February 4, 2025 • 35 mins
Clean Beauty Series
“What you put ON your body is just as important as what you put INSIDE of your body. ” —Adria Marshall
While we meticulously scrutinize every morsel that enters our bodies, we often overlook the products we slather on our largest organ— our skin. Yet, what if the shampoo we use daily is as crucial to our health as our morning smoothie? It's time to rethink our approach to personal care and consider the profound impact of what we put ON our bodies, not just what goes in.
Adria Marshall, a visionary in the natural hair care industry, is the founder of Ecoslay, a brand committed to crafting products with food-grade, natural ingredients. With a passion for holistic wellness, Adria has revolutionized the way we think about hair care and its connection to overall health.
Tune in as Justine and Adria explore the fascinating world of scalp permeability, the importance of refrigerating natural hair products, the unexpected benefits of food-grade ingredients in personal care, and how to decipher product labels for truly clean beauty.
Meet Adria:
Adria Marshall is the innovative founder and CEO of Ecoslay, a pioneering handmade, sustainably packaged, plant-based hair care company. With a passion for sustainability and natural hair care, Adria transformed her frustration with commercial hair products into a thriving business that partners with local farms to grow ingredients for their "farm to pouch" approach. Her journey from creating products in her kitchen to leading her own team showcases her entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to quality. Adria's vision extends beyond hair care, as she aims to support small-scale entrepreneurs to bring high-quality, natural products to market.
Connect with NextGen Purpose:
Episode Highlights:
01:50 The Connection Between Food and Hair Care
06:26 Challenges to Shelf Stability
09:34 Transitioning to Entrepreneurship
12:07 Navigating Challenges in Initial Product Development
25:51 Expansion and Community Involvement
30:13 Growing Your Own Ingredients
33:52 Ingredient Safety and Consumer Education
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Justine Reichman (00:12):
Good morning, and welcome to Essential
Ingredients. I'm your host,Justine Reichman. With me today
is Adria Marshall. He is the CEOand Founder Ecoslay. Welcome,
Adria.
Adria Marshall (00:22):
Thank you, Justine. Thank you for having
me.
Justine Reichman (00:25):
My pleasure. I'm super excited to explore
this conversation with you. Forthose that are not familiar with
Ecoslay, could we just give themthe high level so that as we dig
deeper into the conversation,they'll have a better idea of
what we're talking about?
Adria Marshall (00:39):
Absolutely. So Ecoslay is a handmade to order,
sustainably packaged plant basedhair care company. And we are
most recently farm to pout, aswe like to call it, as we
partner with local farms in ourarea. We actually grow the
ingredients that we use insideof our hair products.
Justine Reichman (00:58):
Wow. What inspired you to come up with
this idea? It's really veryinnovative, it's thoughtful, and
it's not mainstream. It is as itrelates to food, but it's not
quite as mainstream in theindustry that you're in.
Adria Marshall (01:14):
It's been such a long journey. But along this
road, I've always known theimportance that food plays in my
diet, food plays in my hair andbody products, because our
scalps are permeable. And so forinstance, if you have a gluten
allergy, it will show up in yourhair care, as well as your body
(01:38):
care. The same flare ups thatyou experience when you eat
something with gluten. Youexperience those same things
when you use a topical withgluten as well. I've always
known the connection that isreally important what you put on
your body as it is what you putin your body. I am a gardener.
My mother was a gardener. Mygrandfather was a gardener so
(01:59):
I've always had a lot of passionfor sustainability, for growing
as much as you could possiblygrow for eating really good
stuff. And so when I wentnatural and started to embrace
my own curls, I was reallyappalled by the ingredients that
were inside of products. Andthen I was delighted when I saw
(02:19):
that those products that workbest for me were products that
contain ingredients that I couldgrow, like flax seed, aloe vera,
marshmallow root. So that's kindof how the journey began. I
started off going to the FarmersMarket and picking up flax seed,
aloe vera and processing it athome. Boiling, stranding, put it
into my hair care. But thenlater on as our success grew,
(02:44):
like, well, wait a minute. Wecan actually grow these
ingredients. It helps to reduceour carbon footprint, but also
really helps for us to be ableto ensure that what we say
inside of our products isactually what's inside of them.
Justine Reichman (02:58):
That's amazing. I just want to go back
to the beginning. When youstarted explaining a little bit
about Ecoslay and how theingredients in there connect to
the ingredients that we may haveintolerance or allergies too.
And I think that sometimes,that's often overlooked. I don't
want to speak for anybody else.But as you were sitting there
saying this, I was thinking tomyself, the only thing I ever
(03:21):
really connect that I don't wantto have is sulfide or sulfur in
my hair. And with intoleranceslike dairy and sugar, I've
thought about it when it's beenin a body scrub because it's
part of the name, right? Itjumped out at you, and I'm like,
oh, I don't react with all thesugar. I don't want to have a
(03:41):
sugar scrub, or I don't want tohave a milk bath. If milk
doesn't really connect with me,or doesn't, I don't digest it
well. So why haven't we beendoing the same thing with our
hair?
Adria Marshall (03:53):
I don't know, but we really should. You should
really pay attention especiallythose top 5 ingredients that are
on the back of the packaging onthe label, because the
ingredients are listed in orderof volume, just how they are the
food that we eat. So if you havean allergy to wheat, you should
(04:14):
really be looking at yourpackaging for your body wash and
your shampoo to make sure thatwheat definitely isn't in one of
those top five ingredients,because it's gonna affect you
the same way that food would.
Justine Reichman (04:26):
So when you first developed this idea, what
was a moment for you that yourealized that this was affecting
so many other things for you,and that you needed to be able
to create something for yourselfthat was better for you?
Adria Marshall (04:35):
My initial goal was just to create some hair
care that worked for me becausethere weren't products out there
that really could get me theresults that I wanted. And then
it started to kind of go out ofcontrol from there. So ME
(04:56):
looking to see what was in therelike, well, I'm not going to put
this junk on my head. It justdidn't make sense to me. I would
say the nutritional componentcame secondary to just being
upset, disappointed anddisgusted by the filler
ingredients that were beingplaced in our hair care. And
(05:19):
then as I start to do moreresearch on allergens and those
intolerances, and then also thegood stuff that you want, I love
to cheat and get as much goodstuff in my smoothie as
possible. And that's why I thinkof our hair care the same way.
If you can get some of thatvitamin A, vitamin B and vitamin
(05:40):
C in your hair care that isgoing to help your overall, your
overall die.
Justine Reichman (05:46):
And were there things that you maybe had
intolerances or allergies tothat you then decided, oh, I
should pay attention to this asI'm building these products for
yourself.
Adria Marshall (05:58):
No, I actually don't have any allergies. We're
fortunate that way, but I doknow how much better I feel when
I eat good stuff versus howsluggish I feel when I eat bad
stuff. I'm thinking any possibleway for me to get those vitamins
and nutrients into my hair careis amazing. And our customers,
(06:22):
it's funny because they can'tquite put their finger on why
when they use our products,their hair looks just a little
bit better when they use otherproducts. But I'm convinced that
that is the reason why. We knowwhere our ingredients come from,
and we make sure that they'rethe highest quality.
Justine Reichman (06:39):
So it makes the question for me. Sometimes
when people are building theseproducts and they're thinking
about being shelf stable, andthey're thinking about the
longevity of it, did you have togive something up in order to do
that to make it both shelfstable and transparent with
these great products?
