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Alex Clark
What is so glaringly wrong with almost all collagen powders on the market?
Jenna Cavello
A lot of people are getting disgusting, cheap marine collagen that is coming from farmed fish and tilapia. Sick. The label clean in Sephora does not mean much. A lot of brands say that they're all natural, but they're all using synthetic fragrance.
Alex Clark
I'm thinking of salt and stone.
Jenna Cavello
Actually. The dirty makeup that you put on your face is better than putting a natural deodorant that has synthetic fragrance on your armpit.
Alex Clark
Today's guest is someone I've been wanting to interview for a long time. Her story is inspiring. Her approach to clean beauty is groundbreaking, and her brand, Agent Nature, has become a game changer in the world of luxury skincare and wellness. Jenna Cavella's journey into the world of natural healing began when she was diagnosed with endometriosis at the age of 23. After enduring years of pain, five surgeries and countless conflicting medical opinions, she was left feeling hopeless. And that is when Jenna took matters into her own hands, seeking alternative healing methods and educating herself on natural remedies. What was once her last resort became the solution to her chronic health struggles, leading her to create Agent Nature's flagship product, the Holy Stick Deodorant. But Jenna didn't stop there. She expanded Agent Natur to offer a full line of luxury skincare and supplements, all crafted with natural eco certified ingredients that are as safe as they are effective. Agent Natur is now an international brand featured in some of the most exclusive spas around the world, resorts and stores like Air1 and Net A Porter. Jenna is not just a CEO, she's a muse and a thought leader in the beauty industry, advocating for independent thinking and research. And yes, I mean independent thinking not only when it comes to beauty beauty, but also politics. And let me tell you, she's got some pretty strong opinions, especially when it comes to the term clean beauty. And she's going to tell you why she hates it. Before we dive in, I do want to just say this. Agent Natur is not a sponsor of this podcast nor do I have any affiliate codes, at least right now, or discounts to share. I'm simply fascinated by the brand and Jenna's unique perspective. She's truly a pioneer in the space and I couldn't wait to get her on the show. So if you're enjoying the podcast, take a second leave a five star review. It's free. It really helps us out. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Culture Apothecary or me at Real Alex Clark. You can also join the cute Servitus Facebook group where we dive into the topics that we discuss here and connect with like minded women. Also an interesting and fun personal life Update I recently went and got a radiation free full body MRI with Pre Nouvo as I'm starting to really take control of my health for the first time in my life. Knowing if I had anything scary on the horizon was really important to me. That way I could have some extra precious time to come up with a plan to deal with it. Pre Nouvo is a transformative new healthcare company that uses advanced MRI to perform a proactive scan. They are able to detect solid cancerous tumors at stage one and around 500 other conditions including aneurysm, spine herniations, musculoskeletal conditions, fatty liver disease, etc. Unlike other screening mechanisms, Prenuvo does not use radiation or contrast, making this the safest proactive screening tool on average. Prenuvo gives potentially life saving insights to one out of every 20 people that get scanned. The vast majority of cancers and medical conditions found are at a very early stage and occur in mostly asymptomatic somatic patients. So you may not know that you have anything unless you get this scan. It took about a week to get my results and then I had a one hour consultation with a doctor explaining what we found. Which thank God was just some cysts that I don't need to worry about and then a deviated septum and a little arthritis in my neck. Praise God. But wouldn't it be great for yourself and your family to have that peace of mind? Pre Nouveau is available in select cities across the United States. You can find out where and get 300 off your scan@prenuvo.com Alex Clark so let's dive in now to today's episode with the Incredible Jen Jenna Cavello, Founder of Agent Natur Is beauty capped out at a certain age?
Jenna Cavello
No, no, of course not.
Alex Clark
And you can kind of start over anytime. You can start caring about your skin at any time. Like it's never too late.
Jenna Cavello
I think if you start to take care of your skin at a later age, then you're up against a bit more, right? If you're smoking, going in the sun so much and frying in the sun and drinking alcohol and then suddenly you wake up at 65, you may have a much more rough time because I think a lot of the things we do are very preventative.
Alex Clark
What is the story behind Agent and Tour becoming the most controversial luxury beauty.
Jenna Cavello
Brand I Started the brand because I have stage four endometriosis and my estrogen levels used to be like, through the roof. Estradiol level was a 1065. A normal range is about like 200. A decade ago, I was doing everything I could naturally to cut the estrogen. And one of the tips my dad had given me since I was a teenager was to stop using aluminum antiperspirant because aluminum is an endocrine disruptor. It mimics estrogen, so it can make your levels higher. And that aluminum is also found in vaccines. It's used as an adjuvant in the vaccines. And so I started cooking the deodorant on my stove in West Hollywood and I started posting about it. And a lot of the retailers found me naturally because there wasn't much competition at the time. There were really no other luxury natural deodorants on the market in stick form. So when I launched the deodorant, it was before Trump was elected. And I just said, hey, like, you don't want to vote for Hillary because she is pro vaccine mandates and she's gonna actually be pro adult vaccine mandates. And this is like years before COVID.
Alex Clark
I was gonna say, if you're talking about the election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, I mean, that was years before we knew a pandemic was gonna happen. And you were saying that there was gonna be mand back then. How did you know?
Jenna Cavello
There were meetings like with David Wolf and with Dell Big Tree and certain people were getting together with RFK and it was all on the govern. It's all on the government website, actually, that these mandates, they want to enact these mandates for adults and they, they want adults to follow a vaccine schedule. Also, Hillary spoke a lot about this through the Clinton Foundation. And so at the time I was following a blog called March Against Monsanto. And that along with David Wolf, that kind of opened my eyes to so much of what was happening.
Alex Clark
You were Maha before Maha?
Jenna Cavello
Yeah, yeah, I really was. The brand was controversial in itself because no one believed that aluminum was problematic. Everyone thought that was a conspiracy theory to come out with a natural deodorant that was free of aluminum. And now it's, you know, look at the industry, it's blown up. Businesses like Dove are now making aluminum free deodorant. And there are studies and there are links to. Not that it can directly cause breast cancer, but it can lead to breast cancer because it is an endocrine disruptor. So if that aluminum in the deodorant can lead to breast cancer, Then why is it in the vaccine? That was like always the question that I was asking. So I was getting canceled for asking that question. And so I started following March against Monsanto and they were talking a lot how Hillary was bringing pre approved vaccines from China to America without having to go through any testing in America. And those vaccines were going to the US and they were going to South America and they were going to lower income neighborhoods. And doctors in affluent areas would tell my friends who had children, our vaccines are safe, our vaccines like are vetted and there is a different grade of a vaccine like there. You know, the poor and marginalized communities are getting a different quality vaccine. And so I was talking a lot about this. I was talking about this in 2000. I think it was in two, before 2012, when Obama, he wouldn't allow GMO labeling. And that's really when I was finished with the left. With the left, yeah.
Alex Clark
You know what's interesting is that Barack Obama though was campaigning on the fact that we should label GMOs and then he completely abandoned those promises and then ended up putting a ton of people in his administration that were for working for Monsanto and stuff, right?
Jenna Cavello
Well, actually the head of the FDA was the former head of Monsanto. So there was a lot of crossover between the fda, the CDC and Monsanto. So the people who are leading the way for our food and drugs are coming from Monsanto and also coming from the pharmaceutical industry, which is like so scary. So I was like talking about all of this.
Alex Clark
When you say that people in the beauty industry were trying to cancel you for just talking about the dangers of aluminum deodorant. What types of things were going on?
Jenna Cavello
Oh, I had stores drop me, I had accounts drop me, I had GOOP drop me.
Alex Clark
Are they back?
Jenna Cavello
Goop is not back. I don't want to even be back, to be honest.
Alex Clark
What's going on with goop? Do you think they can be trusted?
Jenna Cavello
I think they were bought out by some large VCs in San Francisco and they had to come out and fully support the vaccine in 2020. And they came out with an email in 2020, why they support the vaccine. So I got dropped around that time their like beauty director, like she kept me in this box because she didn't like my political views. But she's allowed to express her views on social media, but I wasn't allowed to express mine. And the more they tried to express their, their views and wouldn't allow me to express mine, like I'm a Gemini and I'm A contrarian. So the more I'm gonna express my views and the more I'm gonna press. Trump was elected and then there was the Women's March. So this is like January 2017, and these women left their trash all over LA. It was disgusting. And I was like, aren't you for the environment? Why are you leaving your trash like everywhere? Yeah, I'm like, you're being like hypocrites right now, aren't you? Like, you know, this is like complete hypocrisy.
