Interview part 1 with CEO of ANNOD beauty brand!
Hit me up at @choosandfashiondoos
Interview part 1 with CEO of ANNOD beauty brand!
Hit me up at @choosandfashiondoos
Hey, welcome to real beauty with AF D. This is episode well. If anyone is a loyal listener. You will see that I added in a little bonus episode on Thanksgiving day, just to remind us all, um, what that day is about. And for me personally, it's about having. A bit more gratitude and thankfulness with everything that I have in my life. And so with that, for all of my American buddies, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And I'm sure like me, you have been inundated with. Sales for black Friday, first cyber Monday today, it has been wild. How many sales have been on like my spam mail for just my work email was like over a hundred and that was just over the weekend. It was ridiculous. And trust me, I'm not signed up to that much. I promise. That is my backup to get additional discount, which I know we all do. I've also used my husband's email in order to get some good discounts. But anyway, I am very proud of myself because I have not, sir, come to any of the sales. Um, I've been very good, although I do have my eye on several things, but every time I went to look at it, it's sold out. So clearly it's assigned for me to not spend any money. So I will take that. However, what did suck today was going back to work after being off for a week. It was not an easy task to get out bad this morning and it's been cold. Um, but I dragged myself out and I also took myself to the gym at lunchtime, which I was really proud of. And I'm really trying to stay. True to my early resolutions, kind of get back on track when it comes to fitness. So anything to make myself kind of do that, especially as I have a gym on campus. There's no excuse. Um, the other thing I did want to mention, um, although I was off last week and it was very relaxing and I, the best time with my friends, my family was such a welcome break. I finally went to REM fast. So if you are living in the Houston area, The Renaissance festival. Is literally the best thing ever. And I've been here for eight and a half years and I've never gone. So yesterday I was loving it. Plus caking myself that. I hadn't, um, participate in it before, plus. I didn't even dress up. But I did wear tartan, so I was representing Scotland. Um, but yeah, it was so, so much fun. I highly recommend it. Although I'm advertising this on Sunday, yesterday was the last day. So I guess we'll, we'll all be there for 2023 and we'll be all over it and I will definitely be dressing up. The other exciting news that I wanted to add is last Saturday. I Fischli became an American citizen. So again, I talk about us being here for eight and a half years, and it has been a long ass journey to get to this point. But I am dare I say it. Official, um, It is literally the best feeling. So now I just need to get myself a passport and, um, I mean, it's already official, but I feel like it will be much easier from a traveling perspective. So I feel really, really happy. Um, more than happy if anyone has any questions about the process or anything else, I'm more than happy to kind of give my 2 cents, but. Yeah. It is the biggest relief ever to know that, um, I will be here permanently. So there's no checking me out of the us anymore. I'm living my child, child, child to dream. Anyway without further, do I feel like my rambling at the star of these podcasts is becoming a longer and longer. Um, so I will stop and I will pass it onto my incredible gas, Donna, who I feel like I've been speaking to her for months and her brand, which we are going to speak about in a second is. Literally the best secret I've uncovered this year and I've been using it religiously. So if you follow me in Instagram, you will see that I've been sharing this skincare brand. And I will continue to do so. And actually I need to do more kind of detailed, um, videos just to show how just awesome. Um, Each of the products are so high, highly recommend as you're listening to this. And again, if you have any questions reach out, but, um, yeah, it was an absolute pleasure speaking to Donna and just how knowledgeable she is. Um, and also as I was kind of editing the podcast, I was like, gosh, her voice is so soothing. So um it will definitely make you feel nice and relaxed i hope you enjoy this conversation and i do have a little person here that wants to give a little shout out so Hi. Okay enjoy
francene:Yay. Well, it's nice to finally see you
donna:Yes. Good to talk to you in person. I
francene:know. So how's everything going?
donna:Very good. I do have a little cold now though. Oh. So of course my husband gave me the cold as well. He was away again. So I think every time we travel you get some sort of
francene:bug. Yeah. I feel everything after C is, our bodies just aren't, I don't know. I feel like my body is trying to build up a tolerance again of all the bugs out there that I've never been more sick with bugs than I have over the last like nine months.
