the shelves of Saks.
So, tell us a little bit more about the oils that are in your products part of what I think is so appealing about your products is the simplicity by which they are meant to be used. I was joking when I opened the show about being lazy, but it’s actually true. I’m pretty lazy, I do not want to put a lot of effort in, but I do want results and your product delivers on both of those promises. Walk us through your hero products and how they’re meant to be used.
Kari [8:33]:
Okay. So, we have a really simple, less is more, approach. And honestly, with the exception of a few additions, the line is what I created over 10 years ago. The focus is to cleanse, hydrate, protect your skin, and then just go on with your life. Because I did fall into that trap of using like 12 products in the morning and then 12 products at night and I always had this fear of missing out, like if I wasn’t using something else I wasn’t getting the full benefits.
When in fact, if you take a step back and simplify things and just look at the foundational things that make your skin healthy... First and foremost, it’s a healthy skin barrier. When we over-exfoliate, when we overuse active ingredients, it disrupts the barrier, once the barrier is disrupted, that’s when you get dry, flakey, irritated, breakouts, you name it. And then if you’re like me, the minute my skin started acting up, I would try and fix it. So then I’d get another product, then I’d try another product, and then I’d just go down this rabbit hole. And really what you need to do is step back and simplify.
So, just like a healthy diet, eating real food, it's like looking at skincare from an ingredients perspective. And the majority of our ingredients are plant-based, organic, non-GMO, and wild harvested. So, I think that foundationally, what I found for my own skin, was cleansing with a cleansing oil, which is like old-school cold cream. My grandmother used cold cream on her face every night, walked around super greasy, took a washcloth, and removed it. Same principle. You utilize this cleansing oil in the evening, to remove the debris from the day, whether you’re wearing makeup, sunscreen, or whatever it is. Or even if you’re not wearing any makeup, it’s always best to do a cleanse at the end of the day and then in the morning, I don’t feel the need to cleanse again, especially if you have dry skin. What you can do is rinse in the shower, use a warm washcloth and remove it. But if you’re doing a super sweaty workout then yes, I would suggest cleansing again.
Next step, you move on to is hydration and moisturization. And so, with our tonic and our serum, you can create a custom moisturizer for yourself. It sounds difficult but it’s not, it’s just different.
Katie [11:14]:
Kari, this is part of the magic I think honestly, of what your product does. We are going into a very quick commercial break but when we come back, I want to talk about this unique customization that I feel only really truly your products offer. We’ll be back in a minute.
[Ad Break]
Katie [12:31]:
Okay, we’re back. I love this customization, it’s super easy, and I think it makes so much sense, I’m surprised other people haven’t stolen this idea from you because I think it’s so genius. Tell our listeners about this notion of customization with your products.
Kari [12:47]:
Okay. So, it says it on the bottle, it says it on the box, “The magic is in the mix,” so that’s all you have to remember. The easiest way to think about it is a pie chart. So, if you were to look at a pie chart and it was cut into four, 25% of that pie chart would be oil which is the essential serum. 75% of that pie chart would be water, or in our case, it’s the hydrating tonic, which is a plant hydrosol as well as aloe vera. Let me rewind a second and go back to where I started: a cream is typically at least 75% water. So, that’s your daytime, 75% water to 25% oil and then you don’t have any extra addition of emulsifiers, preservation systems, any of those things, it’s just fresh moisturizer mixed in the palm of your hand. At night, you want something more emollient, or hydrating and moisturizing. Split that pie chart into two. Use equal amounts of the serum and the tonic and you can feel it instantly in the palm of your hand that it is much richer and thicker.
So, that’s it. You have two products, and they can do from the pie chart with 25%, the pie chart with 50%, or just mix it up to whatever you want. The jumping-off point is the two, and then I want people to be in charge of their own skincare and mix it as we need it because skin really does change daily. It can be environmental, it can be what you ate the day before, did you drink enough water? It’s nice to have the ability and the flexibility of something that will work harder for you, instead of having more products that you think you need.
Katie [14:48]:
Yeah, absolutely. You’re just mixing it in the palm of your hand and it’s so easy. To me, this makes so much sense because at different times of the year my skin is different. It’s very dry in the winter, when I’m indoors, in heating. I find that I do hot yoga a lot and, in the summer, I don’t need as much hydration. This is the one time of year I’m not Sahara Desert dry because the air is very humid and I’m doing a lot of hot yoga, and my skin is more moisturized. But during the summer, and when I was hiking in Acadia, you’re at a higher elevation, you’re out in the sun, and I wound up being drier again. So, the notion of mixing your product to where you are during the calendar year, maybe to where you are environmentally, to what’s going on with your skin, to me makes so much sense. You’re really addressing what you need that day.