Alex Clark
Well, and I think it's interesting when you bring up goop, because they're supposed to be the Mecca, the standard, the gold standard of health and wellness and freedom of choice when it comes to clean living.
Jenna Cavello
She may be. I mean, look, she's into a lot of similar things as me. She may be, but she's bought out and she has VCs behind her and she doesn't own the majority of it anymore. So when you're bought out and when you have all these VCs funding the company, you're not allowed to really express your personal views. Which is why, you know, I'm self funded. I started the brand with just 300. No family money, no loans. I'm scared, you know, to have those VCs. I don't want them to silence me.
Alex Clark
How did you crawl from the ashes then, from them trying to cancel you and slander the brand and yourself to now being. I mean, every time I refresh Vogue, there's a new article featuring one of your products.
Jenna Cavello
They all have me on like a list that they're not allowed to really write about me. If you see anybody really writing about me, it's usually it's a freelance writer who's promoting the collagen. And so what happened was they kind of put me on this like, list to like block me and to. They were like, let's not give her any attention. Let's not write about her. Let's not give her the, any awards. Let's kind of just pretend she doesn't exist. And the more they did that, the more my community stood up and supported me. And with every cancellation, my sales just kept going up and up and up. And then during COVID my sales were up like 3,000% or something, like insane. So I noticed that every time there was a, a big like, cancellation, the sales increased. And so that made me realize that my views were the majority. They try so hard to ignore me, but my products are so amazing and so efficacious. They can't, they can't ignore me like, and really I think that's God like protecting me because my heart is in such a good place and I'm here to help other people along their health journey and I'm here to expose the corruption. So my heart is in such a pure place that I really think I'm protected like by my, by God and my guardian angels for sure.
Alex Clark
When I describe agent nature to people, I'm always saying like, oh, is this like luxury clean beauty brand? You hate the term clean beauty. Why is that not a great term?
Jenna Cavello
I just changed my bio to clean efficacious luxury beauty because I feel like people love the word clean. I do not like the word clean because I think it gives all synthetics a bad rap. And I don't use synthetics. But I've studied in France for natural cosmetics and fragrance for 10 years, right. I study one on one with my chemistry now. She's actually in LA right now at my manufacturing facility. I go by a European standard, right? Because there is no standard really in America. There's no guideline of what is clean and what is safe and what's okay for breastfeeding and what isn't. But Europe came came out with much higher standards about 20, 20 years ago. Japan has the the highest standard in the world for cosmetics, followed by the eu. And so what I learned a decade ago was that not every single paraben is bad. That parabens that have been on the market for 30 plus years, they are not endocrine disruptors. It's the new parabens that have the longest molecular structure, that are not banned in America but banned in the eu, that are problematic, that are endocrine disruptors, that can cause cancer. The ones that are bad have been banned in Europe for a long time. But there are parabens that have been on the market for 40 years nearly that are not bad. And so for me it's that people really aren't truly educated on the topic and they don't know the difference. And to just say all parabens are bad is not it. That's not true.
Alex Clark
So how do you know if a brand is truly clean or not?
Jenna Cavello
The label clean and Sephora does not mean much. There's like Sephora clean that, that does not mean much because they are saying that chemical sunscreens are clean. There are chemical sunscreens that have the label clean at Sephora. Chemical sunscreens, as you know, are absorbed into the bloodstream. They are linked to all kinds of issues like lower sperm count, fertility issues. Cancer mineral sunscreens. They're not absorbed into the blood because they sit on top of the skin. They reflect the sun back, so they work differently. I think that the way that you vet a brand is by going through each ingredient and looking it up and seeing if there's any side effect. I think that there's very few retailers that are truly doing that work. Organic Bunny is one of them. Organic Bunny. She is an online store. I'd say she is, like, the most rigorous when it comes to ingredients. Melissa at Citrine Beauty here in Phoenix.
Alex Clark
I love citrine.
Jenna Cavello
I just had a master class with them yesterday. Yeah, I come every year. Melissa's amazing.
Alex Clark
In Phoenix, like, when. I'd always recommend people go in there if you're. If you're in town, because not only do they have a bunch of clean skin care and body care and things, but they also have tons of clean makeup brands. And it is a beautiful boutique store. They do classes and events, like having Jenna out to teach people things, and it's just a really phenomenal place. And I also even have had guests on the show that are super into, like, health and wellness and stuff. Contact Citrine and be like, what clean makeup artist in Phoenix would you recommend? And they. They even know people. So, yeah, it's a. It's a really cool place to know if you're local.
Jenna Cavello
There's certain retailers that really care. Like Detox Market really cares. Romaine at Detox Market, he vets the brands. I think if you look up, like, Green Beauty Boutique, that would be a way to know who. Who carries the clean brands.
Alex Clark
Who do you think is the most fraudulent clean brand on the market?
Jenna Cavello
I would say just that Clean at Sephora label.
Alex Clark
Be weary of that.
Jenna Cavello
When I saw that. That chemical sunscreens were labeled as clean, that, for me, that really threw things off in. Fragrance is very controversial. My chemist in France will say that as long as you abide and you put a certain percentage of fragrance, that it's okay. But, you know, fragrance is linked to cancer and to all kinds of autoimmune and hormonal issues for me right now, because I was that first luxury natural deodorant on the market. That was my claim to fame. My natural deodorant was the game changer. A lot of brands have come out since then and are blowing up, and they say that they're all natural. Right? They. They tout themselves as natural deodorant, but they're all using synthetic fragrance.
Alex Clark
I'm thinking of salt and stone.
Jenna Cavello
Yeah.
Alex Clark
That's who comes to mind for me. And I really liked their deodorant. Then I found that out, and I was so bummed out.
Jenna Cavello
If you go into the store and you smell Age natural deodorant next to salt and stone, Salt and stone smells so much better because it's synthetic. Our fragrances are all natural. So I literally just reformulated all of them. I launched them March 20, and there's five fragrances, and I reformulated them with isolates, which are derived from essential oils. They smell amazing, and they're gonna like, like, blow salt and stone away. And I'm taking my business and my customers back from salt and Stone because all you girlies think you're wearing, like, your natural deodorant, but you're all using synthetic fragrance.
Alex Clark
Call them out, Jenna.
Jenna Cavello
And you're putting that on your armpit, which if there's anything that you want to switch in beauty, right, if there's any product, the first thing you have to switch is your deodorant, because your armpit absorbs up to 100% of what you're putting on because your armpit is so porous. So you're using a natural deodorant, but then you're putting all of this synthetic fragrance under your arms, and that's absorbed into your skin more than any other area in your body. So actually, the dirty makeup that you put on your face is better than putting a natural deodorant that has synthetic fragrance on your armpit. And no one's talking about that.
Alex Clark
So here's a question. When was the last time you tried to figure out what blood tests you actually need? The list is endless, right? Hormones, thyroid, cholesterol, vitamins. And the worst part is, there's no clear answer. It's like being lost in a maze. And every turn leads to another appointment. A lab appointment here, a doctor appointment there. And don't even get me started on insurance. It's like, can someone just tell me what to do to feel my best entertainment? Jevity. They figured it out. You don't need to schedule a bunch of appointments with different doctors. With Jevity, they send a phlebotomist straight to your door for at home blood work within 10 minutes. And they will test 90 biomarkers. Actually, more than 90 biomarkers. That's more than your average doctor could ever dream of testing. And then you hop on a virtual consultation with one of their experts who builds you a custom health plan. You want hormone therapies, supplements, anti aging treatments, peptides. They've got it all. And here's the best part. It's 129amonth. One price, all in. No surprises, no running around, just results. And it's monthly so that you can keep getting tested to see how you're going and consult with your free health team that's wrapped up in that package. If you want to skip the waitlist and get 20% off your first month, use code Alex gojevity.com Health optimization has never been this easy. That's gojevity G E v I t I.com with code Alex. One occupational hazard I have in this job is everybody wants to give me strange food to try. Well, one person just came up to me at an event recently. They put some meat stick in my face and they're like, I know what's good. Trust me, I know what's good. It was gross. The texture was all wrong. I don't even know what animal it came from, but it wasn't beef. My teeth got stuck in it and I'm just sitting there thinking, am I supposed to be chewing this for the next 40 minutes? What is this? Some kind of lizard? I was one step away from pulling out my Paleo Valley beef sticks, but I held back to be polite. And then I went and ate them without them looking. Paleo Valley beef steaks are made from 100 grass fed grass finished beef beef. That's right. Happy cows. No antibiotics, no weird hormones, none of that sketchy factory farm nonsense. Not even any conventional spices. The spices are organic. And while other sticks are just, well, sad. Paleo Valley's got gut friendly probiotics because they ferment their beef the old school way. This is unbelievable. Like actual probiotics, not just random mystery powders. And do you know how many chemicals other snack sticks have? Don't even get me started. Paleo Valley doesn't use any of that. Just real organic spices. Nothing weird. If you want to snack like a real adult who's not playing games, head to paleovalley.com Alex and use code Alex for 15 off. That's paleovalley.com Alex code Alex. Get your beef stick. Game on point. Okay. Do you think that there is such a thing as a clean perfume? Like, are you wearing perfume at all?