donna:Yes, the same. And I had Covid just before you. Yeah. And it took us months to get better. I haven't been exercising. I take my puppy to the dog park and I don't even take him for a long walk after that. Yeah. So it really has up me. And then I have a cold, I can't remember the last time I had a cold. So it's, it's the same here. And apparently yesterday, um, somebody said that, um, the, um, sorry. Um, PO's backing Newcastle again, it's running rampant. You know, it goes through stages. Yes. So, um, it's, it's back here again. I'm like, no, I did not want it. I know.
francene:It's, it's like I feel we went through phases of being like, okay, we have this under control. We should be good. And then certainly, I mean, yeah, similar to you, like when I got it, there were so many cases here in the US it's, I'm surprised people that haven't had it, haven't had it yet.
donna:Of all people. My mom is the only one out of our, our whole family who hasn't had covid, you know, with, uh, the youngest is 18. Yeah. And my husband's nearly 60, and then my mom's 73 and she, she hasn't had it, which is good for her.
francene:Yeah, it is. Hopefully that continues. Mm. Fingers. Um, well I really appreciate you taking time out to speak with me, um, and especially to come on my podcast, real beauty. Yes. Thank
donna:you for having
francene:me. Um, and certainly, I know we're gonna go into this in more detail, but just for the listeners, um, out there, I was able to be introduced to Donna via her brand, um, which we will talk about in a second. And I've been loving it and actually I have it in front of me. Ah, good. And I don't, I don't have the rose spray because I actually keep that in my handbag. Um, cuz I use Ah, that's a good idea. Constantly. It's amazing. Um, but anyway, let me kick it off. So, Donna, welcome to Real Beauty with fd, a place where we discuss what beauty means to us, whether it's a product that sells out every second around the world, or it's a cult classic to discussing body positivity, to building incredible brands. We are here to find your little black dress in skincare makeup, and more importantly, promoting happiness within your own skin and owning it each episode and bringing in a new personality to discuss all things beauty and touch on their inspiring stories. So Donna, the question I ask everyone to kick it off is, um, what does beauty
donna:mean to you? I think beauty is confidence, and that's confidence in your own skin. Doesn't matter what skin it is, what hair color, what your age is. I think it's confidence. Yeah,
francene:I completely agree. And owning that confidence.
donna:Yes. Cause matter Yes. Well, when you feel confident, you know, when you look good, you feel confident. So it really goes hand in hand. And I think that's, um, a part of an, it's about that self care and, um, making yourself feel good and look good, which is then portrayed to everybody else that you meet.
francene:Yeah, it is. It's crazy how like, and I've spoken about this with another guest, but when you see that kind of confidence within someone, it just like oozes out of them. It's like a flow of it's energy. Yeah. Yes. I feel you just wanna be around those individuals. It's a great, great place to be.
donna:Yes. Yes. So that, that's what I think beauty is. I love
francene:that. So tell me what made you come up with the brand and on, and like what, what does it mean
donna:to you? Okay, so I am a BD therapist and I started when I was 17 years old and I had acne and a lot of beauty therapy students get acne cuz they get a lot of overstimulation of the skin because we have to practice on each other regularly. So, you know, you, you tend to be at that age where you have a few spots anyway and it really exasperates and then when you throw in stress, I started my own business virtually straight out of beauty school. I was one week in. So after graduating within a week I owned my own business, which is where I used to work on a Thursday night, Saturday morning role. Wow. So, um, my skin was bad and I came top of my beauty school, so I had a really good understanding of skin. I also sold a German skincare product that I had a very good understanding of product and skin. And I was in the top 10 sellers in Australia at age 18, and I got a free trip to Germany to go tour the factory. Yeah. So I had this combination of the knowledge. Um, I had a love of everything natural. When I was young, I'd wash my hair in my dad's beer and I'd put oats in the bath. I was always in trouble for taking stuff outta pantry, writing the grocer
francene:in the bath.
donna:So, um, I discovered aromatherapy. I was really starting to feel a bit disgruntled in the industry of recommending products and the clients weren't getting the results and my own skin being bad. That was a confidence factor for me that I didn't feel too confident when I thought people were looking at my skin going, well, you've got bad skin. How can you recommend this? Yeah, so I started to experiment with my own skin and that's when an art was born. Now, I don't know if we have discussed this and odd is Donna said back.