Kari [15:39]:
Yup, it’s really nice. And so, once you get the hang of it, it’s like, how did I ever not do this? because it’s just so easy.
And then I would like to end with my favorite product which is sunscreen and I think that sunscreen is so underrated in a skincare routine. Although it’s gotten a lot more popular, especially in the last few years, but it is the secret weapon in your skincare routine, especially, especially as we get older. I was a... suntanning fanatic.
Katie [16:20]:
First of all, I have to stop you because I cannot even believe that’s true. I was just raving about your skin.
Kari [16:27]:
It’s so bad.
Katie [16:27]:
You have such beautiful fair skin, and it looks like you’ve taken really good care of it. I had sort of, post-skin envy where I was like, I should have been under a beach umbrella earlier in my life so I could have Kari’s skin. [laughs]
Kari [16:41]:
Oh, you’re very kind, but this is the key: it’s never too late to start. Not only was I a baby oil and iodine, [Katie laughs] laying out on a silver floaty in my brother and sister’s kiddie pool all through high school.
Katie [16:55]:
Oh my god, this is like memories.
Kari [16:59]:
Right? You remember that. And then I was a tanning bed person too.
Katie [17:05]:
Wow.
Kari [17:06]:
It was the late ‘80s! I mean, come on. I’m just going, to be honest here.
Katie [17:09]:
I know, we were all Generation Coppertone.
Kari [17:13]:
We were Generation Coppertone. It was like SPF 2; you didn’t go above a 2 if you ever used any SPF at all.
Katie [17:19]:
Or you put on like Bain de Soleil because you wanted to be the color of a mahogany desk. We all tried to be tan. It never worked for me.
Kari [17:28]:
You and I did not have that luxury. We turned red and then we peeled, and that was it.
Katie [17:33]:
Yeah, this is so funny. What a fun memory. We’re going to talk a little bit more about the ingredients in your products because I’m really fascinated by what you include, but one of the reasons why when we first had the conversation about working together and having you come on to sponsor the show, beyond the fact that I had like, admired your skin during that Bossa Bar Meno Lounge, when I was on your website I learned more about your products and I learned more about your branding because I only want to work with sponsors that I believe in their products. One of the things that I absolutely loved and made me say, “Yes” is the way you talk about aging and marketing and beauty on your website. You literally say, "We don’t call it aging, we call it living.” And you say things like, "Anti-aging is out. Healthy skin is in.” And I absolutely adore this notion, it is how I would be marketing products if I were creating skin products. What made you lean into this kind of messaging, why is it important to embrace this notion that caring for our skin is something that we do for health versus trying to be an anti-aging effort?
Kari [18:47]:
Well, you know, as much as I loved the beauty industry, and I don’t say loved past tense, I do a little bit. When this became my career in my mid-40s, I kind of found that the beauty industry didn’t really love me back. The messaging wasn’t very supportive, I always felt like there was something wrong with me and that I needed to be fixed. In fact, I bought my first eye cream, anti-aging eye cream at the Lancôme counter when I was 19 [Katie laughs] because I bought into, "Oh my god, I need eye cream.”
Katie [19:24]:
You know, I’m laughing, but it’s sad. I agree, there’s a steady drumbeat of messaging around fearing aging that we start to absorb at a very, very young age.
Kari [19:36]:
A very young age. And not only that, but it’s an industry that really, really props up youth and perfection. So, I think when I was really looking at the industry from a different lens, I went, “Wait a minute, I don’t want to fall into that trap, I don’t want to shame women into thinking that they need to use this, this, this, and this.” And "If you use this, 80% of women found that blah, blah, blah.” I think it’s all super subjective.
So, I wanted to have a voice, and Lisa did too, that was welcoming and inviting because most of our customers, from the beginning, have been women 40 plus. I mean, I get calls from women in their 70s and 80s and the feedback that we get is really age-positive. Even in written reviews, “I’m 74, and my skin has never looked better,” or something to that effect. Never do we get, “Oh my gosh, I used this, and I look 20 years younger.” That’s not the point of what we’re doing. The point is to take care of your skin and when your skin is taken care of it feels good, it actually just looks better. It’s like when you drink the right amount of water, your skin just looks better. So, it’s about telling the truth and kind of taking a no-BS approach.