Jenna Cavello
I do. I love my Killian Killian. I don't spray it on my body anymore. Okay. So my, like, my boyfriend and I, we have like this amazing guy in LA that we see. I'm not gonna say his name because then no one's gonna be able to get in. I'LL tell you, like, off camera who we see, but he is, like, you have to stop with the fragrance. So now we just spray it, like, on our clothes and never on our body, because, again, it completely messes up your hormones, lowers the sperm count, can mess with estrogen, so. And really bad for the dogs also.
Alex Clark
Well, I really need you to come up with some kind of truly natural.
Jenna Cavello
I am. We're doing it. We're doing it. Okay.
Alex Clark
I trust your taste.
Jenna Cavello
There is someone. There's a. There's a nose. I love. Her name is Olivia Jacobetti, and she came out with a line of. Of natural perfumes. You can look her up.
Alex Clark
Okay. I want to be described like that. Can I just say that one day I want to be described as a. No. You know whose nose I love? Alex Clark. Like, what a beautiful descriptor of this woman. She is a nose you love because she just has a good sense of smell. I love it. Okay.
Jenna Cavello
She's a perfumer, you call it.
Alex Clark
Yes, yes. Oh, I get it right away.
Jenna Cavello
Yes, we can. Yes. Alex Clark was an amazing nose. Yes.
Alex Clark
Before launching Agent Nature, before being in Clean Beauty, you also worked in fashion. You were kind of gaining this reputation in that industry as being like, oh, Jenna, she's the health and wellness girly. So what is advice were you giving co workers and acquaintances in the industry that they were, like, coming to you for knowledge?
Jenna Cavello
Okay. So first I went to school at FIT and then Parsons, and then I was a shoe designer in New York. I worked for a company called Delmen. They. They, like, made, like, the ballerina flat, like, famous in New York, and, like, I don't know, in, like, the 60s or something. And then I moved to LA and I was designing Badgley Mick and JLo, and I was going to China, like, four times a year, and I was getting really sick there because of my endometriosis. So I literally had to, like, leave the shoe industry because the endometriosis had gotten so bad and so out of control. And I was bedridden and just really sick from my cycles every month. And so I started taking, like, side jobs, and I was. I was styling with this amazing guy called Ryan Hastings, and he's Jen Aniston's stylist. So I was, like, working with Jen and working with Rooney Mara and then working with, like, George Clooney. I pretty much, like, have probably, like, been an assistant to every stylist in LA almost.
Alex Clark
And who is your favorite to work with?
Jenna Cavello
George Clooney is, like, amazing. Even though, like, in his House. It looks like the Oval Office. Weird. He has pictures of like him and Barack everywhere. And CNN is playing a little shrine. There's like a CNN shrine in there.
Alex Clark
I mean, I believe it. I mean, remember this whole thing he did with the Bidens and then allegedly he was like, I regret doing that, like telling everyone to vote for Joe or whatever. Remember that?
Jenna Cavello
Yeah, I remember.
Alex Clark
That was weird.
Jenna Cavello
Yeah. I love him though. Like he's, he's really, he's really great. I, you know, I met a lot of amazing, like really nice people actually. I think a lot of people probably err on our side and just aren't allowed to because they're part of Hollywood, to be honest. So then I got like sucked back into shoes cuz I like was so broke and I couldn't like these stylists, like wouldn't like, oh my God, they're the biggest like virtue signalers, right? And they're like these social justice warriors. But they wouldn't pay us for like two months at a time. So I would like be broke for like 60 days. So then I had to go back to shoes, right? I hadn't been in an office setting in like nine years. So I went back to this like office that was like awful. It was like a dungeon in west la. I refused to go to China because they're chain smoking like in front of you all day long with these shoe designers. So like I refused to go and all the girls would come back from China so sick like all the time. So I would literally give them NEC and all kinds of supplements. This was in like 2014. I'd give them like vitamin C and like a methylated B complex. And I would give them msm, which is in, in my supplement now. And I would say like, here's how you protect your lungs. Like I would literally hand out all the supplements. I was like, I'm the agent of nature, which is. Then I wanted to put like a French spin on it so that like my brand can be this huge global brand. And so I called it Agent Natur.
Alex Clark
How did you end up healing your endometriosis?
Jenna Cavello
I was diagnosed when I was 22 and I had had bad cycles since I was 14, since I had first gotten my period. It got really bad after my surgeries. I had three surgeries at the time, which made everything a lot worse. And then I started seeing Will Cole and Will was the first person who was able to get my estrogen levels back to normal. No one was able to do it before him.
Alex Clark
What was he doing that was so special.
Jenna Cavello
He told me to cut most phytoestrogens out. Phytoestrogen is the good estrogen actually. It's found in like cruciferous vegetables. He told me to cut tempeh out all the things that naturopaths in the early like 2010s were telling patients to have because it gets the xenoestrogens out. Xenoestrogen is the bad estrogen. It's found in fragrance, it's found in plastic water bottles, it's found in cleaning, home cleaning supplies. Then you have phytoestrogen, which is in broccoli, cruciferous vegetables, cauliflower, tempeh. They say if soy is fermented that it's actually good for you. But Will said that the body doesn't know the difference when it's overburdened with too much estrogen. It has no idea how to distinguish phyto from xenoestrogen. And so he made me cut the phytoestrogen out.
Alex Clark
That is insane.
Jenna Cavello
No one had told me that tip before because every other naturopath was saying to eat a lot of the phytoestrogens and to keep consuming them. But he said the body didn't know how to separate them. So that was step one. But I was not pain free at all. Then I went on low dose naltrexone. I was on the verge of having a hysterectomy. That's how bad my pain was. I was in bed when I developed Agent Nator in 2015. I was in bed, I would say, at least 15 days a month, every single month, in really bad pain, on the floor, throwing up. I had tried everything natural to do. And I would say the only things that really helped me were myofascial release. My friend Tarek, he moved to Italy because of, of how leftist everything has gotten in America. And he wanted to pull his kids out of school. So now he goes between Italy and, and la. But he does something called myofascial release to release all the fascia in the body. So that, that really helped me. I bought a $20 cupping kit off of Amazon, which I would cup my uterus cause that would help take some of the pain away. And then my trainer, Rob, who was Madonna's former trainer from the Ambition tour, a lot of endometriosis pain is in the hips and in the legs and it's at like the base of the spine. And so a lot of people have sciatica from endometriosis. So you have to strengthen your Hips. There's so many hip exercises you have to do. Like climbing stairs really helps. So doing all these things to strengthen the hips helped. But honestly, I really think there's some sort of miracle that happened because when I started dating my boyfriend, like, my pain, like, virtually, like, disappeared.
Alex Clark
I mean, it might have just been finding love, finding your person, like, the stress. He was able to melt some of that stress away.
Jenna Cavello
Yeah. I have zero pain now.
Alex Clark
That's amazing.
Jenna Cavello
I don't even have to take, like, an Aleve or anything. Nothing.
Alex Clark
Well, I think that advice about the different types of estrogens is game changing. And I've not had any guest when we've talked about endometriosis bring that up. So that's super good information. What is so glaringly wrong with almost all collagen powders on the market?
Jenna Cavello
Well, they're processed, so they process the collagen. If you take a processed collagen, like vital proteins, Right. If you look at their pro. Their collagen, and you look at mine, mine is incredibly dense. Right. And so they're taking it, they're processing it, and they're able to extract more. So I. If I processed my collagen, I would be able to get four bags from one. So what does that mean? It means you can sell it much cheaper, and it means you make a lot more from that one bag and it's less potent. Of course, you'd probably have to take four to equate to one. One scoop of Holy Maid. And they don't have to list anything on the back. Like, if they're using any kind of synthetic gum, starch, or seed oil to process the collagen, they don't have to list that on the packaging.
