Elizabeth Molina: [00:00:00] Hello, my beautiful people, welcome back. You know what day it is, it is Wednesday, happy hump day today. We have an amazing person on the podcast today, as usual, and I am so glad to call her a friend. Her name is January Old. She is the founder of Clean Skin Care Company January Labs. She is a licensed institution. Her products initially captured the attention of celebrity makeup artists and as deficient as she grew into an internationally recognized line of high performance products that can be found at Beauty Neiman Marcus direct online and at a host of retailers around the world, January Labs is celebrated by beauty editors on the pages of Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Birdie's coverture, women's health and New Beauty, among others, for its simplicity, effectiveness and accessibility. Welcome, January. Did I miss anything while introducing you today?

January Olds: [00:01:00] No. Perfect.

Elizabeth Molina: [00:01:05] Awesome. So I am so excited to have you on today. I'm so excited. We had a little chat earlier. It was I was like, I should have hit record. We were having such a great conversation. So, January, we know you own a beauty brand. Let's not let's just not kid ourselves here.

January Olds: [00:01:23] Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you. And I love learning about your story. So I already feel so connected.

Elizabeth Molina: [00:01:33] Thank you. Thank you. So you are in the skincare business, right. And your company promises that less is more. I love that motto. I live by that motto. Can you explain what that means to us and how your products accomplish that? Like what does that less is more mentality before I get into all the other things. But I just really wanted to kind of like, surprise you with that question.

January Olds: [00:01:58] I love it. Yes. I mean, I think of beauty. Everyone loves consuming more because it's fun and there's new products. And there's but when I set out to develop my line, I my past was working for a company called Clarens, which I'm sure you know of, and epicurean, that's my past. And both wines had huge product lines. I mean, there was one cleansers for different skin types. And and when I set out to make my line, I really wanted to simplify things. We're dealing with skin. My perspective is when you're using the right ingredients, you can really use one product to solve a multiple multitude of problems with this good. So ingredients I love to work with lactic acid, salicylic acid, great for pigmentation, fine lines, texture. So when I say let's there's more, it's using one product to kind of combat different things that your skin is struggling with. So if you have hormonal breakouts, you're probably having aging or fine lines or things like you want to address as well. And the beauty is when things are formulated the correct way, you can kind of target all of those things. So the idea of having 10 products and a regimen is just not how I live my life, even though I'm in this world and I do consume a lot of it's usually four to five products tonight. If that maybe it might just be one product. What your product should be working hard for you. And that's really what I've set out to do. Formula formulation has everything. A lot of brands, we're all working with the same ingredients, but it's just how you formulate.

Elizabeth Molina: [00:03:45] Oh, I love that. I love that. Especially like I think that is just so appropriate for like 2021 in 2020 with the pandemic and everything. And like less is more. And like we're seeing the skin trends of like skin minimalism and just like people getting more aware of like what's in their product, how is it formulated, is it working for me? I love that you say that, like your products need to be working hard for you, and I never heard that before.

January Olds: [00:04:11] I'm a licensed aesthetician as well. So it's interesting. Certain things just do not change in skin care. There are certain ingredients that regardless, there's new technology coming out, there's just certain ingredients that work well. But the other thing is how your products are formulated, what ingredients you put in it. That's always just been something that's really, really important to me. When I work for the other companies I worked for, I loved their product line, so I still do. I just think that we don't need such a huge selection. You know, somebody who has oily skin can use my cleanser, but somebody who is dry, dehydrated and even rosacea can use the same exact cleanser. So when it comes to simplifying, it's making the selection easy on the customer. But the formulas are more complex. But we kind of handle that for you. So I've noticed and even when I recommend products to people, I'm like I try to to start with, I'm like such a minimalist, I'm not wanting products. I want something like a 12 hour cleanser and then maybe our night cream. And as they start to develop with one, their skin really evolves and you're able to pinpoint really what works for you, because I don't love the idea of just, you know, layering 20 serum's and then switching it off. And, you know, if you're not really able to target what's working, you don't really know. You know, I'm sure you're well, tons of products sent to you all the time. And you're just kind of switching it up a little bit. Yes. I really just find it's so nuance. You know, every skin is so different for everyone. So you need to just kind of work with something for a while, not over to it. I usually give people a skin care make under. Oh, I love that. Yeah.

Elizabeth Molina: [00:05:58] January, I think we cut we're going to be new BFFs. I'm also a licensed aesthetician and even I myself get overwhelmed with products and ingredients and formulations. And I'm thinking to myself, if I am getting confused, what about the people who are like not in the industry and like they are like what is a or what is a serum, what is a tonic? What is in essence what are these things right. Like do I need them all? How do I layer them on sunscreen. Oh my God. And so like I love the concept that less is more. And I really this is the first time I've heard anyone say, let your ingredients work hard for you, like I think you should, like, trademarked that or something like that.

January Olds: [00:06:40] Well, thank you. Yeah. You know. Caroline Pirogues, I'm sure you've heard of her. She's an incredible blogger and she's an author now. Her book, I think it's a book on skincare. I can't remember the exact name,

Elizabeth Molina: [00:07:38] But it's OK. We'll all get it and link it to show note.

Janaury Olds: [00:07:42] Yes, it's that book is so precise and on point. I love her. She's incredible. But if somebody is confused, just get that book. It's also in an audio book. So if you just want to listen to it in her or her, she just really simplifies things. You know, it's it really doesn't have to be confusing. I think that there's a lot of people using sales tactics and like, oh, this is dirty and this is bad and this is just it. That's all gimmicky things to sell products, in my opinion. And I think that nobody's setting out there to make products that are unhealthy for you or that are going to eventually kill you. So it's that that that book has really helped direct people and basically, you know, cleansing, using that acid, a good toner moisturizer. It really clarifies things. I go to that book a lot on things that I might have forgotten through the years. I mean, I've been in that situation for like 20 years. I'm aging myself here.

Elizabeth Molina: [00:08:46] Ok, so let's let's take it back a little bit. Let's go back to the name of your brand. It's your name. Yeah. Does that get confusing sometimes or do you feel like because it is your name that it is you like? I know a lot of people always struggle when they have a brand, like you said my name. Is it not my name? Am I tied to the brand like what I do like does that also reflect on the brand or what the brand does? Does that reflect on me? Like, I would love to get your perspective on that, because that is your name.

January Olds: [00:09:16] Yes, it is. It's funny. When I was thinking of naming the line, I wanted to go something really obscure that didn't really make sense. What's floating around me is like blue bead or blue shop not. I'm like, this is not. And it's all about simplicity. But what is me is the name Jan. I'm born in November, so that's good to know on a score. Yeah. I'm just you know, I'm born in November, so my name is already kind of unusual. And when I ask my mom, she's like, you just looked like a January. So what's it. That's where I get I'm also six one. So it's really hard to blend in. When you're six one and your name's Jan, you're like, oh, that was someone else. That wasn't me. So there's no way yet to get around that. So my name has always been such a huge part of my, you know, even ordering coffee. Were you born in January? Why is your name Jan? Literally every day of my life. Yeah. I mean, it's it's a big part of who I am. So when naming my brand, it had to be January and then Labs comes in because that's really the idea that they work, that they kind of the idea of using products that are geared in nature, but also scientific. And they have so it just was born January Labs. I feel like January is a little more of like a clean, fresh start. It's all about new beginnings. And then Labs gives you the feeling of trust. It's something that's formulated correctly and it just works.

Elizabeth Molina: [00:10:52] It can be challenging when your name is on the label sometimes. And like maybe like, you know, maybe it's your identity, the brand. Are you separate from the ...