Katie [21:08]:
Yeah, I love that no BS approach. It really radiates through your website, and I think it radiates through your products. You have a very stripped-down product line and it’s very easy to use, it’s not confusing, I don’t feel like I need a flow chart [Kari laughs] to understand when I’m applying what, which I love because it’s very easy to use.
You have so many intriguing ingredients. You shared that a lot of your products are oil-based, I would love to hear about those oils that you’re using specifically. One product caught my eye, Algica, which is something I had not heard of before. What is it? Why do we want it in our skincare?
Kari [21:48]:
Okay, this is a very cool ingredient that I learned about back in 2019 and it’s actually a Swedish algae. I had a call with them in Sweden and I thought, how am I going to use this? Because we don’t add new products to our line... rarely do we add new products to our line because I do want to keep it really simple. The benefit of it, it acts like a UV booster, and it acts like hyaluronic acid, which is something that we use in skincare to help retain moisture. I personally don’t use it because we’re not a waterborne line and it works really well with something that’s water-based. And I personally don’t care for the way it feels on my skin, it’s just a little bit sticky and tacky and it has the ability to pill up if you layer other products over it.
So, I thought, hmm, how am I going to use this? It wasn’t until last summer that I had spent some time in the sun and as I mentioned, the sins of my youth are now showing up [Katie laughs] from all of the tanning that I did. Where I’ve seen it most, is on my chest area, never wore sunscreen there, and then on my forearms and hands. And I was kind of freaking out a little bit, getting a little overworked for no reason and Lisa was like, “Oh my god. You are crazy, you’ve just gotten a little too much sun. she said I’d been using vitamin C.” And I said, “What do you mean you’ve been using vitamin C, that’s not in our line.” “Well, I know but I use this other vitamin C.” So, I thought, okay, well maybe I could do that.
So, I found an oil soluble form of vitamin C, its shortened name is THD, that’s about all you need to know, but it’s a stable form. And Algica can be used with a water-based formula, or it can be used with an oil-based formula. So, that’s what triggered the notion of this product and how I could use it because I am now not a suntanning fanatic, I’m a sunscreen fanatic. And vitamin C is the perfect accompaniment to a base layer for your sunscreen because it acts as a UV booster, it’s super high in antioxidants and that really wants you to want to scavenge that free radical damage that you get from UV. And can I just do one little plug for sunscreen?
Katie [24:20]:
Yes, please.
Kari [24:20]:
Because what I think is something that most people don’t understand... You want to protect your skin, not only from UVB rays, the ones that burn you, but you want to protect them from UVA rays, the ones that age you. So, think: UVB, UV burning, UVA, UV aging. So, if it’s light enough to read a book, that means that there is UVA, UV aging light doing its damage, it’s this sneaky, secret little light that penetrates the deeper layers of our skin where our collagen and elastin live and that’s what triggers all of the photoaging, the breakdown of that collagen and elastin and the increase of the sunspots.
Katie [25:03]:
This is fascinating, I had no idea. I love the way you’ve shared the burning and the aging because I knew that they both existed, but I didn’t really know what they did. I also think it’s very clever that you have a vitamin C serum that uses Algica because it feels like a play-on word. It’s vitamin C and vitamin sea where you’ve stocked this with this amazing, potent alga to sort of boost the vitamin C, so fascinating. I love that.
Kari [25:30]:
It just came together and that’s really the only way that we’ll add something to the line, it really has to make sense. Where the industry, going back to not really loving me, it’s all about what’s new and what’s next and I’m just not really that way anymore. It’s about what works for me and then I want to share that.
Katie [25:54]:
Yeah, I think we’re all like that Kari. We really get to... You get sort of this, stripped down, clear on what you want to be spending your time and energy on, we crave simplicity, we want routines and products that actually work, and your products do that.
Tell us about the Lip Whip because these come in beautiful colors. I suffer from dry and chapped lips during the winter. We’re not in the winter season right now so I haven’t gotten to play around with the Lip Whip, but I want to understand what I should be looking forward to because I know I’ll need it once January, February, December roll around.