Alex Clark
Why not?
Jenna Cavello
Because it's under a certain percentage, so you don't have to list it legally. That's, like, the big problem with it. I launched tolimane during COVID We had no idea that people were losing their hair. Right. Or that was going to be a side effect. Five months after launching, we were getting, like, thousands of messages saying, this, like, stopped my hair shedding. Why does your collagen work? Why doesn't this other brand's collagen work?
Alex Clark
What is special about the ingredients in your collagen? Because stuff that you have in yours I've never seen in anybody else's.
Jenna Cavello
So Will Cole had helped me so much with my estrogen levels, and I said, let's come out with a supplement. And this was back in 2017.
Alex Clark
He's like, Gosh, this is the Best decision I ever made.
Jenna Cavello
I mean, literally. Sorry, Will. But yes, it was. I wanted to come out with a spirulina supplement. It was called Holy Youth. He added collagen, pearl powder, and holy basil to it. So it was like this calming adaptogen. We launched it in 2018. People hated it because spirulina is so fishy. And they all, like, blamed the collagen. But I'm like, it's not the collagen. It's actually the spirulina. So that. God, that was. Yeah, seven years ago. Everyone was like, you know, collagen, this is a scam. It doesn't help the hair, skin, and nails. It does nothing. And we had no studies to actually, like, contradict what people were saying at the time. There were not studies out saying that, like, it was good for hair, skin, and nails. Those studies really didn't exist. But the reason Will added it to the supplement was because it heals leaky gut. And so if there's inflammation in the gut and if there's leaky gut, that means that there's little holes in the gut lining, and food gets into those holes and goes into the bloodstream, causes inflammation, and then causes rosacea and redness and inflammation in the face. So our, like, whole theory was, if you're gonna. If you're calming the gut and you're sealing up the gut lining with collagen, you're gonna have less redness and rosacea and inflammation in the face case, and you're helping leaky gut. So that was like. That was our messaging, right? The product never sold. Like, it did so bad. It was my worst selling skew because people hated the. The smell and taste of the spirulina. So then during COVID my mom was like, God, I hate your supplement, Holy Youth. She was like, it's disgusting. She's like. She's like, but your collagen works. And she's like, I see a difference in my hair. She's like, just send me your collagen powder. I don't want the other stuff. So I'm like, okay. So I made a bag, and I'm like, well, I'm gonna add the pearl powder too, because pearl is odorless and tasteless, and there's so many benefits to Pearl.
Alex Clark
What are they?
Jenna Cavello
Oh, my gosh. You can go longer between your hair washes with using it. You don't have to wash your hair as much. It makes your hair super shiny. It brightens your skin. It's amazing. And now everybody's coming out with a Pearl supplement. I owe those two ingredients to Will Cole. But I will say this. I called Will and I said, listen, I said, I'm discontinuing Holy Youth. I'm coming out with just collagen and pearl. And he's like, you can do it yourself. You don't have to include me. And I was like, you know what you taught me about these ingredients? I want to include you. Because at the time, Will only had, like, 4, 000 Instagram followers. He, like, had not blown up yet. I didn't know that Will was gonna, like, you know, become as successful as he is, but I wanted to include him because he helped me so much. And I felt like if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have known about collagen and Pearl. And even though I technically did formulate Holy Maid myself, and it was my mom's idea, I still wanted to include him because he initially put those two ingredients in Holy Youth.
Alex Clark
I adore him.
Jenna Cavello
Yeah, okay. He's great. He's super kind. Did you see all this science that came out about collagen with Huberman? I love him, by the way. He's one of us.
Alex Clark
Tell us about it.
Jenna Cavello
There's so many studies that it reverses fine lines. It hydrates your skin from within. It makes your hair more dense. It makes it grow faster. It makes your nails grow like crazy. All the studies and science are finally out. Our collagen is different, too, because we have types 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Alex Clark
What is that? What is that? There's different types of collagen.
Jenna Cavello
Don't quote me on what each one. I don't know what number correlates to what, but, like, hair, skin, nails, tendons, joints. I even think there's some, like, heart benefits. Like, each one does something different. If you're going to take bovine, it's very good for your gut. But there's no benefit, really, to hair, skin and nails. I think it's that one is mostly type 3 or 4, but we have 1, 2, 3, and 4, which makes the marine collagen really special. Also, a lot of people are getting, like, disgusting, cheap marine collagen that is coming from farmed fish and tilapia.
Alex Clark
Sick.
Jenna Cavello
Ours is kosher, wild caught cod, pollock, and haddock.
Alex Clark
I just won't be surprised, Jenna, if we start seeing these huge, popular supermarket collagen powder brands sourcing their stuff from a fish tank and a Red Lobster. You know what I mean? That's basically what you're getting. Red Lobster collagen. Good luck. And Then you know, people have the audacity. I share your links and I'm like, this is the collagen. Everybody wants to and moan whenever I share your collagen powder. Because this is expensive. This is expensive. But now we know. Well, it could be Red Lobster collagen that you're getting.
Jenna Cavello
And also, like, people are obsessed with Holy Mane. Like, you can try to, like, duplicate it, you can try to imitate it. You never can. And I have people that maybe they'll leave, but they'll always come back.
Alex Clark
Oh, yeah. It's like you notice a huge difference.
Jenna Cavello
The ex boyfriend who he tries to go and see if the grass is greener, they all come back over to Holy Main.
Alex Clark
It is the best collagen powder. I've told you. I've said this for years. Before I even had health and wellness podcast. I said, this is the collagen powder I use.
Jenna Cavello
We have to make you an affiliate, Alex.
Alex Clark
I know, we should. Well, here's what's interesting. What I love is that Erewhon does these cool collaborations with the It Girl celebrity of the moment. Hailey Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter. These are top a list stars who are all creating smoothies with Erewhon and using your collagen powder. My question is, does ere one choose the ingredients or are these celebrities saying, no, I want Holy Mane in my smoothie?
Jenna Cavello
Both. Carolyn Murphy is the one who got me into Erewhon. Carolyn, she. She actually just lost her house in the fire. It's really devastated. I love Carolyn and her daughter Dylan. They were the ones who got me into Erewhon. And so Erewhon reached out. I was like, I don't know if I want to sell to Erewhon. There only. There was only the store on Beverly, right? And I had. I've been going to Erewhon since 2007. It was like, nothing like it is today, right? It was only the one location Tupac actually used to live above Erewhon on Beverly. Did you know that fact?
Alex Clark
No. That's hilarious.
Jenna Cavello
I was kind of hesitant because I'm like, I don't know if I want to put the brand in a supermarket. And like, I'm like, okay, they have some higher end skincare. And it was in like a little locked cabinet and it was like super tiny. And then I'm like, I talked about it with my team. I'm like, I don't know if that's the right retailer for me. And then I pulse and I'm like, you know, all of my fans of, like, me personally and everything I say, they only come up to me and recognize me. In Erewhon, when I'm grocery shopping, they come and they whisper in my ear. They're like, hey, I love your views. I agree with everything you said. I'm obsessed with your bread. And I'm like, oh my God. All my customers are actually at erewhite1.
Alex Clark
So that's the story of how you got there.
Jenna Cavello
Yeah.
Alex Clark
And has it been a good decision?
Jenna Cavello
We're the best selling supplement there.
Alex Clark
Really?
Jenna Cavello
We're number one.
Alex Clark
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Jenna Cavello
I think only time will tell. But you know, look, my father has surrounded himself with naturopaths and holistic doctors and supplement manufacturers like, and founders since he was 20. Right. The first time I ever went to LA was in 1998. I went for a supplement conference for his best friend in Long Beach. Like, like, you know, I know a lot about supplements. I've. This isn't like new for me. It's something that I've studied for a long time. I've taken supplements for like the last 30 years. So I think that a lot of what you see is a lot of hype and, and the brands that truly work and are efficacious will. Will stick around. That's what I think.
Alex Clark
What is your second bestseller, Calm Beauty? The tart cherry little sachet thing.
Jenna Cavello
Yeah, the sachet. Yeah, I love those.
Alex Clark
And I had all of my team try them.
Jenna Cavello
Yeah, they.
