Mother Nature
Q&A: Find out how motherhood took Kimberly Parry from a life in corporate HR to one making organic skin care products out of her San Juan Capistrano home. Don't forget to check out the Web-exclusive portion of the interview!
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They say necessity is the mother of invention. But for Kimberly Parry it was being a mother that necessitated inventiveness.
The now-San Juan Capistrano resident and organic beauty expert was living in Northern California and working in the corporate world in Human Resources in 1999 when she needed a solution to her new baby’s and toddler’s skin sensitivities. Since they were so allergy-prone and skin-sensitive, the typical baby lotions, oils and powders just weren’t cutting it. And after some extensive research, Parry realized she couldn’t find baby body products that she felt were healthy.
"My first concerns were all of the parabens and sulfites and all the derivatives that come from petroleum," Parry says. "How good could this be for my kids?"
A hobbyist gardener and cook, she combined those skills and a lot of research to make healthy, natural body products for her children. After a while, friends and acquaintances heard about her products and started buying. On her one-acre property, she was able to grow the pesticide-free herbs she needed and mix up her preservative-free formulas on a small scale.
Eventually, however, Parry and her husband decided to move to Southern California and make Kimberly Parry Organics a real business, one she would work in full time and expand to include a full line of skin care items for face, body, hair, and baby. Since then, Parry has carefully selected a group of high-quality organic providers from which she buys herbs and flowers in bulk; she makes all her own herbal tinctures, oils and extracts from organic base oils. And she makes every product out of her garage-turned-lab by hand and fresh to every order.
With virtually no inventory, her lab is large, clean and uncluttered, containing a center work station and three large cabinets housing her ingredients. Several products in her line have been certified USDA Organic (with at least 95% organically produced ingredients); by the end of the year, she hopes all of her products will have a USDA Organic certification of 95% organic or greater.
Parry took time out from her gardening and lab work to talk to us about being an organic beauty product developer.
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What are a couple of your favorite natural skin care ingredients you use in your products and why?
I love comfrey root. Clinical studies support that comfrey root speeds healing and encourages cell regeneration. Comfrey is loaded with vitamin B12, protein and carotene.
Rose hip oil: the wonder oil. [It’s] laboratory tested and proven to regenerate skin, reduce scars and wrinkles, prevent advancement of aging, and assist with the elimination of sunspots.
Your products are not tested on animals, so how are they tested?
This is an inside family joke that I am about to share, but my husband is affectionately known as my lab rat. He has sensitive skin – which is great for me, but not so great for him – so I use him to test my products.
What are your biggest beauty-related pet peeves?
Pet peeve number one: Why are the labels always in Latin terminology?... Simplify on the label. Cocomydol propolydol what?
My second beef is to hold people accountable in their advertising in how they manipulate the public.
The line is available at Suddenly Slim Body Wraps & More!, 95 Via Pico Plaza, San Clemente, (949) 369-SLIM and at kimberlyparry.com for $24-$65.
WEB-EXCLUSIVE
Explain how and why you keep your line simple.
Many ingredients do not equal a better product. In fact, some ingredients cancel out the benefits of each other. When I formulate, I always begin by asking myself what I am trying to achieve, then I follow up with what ingredients will work the best.
Have any homemade, natural remedies to share?
Take some fresh rosemary; steep it like you're making tea in about two cups of hot water and pour that into your bath. It assists with circulation, it’s [an] antioxidant, antiseptic, and smells wonderful.
You want a great mask... wash your face and get a teaspoon of honey. Smear it on your face and let it sit there. It's an amazing conditioner on your skin.