Kari [26:30]:
So, the Lip Whip is actually something that was what kind of put us on the map, if you will. It had a cult following and it still does, and it wasn’t specific to clean beauty or not clean beauty, like conventional. It just was something that people found and really helped us launch the brand. And so, I had been making lip products in my kitchen for about 25 years based on a Martha Stewart Magazine article that I read from one of her very early issues. Fun fact is that we’ve been in the magazine and so that was like an “Oh my god” moment.
Katie [27:10]:
Oh my god, what a full-circle moment! I love that.
Kari [27:12]:
I know. I just think she’s so incredibly cool, but I digress.
So, what it is, is I think it’s the perfect hybrid of a lip balm meets lipstick. So, we have some uncolored hues in the line, but we also have a range of lip with color, and I... Here’s another secret in the industry: pigment has a bit of a drying effect on the lip. So, I just got to a point where not only was my skin dry, but my lips were also dry. So, Lip Whip is now the only thing that I have worn for the last 12 years since it came into existence, and whenever I try to wear lipstick again, I end up... it just doesn’t feel good. I think we also were conditioned, from a very young age, that there’s pain in beauty, a little bit. And so, I just am at the point in my life now where I want things to feel good, whether it be the clothes that I wear or what I put on my skin. If it’s makeup or lip, I want it to feel good, not just look good.
Katie [28:30]:
Yeah, absolutely. The Lip Whips come in these little pots, basically. I too have just sort of thrown away all my drying lipsticks. I really use more glosses, I like things that are softer, and I feel that they’re more comfortable on my skin, as you shared, they help with dry lips. You have a range of beautiful colors, when I look at them, I’m like, “Ooo, which one would you pick?” For our listeners who are looking at them, obviously, lip color is a personal choice, but is there one particular color that you feel looks good on any skin no matter what the color is?
Kari [29:08]:
Actually, they all look pretty good on most skin tones, and I formulated them intentionally that way. We have a really diverse group of women that work here at the office, so they all agree to be my special little guinea pigs whenever I’m doing color. So, I want them to look good on fair skin, all the way to very deep skin tones, and a variety of races too. So, I just think that that’s important. But what I will say is that the first color I created was Radiant and it still remains my favorite.
Katie [29:42]:
I love it.
Kari
And it does look good on everybody.
Katie [29:45]:
How fabulous. All right, we’re nearing the end of our time together. We’re going to be moving into a speed round, but I do want to take a minute to talk about entrepreneurship before we get into our closing round.
I love that you started this in your kitchen, I love that a girlfriend was the nudge to get you into business, you’re now in Credo Beauty, you’re in Saks, you obviously sell on the KariGran.com website, you are well established, well reviewed by magazines. How did that happen quickly? And do you feel like you could have done this when you were younger before you were burned out? Or did it take you getting into your 40s and to midlife to really having the skills or maybe the confidence to launch something new?
Kari [30:29]:
Oh, I don’t think I could have done it when I was younger, at all. I was too worried about what everybody else thought back then. Not that I don’t care what people think but I kind of know who I am more now, and Lisa does as well, so I think it’s really the... I think the theme I like to go back to is a productive failure. I didn’t come into this business with any experience in the industry so it was really like, can we roll up our sleeves and can we figure out what we need to do each and every day? And when we got a call from some big retailers it was like, "Okay, rather than have a super freak out session, let’s just stop for a minute and figure it out.” Because in real estate, we both... While the fundamentals were the same, you had a contract, every transaction was different, and had a new set of problems that would show up. I really do enjoy problem-solving.
Luckily, the industry, especially in the clean space, has been very open and welcoming and I have lots and lots of friends, who in most cases would be considered competitors because they are other brands, but we really do believe that all ships rise with the tide. We came into this as a second, even third act, because we’d had previous careers, and we just decided early on that we would work with no known assholes. [Katie laughs] We were going to work with people I enjoyed. And I’m sorry I didn’t ask if I could swear.
Katie [32:10]:
Of course, you can swear! You can do anything you want. We’ve gotten to this phase of our lives; we can do things like swear on podcasts.
Kari [32:18]:
Yup. So, that was the key. We’d kind of paid our dues working with people we didn’t enjoy working with.
Katie [32:26]:
First of all, the no BS rule and the no asshole rule is something that we should all take on as a mantra. Life is too short to be spending your time working with assholes and I love that you set that as one of the goals for your company, not to do that, and you succeeded.