Adria Marshall (06:58):
Absolutely. So we put a lot of thought into
this. So our products are shelfstable up to three months. And
Justine Reichman (07:01):
And it's so interesting to think about it
past three months, you need topop them into the refrigerator.
And when people pitch a fitabout why do you have to
refrigerate our products. I'mthinking, well, if you were
going to eat something, wouldn'tyou be concerned if you can
still eat it a year through yearlater that usually quiets down a
(07:23):
little bit. That same thoughtprocess, I'm trying to get
people to think about that whenit comes to their hair and body
care. You literally are what youeat. And what you put on your
body is just as important aswhat you put inside of your
body. So our products are shelfstable up to three months.
They're shelf stable up to ayear before you open them. But
(07:46):
when you open it, the clotstarts ticking much like an item
in your pantry have the clotstarts ticking when you open them.
this way, to change thenarrative for people. Because
when I was asking the question,and then I'm in my head
thinking, well, then what am Igoing to do with the product?
And you're like, put it in therefrigerator. I see myself going
(08:07):
to the shower and forgetting totake it, and walking out wet to
the refrigerator to get myshampoo out, which I'm sure over
time becomes routine. Youremember to do that. But I could
see that in the beginning, thatwas my first visual. I'm like,
I'm in bath, ready wash. And I'mlike, wait.
Adria Marshall (08:27):
Exactly. You do have to perform new habits. Now,
we do have a caddy, which isreally cool, so you can put all
of your products inside thecaddy and put them in the
fridge. Then you take the entirecaddy out and put it into a
container on your shower so itmakes a little bit easier for
you just to transfer them all atone time rather than one by one.
(08:47):
So we try to make it a littlebit easy for you, but it's
definitely another muscle thatyou're going to have to build.
Justine Reichman (08:53):
I do think that more and more people are
putting smaller refrigeratorsinto their bathroom for their
beauty product. So keeping inmind the dimensions of this and
that as you build those thingsout in our homes, or we build
them out in our homes. Iunderstand, obviously, rental
apartments, it may not be thereyet, or it may not be in older
(09:14):
buildings. You have pre warbuildings in New York, and you
have all sorts of things. But Ido think that even just having a
regular refrigerator in yourbathroom, you can get one of
those little, small snag ones orsomething. Those are really
cute. It doesn't be fancy. Itcould just be the facility
keeping it fresh and alive, ifyou will, for you hair and body.
(09:38):
So talk to you a little bitabout this. Is this your first
foray into being a Founder?
Adria Marshall (09:43):
Yeah, it is. And like I said, it happened quite
by accident. I wasn't out theretrying to start a business. I
just really wanted good haircare with really good
ingredients that worked for myown hair. Then it turned out
that it really resonated withwith a lot of other people, so
here we are. But yeah, this ismy first business.
Justine Reichman (10:01):
What was that like for you? What I mean
originally, you're working forsomebody else. People have their
vision, and you're followingtheir lead, so to speak. And
they're what they're trying todrive and create. And now,
you've taken a role where youare now that leader, that
visionary. Can you talk to me alittle bit about that change for
(10:23):
yourself and what that was like?Scary, intimidating, easy,
breezy, or it felt natural?
Adria Marshall (10:29):
It was terrifying. At first, it's
exciting. But then the orderskeep coming in and you start to
get in that fear, that impostersyndrome a bit. And then you
also realize that, oh, mygoodness, there's no one for me
to answer to other than yourcustomer. That's who my boss
(10:50):
really is. So there is a lot offreedom that comes with it, but
it's frightening too. Especiallybecause now that I have a staff
of of 13.
Justine Reichman (11:01):
That is exciting. It's really great
accomplishment too to be able tobuild a business that is
sustainable, to afford to have13 people.
Adria Marshall (11:12):
It's great. But with that comes a lot of
responsibility also. It's thatadded weight of wanting to make
solid business decisions. Dothings for the right reason
because it's not just about youryourself anymore.
Justine Reichman (11:28):
So from the get go when you started this,
were you bootstrapping? Did yousay, I'm going to raise money.
Where was your head at aroundthat kickoff?
Adria Marshall (11:38):
It's so funny because it's been about six
years now. I had the thought ofstarting a business, and the
very first product that welaunched, I knew it was going to
be a sustainable business. Ireally didn't know what I was
doing. Too much, Justine. Thiscould be a sustainable business.
I think this is before I evenlaunched any products. It was
(12:00):
just like, let me just think ofsomething that I can do. I'm
working for someone else, likeyou said. But just trying to
think in the back of my head,what if? What if? What if? I
created a Bamboo Edge Brush foryour baby hairs. And the reason
I did that was because at thetime, a lot of women were using
(12:22):
a toothbrush. A lot of womenstill use a toothbrush for these
little hairs around your edges,and it's not sustainable and not
good for your hair. So that wasmy first product. And I remember
when I went to my husband, Isaid, can I take $300 out of
savings? I think I have an idea,and that's it. And so after
(12:43):
that, it didn't sell that much.I was kind of doing something
just to keep the juices flowing.And I guess it was about a year
or so later, I had been tryingto make a hair gel for a while
for my own hair. And it wasabout a year or later that I
started working with a chemiston something else altogether,
(13:05):
not even related to the hair gelthat I'm working on, on the back
burner. I just learned thesetips from working with him. I'm
like, you know what? I think Iknow what I did wrong with my
hair gel. And all this time,Justine, I'm really engaged in
the curly and the natural hairworld online, talking to people
(13:28):
about what products they'reusing. We're just trying to
figure this thing out together.They're not influencers. They're
just people trying to figure outtheir own hair issues, and
they're documenting it online.So there was someone I had come
across on on YouTube, and as I'mmixing flax seed and marshmallow
(13:48):
root to make this hair gel usingthe advice from my chemist on
this other thing, I'm like,well, it works really good for
me. Let me send it to her to seewhat she thinks. And I send it
to her, and I don't hearanything bad. And mind you, I
had my little edge brush on mylittle store. And the reason I
had a store is because I was aproject manager at the time, and
(14:13):
so I'm coaching my dept. team asthey're creating their stores.
And so I'm I'm doing it formyself as well. I can check
their estimates that they giveme, so it's not really anything
serious. I think I may make two,three sales a whole month.
Nothing serious at all. So I putmy gel that I send to this
(14:34):
influencer on my site, and theorders start come again. I go
from zero orders on December15th, 2000 on January 1st
because she had posted a YouTubevideo and it went viral. So
that's how that all happened.And so to a long story short of
(14:55):
answering your question, I'mbootstrapped from that initial
$300 that I had asked my husbandfor a year ago to create the
edge brush that was being soldon our website.
Justine Reichman (15:07):
Wow. So what influencer did you send it to?
Adria Marshall (15:11):
She is still in the game at all of her name. Her
name is Felicia, but I haven'tseen any videos from her for a
while. But she definitely put uson the map.
Justine Reichman (15:22):
Wow. So that's really exciting. So as you
continue to expand your brand,Ecoslay, and you develop new
products from the little brushto the gel, what else can we
expect to see down the line fromyou?
Adria Marshall (15:38):
Well, we have 17 products now. We have several
stylers, several cleansers,several conditioners, bonnets.
And what I love the most aboutour bonnets--
Justine Reichman (15:53):
Walk me through the bonnets.