Alex Clark
What is so special about this little tart cherry thing?
Jenna Cavello
Do you know what naltrexone is?
Alex Clark
No.
Jenna Cavello
So naltrexone is it's basically this drug, very cheap pharmaceutical drug. You really can't make much money off of it. Why? Of course, while that's why it's not promoted, right. They give it to people who have like an alcohol Or a drug addiction because it cuts the receptors off in their brain that are getting them high. My doctor in LA, I love her. Her name is Dr. Dominique Frieden Reed. She's a French functional medical doctor. So she can prescribe as well. Right. She's just not a naturopath. She can prescribe medicine. She put me on low dose naltrexone for the endometriosis pain at a very low dose of like 1 milligram. And what they're finding is that at a very low dose it can put Hashimoto's into remission. Um, it cuts inflammation. It's anti cancer. It's like this longevity drug. But it's not promoted much because it's so cheap.
Alex Clark
Maybe I need this. I have Hashimoto, notice.
Jenna Cavello
Yeah, it's. It's amazing. And you know what? And you like lose weight on it too.
Alex Clark
Oh, well, I don't need that.
Jenna Cavello
You don't need that? I need, I need some. I need. Yeah, you don't need to lose weight. I. But for me, like, I like, I'm very skinny if I'm on low dose naltrexone. But 10 of the people who are on it, they get really bad insomnia. Right. And so like I drink no alcohol. Also. Also like this whole movement of like not drinking alcohol. I haven't drank alcohol in like 15 years. I have like maybe two to three drinks a year. I had to quit the alcohol because of the endometriosis. Right. Because the pain was so bad. And that's also. That also can like raise estrogen in your body. So I quit drinking a very long time ago. But so I don't have an addictive personality like at all. If anything, I'm just like a workaholic. That's kind of my addiction. But when I was taking the low dose naltrexone, I had really bad insomnia and I would microdose Klonopin. And Klonopin is so addictive, it's almost like a Xanax. It's in that same category. I would take a tiny bit just to be able to sleep. When I went off of the Naltrexone, I also just like cold turkey, like quit microdosing the Klonopin. And I felt my nervous system was so messed up. Like I felt like I was like shaking. It felt like I was like going to have like a seizure. Yeah. And, and you know, you can go into a seizure if you don't wean yourself off of Klonopin and So someone had said to me, try taurine. Taurine is an amino acid that your body naturally makes. It helps with it. It's. It's amazing. It's this longevity amino acid. It boosts your immune system. It calms your nervous system. It's incredible for cardiovascular health. It's absolutely amazing. Right? And when I took calmed me down so much, like I have never taken. And it's probably gonna blow up. I'm sure that a lot of people are gonna copy taurine. I've never taken a natural supplement that felt like nature's Klonopin or nature is Xanax.
Alex Clark
Like, no, it's legit.
Jenna Cavello
It calms you down. And I wanted to spermidine, because spermidine can reverse gray hair. It can delay gray hair from coming if it's very preventative. It puts your body in a state of autophagy. So it helps to get the zombie cells out of your body. It's incredible for your. For wrinkles, for your skin. So I wanted to just have something that really calmed me down, but also that was like very anti aging.
Alex Clark
Well, it also tastes phenomenal because it just tastes like tart cherry ju.
Jenna Cavello
That's what it is. So there's no natural flavors. That's something you want to look out for on packaging.
Alex Clark
When my dad died and I was home with my mom recently, that was the one thing like right before bed, which she's really having trouble. Thank you. She's really having trouble sleeping and things like that. And so I had my tart cherry calm beauty sachets. And so I was like, mom, it's tart cherry time. So she'd be like, okay. And if I would forget while I was there for those like three weeks or whatever, she'd be like her going to do the tart cherry. That was like the one thing that kind of gave her a little bit of relief. And like she still is not sleeping great. But like it helped. Like she could. She was like, it is helping a little.
Jenna Cavello
So she should do Weston Price. That'll make her sleep.
Alex Clark
And I like too, is that you've talked about. You don't only need to take those at night before bed, but you can also take those like when if you're nervous flying, where you're just like having a stressful moment in the middle of your day. Like, it doesn't have to only be at night time. You're going to conk out and sleep, but it does get give a state of relaxation, which is helpful when wanting to go to sleep.
Jenna Cavello
Absolutely.
Alex Clark
What's really going on with the beauty awards that magazines do every year.
Jenna Cavello
It's all bought and paid.
Alex Clark
So when they say like number one, hairspray of 2024 or whatever, it's fake.
Jenna Cavello
It'S not all fake. The majority of it is fake, though. It's bought and paid. Sephora has a lot to do with it, with buying and paying for those. The magazines are broke, they have no money. And so the only way they're making money is by linking the product to the store and then the store gives the publication a kickback.
Alex Clark
You raise a very interesting point that the magazines right now are broke. So my question to you as somebody who has been super brave, outspoken for Trump despite working in the luxury beauty industry, working in the fashion industry, do you think that within these next four years Anna Wintour is going to say, okay, let's give Melania a cover? Yes, I do too. Yeah, let me hear your thoughts. Because I said the same, the same.
Jenna Cavello
Way that Bezos came out and said that his publication is dying and that he'd like to hire more conservative writers, I think the same thing is going, that's going to have like a ripple effect. And I think there's a lot of amazing editors that are like so afraid to say anything or have left their industry altogether and look for a lot of freelance work because they have similar viewpoints as you and I. I think that Vogue knows that and I think that it's, it has to be inclusive for everyone on, on both sides. That's what I think.
Alex Clark
I'm thinking from a monetary standpoint. Vogue needs some sort of revival and to get people excited to buy physical copies. I cannot imagine a bigger driver of sales than to finally give Melania Trump and then just say go crazy. Everybody would buy it. And the Trump frenzy we're seeing. The majority of the country voted for Trump. The majority of the country is fascinated by the Trumps.
Jenna Cavello
She's so elegant and beautiful. She's the best dressed like, she literally like Trumps, like Jackie Kennedy.
Alex Clark
But even think about the spirit and just the cultural zeitgeist of the Trump name now compared to first term.
Jenna Cavello
Oh God.
Alex Clark
It is totally different. Everybody likes him.
Jenna Cavello
Everybody likes that family at the super bowl, of course. And they booed Taylor Swift.
Alex Clark
My girl. I know, don't get me started. Jenna, what are the most overrated cult following luxury beauty products?
Jenna Cavello
Ingestible glutathione.
Alex Clark
Why?
Jenna Cavello
It does nothing, absolutely nothing. In order to, to absorb glutathione, it needs to get into your blood for it to have Any effect. And when you take an IV of glutathione, most of it is only it's not going into the blood, it's going into the plasma of the blood. Very little of it is actually going into the bloodstream. Nian was the compounding pharmacist who was compounding all the glutathione in LA for two decades. He came out with this technology where he figured out a way to do a transdermal glutathione that gets into the bloodstream just by spraying it. There's like zero benefit to taking ingestible glutathione. Like almost zero, zero percent benefit.
Alex Clark
What about La Mer?
Jenna Cavello
It doesn't work for me. Like I think it's what I think. Everybody has such different skin, right? Like literally, like I'll recommend a prod product to my friends and they'll say this made me break out. And then they recommend something to me and then I'm like, this made me break out. Like everyone is so different. Which again, that goes back to the vaccine. Like everyone is so like chemically made up, so chemically different from each other. It's not a one size fits all approach. So I can't really badmouth like any like beauty product because something might work so well for one person and not well for the next.
Alex Clark
Yeah. The newest product of yours that I'm really intrigued by is this holy growth 84, which you're saying can help stimulate hair growth in just 84 days. What is going on with this compared to other hair growth products out there?
Jenna Cavello
The Active I use, I use a few different Actives inside, but the, the main active is redensyl and redensil. They're comparing it to minoxidil. So number one, it's non toxic, it's plant based. You can use it if you're pregnant or breastfeeding. You're not allowed to use Minoxidil if you're pregnant or breastfeeding. They say after 84 days it's equivalent to do one hair transplant. Is it going to grow hair if you're bald? Absolutely not. If you have a follicle that's not dead and needs stimulation, it will grow that follicle as long as it's not dead.
Alex Clark
I bought this for my boyfriend. He started using it.
Jenna Cavello
Oh my gosh. Thank you. It smells so good, doesn't it? I.
Alex Clark
Well, I haven't smelled it yet, but I'm gonna have to ask.