francene:I love this so much. So when we were going back and forth over Instagram, you said that, and I was like, and I think I said this to you, I was like, oh my God, how did I not see this
donna:Of course it's,
francene:but I did wonder when I was reading up about the product, and obviously I've been using the cleanser and also, um, the Rose Toner, um, which is an incredible mist and very, very hydrating, especially living in Texas over the summer. It has been amazing and my skin's been very up and down, mainly due to hormones lately. So you, ah, a clean product. I can tell how much of a difference that makes on my skin. But yeah, looking at it, I was like, oh, of course it's Donna myself.
donna:Yeah, so that's where Anno was born. It was started as an experiment for my own skin and then like within a week you could see the difference in my skin. And customers started to comment and then they would say, make me something. And there's, you know, most of the products in the range have been born from a particular client's skin. Mm-hmm. that we were having an issue with. And it's the same issues that every skin has. The skin's not particularly different from anybody. They all need either moisture or oil. And just getting that balance right for your skin creates that ha happy, healthy skin. You know, your skin's an organ, so we need to treat it exactly like we treat the other organs within our body.
francene:Yeah. Which is, um, I'm sure for a lot of people listening, it's um, it's crazy how much of a difference if your skin, say if you have like a hormonal pimple or you suffer from acne or acne or whatever it is. Personally, to me, it makes me feel so down. Like it makes it down and I don't typically suffer from bad skin. But when it's bad to me, I generally, I don't wanna go out, I don't wanna see people. And I'm also very conscious of. Covering it up because then I feel like I'm amplifying the problem. Like I feel like it's more visible. Like I don't do my makeup the best. So when I put on concealer over, you know, a pimple, I feel like I'm like, oh God, I feel like I've put like a target on the pimple
donna:Yeah. It's a sign Yes. Look at this. Yeah. And one of the difficulties that, like I, I've been in the beauty industry from, I was, uh, I got off the school bus Friday afternoon and I got on the beauty school bus Monday morning and I was 17 years old, so, um, I'm now 55. And so I have spoken to a lot of women about their skin, how they feel, how it makes us feel. And one of the things that I really notice with women is we're so hard on ourselves. Yeah. Um, our expectations are much higher. For ourselves, them, what they would be for a friend. Like, you know, you spoke to me about having a spot. If you said to your friend, oh my God, look at this spot. She'd go, oh, I can't see it. Yeah. But whereas, yes, yes. So the one thing that we tend to do is we face the mirror. Um, now we use centimeters here, so you may have to convert for me. You know, we put our face to the mirror, you know, five centimeters from the mirror, um, to have a look at the skin. And we can see every floor, every, you know, whereas when we're face to face, you know, wear a good meter. Well actually now with Covid, we're meter and a half ideally. Yeah. So I think that's one of the things. And a pimple is a way of your body. To tell you something's wrong and um, I've always been inter natural holistic. So I'm trained in Chinese face diagnosis. So there are certain areas in the, the face that will show you what part of your body is at Disre. So, oh my gosh, yes. So hormonal pimples will run along the jaw line there and down into the neck area
francene:through here. I have one here. I know no one, no one else
donna:can see it. Yes. No one can see it other than
francene:here. Oh my God. Yes, I get it
donna:here. Yes. So what you need there is, and it's just your body's way of expelling what it doesn't need your skin's excretory organ. So you want things to, one of the biggest things for your skin, particularly when you have spots like. Most people will not want to moisturize because they think that they're going to to feed it. Yeah. That's not the case. The more moist the skin is, which you're talking about our hydrating rose mist. Yeah. That's helping your skin to heal because we're adding moisture, um, where soothing, cooling the skin with that product as well. But you know, things like our green clay mask are fabulous through that area, um, because you know, you spot a combination of a bit of bacteria, a hormonal lump, um, swelling from the lymphatic system. So your skin is always in a state of having some sort of healing
francene:you got me all excited about the Chinese reading and I was like, I've never heard of this