Adria Marshall (15:55):
The bonnets are locally sourced. They're made
from recycled fabrics and waterbased ink so you'll find the
thread of sustainabilitythroughout every product that we
have. A satin bonnet, and so youuse it at night. And if you
don't have one, you should getone.
Justine Reichman (16:16):
I think so, I don't have one.
Adria Marshall (16:18):
You need one because the purpose of cotton is
to suck up moisture that's whyyou use cotton in your towels.
Well, your cotton pillowcase isdoing the same thing to your
hair and skin at night. Andyou'll find this especially in
(16:38):
the wintertime when the air isdrier. You'll wonder why your
hair is getting drier, anddrier, and drier every night. It
is going to get drier whenyou're sleeping on that cotton
pillow case.
Justine Reichman (16:50):
Wow, that's super interesting because I was
trying to envision a bonnet, andthen when you said it, it seems
like, of course, that makessense. You hear about it so much
for our face because you'rekeeping hydrated. Especially for
those folks that do treat theirhair, whether color highlight,
perm, you name it, you'recontinuing to dry out your hair.
(17:13):
I'd love to tell you that I'm anatural blonde. But really, I'm
not. And that bleach reallydoes, it keeps it drier so that
I don't have to wash it thatoften. It doesn't look dirty
that often. But equally, I don'tknow them so great to do for
your hair.
Adria Marshall (17:30):
You definitely should. There are a few things
that you should do if your hairis color treated. One is to have
a continuous protein treatmentregimen for your hair. I would
recommend that you use proteinevery single week, and you want
to do that after you shampoo.Put on that protein mask for
hours. I recommend leaving it onfor maybe 5 or 10 minutes, and
(17:53):
then you follow up with amoisturizing deep conditioner.
Let that sit on there for 30minutes to put that moisture
back inside. Because whatprotein does is it roughs up the
cuticles to allow the color fromthe strands to get pulled out,
and then it deposits more colorinside of the cuticle. So it's
definitely allowing more sugaras it gets in, as it gets sucked
(18:17):
right back out. So it's reallyimportant to have a protein
treatment regimen for your hairto reinforce that cuticle to
help lock that moisture in asmuch as possible, and to be
continuously putting moisture onyour hair so it doesn't dry out.
And using a satin pillow caseand a satin bonnet.
Justine Reichman (18:36):
Let's go back to this whole process that you
just described because I'mthinking about it going, wow,
you've just taken my 35 or 45minute routine to get dressed,
showered, blow dry my hair andput a little splash of something
on my face. I'm wondering, howoften does one do this?
Adria Marshall (18:56):
Only once a week.
Justine Reichman (18:58):
So it can be like a Saturday or Sunday
activity.
Adria Marshall (19:01):
And the good thing about it is that it makes
your daily routine go so muchfaster because your style is
going to last so much longerbecause you're doing that
maintenance every week. Soyou'll find like, I don't do
anything to my hair. But once aweek, I'm able to put my bun at
night. Then in the morning, Ican fluff and go. There's not
(19:21):
much to it. And so you'll findsomething very similar. Once you
kind of train your hair intothis routine and it gets used
to, you're going to feed it, Imean, you come back down to your
plant, right? You're gonna feedit with this. You're gonna give
it these nutrients. You're gonnabe doing these things on a
regular basis, and it willreward you for it.
Justine Reichman (19:44):
A lot of this is centered on people that have
longer hair, right? Or soundslike we're talking about women.
Are we talking about men too?Are men being wearable on it?
Adria Marshall (19:54):
I have a lot of male customers. Ttructure of
hair doesn't differ based onyour gender.
Justine Reichman (20:08):
That's where I was going with it. But I was
like, how do I say this? So now,what is your thoughts on men
that get balding spots, so womenlose hair too, and then they
have the widow's peaks. How doessome of these ingredients that
you're choosing to create, someof these serums, connect with
that? Are there any specificallyfor that?
Adria Marshall (20:30):
So let's just put at the very top of this. Of
course, the better ingredients,the better your scalp is being
fed, the better your body'sgoing to treat you. That's a
given. However, I stronglyrecommend that if you notice
that your hair is thinning oryou're having any issue like
that, go see a dermatologist.The same way that you would go
(20:52):
see a doctor. I do not suggestyou playing around and looking
online and trying to find theseoils and treatments because your
hair grows in phases, and ittakes about 90 days for you to
see any results from a hairtreatment. That's just the
nature of these cycles that yourhair goes through. You don't
(21:15):
want to waste a lot of timetrying different things that may
or not be working. It's best togo to a dermatologist who can
pull out their microscope andyou can get to the bottom of
what's causing your hair loss,whether it's stress, or hormone
related, or nutrition related,or wherever that case may be.
(21:36):
With that being said, we do havesome pretty fantastic growth
oils that we sell, but it's bestto get to the root of the
problem first before you startto fiddle around with it.
Justine Reichman (21:47):
I think that that's a fair statement. I think
it's really sound, I would agreewith it. We're not doctors. I'm
not a dermatologist. I could nottell you you're not a
dermatologist. I think it'sgreat to be able to pair a
dermatologist and even shareyour product to say, how would
this impact what I'm trying toachieve?
Adria Marshall (22:08):
Yes. So for example, as I started getting
older, I noticed that I startedto have shedding. Now we have a
fantastic growth oil which worksgreat. But when I start to
experience shedding because ofstress and because of hormone,
(22:28):
it was important for me to getthat in check before I went back
to using my growth oil. Now,using the Growth Oil in tandem
to what the dermatologist hasprescribed for me, it works
amazing. But unless you canreally get down to the root
cause of the issue, you're gonnabe wasting a lot of time that
(22:51):
you can't get back when it comesdown.
Justine Reichman (22:52):
I would agree. Are there any ingredients that
you've seen in mainstreamproducts, not to point to any
products that you feel peopleshould be acutely aware of maybe
because they don't understandthe impact of them, or how they
can show up in negative ways, orthat they're outbreak for
everyone?
Adria Marshall (23:11):
Definitely the sulfate. Definitely pay
attention to sulfates. There'sbeen a lot of recent, studies on
sulfates as well as far aslinkage to cancer and things.
There's nothing definite, butthings are pointing in that
direction. So we are at the dayand age now where there are so
many good alternatives tosulfates, and there's no reason
(23:32):
to really have to go down thatpath. There was a point in time
where if you wanted to reallyclarify your hair, which I
recommend that you do on aregular basis, you almost had to
get to go to a sulfate just toget that level of clean. But
that's not necessary anymore.There's so many cleansers and
clays, we make a clay clarifierthat don't use a sulfate, and
(23:56):
you can get past that.
Justine Reichman (23:58):
So maybe tell the top three things that you
would look for, or that acustomer should look for to
avoid?
Adria Marshall (24:06):
Yeah, I would say sulfate, silicones and
mineral oil. Those would be mytop three.
Justine Reichman (24:14):
What are some of the impacts that you've seen
or heard of people usingproducts that contain those
three items? ingredients, so
Adria Marshall (24:23):
With sulfates, I haven't seen negative impact
other than extreme drying of thehair. And then you become on
this endless cycle, this viciouscycle of trying to keep your
hair nice and moisturized, butthe sulfates are continuously
stripping the oils andnourishment from your hair.