Jenna Cavello
Amazing. My boyfriend is obsessed with it. He, he told me that he needs to get his hair Cut like way more frequently. And you can look at the before and afters on our website. It's insane. Now, the one thing is, is that if you stop taking it, if you stop using it, then your hair cycle is just going to go back to growing the speed it grew before. So it's not going to last. You have to continue it.
Alex Clark
What sorts of things were you experiencing living in California as a beauty CEO that that were concerning to you and made you think, I think I gotta support this Trump guy.
Jenna Cavello
I had seen his tweets related to autism back before he even ran for president. He tweeted there was something going on with the vaccines and autism. Maybe he tweeted that in 2012, way before he ran for presidency. I had liked that he was talking about that. That was number one. Number two, it was more that I felt really betrayed by the other side. Like I felt betrayed by leftists. I thought that they stood for healthy food and healthy air and healthy water and medicine that we could trust. And they started to become the party of war and the party of Big Pharma. And for me, like, those are all the things that, you know, that I'm against. I support, like life and freedom and peace. And they used to be the party of free speech and they became the party of censorship. And we knew this issue with the vaccine was, you know, coming to a head, especially when Gavin signed SB276 and didn't allow personal exemptions anymore. And that really was the beginning of the exodus of moms leaving California. Even though I, I personally know he does not vaccinate his children.
Alex Clark
Governor Gavin Newsom doesn't vaccinate his children.
Jenna Cavello
No, he doesn't.
Alex Clark
But he makes it required to attend school in California that your kids have to. There's no religious exemption.
Jenna Cavello
Well, his party came down on him and said that, that if you do not sign SB 276, you'll never be able to run for president because the pharmaceutical companies are, you know, lobbying and giving so much money. So everything, everything really comes down to money, right? It's all about money and profit.
Alex Clark
The way the city of Los Angeles has handled the fires this year, do you think, because there was some, some celebrity exodus of Los Angeles during the pandemic, do you think now with the disaster of how they handled the fire, how it was totally preventable, they did nothing. Do you think that we're going to see an even bigger celebrity exodus of la?
Jenna Cavello
Yes, I do. And this started happening actually, like in 2018, 2019, there was this Congresswoman from this leftist from Texas who came and she sued the city of la and she said that it's illegal to pick up the belongings of homeless that are on the street. Every morning, the Department of Sanitation would drive around LA and they would clean up all of the homeless belongings that were left over. And all the garbage, all the needles, all of the stuff, like off skid row, they would clean the majority of that up. Right, right. Unless they were like in their tent, it became illegal to do that. And so the homeless knew that. So then they started to expand. And that's why you started to see all the homeless not just on skid row, but also all throughout la, all in West Hollywood. Beverly Hills is its own jurisdiction. It's not counted as this. It's not part of the city of la. They have their own police department, so they still like prosecuted. But the city of LA stopped prosecuting. So this happened before COVID We started to see this shift, you know, happening probably even when Jerry Brown was governor. So I just started to see everything that they were doing that was so wrong and so like making the city so dangerous and defunding the police and LA is not the same. You know, like, I feel safer walking around in Paris at night with my jewelry and my bag than I do. London is really going through it right now. I just got back from London. London is going through what we went through in 2020. They're really hurting right now with this crazy leftist government. It's really dangerous. You have, you can't like have your phone in your hand right now. Your phone will get stolen.
Alex Clark
Okay, this is really important. I have to go to London this summer.
Jenna Cavello
You don't want to, you know, have your phone or your bag. Don't, don't like, keep your jewelry on. Don't walk around with like anything. Yeah, take the watches off. I have done my best within this whole industry. It's taken me 10 years to find conservative right wing creatives to work with.
Alex Clark
Oh, I love that.
Jenna Cavello
It's taken 10 years for me to find them. That's like the majority of my creative team, they're are very similar to us. Cool. I prayed for that. Like, I wrote down God, like send me like the most amazing creative conservatives. I love that. It was so refreshing because I, I have, I'm friends with like some very high profile, incredible people in London who have crazy followings, who are the most talented people I know speak out against this government. It was so refreshing. And some as young as like 28 saying we're not allowed to say that we're proud of being British. Like we're not allowed to say that anymore.
Alex Clark
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Jenna Cavello
Kim did not. It was not Kim, it was the friends.
Alex Clark
Kim Kardashian's friends shout out to ruin your life.
Jenna Cavello
Friends. Yeah, it's her childhood friends. They're so small minded, you know, they don't travel, they're not worldly. They're in a very small bubble. They're friends with the same people that they hung out with since they were five year years old. She calls them the lifers. So it was like someone in her lifer group, but I won't say who. But if anyone posted me on their story, like, she immediately would message them and say, like, take her down, she's a Trump supporter.
Alex Clark
Nice.
Jenna Cavello
I would be in desk sides in New York and I would be with editors and they would post the brand and this group would say to the editor, she's a Trump supporter. Do not po. Do not write about her.
Alex Clark
Well, they obviously didn't have a problem with Kim being buddy buddy with Ivanka or, or going to meet with Trump about criminal justice.
Jenna Cavello
I think this was years, years later. You know, this is going back to 2016, 2017. This was, you know, very early on.
Alex Clark
I love your taste when it comes to all things fashion.
Jenna Cavello
What's my favorite look of yours.
Alex Clark
I love the ad campaign that you did with Agent Nator. And you have on these, like, really bunched up thick socks. I don't know if it was leg warmers or what, but you have big trainer sneakers on and you've got little shorts on. And I thought that was darling that you decided to do that. It was like one of your lotion camps campaigns.
Jenna Cavello
Oh.
Alex Clark
Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, but I just thought it was really. It was. It was really cute. It was really fitness focused and, I don't know, showed off your legs. Well, I don't know. It was just, like, a cool idea to do. You were outdoors, and I just thought, like, that for lotion was different than, like, I would think being in a bathroom or whatever. There's nothing wrong with that. It was just different.
Jenna Cavello
I wasn't. The black vintage Versace dress. It was like a little sporty outfit.
Alex Clark
It was a sporty outfit for lotion, and I just thought that that was interesting. Take.
Jenna Cavello
Okay.
Alex Clark
Do you think that the Margo is replacing the Birkin?
Jenna Cavello
What is the Margot.
Alex Clark
What's that from the row?
Jenna Cavello
No, nothing.
Alex Clark
It's everywhere. This is what everybody wants. Everybody's carrying the Margot. Nobody's wanting the Birkin.
Jenna Cavello
Yeah, right.
Alex Clark
Because you know why? How do you not know this? Walmart started carrying Birkins.
Jenna Cavello
I saw it.
Alex Clark
Everybody was grossed out.
Jenna Cavello
Babe, look at the retail price for the. The. The Birkin.
Alex Clark
You think? It cannot be outdone.
Jenna Cavello
It's there to say when you get your first Hermes back bag. It's an addiction, and nothing else in the world matters.
Alex Clark
Okay, all right.
Jenna Cavello
I'll take your word for telling you no. I promise. Like, I didn't understand the hype until I got my first baby Kelly. I got her. I saved. Listen, I said I am not gonna buy myself a baby Kelly until I have X amount in the bank. I saved my whole life for her. I got her in 2018. I paid €5,000 at the time for her. She's seven years old. I wear her more than any other bank bag. You do the math of what bag you wear for seven years later. You spend more money buying these $2,000 bags than buying the €5,000 bag that lasts a lifetime when you get it. It's an addiction. Like, you cannot, like, buy really anything else. Like, maybe once in a while, you'll buy a little bit of Chanel, but nothing else matters aside from. From their mes. Like, it's like it's an addiction. It's an addiction. And you don't know it because I'm like, what's up with these bags? They're not even that cute, right? You're like, like, I don't really need that. And then you get it. Nothing else matters. And you don't even know about the Margot.
Alex Clark
Yeah, you definitely didn't. So that tells me a lot there. I'm like, wow, I was really wrong on this. If Jenna Cavella doesn't even know what the Margo is, and I'm like, wow.
Jenna Cavello
I do love the row. I wear the clothes, but for bags, like, it's, you know, it's like basically Hermes or like, almost nothing.
Alex Clark
Nothing. Top fashion and beauty trends for 2025 that you're the most excited about. Just a couple.