donna:So I have always, uh, worked with natural ingredients and um, natural techniques and I'm trained in Chinese face diagnosis and talking about your spot under the chin there. That's the hormonal area. Now under the jawline, from the sides of the ears under the jawline down to the sides of the neck, that will be the area where the body will tell you when the hormones are out of whack. And one of the things with spots, I mean, I'm 55 and I can still get a spot come up on my skin cuz it's your body's way of telling you that there is something wrong and out of balance. Yeah. Your skin being an excrete organ. So the thing that people tend to want to do with the skin is, particularly if you have a spot to avoid moisture. Yeah. Now you are moisturizing, um, your skin needs to heal and it's in a constant state of, of often needing to heal from different, um, events that have taken place to our, um, emotional lives, different events that have taken place to our environmental lives. So there's, there's always something that the body will show you. So you've got the hormonal out of whack at the moment. Yeah. One of the things is you are missed is very important cuz it's going to keep healing and hydrating the skin. Our green clean mask is also very absorbent. Um, And will help to take the pinkness out, take the soreness. Cause hormones can, the hormonal spot can get quite sore as well. Wow. Cause there's a lot of swelling. Yeah. Yes. A lot of swelling in it. And there's no actual opening for a core or, um, infection to come out. So the fastest way to heal that is your moisture and products that are about healing. I love a little bit of lavender dab directly onto the spot. That's nice and nice and healing. Um, another area that you'll often see people will have spots is the side of the mouth. Just under the lips. Yeah. There's two circles and the bit in the middle will stay clear. Mm-hmm. And what'll happen is you will get a spot in that area two to three weeks. After the event. Now the event could be good. It could be a wedding, it could be moving house, but anytime the body goes into that stress mode, whether adrenaline kicks in, when the adrenaline calms down two to three weeks, that's where those spots will show up. No way. Oh my gosh. That's how predictable the skin is, and I know there's a lot of information in our industry. A lot of it's incorrect. The skin is virtually the same on every person as the next person. It's only different times. It'll need more moisture versus more oil according to the season and according to what's happened in your life at that.
francene:Yeah, and that's what I was gonna mention. I appreciate you saying like seasons. Um, cuz I'm originally from Scotland and we moved over to Texas about eight and a half years ago. And in Scotland it's obviously drier, you know, it's a lot harsher weather conditions. My skin was a lot drier. I eat, I would struggle with like truly dry skin, it would flake. And then moving out here where it's so humid, I have like the opposite. So very oily skin, which I'm, I'm actually okay with. I prefer oily skin to, um, you know, dry skin. Yeah,
donna:it'll, it'll. Wrinkles cuz you've got more oil to keep the skin more supple. Yes. Never be afraid of a bit of oil.
francene:Yeah. This is why I'm like, I'll take the humidity and the hotness, but I'm always very conscious that even here when we get into, you know, fall and winter is changing up my skin care routine, knowing that the weather will affect my skin. Um, so what advice do you have when you are, you know, kind of changing seasons? What should you be kind of changing in your skincare or being more conscious of?
donna:I actually run a skincare club and our clients have a delivery every three months, so obviously that's seasonal. So we will swap out their products according to the season. Um, for us coming into summer, we will swap out their, their cleanser. Yeah. Um, if the skin is a lot more combination, we'll also swap out their mist because that's part of the cleansing routine. Yeah. And then we will swap out their moisturizing, um, cream and moisturizing oil. They have both a cream and an oil cuz that's the perfect combination for the skin. And then things like coming into summer, we're saying to our customers at the moment, right, you need to exfoliate more because if you have an oily skin in summer, the oil will make everything stick to the surface of the skin more soap. Whereas if you going into winter, your skin will need more masking and. Oil based products, you know, more deep nourishment. So depending upon the season summer, your skin's gonna need more hydration, more brightening. We'll swap our clients from our regenerative lavender exfoliant and we'll swap'em across to detoxifying lemon exfoliant because you know, you're gonna be wearing sunblock, which is a lot of chemicals for the skin, more oil flow and, um, pigmentation. So we're going to swap, you know, brightening for regeneration.
francene:Yeah. No, that's awesome. And the other thing I really appreciate about your website is you have it, you can obviously shop like the skincare, um, you know, any kind of skincare products, but you also have it by skin concern. So if you're like arly skin or you know, dry skin, you give recommendations of what you would use for that, which I appreciate. Yes.
donna:Because what, like, that's a question a lot of women have asked me over the years. What's my skin type, Donna? Yeah. Now we all are a combination of everything. There's no such thing as just dry, just oily, but you have bigger areas that are oily. So in oily skin, we would determine is you have open pores, you have open flow. Now most people have only. A T-zone. It can be narrow, it can be wide, but if you have more of that area than dryer areas, we classify the products to use, uh, for the oily skin. So I will swap into, um, some of those products for summertime just to keep, you know, brightening and texture down. And then winter time I'll move back onto the more nourishing anti-aging product.