That's a good reason to avoidit, as well as the possible
(24:45):
cancer linkages that they arestill studying. As far as the
silicones, very similarly. Andso what a silicone does is it
builds up on your hair, and youhave to use something like a
sulfate to really remove it fromyour hair. And so again, you
find yourself in that viciouscycle of, you want the silicone
to keep your hair nice, smoothand shiny. But then it builds up
(25:09):
over time, and you have to use asulfate to remove it. Now your
hair is dry, hard and lack ofmoisture, then you want to use
the silicones. So it kind offeeds on itself. And then there
is the mineral oil, which isalmost the same thing as a
silicone in the way that itoperates. It coats the hair
Justine Reichman (25:25):
Thank you so much for that. I just want to go
shaft. It prohibits moisturefrom entering the hair shaft. So
it blocks out all that moisturewhich makes you think that you
need to put more of thoseproducts with that oil on there,
but it just exacerbates the issue.
back because I was sitting herethinking for a minute of when we
(25:49):
first started this conversationand talked about how you evolved
from getting the herbs at theFarmers Market to then doing
things yourself. To now, workingwith farmers. Can you talk to us
a little bit about how thatgrew, and what it's like to work
with the community, specificallythe farmers.
Adria Marshall (26:10):
It is so rewarding working with farmers.
So we're in our second pilotphase. Ooh, this is our second
full year of working with afarmer. The first year, it was
definitely a lot of trial anderror just getting things to
actually grow. Because a lot ofthings that we're growing, they
weren't used to growing, andthey weren't used to the amount
(26:30):
of yield that we needed for themto have as well. So a lot of
conversation, I worked with theTruly Living Well Center for
Urban Agriculture right here inAtlanta. So getting to go down
to the farm, me and my staff,planting the seeds, tending to
them, harvesting, bringing theokra back to our shop that we
immediately put into our bananacream, deep conditioner and our
(26:54):
Jello Shot Curl Definer has beenawesome. And then now, we are
partnering with theChattahoochee Hills Charter
School, which is amazing. Sowhat Chattahoochee Hills does?
They are a charter school thatincorporate agriculture into
their curriculum, and so thekids are learning about
agriculture along with all oftheir other studies. And so the
(27:16):
kids at the school are the onesactually taking care of our
plants, and then WE in turn getto teach them about
entrepreneurship and all thatgood stuff. So it's a full
cycle. A very, very rewardingexperience.
Justine Reichman (27:30):
You're building better for you
healthcare. You're working withthe farmers to grow your own
agriculture, your own herbs, soyou can then create the product.
And in the meantime, you'reworking with a school to help
take care of these plants. Andthrough that, the kids get
education. What an amazingvision you had there. Did you
(27:51):
have that vision? I know thatthis was not what you planned
when you decided to go to thecommunity and start to grow
these herbs. How did you go fromjust growing them yourselves, to
then working with farmers, tothen including the schools.
Because not only are youcreating great products, you're
also giving back and giving aplatform to these farmers and to
(28:15):
the students to be able to grow,make money, but also get
educated.
Adria Marshall (28:21):
Yeah, it's been awesome. We just been blessed.
It just fell into our laps. Andso I did have it on my vision
board. To work with a farm, Ihad that on my vision board
years ago. I even bought thedomain name Ecoslay Farms years
ago. So I kind of put it outthere. And I guess about two
years ago, let me just reallystart to chase this thing down.
(28:45):
So I started just calling randomfarms and getting shot down one
right after the other until onefinally said yes. So that's when
I started working with TrulyLiving Well for about year, year
and a half. I do not want toexaggerate and say that every
product that we make has everyingredient from the farm. We are
(29:06):
still in the learning phase,still in the pilot phase of it,
but it's super intentional. Iwill say that last year, all of
the okra that we use in the twoproducts with okra did come from
the farm, so we are choppingaway at our plan. And our plan
is to have every single productthat has a global ingredient to
(29:30):
be grown on either our own farm,which we will hopefully purchase
this or next year, or the farmat a Chattahoochee Hills Charter
School.
Justine Reichman (29:39):
Amazing.
Adria Marshall (29:40):
And I learned about Chattahoochee Hills from
my publicist who was watching,just scrolling on Tiktok. She
saw this amazing school withthis amazing farm, and then she
called me out of blue like, youhave to see this. And so the
next week, we call theprincipal. Had a zoom call, and
(30:00):
he was so excited. And then likea month later, it was on the
books.
Justine Reichman (30:07):
So now you have 17 products. Is that
correct?
Adria Marshall (30:11):
About 17.
Justine Reichman (30:13):
And 13 staff. What can we expect to see for
Ecoslay in the next three tofive years? How do you envision
your future?
Adria Marshall (30:22):
So there are a couple of things that we're
really excited about. I don'tthink I shared it with you
Justine, that when I had thaproduct that went viral, I had a
full time job so I had to goback to work. I reached out to a
factory to help me fill allthese orders because they did
not seem to be stopping. And I'msure you will not be shocked to
know that the factoryimmediately want to change all
(30:46):
of my ingredients, everything.They seem to be just mystified
by the fact that I was handboiling and straining flax seed
and marshmallow root. There wasno way they were going to do it.
They were going to go grab someflax seat extract off the shelf.
God only knows what's reallyinside of that, and going to
(31:06):
come completely change myproduct. So I said NO to that,
and that's when I started hiringand training people. I'm doing
this as I have a full time job,which was absolutely crazy.
That's behind me now. But longstory short, now we launched a
program, it's been about a yearnow called the Ecobator Program,
(31:30):
and we basically are thatfactory that we wish that we
would have had. So you thinkabout your aunt, your cousin,
your friend who thinks that shehas the best idea for a body
butter, a soap, a lotion, a bodywash, but she doesn't need 5000
units from the factory. Shedoesn't need high prices that
(31:52):
she can't afford what she'strying to make ends meet, and
she wants to use really goodingredients. And so, that's what
we do. We help her out with theformulation, the manufacturing,
the logistics and the packagingon her small scale products
until she's ready to manufacturelarger units.
Justine Reichman (32:12):
I'm just curious, I know you have a
background in gardening fromyour grandparents, your parents
and you, but it also sounds likeyou need to have some chemistry
background or something to beable to formulate all these
different kinds of products. Sodo you surround yourself with
(32:33):
people with those expertise?Because Lord knows, none of us
have all those expertise, but wehave the vision to be able to do
that. We've got some assemblanceand idea of what we want, and
how do you make that happen.
Adria Marshall (32:46):
So the problem that I made that went viral, I
formulated that myself. I cameback and gave it to my chemist,
and he tweaked it after thefact, but I did the initial
formulation myself just bywatching a lot of YouTube
videos, to be honest. Now, did Imake some mistakes along the way
that I had to go and correctwith the help of a chemist?
(33:07):
Absolutely. So now I work withtwo chemists. I still work with
that initial chemist that gaveme the idea of what I was doing
wrong with that gel. I stillwork with him. He's amazing. But
I also have a chemist that is inhouse as well, one of my staff
members, and he helps us withthe formulation for our
products, as well as aformulation for the products of
(33:29):
our own clients as well.
Justine Reichman (33:32):
Amazing. Adria, thank you so much for
joining us today. For thosefolks that are interested in
learning more about Ecoslay oreven buying some product, where
can they go to do that?
Adria Marshall (33:43):
So you can find us on social media at Ecoslay
all over, and you can find us atecoslay.com online.
