'EXCLUSIVE' Interview - Juice Beauty CEO chats with The Bee's Knees!

Welcome to a particularly exciting day here at The Bee's Knees!!

The wait is over friends- I am happy to announce that today I am officially releasing the highly anticipated 'exclusive' interview with founder & CEO of Juice Beauty- Karen. 

Back in April, The Bee's Knees won its first contest through Birchbox after writing a compelling post on 'why natural & organic beauty products are important to you'. (Click here to read the blog post or click here to see the winning announcement on the Birchbox blog.) 

The blog post came natural to me as I have always been an advocate for 'organic' anything! I was blessed and ridiculously elated to discover that Birchbox had chosen my post as the winning entry in the contest.

A quick note before we dive into the interview- if you're new here, please take a moment to get connected to The Bee's Knees! You won't regret it. There's always something fun happening here. You can get plugged in a number of different ways- Facebook, Pinterest, RSS, Bloglovin, Email, etc... It's great to have you here!

Let's dig into the interview shall we? :)

Me:  How did you decide to use (and develop) organic beauty?

Karen:  Health, wellness and fitness have always been my passion and turned into my career once I built one of the first corporate wellness companies in the country; but once I became pregnant with my first child (at the age of 40) I really started reading ingredient labels for the first time. I was shocked that many terrible ingredients that had been banned from our food were still in our beauty products. Given that the skin is the largest organ of your body and it absorbs almost 65 percent of what you put on it, realizing the benefits of organic beauty ingredients was a natural progression.

Me:  How important is an organic diet to go along with your beauty routine?

Karen:  Incredibly important. You are what you eat - feed your body  healthful organic foods, exercise daily, use organic beauty products and you will glow from the inside out!! According to the Centers for Disease Control, poor lifestyle choices account for over 70% of all premature diseases. Feed your body organic whole grains, fruits, vegetables, small wild fish, and limit processed foods and you will have a ton of energy and feel great.   Exercise and practice yoga as much as you can and you’ll feel like a zillion bucks!   Eat a diet rich in antioxidants and feed your skin organic beauty products rich in antioxidants and you will be fighting free radical damage on all fronts!

The 'beautiful' Karen!

Me:  What's your favorite part of your job?

Karen:  Being in our retail partner stores and talking to the customers! I love getting feedback directly from customers and we’ve had so many people let us know that we have changed not only their skin, but their lives!

Me:  What career advice would you give to women?

Karen:  Follow your passion, work with passion and create a healthy, challenging, workplace so you can have fun every day! It is possible when you have kids to work out flexible work schedules with some employers because I highly recommend that women stay in the workplace to some extent to stay connected, stay interesting, and stay globally interested.

Me:  Aside from ordering your products online, are there any retail stores that carry Juice Beauty products? If not, do you have plans to market to retailers?

Karen:  Juicebeauty.com just relaunched and is absolutely beautiful! Our U.S. Retail  partners include ULTA, Whole Foods Market, Pharmaca and a number of spas and boutiques too. In Canada, customers can find us in Murale, and Juice Beauty’s counters in Asia’s leading department stores are absolutely stunning.

Me:  What are the benefits of using organic beauty products versus non organic?

Karen:  So many people have started purchasing organic food because they don’t want to be exposed to harmful pesticides and chemicals. That’s the same reason so many have turned to Juice Beauty since our products are made with certified organic ingredients; they want to have all the benefits of great beauty products without any unhealthy or risky ingredients. Just like with food, your skin absorbs up to 65% of what you place on it, so instead of harmful ingredients use healthy ingredients that WORK. The biggest difference with Juice Beauty is that it’s not only made with the healthiest, certified organic ingredients...it works too! These products are so effective, they are even clinically validated to prove it! http://www.juicebeauty.com/about-us/clinical-results/

Me:  What's your secret beauty tip?

Karen:  It’s no secret! Juice Beauty! In all honesty, we’ve developed these products yes, because they’re healthy and organic, but when it comes down to it, it’s back to the fact that they are effective. I don’t understand why you would you use something that was either healthy OR effective, when you can so clearly have both! Just make sure to  1) Cleanse 2) Treat and 3) Moisturize every day!!

Me:  What's your favorite Juice Beauty product?

Karen:  This is like playing favorites with my children! I would never! My team made me choose for a blog post a few months ago though...you can find out here: http://www.juicebeauty.com/2011/11/04/favorites-friday/

Me:  Any weird/surprising habits in your beauty routine?

Karen:  I have my ‘sanity spray’—when I get nervous or excited about anything to do with business—I spray our Hydrating Mist incessantly on myself and everyone around me! Also, given that I have dwindling estrogen and that I swim in the San Francisco Bay, I often soak my hair (for hours) in our USDA Organic Treatment Oil and then shampoo (without further conditioner) so my hair feels as soft as baby’s hair after.

Me:  What are some new & exciting things happening at Juice Beauty?

Karen:  Where do I begin?! We just opened in an additional 400 ULTA stores, we have an entirely new and beautiful www.juicebeauty.com site, we’re planning some amazing things with our Pharmaca stores, and we have just launched a beautiful collection of skincare and color with the ultimate eco-celebrity, Alicia Silverstone!

Me:  What seems to be a ‘customer favorite’ beauty product?

Karen:  We have a number of ‘heroes’ in our collection but the Green Apple Peel is definitely one of the biggest. It’s won almost every award possible from top beauty editors including Allure’s Editor’s Pick. It’s a favorite of celebrities like Kate Hudson and most of our customers claim they actually are addicted to it! At least it’s a healthy addiction to have, right?!

Me:  And just for fun… What are a few of your favorite pastimes/hobbies?

Karen:  My husband and kids for sure as they are the light of my life but I’m what some would deem a fitness fanatic – triathalons, yoga, kickboxing – you name it, I love it!

And that concludes our exciting interview for today!! I want to offer a HUGE Thank You to both Juice Beauty and Birchbox for giving me this outstanding opportunity! Don't you just love Juice Beauty already? Karen is right on- their products not only rock, but they're EFFECTIVE. I've tried other products that are natural but don't work at all. Juice Beauty will not disappoint you! 

Please be sure to visit both the Juice Beauty and Birchbox websites to learn more about their wonderful products & services. 

That wraps it up for me today! Thank you 'soo' much for reading and following The Bee's Knees. I will see you back here on Monday for more beauty blogging fun! Have a great weekend everyone.