francene:Yeah. No, that's, that's awesome. That's, um, great advice. Um, the other thing I wanted to randomly ask you is, I know you guys have, um, like body care as well, um mm-hmm. so obviously not just a face, but your body too. And I know some women can suffer from like acne or breakouts, like on your chest area or you know, on your back. What would you like, what advice would you give to individuals that have that cause especially in the summer months in winter, it's a lot easier to cover up. Um, but I feel in the summer months, it's something that can make people feel really self-conscious about and they don't, again, I don't think there's enough information out there to be able to help individuals with, well, what do I do about my body?
donna:you know, Well, one of the things is you can't strip the skin, so a lot of the washes are very stripping. Anything that foams on the skin with a big foam is going to strip it because that will, it's an alkaline and your skin's an acid. So stop stripping number one. Yeah, moisturize number two. Yeah. Um, and you are looking for products that are not occlusive. You're avoiding products that are fragranced. We have a beautiful wash and we have a charity here in Australia called Legacy and they help the veterans. Mm-hmm. And one of the symbols for Anzac Day here in Australia is Rosemary. So I was asked by legacy to make products that contain rosemary. And so that's what our body wash is. Donating money to the charity as well as cleaning the skin without stripping the skin. Exfoliation is another part, particularly the chairs, the top of the shoulders. I would treat that as your facial skin. Okay. So yeah, so give a little, um, facial treatment. Do a good cleanse on it. Exfoliate mask it. And because that skin is very similar to, um, you've got. Pause of oil and, um, sweat glands through that area. So I, that's how I'd be treating it exactly like you would the ones on your face and don't use anything that's really going to strip the skin.
francene:Okay. That is very, very good advice. Um, I'm always conscious sometimes that when we are talking about especially skin care, that um, again, we speak about the face and we don't necessarily cover the body. Um, which to your point, skin is a big organ, right? Like we need to make sure that we're covering all bases. Um, So the other thing I wanted to ask you, cuz I saw that you have a Levon collagen mask. Oh yes. And also you also have like other masks, like you mentioned, the green clay and the pink clay. Um, so what would you recommend for people using the collage of mask? Is that more obviously anti-aging? Would you recommend like a certain age to be kinda using those types of products?
donna:It is, yes, it's part of our anti-aging range because it, it contains the collagen, so we're always looking to keep our collagen production up, but it's about hydrating, so it's a boost for the skin. So we recommend that you sleep in it three nights a week. You can also use it as a primer for makeup. Makeup needs to sit onto a moist skin. If the skin is dehydrated, your makeup will suck. Right? And it looks patchy. Yeah. If your skin is oily and your dehydrated, your makeup will slide all over the face cuz it's sitting on top of the excess oil. So the Lev Oncology is a great primer for that, and what we recommend is our products. Our moisturizing and levon mask is in an airless pump. So it's just one pump if you're going to use it as a primer, and two to three, if you're going to use it as a leave on mask because you want it to sit onto the skin and absorb in. It also contains lavender and angular, which are regenerative for the cells, but it's a muscle relaxant. It's very calming for the mind. And so a lot of women talk about they love it at night because it's that routine, that ritual, that smell. Yeah. That says to them, you're going to bed now.
francene:Yeah, it is. Um, it's, it's nice when you have that routine. Like, I have this lavender spray, um, and I spray it on my pillows before, you know, when I'm kind of getting organized and I
donna:smell it and it's, yes, it's ritual. And that's really important because the other thing that's important for the skin is sleep. Yeah, that's true. You know, your skin will do it. It's most repairing at night, so you need to have a, a nice restful sleep.
francene:Yeah, there is nothing. So I love my sleep and I definitely go to bed, um, at very reasonable hour. Like, I'm tired by like nine, so I'm definitely not a party animal. Um, but on the days, if I do stay up or we have a four and a half year old and sometimes, you know, she has her, you know, a nightmare, whatever it is, even just missing out on a couple of hours the next day, it is so crazy how like, just so obviously the bags under my eyes, like my skin just looks like gray. I just, I notice it so much more. It doesn't look radiant. It doesn't look like well rested. Like it's very obvious.
donna:Yes. Because you've missed some of that repair time. You've, um, just changed the body clock. Yeah. Yeah. Sleep is, is crucial. And one of the, the. Parts of getting a good sleep is that routine, like you're saying, you spray your pillow down, so it just starts telling your mind and your body what's to come and to slow down and, you know, no screens in bed. And so it's, I need to be better
francene:with that.