Justine Reichman (33:49):
Thank you so much, Adria. I can't wait to try
the bonnet. I feel like theprotein. One thing you've just
said to me that I feel is soinspiring is that this happened
by accident. You weren't aFounder before, and so many
people that are founders werenever founders before, but you
took what you were interested inand what your needs were, and
(34:13):
put them together to createsomething that is better for
you, better for the planet. Andnow, you're giving back to the
community. What an inspiration.I hope that this inspires other
founders to build a businessthat can make such a great
Adria Marshall (34:26):
I hope so too, because it's really just about
impact as well.
putting one foot of the other,and just keeping that momentum
and remain consistent.
Justine Reichman (34:39):
Thank you so much. We'll make sure to include
the link to your website in ourshownotes. And for those that
are listening to the podcast,don't forget that you can also
watch the videocast on YouTube.And if you're watching the
YouTube video and want to listento the podcast, we're available
wherever you listen to podcastsat Essential Ingredients. And
don't forget to follow us atessential.ingredients on
(35:01):
Instagram, and we look forwardto seeing you here next week.
Adria Marshall (35:05):
Bye. Thank you, Justine.
Good morning, and welcome to Essential
Ingredients. I'm your host,Justine Reichman. With me today
is Adria Marshall. He is the CEOand Founder Ecoslay. Welcome,
Adria.
Adria Marshall (00:22):
Thank you, Justine. Thank you for having
me.
Justine Reichman (00:25):
My pleasure. I'm super excited to explore
this conversation with you. Forthose that are not familiar with
Ecoslay, could we just give themthe high level so that as we dig
deeper into the conversation,they'll have a better idea of
what we're talking about?
Adria Marshall (00:39):
Absolutely. So Ecoslay is a handmade to order,
sustainably packaged plant basedhair care company. And we are
most recently farm to pout, aswe like to call it, as we
partner with local farms in ourarea. We actually grow the
ingredients that we use insideof our hair products.
Justine Reichman (00:58):
Wow. What inspired you to come up with
this idea? It's really veryinnovative, it's thoughtful, and
it's not mainstream. It is as itrelates to food, but it's not
quite as mainstream in theindustry that you're in.
Adria Marshall (01:14):
It's been such a long journey. But along this
road, I've always known theimportance that food plays in my
diet, food plays in my hair andbody products, because our
scalps are permeable. And so forinstance, if you have a gluten
allergy, it will show up in yourhair care, as well as your body
(01:38):
care. The same flare ups thatyou experience when you eat
something with gluten. Youexperience those same things
when you use a topical withgluten as well. I've always
known the connection that isreally important what you put on
your body as it is what you putin your body. I am a gardener.
My mother was a gardener. Mygrandfather was a gardener so
(01:59):
I've always had a lot of passionfor sustainability, for growing
as much as you could possiblygrow for eating really good
stuff. And so when I wentnatural and started to embrace
my own curls, I was reallyappalled by the ingredients that
were inside of products. Andthen I was delighted when I saw
(02:19):
that those products that workbest for me were products that
contain ingredients that I couldgrow, like flax seed, aloe vera,
marshmallow root. So that's kindof how the journey began. I
started off going to the FarmersMarket and picking up flax seed,
aloe vera and processing it athome. Boiling, stranding, put it
into my hair care. But thenlater on as our success grew,
(02:44):
like, well, wait a minute. Wecan actually grow these
ingredients. It helps to reduceour carbon footprint, but also
really helps for us to be ableto ensure that what we say
inside of our products isactually what's inside of them.
Justine Reichman (02:58):
That's amazing. I just want to go back
to the beginning. When youstarted explaining a little bit
about Ecoslay and how theingredients in there connect to
the ingredients that we may haveintolerance or allergies too.
And I think that sometimes,that's often overlooked. I don't
want to speak for anybody else.But as you were sitting there
saying this, I was thinking tomyself, the only thing I ever
(03:21):
really connect that I don't wantto have is sulfide or sulfur in
my hair. And with intoleranceslike dairy and sugar, I've
thought about it when it's beenin a body scrub because it's
part of the name, right? Itjumped out at you, and I'm like,
oh, I don't react with all thesugar. I don't want to have a
(03:41):
sugar scrub, or I don't want tohave a milk bath. If milk
doesn't really connect with me,or doesn't, I don't digest it
well. So why haven't we beendoing the same thing with our
hair?
Adria Marshall (03:53):
I don't know, but we really should. You should
really pay attention especiallythose top 5 ingredients that are
on the back of the packaging onthe label, because the
ingredients are listed in orderof volume, just how they are the
food that we eat. So if you havean allergy to wheat, you should
(04:14):
really be looking at yourpackaging for your body wash and
your shampoo to make sure thatwheat definitely isn't in one of
those top five ingredients,because it's gonna affect you
the same way that food would.
Justine Reichman (04:26):
So when you first developed this idea, what
was a moment for you that yourealized that this was affecting
so many other things for you,and that you needed to be able
to create something for yourselfthat was better for you?
Adria Marshall (04:35):
My initial goal was just to create some hair
care that worked for me becausethere weren't products out there
that really could get me theresults that I wanted. And then
it started to kind of go out ofcontrol from there. So ME
(04:56):
looking to see what was in therelike, well, I'm not going to put
this junk on my head. It justdidn't make sense to me. I would
say the nutritional componentcame secondary to just being
upset, disappointed anddisgusted by the filler
ingredients that were beingplaced in our hair care. And
(05:19):
then as I start to do moreresearch on allergens and those
intolerances, and then also thegood stuff that you want, I love
to cheat and get as much goodstuff in my smoothie as
possible. And that's why I thinkof our hair care the same way.
If you can get some of thatvitamin A, vitamin B and vitamin
(05:40):
C in your hair care that isgoing to help your overall, your
overall die.
Justine Reichman (05:46):
And were there things that you maybe had
intolerances or allergies tothat you then decided, oh, I
should pay attention to this asI'm building these products for
yourself.
Adria Marshall (05:58):
No, I actually don't have any allergies. We're
fortunate that way, but I doknow how much better I feel when
I eat good stuff versus howsluggish I feel when I eat bad
stuff. I'm thinking any possibleway for me to get those vitamins
and nutrients into my hair careis amazing. And our customers,
(06:22):
it's funny because they can'tquite put their finger on why
when they use our products,their hair looks just a little
bit better when they use otherproducts. But I'm convinced that
that is the reason why. We knowwhere our ingredients come from,
and we make sure that they'rethe highest quality.
Justine Reichman (06:39):
So it makes the question for me. Sometimes
when people are building theseproducts and they're thinking
about being shelf stable, andthey're thinking about the
longevity of it, did you have togive something up in order to do
that to make it both shelfstable and transparent with
these great products?
Adria Marshall (06:58):
Absolutely. So we put a lot of thought into
this. So our products are shelfstable up to three months. And
Justine Reichman (07:01):
And it's so interesting to think about it
past three months, you need topop them into the refrigerator.
And when people pitch a fitabout why do you have to
refrigerate our products. I'mthinking, well, if you were
going to eat something, wouldn'tyou be concerned if you can
still eat it a year through yearlater that usually quiets down a
(07:23):
little bit. That same thoughtprocess, I'm trying to get
people to think about that whenit comes to their hair and body
care. You literally are what youeat. And what you put on your
body is just as important aswhat you put inside of your
body. So our products are shelfstable up to three months.
They're shelf stable up to ayear before you open them. But
(07:46):
when you open it, the clotstarts ticking much like an item
in your pantry have the clotstarts ticking when you open them.
this way, to change thenarrative for people. Because
when I was asking the question,and then I'm in my head
thinking, well, then what am Igoing to do with the product?