Jenna Cavello
You know, I love a uniform. I literally wear my same Prada outfits from 2023, and maybe I just expand and get an extra top. But I love, like, I'm like, petite and little like you. I don't. How tall are you? Five'four yeah, I'm a little bit shorter than you, but I love just, like, be. I like being cozy, and I love skims, to be honest. Like, skims are so comfy and cozy. And I don't cancel other women, so I don't. I never cancel another company. I really don't care what their political views are to say. I got in a lot of trouble for wearing Balenciaga. I love my Balenciaga. Like, I get in a lot of trouble for that. I lost a lot of followers for that one. But I love. I love Mew Mew. I love Prada. I love being, like, a little bit sporty. I. I love being, like, cozy and having, like, like a designer label on.
Alex Clark
Do you think Zimmerman is. Is falling to the wayside? Are we over Zimmerman?
Jenna Cavello
Okay, I'll tell you. Here's my theory on Zimmerman. I think it looks so amazing on a brunette. And it looked. Yeah, like, it looked great on you. And it looks amazing like on Arab girls and Middle Eastern girls who are olive with dark hair. I hate it on a blonde. I hate it on a blonde. It really bothers me to see a blonde in Zimmerman. It does. It's like a clash with my eyes, the pattern and the blonde hair. It's too much.
Alex Clark
Much.
Jenna Cavello
It looks. It'll look amazing on you, though, because you have dark hair. So you can do it top emerging.
Alex Clark
Like mid tier price range designers that you're liking right now.
Jenna Cavello
Carolina Santo Domingo, she has, like, amazing, really cute bags that I like Jacques Moose, but they've been around. I think their bags are like adorable. Like the cutest, teeniest, tiniest little bags. I love their ad campaigns. I love sporty and rich for like a cute. Yeah, I, I like her brand.
Alex Clark
What do you think about Silver Lake jeans? Jeans?
Jenna Cavello
Oh, I used to, when they would just give them to like, they would just give them to stylists, I used. God, I wore those like a decade ago. Yeah, they're cute. Silver Lake. Yeah. They have like a letter that's missing.
Alex Clark
Yes.
Jenna Cavello
Right?
Alex Clark
Yep. Yeah, I think it might be the I. I think it's S, L, V, R E, R or something like that.
Jenna Cavello
They gifted me like all their jeans when they. That was like a decade ago. Yeah, I like, I like their jeans. I love, I love like a redone Levi. Redone.
Alex Clark
Yep, yep.
Jenna Cavello
I love those. I love vintage. I like quality. Right. I like to buy things that I can wear for like the next five years and I like things that if it's Chanel and it's trendy, it's going to never like disappear from my closet. I'm always going to bring it back. I like to buy things that can last a lifetime. And so my tip is like to go on the realreal and get this.
Alex Clark
Stuff like, oh, I'm on there all the time.
Jenna Cavello
You can find almost everything that I buy. I then find on the real, real.
Alex Clark
Louis V. Here to stay or fleeting.
Jenna Cavello
Oh, because that designer, didn't he, he just went to Chanel. Yeah.
Alex Clark
I mean, like right now it's really popular, but you stay that way.
Jenna Cavello
I don't, I don't know because I just, I buy like, I buy a lot of ysl. I buy a lot of Miu Miu. Prada, Chanel, I'm really not into right now, but I wear my old Chanel. That'll. I'm, I'm very excited to see this new designer, to see what he's going to do. I'll tell you a mid tier brand that I love that I wear all the time.
Alex Clark
Who?
Jenna Cavello
Alexander Wang.
Alex Clark
Oh, really?
Jenna Cavello
Yeah.
Alex Clark
Okay.
Jenna Cavello
And then Kate fits you really well if you're short. Also Totem. Totem is amazing and it's very similar to the Row and it's like a little bit cheaper.
Alex Clark
Yep.
Jenna Cavello
I buy Kate. I like Kate. I do like, I like Kate. For some basics. I'm really into being cozy and comfy. Like, I love like, like some cashmere from Laura Piano.
Alex Clark
I love it. I love a little fashion talk.
Jenna Cavello
Oh my God. I love being like, I love being cozy. Like I will not even step like I'm not even going to go there. Never mind. I'm not going to go there. I'm not canceling any other brands. I'm sure, like, there are people who like, like, think of Agent and Tor and they're like, oh, like, you know, I don't like her views if I love something. Like, I'll buy it if I don't agree with someone's views.
Alex Clark
I never talk, like, high fashion designer stuff on the show.
Jenna Cavello
So that's like, what are your favorite designers right now?
Alex Clark
It probably is Kate. I really like the row. I really like Kate. And I do like Mew Mew a lot. And I've been liking Zimmerman. But that. But that's why I wanted to ask you about Zimmerman is because, I don't know, I'm like, wait, is it like la.
Jenna Cavello
And we'll do, like, a day of me dressing and styling.
Alex Clark
You love that. I would love.
Jenna Cavello
I would love to pick out some outfits for you. I would die look amazing in, like, some, like, mew Mew trousers. So, yeah, I like. I want to. I want to, like, pick out some looks for your.
Alex Clark
Well.
Jenna Cavello
And you understand my body, My amazing body.
Alex Clark
Well, we're just, you know, frail little hamster women, and you understand that better than anybody. That's just you and me. It's, like, very hard for other people to understand how to. How to dress me.
Jenna Cavello
Well, I like Alexander Wang. Do you know why you like the row?
Alex Clark
Why?
Jenna Cavello
Because they're short, so they use themselves to fit everything. That's why it looks good on us.
Alex Clark
Yes, that's what it is.
Jenna Cavello
That's because it's tailored to fit them. And even though I still have to tailor some of it, they fit it on a short girl. And that's why I like Alexander Wang, because he's fitting it on shorter girls. Even though you have to still tailor it and get it hemmed. His, like, model to fit on is shorter.
Alex Clark
Okay, well, that's a really good tip because I didn't know that, but, you know, my Roman empire is the Olsen twins disappearing. I need them back badly. I love them.
Jenna Cavello
They're really sweet girls. I was in a wedding with them, actually.
Alex Clark
How do you hope the Maha movement will greatly and positively impact the beauty industry?
Jenna Cavello
RFK takes the regulation away from. From supplements because they're coming down so hard on supplements right now on nad, nmn, even glutathione, so. And they have, like, a host of other ingredients that they're after. Right. So I hope that he, like, dismantles that. I hope that he, first and foremost, helps improve our food and our soil because that's directly impacting the way we look and feel. Right?
Alex Clark
That's so true.
Jenna Cavello
Well, if we don't have healthy food, you know, I go to Europe to be healthy because the food is such better quality, especially in Italy, where there's very little presence of Monsanto and GMOs. There's a lot of. There's a lot of GMO in France, actually. And so for me, it's. It's really about the food first and foremost. And then I hope that he bans some of these toxic ingredients and that we have more regulation on chemical sunscreens. I think that's a big one. I hope that we ban the aluminum, that's an antiperspirant, all the things that are truly bad for health. I hope that he. He starts to ban and look at some of those ingredients. And there's a lot of things in makeup that are really bad that we're putting on our lips every single day. Certain antioxidants, certain preservatives for lipstick have been banned in Europe for a long time and they're not banned in the us. I hope all those things are looked into. I hope that I get to be, like, on his board and I'm a part of this.
Alex Clark
I hope you do, too, because that would be fabulous. We'd start looking, talk about make America hot again. Jenna Cavello at the crux of that would be iconic.
Jenna Cavello
So would you.
Alex Clark
Oh, well, thank you. If somebody wants to try Agent tour, obviously we sold them on it, they're getting holy mane. But what other beauty product? Because I like the skin care and everything. What other thing do you think? Try this first.
Jenna Cavello
Best sellers are holy main calm beauty and then it's holy oil or face oil and holy water. Every single hot girl has holy water on their shelf. It's a high molecular weight hyaluronic pearl and rose essence toner. It's absolutely incredible. It's like a filter. When you put it on your face, it instantly plumps your face like you. I cannot live without holy water and holy oil. Like, if you use a face oil or if you don't, if you think face oils are going to make you break out or if they're going to make you greasy, it doesn't. It balances the skin. It's not sticky or greasy. It feels absolutely amazing. You have to try holy. Holy oil. Holy water. We're sold out of the toothpaste. There's so much. We're sold out of the Body bomb. Oh my God.
Alex Clark
Yeah, yeah.
Jenna Cavello
You have to see the before and after of the body balm.
Alex Clark
No, that's good. I have all of these products. By the way, one thing with the essence, do you spray before you do the oil?