It’s really fun too to think about the idea that you have friends in the clean beauty space, that you all kind of came up together. When you think about it, you are one of the brands that helped invent this category. I mean, clean beauty did not exist 10 years ago, or if it did it was not really on the consumer radar.
Kari [33:04]:
Yeah, it was just getting started. Luckily, we got into something that was an emerging, growing business. Now that we’re a little more than 10 years old, we’re considered a heritage brand which is kind of funny, if you think about it because 10 is not that old but in the space that we are, it really is. We really do believe that if we do well, everybody else in the category will do well
Katie [33:34]:
Yes, that’s how I feel about midlife. I honestly feel like this is why... You know, sometimes when you’re younger, there can be competition, there can be cattiness... we all survived middle school, basically, enough said. [Kari laughs] But you get to a point in your life where you’re like, that is so yesterday, that is not even remotely on my radar. I don’t hang out with any women that are like that, I don’t even believe women truly are like that. I love that you’re having that experience, with this notion of the rising tide lifting all boats. I often say, there’s enough sunshine for everyone and I truly believe that as well. And you know, it’s collaboration over competition always.
Kari [34:16]:
Always.
Katie [34:17]:
Always. All right. That’s the perfect note to end on, we’re going to move into our speed round, this is one of my favorite ways to close the show, it’s just quick one-to-two-word answers. I’ve had to do it myself; I know it’s hard, I got stumped when I got asked a few things but it’s kind of fun and we end on a high note. So, let’s do it.
Launching Kari Gran Skincare was _____.
Kari [34:39]:
Hard.
Katie [34:40]:
Hard. We like honest answers. Okay, a lifestyle hack that fuels healthy skin: _____.
Kari [34:46]:
Drinking enough water.
Katie [34:48]:
A super food for beautiful skin: _____.
Kari [34:52]:
Flax seed.
Katie [34:53]:
Ooo, okay nice. Under the radar skincare ingredient we should all know about: _____.
Kari [35:02]:
This one is going to stump me because I use such...
Katie [35:08]:
You have so few pure ingredients, that’s all right.
Kari [35:13]:
Under the radar... I don’t have any under the radar. I would say oil, good plant oils.
Katie [35:22]:
Nice, very nice. Washing your face in the morning, nighttime, or both?
Kari [35:29]:
Nighttime.
Katie [35:30]:
Nighttime. I think I know the answer to this one but, sunscreen indoors: yes, or no?
Kari [35:34]:
Yes!
Katie [35:36]:
Yes, I love that.
Kari [35:37]:
Yes, yes, yes. Please! Please, if there’s anything that anybody takes away from this conversation, please wear sunscreen every single day. You don’t only brush your teeth when you have a piece of candy, right? You brush your teeth every day. It’s prevention over repair.
Katie [35:56]:
That’s a great analogy, I love it. Okay, favorite Lip Whip color, I was a good listener, I think it was Radiant, right?
Kari [36:04]:
Radiant, yes. She was my first and my favorite, she remains my favorite.
Katie [36:09]:
I love it. A skill I acquired in midlife that makes me a successful entrepreneur that I didn’t have in my younger days: _____.
Kari [36:19]:
Confidence.
Katie [36:20]:
Nice, I love that. Finally, your one-word answer to complete this sentence: As I age, I feel _____.
Kari [36:27]:
Grateful.
Katie [36:29]:
Thank you, Kari, this was so much fun. I loved diving into your beautiful products, I loved hearing your backstory and I loved hearing about your no BS, no asshole approach to life. That is my mantra, I’m taking that on.
Kari [36:43]:
Thank you, if we can end with that then those are the two words, the two phrases that best sum us up, that works for me.
Katie [36:50]:
No BS skincare, no BS in your life, and no BS in your products. Simple, effective skincare. Before we say goodbye Kari, how can our listeners find you and your beautiful skincare products?
Kari [37:01]:
The easiest way is on our website, which is KariGran.com.
Katie [37:07]:
Thank you, Kari.
Kari [37:08]:
Thank you, Katie.
Katie [37:09]:
This wraps A Certain Age, a show for women who are aging without apology. Join me next week when nutrition pro Kristen Coffield dives into her book, How Healthy People Eat, and shares ideas for creating resilient wellness.
Special thanks to Michael Mancini, who composed and produced our theme music. See you next time, and until then: age boldly, beauties.