And you're like, put it in therefrigerator. I see myself going
(08:07):
to the shower and forgetting totake it, and walking out wet to
the refrigerator to get myshampoo out, which I'm sure over
time becomes routine. Youremember to do that. But I could
see that in the beginning, thatwas my first visual. I'm like,
I'm in bath, ready wash. And I'mlike, wait.
Adria Marshall (08:27):
Exactly. You do have to perform new habits. Now,
we do have a caddy, which isreally cool, so you can put all
of your products inside thecaddy and put them in the
fridge. Then you take the entirecaddy out and put it into a
container on your shower so itmakes a little bit easier for
you just to transfer them all atone time rather than one by one.
(08:47):
So we try to make it a littlebit easy for you, but it's
definitely another muscle thatyou're going to have to build.
Justine Reichman (08:53):
I do think that more and more people are
putting smaller refrigeratorsinto their bathroom for their
beauty product. So keeping inmind the dimensions of this and
that as you build those thingsout in our homes, or we build
them out in our homes. Iunderstand, obviously, rental
apartments, it may not be thereyet, or it may not be in older
(09:14):
buildings. You have pre warbuildings in New York, and you
have all sorts of things. But Ido think that even just having a
regular refrigerator in yourbathroom, you can get one of
those little, small snag ones orsomething. Those are really
cute. It doesn't be fancy. Itcould just be the facility
keeping it fresh and alive, ifyou will, for you hair and body.
(09:38):
So talk to you a little bitabout this. Is this your first
foray into being a Founder?
Adria Marshall (09:43):
Yeah, it is. And like I said, it happened quite
by accident. I wasn't out theretrying to start a business. I
just really wanted good haircare with really good
ingredients that worked for myown hair. Then it turned out
that it really resonated withwith a lot of other people, so
here we are. But yeah, this ismy first business.
Justine Reichman (10:01):
What was that like for you? What I mean
originally, you're working forsomebody else. People have their
vision, and you're followingtheir lead, so to speak. And
they're what they're trying todrive and create. And now,
you've taken a role where youare now that leader, that
visionary. Can you talk to me alittle bit about that change for
(10:23):
yourself and what that was like?Scary, intimidating, easy,
breezy, or it felt natural?
Adria Marshall (10:29):
It was terrifying. At first, it's
exciting. But then the orderskeep coming in and you start to
get in that fear, that impostersyndrome a bit. And then you
also realize that, oh, mygoodness, there's no one for me
to answer to other than yourcustomer. That's who my boss
(10:50):
really is. So there is a lot offreedom that comes with it, but
it's frightening too. Especiallybecause now that I have a staff
of of 13.
Justine Reichman (11:01):
That is exciting. It's really great
accomplishment too to be able tobuild a business that is
sustainable, to afford to have13 people.
Adria Marshall (11:12):
It's great. But with that comes a lot of
responsibility also. It's thatadded weight of wanting to make
solid business decisions. Dothings for the right reason
because it's not just about youryourself anymore.
Justine Reichman (11:28):
So from the get go when you started this,
were you bootstrapping? Did yousay, I'm going to raise money.
Where was your head at aroundthat kickoff?
Adria Marshall (11:38):
It's so funny because it's been about six
years now. I had the thought ofstarting a business, and the
very first product that welaunched, I knew it was going to
be a sustainable business. Ireally didn't know what I was
doing. Too much, Justine. Thiscould be a sustainable business.
I think this is before I evenlaunched any products. It was
(12:00):
just like, let me just think ofsomething that I can do. I'm
working for someone else, likeyou said. But just trying to
think in the back of my head,what if? What if? What if? I
created a Bamboo Edge Brush foryour baby hairs. And the reason
I did that was because at thetime, a lot of women were using
(12:22):
a toothbrush. A lot of womenstill use a toothbrush for these
little hairs around your edges,and it's not sustainable and not
good for your hair. So that wasmy first product. And I remember
when I went to my husband, Isaid, can I take $300 out of
savings? I think I have an idea,and that's it. And so after
(12:43):
that, it didn't sell that much.I was kind of doing something
just to keep the juices flowing.And I guess it was about a year
or so later, I had been tryingto make a hair gel for a while
for my own hair. And it wasabout a year or later that I
started working with a chemiston something else altogether,
(13:05):
not even related to the hair gelthat I'm working on, on the back
burner. I just learned thesetips from working with him. I'm
like, you know what? I think Iknow what I did wrong with my
hair gel. And all this time,Justine, I'm really engaged in
the curly and the natural hairworld online, talking to people
(13:28):
about what products they'reusing. We're just trying to
figure this thing out together.They're not influencers. They're
just people trying to figure outtheir own hair issues, and
they're documenting it online.So there was someone I had come
across on on YouTube, and as I'mmixing flax seed and marshmallow
(13:48):
root to make this hair gel usingthe advice from my chemist on
this other thing, I'm like,well, it works really good for
me. Let me send it to her to seewhat she thinks. And I send it
to her, and I don't hearanything bad. And mind you, I
had my little edge brush on mylittle store. And the reason I
had a store is because I was aproject manager at the time, and
(14:13):
so I'm coaching my dept. team asthey're creating their stores.
And so I'm I'm doing it formyself as well. I can check
their estimates that they giveme, so it's not really anything
serious. I think I may make two,three sales a whole month.
Nothing serious at all. So I putmy gel that I send to this
(14:34):
influencer on my site, and theorders start come again. I go
from zero orders on December15th, 2000 on January 1st
because she had posted a YouTubevideo and it went viral. So
that's how that all happened.And so to a long story short of
(14:55):
answering your question, I'mbootstrapped from that initial
$300 that I had asked my husbandfor a year ago to create the
edge brush that was being soldon our website.
Justine Reichman (15:07):
Wow. So what influencer did you send it to?
Adria Marshall (15:11):
She is still in the game at all of her name. Her
name is Felicia, but I haven'tseen any videos from her for a
while. But she definitely put uson the map.
Justine Reichman (15:22):
Wow. So that's really exciting. So as you
continue to expand your brand,Ecoslay, and you develop new
products from the little brushto the gel, what else can we
expect to see down the line fromyou?
Adria Marshall (15:38):
Well, we have 17 products now. We have several
stylers, several cleansers,several conditioners, bonnets.
And what I love the most aboutour bonnets--
Justine Reichman (15:53):
Walk me through the bonnets.
Adria Marshall (15:55):
The bonnets are locally sourced. They're made
from recycled fabrics and waterbased ink so you'll find the
thread of sustainabilitythroughout every product that we
have. A satin bonnet, and so youuse it at night. And if you
don't have one, you should getone.
Justine Reichman (16:16):
I think so, I don't have one.
Adria Marshall (16:18):
You need one because the purpose of cotton is
to suck up moisture that's whyyou use cotton in your towels.
Well, your cotton pillowcase isdoing the same thing to your
hair and skin at night. Andyou'll find this especially in
(16:38):
the wintertime when the air isdrier. You'll wonder why your
hair is getting drier, anddrier, and drier every night. It
is going to get drier whenyou're sleeping on that cotton
pillow case.
Justine Reichman (16:50):
Wow, that's super interesting because I was
trying to envision a bonnet, andthen when you said it, it seems
like, of course, that makessense. You hear about it so much
for our face because you'rekeeping hydrated. Especially for
those folks that do treat theirhair, whether color highlight,
perm, you name it, you'recontinuing to dry out your hair.
