Primitive Makeup | The Healthy Beauty Project -by Todra Payne

Nancy Caigan

Susanna Ronner and Nancy Caigan, founders of Primitive Makeup, an award-winning line of lip products, discuss their decision to start a natural beauty line.

HBP: I am so glad I found your line. I’ve been using it on photo shoots and I just love it. Some brands work fine for everyday wear, but don’t hold up in a professional setting. But your line is just wonderful. How did you arrive here? Why were you interested in natural cosmetics?

Susanna Ronner

Susanna: Well, it goes back before the idea of natural cosmetics. My whole healthy living started at 17 when I became a vegetarian. And I studied and taught yoga. That became the foundation of how I live.

Nancy: When I moved to Woodstock (New York) and was raising my two little girls, I realized I wanted to live a healthier lifestyle. I was hearing more about living healthy, eating better, but I was becoming more aware as a mother. And I was going through a significant life change, trying to figure out what I wanted to do for a career. And then I just woke up one day and it was like I knew what it was. I needed to make natural makeup. I liked to wear makeup and look pretty, but everything was synthetic and loaded with artificial ingredients. It was the one area of my life that didn’t lend itself to natural. I realized I wanted all of my life to be natural. And I realized if I had this need, others did also.

Susanna: When Nancy talked to me about her idea, I thought, well, I’ve always been into healthy living – I’m a dancer, well we both are –  and I’m very much connected with living a natural lifestyle – but I’d not expanded into using natural cosmetics, as I felt that what was out there was pretty yucky. I saw that there really was an opportunity here and it fit with who we are.

HBP: So the two of you have this idea, but you’re both moms and you’re working at other jobs and neither of you have a background for formulating makeup. How did you get from idea to the great formulations you have now?

Susanna: We looked at and tried what was available at the time. We kept thinking, Who came up with these weird colors? They were awful. I knew women wouldn’t switch to a natural line unless it performed well. We tested everything and tested it on our friends. Nancy had a connection to a wonderful semi retired chemist who was the head of research and development at (one of the biggest beauty brands on the market). We told him all of the ingredients we could not have in our line. We discussed scent and texture. And we gave him color palettes.

HBP: You have eight colors in the line, correct?

Susanna: Yes. It took about a year to develop those eight colors because it’s really hard to develop beautiful colors out of natural ingredients. But these eight colors work for a wide range of women. That was important for us from the beginning. My husband is African American and we have a multi-racial family, so we’re sensitive to that – making sure the colors worked on all women.

HBP: Are you planning to expand the line to include more lip colors?

Nancy: Yes, we definitely want to grow the line. We want to offer blushes. We’re in the process of developing a natural mascara. We know it’s very much needed.

HBP: So true. It’s the one product in my professional makeup kit that is still mainstream. Oh, wait! That’s not true. I can’t find natural concealers that work well enough for photo shoots, either.

Nancy: There’s such a big need for a good natural concealer. It’s the one product that’s important at every age. But it’s even more important as women reach 40 and beyond. But selling concealer is a challenge because most women can pick out their own lipstick in the beauty aisle at Whole Foods, but a concealer is trickier. And there’s no one there to help. Women will need to know how to choose the right color. It’s going to take more education.

HBP: You are in a lot of Whole Food and independent health food stores. And you’ve won some pretty prestigious awards. Natural Solutions Magazine named you best lipstick two years in a row. You won two Beauty with a Conscience Awards for your lip glosses. And the Jane Goodall endorsement, Good for All.

Susanna: Primitive is the first cosmetic company in the world to carry the Good for All brand.

HBP: And I read on your site that you give a percentage of the sales from Tahiti and Belize to the Jane Goodall Institute! That’s so cool.

Susanna: We are proud of the awards. We’ve worked hard to make a line that is made entirely of pure, clean ingredients. No preservatives, no artificial colors, no synthetics and no parabens.

HBP: What is the shelf life of your products?

Susanna: Typically our lipsticks have a shelf life of one to two years once they’re opened. Most women use them before then.

HBP: Definitely. I don’t think my gloss is going to last six months! I have to ask you this: How do you run a cosmetics company, take care of your families and do everything else that obviously needs to be done?

Susanna: It’s challenging. We don’t have little ones at this point, but we did have kids in the house when we first started this. I have a design firm and I still work at it a lot. Dance provides balance for me. The outdoors compels me. I will leave and go dance or go for a walk.

Nancy: I’ve learned it’s really important to take care of ourselves, not just our work and our families. I can give them the best of me possible if I take care of me. I exercise and go out with friends. I do things that are important to me. Then I can give more to my family.