Jenna Cavello
No, you take the essence, you spray in the palm of your hand, not on your face.
Alex Clark
Oh.
Jenna Cavello
So cuz it's like a straight shoot. Okay. So you spray it in the palm of your hand and you mix it with a dime sized, or I'm sorry, a pea sized amount of holy see, which is our dry vitamin C powder. You mix that together and you can even put the holy oil in that and make like a nice emulsion. And then you put that on the.
Alex Clark
Face and then you do moisturizer after.
Jenna Cavello
Well, if you're going to do a moisturizer, so you want to do holy water. Holy see? And then you want to do your moisturizer and then you want to do holy oil at the end.
Alex Clark
Holy oil after the moisturizer.
Jenna Cavello
That's what they say to lock in the moisture right after the moisturizer.
Alex Clark
Yes, but I've been doing this wrong.
Jenna Cavello
I. No, no, that's what like everybody says to do. But because they say that if you apply the oil after the, the moisturizer that you're locking the moisturizer in. But I like to mix it all together in the palm of my hand and sometimes I even put my tinted moisturizer directly in that or my foundation. I mix it all together and put it on my face.
Alex Clark
And you guys do little blogs and all kinds of stuff. And you can follow Agent Nature on Instagram. Obviously follow Jenna. What's your Instagram?
Jenna Cavello
Jenna Cavello at Jenna Cavallo or Agent Natur. But our blog, our health blog is literally how a lot of people discover the brand from all the health advice and all the people we interview.
Alex Clark
I always ask every guest if you could give one remedy to heal a sick culture and it could be physically, mentally or spiritually, what would it be?
Jenna Cavello
A healthy relationship, Just any friend.
Alex Clark
It could be platonic or romantic. Romantic.
Jenna Cavello
I think romantic. I think you need a healthy romantic partner to heal a lot of things, like whether it's familial or societal, I think that changes everything. And to have that person to go through all of these crazy things that we're experiencing, like politically or with the fires or whatever is happening, it's really nice to have that person to rely on that calms your nervous system. I get a lot of girls messaging me saying like, should I break up with this Guy, like, my family doesn't like him or my friends don't like him. I'm like, only you know that answer, right? Like, no one else knows except for you. And I always say, like, how does your nervous system feel? Like, does your nervous system feel calm? And a lot of times, like, friends and family, they don't know what's best for us. Are they in the healthiest relationships? Do they give the best advice? Like, if they do and they have, like, a healthy relationship and you admire their relationship or you want their relationship, maybe trust them, but you have to be, like, really careful with who you go to for advice. And I only know this from because, like, I'm older and I feel like I've been through so much. So looking back, like, I know, like, Elena Cardone, like, says this a lot. Like, if you have, like, a fight, like, with your boyfriend or spouse, like, don't tell your friends, because then they're, like, going to judge the relationship. I'm so lucky. I feel like I. I'm such a late bloomer. It took me. I met my boyfriend, boyfriend 17 years ago. He tried to date me. And if. If I dated him back then, we definitely wouldn't be together now because I had to really grow, and I had to launch Agent Nator. But, like, he calms me, and I'm so grateful for him. And I met him, you know, when I was older and I wasn't so young, and I'm so grateful to have that person that calms my nervous system. And so I think that is, like, the best thing you can look for in a person, because that's going to heal. Heal your nervous system, which is going to calm you down, and that totally affects, like, the rest of your health.
Alex Clark
Well, Jenna, this episode really had it all. We had everything from fashion to. To beauty to skin care to politics, celebrity gossip. I. I mean, it's really hit all of the things for the girlies. So thank you for letting me, like, kind of get out of my food pharma, you know, thing that I'm. I'm in, and I can get trapped in that for a while. This was, like, a really fun departure. And also releasing right around my birthday was. Which is exciting for me.
Jenna Cavello
Happy birthday. Thank you.
Alex Clark
So that was exciting.
Jenna Cavello
Thank you for having me. This is the first podcast that I agreed to do in, like, years, you know, honored.
Alex Clark
Well, we're all happy you said yes.
Jenna Cavello
Thank you so much. Thanks.
Alex Clark
This was such a departure for me while still being on Brand, and I love when I get a guest where that can happen. So. So some of you may know this, but for those that don't, all throughout middle and high school I planned to go into fashion. Specifically a fashion journalist. That's what I wanted to be. I wanted to major in journalism and minor in fashion merchandising. So I wrote a state award winning fashion column in our student newspaper. I had like 100 books on the fashion industry in my room. I mean I was serious and planning on going to Columbia College of Chicago and then last minute bailed when I got an internship at my favorite local radio station and well, the rest is history. So to geek out on beauty and fashion in this episode felt like trying on this other life that I almost had for a minute. So I hope you enjoyed it too. Please leave a five star review. Tell others why they should listen to Culture Apothecary. We are on a mission to heal a sick culture. Twice a week, new guests bring a unique remedy. Mondays and Thursdays, 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific. Subscribe to Real Alex Clark on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram at Real Alex Clark. You can also find the show on Instagram at Clark Culture Apothecary I'm Alex Clark and this is Culture Apothecary.
Title: Collagen Powder Dos & Don'ts + Is the Birkin Over?
Guest: Jenna Cavello, Founder of Agent Natur
Release Date: February 21, 2025
In this episode, host Alex Clark welcomes Jenna Cavello, the visionary behind Agent Natur, a pioneering brand in the luxury clean beauty and wellness industry. Jenna shares her inspiring journey from battling endometriosis to establishing an international brand renowned for its natural, eco-certified skincare and supplements.
Notable Quote:
"Agent Natur is now an international brand featured in some of the most exclusive spas around the world, resorts and stores like Air1 and Net A Porter."
— Jenna Cavello [00:55]
Jenna critiques the prevailing collagen powders in the market, highlighting issues such as the use of cheap marine collagen from farmed fish and the presence of synthetic fragrances despite "all-natural" labels.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"A lot of people are getting disgusting, cheap marine collagen that is coming from farmed fish and tilapia. Sick. The label clean in Sephora does not mean much."
— Jenna Cavello [00:04]
Jenna delves into how Agent Natur emerged as a response to her personal health struggles, particularly her battle with endometriosis. Frustrated with conventional treatments, she turned to natural remedies, which eventually led to the creation of Agent Natur's flagship product, the Holy Stick Deodorant.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"Jenna is not just a CEO, she's a muse and a thought leader in the beauty industry, advocating for independent thinking and research."
— Alex Clark [00:55]
Jenna discusses the backlash she faced from the beauty industry when she voiced concerns about ingredients like aluminum in deodorants and vaccines. She explains how her stance led to the cancellation of her partnerships with major retailers and brands like GOOP.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"With every cancellation, my sales just kept going up and up and up. And then during COVID my sales were up like 3,000% or something, like insane."
— Jenna Cavello [12:09]
Jenna elaborates on her dissatisfaction with the term "clean beauty," arguing that it often misleads consumers into believing all synthetic ingredients are harmful. She advocates for a more nuanced understanding based on scientific standards, particularly referencing European regulations.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"I do not like the word clean because I think it gives all synthetics a bad rap. And I don't use synthetics."
— Jenna Cavello [14:03]
A significant portion of the discussion focuses on Agent Natur's collagen powder, Holy Mane. Jenna explains the unique formulation of their product, which includes multiple types of collagen and avoids synthetic additives, distinguishing it from competitors.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"We have types 1, 2, 3, and 4, which makes the marine collagen really special."
— Jenna Cavello [37:38]
Jenna shares insights into the evolving beauty landscape, including collaborations with retailers like Erewhon and navigating fashion trends. She also touches on her skepticism towards beauty awards and the authenticity of product claims in the industry.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"And with every cancellation, my sales just kept going up and up and up."
— Jenna Cavello [12:09]
In the concluding segments, Jenna reflects on the importance of healthy relationships in healing cultural and personal ailments. She underscores the value of having supportive romantic partners to navigate societal challenges.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"I think that having a healthy romantic partner can heal a lot of things, whether it's familial or societal."
— Jenna Cavello [76:32]
This episode of Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark offers a comprehensive look into the challenges and triumphs of building a clean beauty brand in a skeptical industry. Jenna Cavello's candid discussions on product integrity, industry controversies, and personal resilience provide valuable insights for listeners interested in health, wellness, and authentic beauty solutions.
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This summary aims to encapsulate the essence of the podcast episode, highlighting key discussions and insights while providing context for those who haven't listened.