(17:13):
I'd love to tell you that I'm anatural blonde. But really, I'm
not. And that bleach reallydoes, it keeps it drier so that
I don't have to wash it thatoften. It doesn't look dirty
that often. But equally, I don'tknow them so great to do for
your hair.
Adria Marshall (17:30):
You definitely should. There are a few things
that you should do if your hairis color treated. One is to have
a continuous protein treatmentregimen for your hair. I would
recommend that you use proteinevery single week, and you want
to do that after you shampoo.Put on that protein mask for
hours. I recommend leaving it onfor maybe 5 or 10 minutes, and
(17:53):
then you follow up with amoisturizing deep conditioner.
Let that sit on there for 30minutes to put that moisture
back inside. Because whatprotein does is it roughs up the
cuticles to allow the color fromthe strands to get pulled out,
and then it deposits more colorinside of the cuticle. So it's
definitely allowing more sugaras it gets in, as it gets sucked
(18:17):
right back out. So it's reallyimportant to have a protein
treatment regimen for your hairto reinforce that cuticle to
help lock that moisture in asmuch as possible, and to be
continuously putting moisture onyour hair so it doesn't dry out.
And using a satin pillow caseand a satin bonnet.
Justine Reichman (18:36):
Let's go back to this whole process that you
just described because I'mthinking about it going, wow,
you've just taken my 35 or 45minute routine to get dressed,
showered, blow dry my hair andput a little splash of something
on my face. I'm wondering, howoften does one do this?
Adria Marshall (18:56):
Only once a week.
Justine Reichman (18:58):
So it can be like a Saturday or Sunday
activity.
Adria Marshall (19:01):
And the good thing about it is that it makes
your daily routine go so muchfaster because your style is
going to last so much longerbecause you're doing that
maintenance every week. Soyou'll find like, I don't do
anything to my hair. But once aweek, I'm able to put my bun at
night. Then in the morning, Ican fluff and go. There's not
(19:21):
much to it. And so you'll findsomething very similar. Once you
kind of train your hair intothis routine and it gets used
to, you're going to feed it, Imean, you come back down to your
plant, right? You're gonna feedit with this. You're gonna give
it these nutrients. You're gonnabe doing these things on a
regular basis, and it willreward you for it.
Justine Reichman (19:44):
A lot of this is centered on people that have
longer hair, right? Or soundslike we're talking about women.
Are we talking about men too?Are men being wearable on it?
Adria Marshall (19:54):
I have a lot of male customers. Ttructure of
hair doesn't differ based onyour gender.
Justine Reichman (20:08):
That's where I was going with it. But I was
like, how do I say this? So now,what is your thoughts on men
that get balding spots, so womenlose hair too, and then they
have the widow's peaks. How doessome of these ingredients that
you're choosing to create, someof these serums, connect with
that? Are there any specificallyfor that?
Adria Marshall (20:30):
So let's just put at the very top of this. Of
course, the better ingredients,the better your scalp is being
fed, the better your body'sgoing to treat you. That's a
given. However, I stronglyrecommend that if you notice
that your hair is thinning oryou're having any issue like
that, go see a dermatologist.The same way that you would go
(20:52):
see a doctor. I do not suggestyou playing around and looking
online and trying to find theseoils and treatments because your
hair grows in phases, and ittakes about 90 days for you to
see any results from a hairtreatment. That's just the
nature of these cycles that yourhair goes through. You don't
(21:15):
want to waste a lot of timetrying different things that may
or not be working. It's best togo to a dermatologist who can
pull out their microscope andyou can get to the bottom of
what's causing your hair loss,whether it's stress, or hormone
related, or nutrition related,or wherever that case may be.
(21:36):
With that being said, we do havesome pretty fantastic growth
oils that we sell, but it's bestto get to the root of the
problem first before you startto fiddle around with it.
Justine Reichman (21:47):
I think that that's a fair statement. I think
it's really sound, I would agreewith it. We're not doctors. I'm
not a dermatologist. I could nottell you you're not a
dermatologist. I think it'sgreat to be able to pair a
dermatologist and even shareyour product to say, how would
this impact what I'm trying toachieve?
Adria Marshall (22:08):
Yes. So for example, as I started getting
older, I noticed that I startedto have shedding. Now we have a
fantastic growth oil which worksgreat. But when I start to
experience shedding because ofstress and because of hormone,
(22:28):
it was important for me to getthat in check before I went back
to using my growth oil. Now,using the Growth Oil in tandem
to what the dermatologist hasprescribed for me, it works
amazing. But unless you canreally get down to the root
cause of the issue, you're gonnabe wasting a lot of time that
(22:51):
you can't get back when it comesdown.
Justine Reichman (22:52):
I would agree. Are there any ingredients that
you've seen in mainstreamproducts, not to point to any
products that you feel peopleshould be acutely aware of maybe
because they don't understandthe impact of them, or how they
can show up in negative ways, orthat they're outbreak for
everyone?
Adria Marshall (23:11):
Definitely the sulfate. Definitely pay
attention to sulfates. There'sbeen a lot of recent, studies on
sulfates as well as far aslinkage to cancer and things.
There's nothing definite, butthings are pointing in that
direction. So we are at the dayand age now where there are so
many good alternatives tosulfates, and there's no reason
(23:32):
to really have to go down thatpath. There was a point in time
where if you wanted to reallyclarify your hair, which I
recommend that you do on aregular basis, you almost had to
get to go to a sulfate just toget that level of clean. But
that's not necessary anymore.There's so many cleansers and
clays, we make a clay clarifierthat don't use a sulfate, and
(23:56):
you can get past that.
Justine Reichman (23:58):
So maybe tell the top three things that you
would look for, or that acustomer should look for to
avoid?
Adria Marshall (24:06):
Yeah, I would say sulfate, silicones and
mineral oil. Those would be mytop three.
Justine Reichman (24:14):
What are some of the impacts that you've seen
or heard of people usingproducts that contain those
three items? ingredients, so
Adria Marshall (24:23):
With sulfates, I haven't seen negative impact
other than extreme drying of thehair. And then you become on
this endless cycle, this viciouscycle of trying to keep your
hair nice and moisturized, butthe sulfates are continuously
stripping the oils andnourishment from your hair.
That's a good reason to avoidit, as well as the possible
(24:45):
cancer linkages that they arestill studying. As far as the
silicones, very similarly. Andso what a silicone does is it
builds up on your hair, and youhave to use something like a
sulfate to really remove it fromyour hair. And so again, you
find yourself in that viciouscycle of, you want the silicone
to keep your hair nice, smoothand shiny. But then it builds up
(25:09):
over time, and you have to use asulfate to remove it. Now your
hair is dry, hard and lack ofmoisture, then you want to use
the silicones. So it kind offeeds on itself. And then there
is the mineral oil, which isalmost the same thing as a
silicone in the way that itoperates. It coats the hair
Justine Reichman (25:25):
Thank you so much for that. I just want to go
shaft. It prohibits moisturefrom entering the hair shaft. So
it blocks out all that moisturewhich makes you think that you
need to put more of thoseproducts with that oil on there,
but it just exacerbates the issue.
back because I was sitting herethinking for a minute of when we
(25:49):
first started this conversationand talked about how you evolved
from getting the herbs at theFarmers Market to then doing
things yourself. To now, workingwith farmers. Can you talk to us
a little bit about how thatgrew, and what it's like to work
with the community, specificallythe farmers.
