Made From Earth | The Healthy Beauty Project -by Todra Payne

Made From Earth's Team

Made From Earth, a natural cosmetics line, contacted HBP to ask if we’d be willing to give their products a try and offer honest feedback. They sent samples of most of their skincare and several body products. We passed them around to our team of testers who applied, reapplied, sniffed, switched and bartered samples for one week.

The consensus? Our young (twenty something) females liked how light everything felt on the skin; no heavy, oily residue. Our guys LOVED  the natural scents (not flowery or “girly”) and the low key labels (no pink!). Our, ahem, more “mature” testers didn’t find it luxurious enough. They wanted bells & whistles. Caviar and black truffle oil. My take? I liked how soft and dewy my face looked after a week of using the skincare. And the prices were reasonable.

We caught up with the Stergios Bekas, the Director of Sales for Made From Earth, to ask him pointed questions about their brand. Who is their target market? Why the plain packaging? And what’s the deal with their USDA Certified Organic seal?

HBP: Our team liked the products you sent, especially the Rooibos Tea Facial Scrub. That was a big hit. But we’d never heard of Made From Earth before you contacted us. How long has the company been around and is it available in stores?

Stergios: The company’s been around for 15 years. But we’ve only had the website for the last six years.We sell online and in small health food stores.

HBP: And most of your ingredients are natural. And some are even USDA Certified Organic, correct?

Stergios:Yes, but we don’t use it as a marketing push. And not all of our products have the certification because we come out with new products every year. We also reformulate products we already have according to customer feedback. Well, every time you reformulate, even if you’re still using organic ingredients, you have to do the paperwork and reapply for the certification. It gets very expensive. So, not every product has the seal now.

HBP: Where is the company located?

Stergios: The main offices are in New York City. Production is in Oregon. The hair products are made in North Carolina.

HBP: Okay, let’s talk specifics. Shelf life of the products?

Stergios: From 10 – 14 months, longer if you keep them refrigerated.

HBP: Any synthetic fragrances?

Stergios: No synthetic fragrances. There’s inherent scent because we use real rose hip.

HBP: Are you marketing for big growth, or happy to grow by word of mouth?

Stergios: When you grow bigger, it gets difficult. If we grew bigger, production time would be longer. We want to keep the quality that we have. We make fresh products.

HBP: So, you’re not going after the whole celeb appeal?

Stergios: We were in O Magazine once. And we work with bloggers a lot.

HBP: Why are your labels and your website and everything so pared down and clean? There’s very little bling with the line. Are you appealing to a certain demographic?

Stergios:  The image we want to put out there is organic and natural. We are not sexy or glamorous. We’re the basics. Skincare used to be very natural and basic. You don’t need all the splashy stuff. Very plain, very simple. No flash on our website. No 3-D logos. It’s as close as you can get to getting skincare from the ground. We’re going to keep it like that. We want to make it look home grown.

HBP: Your image does look very “fresh”. And your website is so easy to navigate. And, the guys on our team gave the line really high praise. Do you have men ordering a lot?

Stergios:  We have a high percentage of male customers because it’s fragrance free, not a cosmetic smell.

HBP: I actually like the light scent, also. If something’s too perfumed, even if it’s from essential oils, it really bothers my nose. I think we need to do a giveaway with that wonderful Rooibos Tea Facial Scrub. I really liked it.

Stergios: We can definitely do a giveaway.

HBP: Cool. That’ll happen on our Facebook Fan page this weekend. Thanks, Stergios!