MY SKIN JOURNEY
TATA HARPER
A
pioneer when it comes to natural skin
care, Tata Harper is the woman who
made organic and plant-based formulas
not only look and feel luxurious but capable of
competing with well-established, chemical-laden
cosmeceuticals. Here, the Queen of Green talks
brand transparency, organic farming and her
favourite glow boosters.
No one should have to sacrifice their health for
their beauty. My stepfather was diagnosed with
cancer and through helping him change his
lifestyle, I started to examine everything I was
putting in and on my body. I couldn’t find any
natural products that gave me the results and
the luxury experience I was looking for, so I set
out to create my own.
We source only the highest quality ingredients
and the most innovative natural technology
available, and include as many as we can in
every formula to make our products as effective
as possible. I work with our in-house team on
every step of the process, from conceptualisation
to formulation to packaging, to create all of our
products. We are completely vertically inte-
grated, so we formulate, batch, fill, and ship all
of our products from our farm in Vermont,
USA. We grow some of our ingredients on the
farm organically, and source the rest from
around the world.
I think the benefits of organic and natural skin
care are fairly similar – it’s all about transparency
and understanding the true process of each
ingredient. Traditional skin care products are
made with synthetic ingredients that are actually
cheaper, easier-to-work-with versions of natural
ingredients. They also use a lot of preservatives
so when you’re buying a product, it might already
be two years old when you open the box.
There is a lot of confusion about the concepts
of natural, organic, vegan and cruelty-free prod-
ucts. The term ‘organic’ has to do with the
farming method. When ingredients are farmed
organically they’re grown without synthetic
fertilisers or pesticides. When a product has
95% of its ingredients farmed that way it’s con-
sidered organic. The remaining 5% could be
anything, including synthetics. A product that
is vegan does not contain any animal ingredients
or animal derived ingredients. Period. You have
to be careful because beauty brands that are
’vegan’ are not necessarily making any natural
statements, so it’s always important to read the
ingredient label. ‘Natural’, like we are, means
the complete formula is 100% synthetic free.
All of our products are completely natural, all
have substantial organic content, all of our prod-
ucts are vegan and we are in the process of having
them all officially certified as such, and we have
always been, and always will be, cruelty-free.
What makes formulating natural products so
difficult is that we can’t use more stable syn-
thetic ingredients that help other formulas work
well. It’s a complicated equation to make
natural, effective products without the use of
stabilisers or artificials. This makes our process
more time-consuming. We spend at least 12
months in the formulation process for each
ISSUE #12 | 2019 | SkinHealthMagazine.com 26