Adria Marshall (26:10):
It is so rewarding working with farmers.
So we're in our second pilotphase. Ooh, this is our second
full year of working with afarmer. The first year, it was
definitely a lot of trial anderror just getting things to
actually grow. Because a lot ofthings that we're growing, they
weren't used to growing, andthey weren't used to the amount
(26:30):
of yield that we needed for themto have as well. So a lot of
conversation, I worked with theTruly Living Well Center for
Urban Agriculture right here inAtlanta. So getting to go down
to the farm, me and my staff,planting the seeds, tending to
them, harvesting, bringing theokra back to our shop that we
immediately put into our bananacream, deep conditioner and our
(26:54):
Jello Shot Curl Definer has beenawesome. And then now, we are
partnering with theChattahoochee Hills Charter
School, which is amazing. Sowhat Chattahoochee Hills does?
They are a charter school thatincorporate agriculture into
their curriculum, and so thekids are learning about
agriculture along with all oftheir other studies. And so the
(27:16):
kids at the school are the onesactually taking care of our
plants, and then WE in turn getto teach them about
entrepreneurship and all thatgood stuff. So it's a full
cycle. A very, very rewardingexperience.
Justine Reichman (27:30):
You're building better for you
healthcare. You're working withthe farmers to grow your own
agriculture, your own herbs, soyou can then create the product.
And in the meantime, you'reworking with a school to help
take care of these plants. Andthrough that, the kids get
education. What an amazingvision you had there. Did you
(27:51):
have that vision? I know thatthis was not what you planned
when you decided to go to thecommunity and start to grow
these herbs. How did you go fromjust growing them yourselves, to
then working with farmers, tothen including the schools.
Because not only are youcreating great products, you're
also giving back and giving aplatform to these farmers and to
(28:15):
the students to be able to grow,make money, but also get
educated.
Adria Marshall (28:21):
Yeah, it's been awesome. We just been blessed.
It just fell into our laps. Andso I did have it on my vision
board. To work with a farm, Ihad that on my vision board
years ago. I even bought thedomain name Ecoslay Farms years
ago. So I kind of put it outthere. And I guess about two
years ago, let me just reallystart to chase this thing down.
(28:45):
So I started just calling randomfarms and getting shot down one
right after the other until onefinally said yes. So that's when
I started working with TrulyLiving Well for about year, year
and a half. I do not want toexaggerate and say that every
product that we make has everyingredient from the farm. We are
(29:06):
still in the learning phase,still in the pilot phase of it,
but it's super intentional. Iwill say that last year, all of
the okra that we use in the twoproducts with okra did come from
the farm, so we are choppingaway at our plan. And our plan
is to have every single productthat has a global ingredient to
(29:30):
be grown on either our own farm,which we will hopefully purchase
this or next year, or the farmat a Chattahoochee Hills Charter
School.
Justine Reichman (29:39):
Amazing.
Adria Marshall (29:40):
And I learned about Chattahoochee Hills from
my publicist who was watching,just scrolling on Tiktok. She
saw this amazing school withthis amazing farm, and then she
called me out of blue like, youhave to see this. And so the
next week, we call theprincipal. Had a zoom call, and
(30:00):
he was so excited. And then likea month later, it was on the
books.
Justine Reichman (30:07):
So now you have 17 products. Is that
correct?
Adria Marshall (30:11):
About 17.
Justine Reichman (30:13):
And 13 staff. What can we expect to see for
Ecoslay in the next three tofive years? How do you envision
your future?
Adria Marshall (30:22):
So there are a couple of things that we're
really excited about. I don'tthink I shared it with you
Justine, that when I had thaproduct that went viral, I had a
full time job so I had to goback to work. I reached out to a
factory to help me fill allthese orders because they did
not seem to be stopping. And I'msure you will not be shocked to
know that the factoryimmediately want to change all
(30:46):
of my ingredients, everything.They seem to be just mystified
by the fact that I was handboiling and straining flax seed
and marshmallow root. There wasno way they were going to do it.
They were going to go grab someflax seat extract off the shelf.
God only knows what's reallyinside of that, and going to
(31:06):
come completely change myproduct. So I said NO to that,
and that's when I started hiringand training people. I'm doing
this as I have a full time job,which was absolutely crazy.
That's behind me now. But longstory short, now we launched a
program, it's been about a yearnow called the Ecobator Program,
(31:30):
and we basically are thatfactory that we wish that we
would have had. So you thinkabout your aunt, your cousin,
your friend who thinks that shehas the best idea for a body
butter, a soap, a lotion, a bodywash, but she doesn't need 5000
units from the factory. Shedoesn't need high prices that
(31:52):
she can't afford what she'strying to make ends meet, and
she wants to use really goodingredients. And so, that's what
we do. We help her out with theformulation, the manufacturing,
the logistics and the packagingon her small scale products
until she's ready to manufacturelarger units.
Justine Reichman (32:12):
I'm just curious, I know you have a
background in gardening fromyour grandparents, your parents
and you, but it also sounds likeyou need to have some chemistry
background or something to beable to formulate all these
different kinds of products. Sodo you surround yourself with
(32:33):
people with those expertise?Because Lord knows, none of us
have all those expertise, but wehave the vision to be able to do
that. We've got some assemblanceand idea of what we want, and
how do you make that happen.
Adria Marshall (32:46):
So the problem that I made that went viral, I
formulated that myself. I cameback and gave it to my chemist,
and he tweaked it after thefact, but I did the initial
formulation myself just bywatching a lot of YouTube
videos, to be honest. Now, did Imake some mistakes along the way
that I had to go and correctwith the help of a chemist?
(33:07):
Absolutely. So now I work withtwo chemists. I still work with
that initial chemist that gaveme the idea of what I was doing
wrong with that gel. I stillwork with him. He's amazing. But
I also have a chemist that is inhouse as well, one of my staff
members, and he helps us withthe formulation for our
products, as well as aformulation for the products of
(33:29):
our own clients as well.
Justine Reichman (33:32):
Amazing. Adria, thank you so much for
joining us today. For thosefolks that are interested in
learning more about Ecoslay oreven buying some product, where
can they go to do that?
Adria Marshall (33:43):
So you can find us on social media at Ecoslay
all over, and you can find us atecoslay.com online.
Justine Reichman (33:49):
Thank you so much, Adria. I can't wait to try
the bonnet. I feel like theprotein. One thing you've just
said to me that I feel is soinspiring is that this happened
by accident. You weren't aFounder before, and so many
people that are founders werenever founders before, but you
took what you were interested inand what your needs were, and
(34:13):
put them together to createsomething that is better for
you, better for the planet. Andnow, you're giving back to the
community. What an inspiration.I hope that this inspires other
founders to build a businessthat can make such a great
Adria Marshall (34:26):
I hope so too, because it's really just about
impact as well.
putting one foot of the other,and just keeping that momentum
and remain consistent.
Justine Reichman (34:39):
Thank you so much. We'll make sure to include
the link to your website in ourshownotes. And for those that
are listening to the podcast,don't forget that you can also
watch the videocast on YouTube.And if you're watching the
YouTube video and want to listento the podcast, we're available
wherever you listen to podcastsat Essential Ingredients. And
don't forget to follow us atessential.ingredients on
(35:01):
Instagram, and we look forwardto seeing you here next week.
Adria Marshall (35:05):
Bye. Thank you, Justine.
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