"There's all this hype about clean, but at the end of the day, it's unregulated."
Before there was clean beauty, there was Miranda Kerr, the founder of KORA Organics. On my Talking Clean With Irene podcast, I spoke to Miranda about what certified organic skincare really means.
KORA launched back in 2009, at a time when organic beauty products were still seen as really alternative or quite hippie.
Here are the 3 things I learned from my chat with Miranda
1. Certified organic comes with rules she doesn't make
Miranda said "there's all this hype about clean, but at the end of the day, it's unregulated. And that's why it was important for me to be certified organic by Cosmos, which is a world certification body, Ecocert Cosmos. That gives the customer the assurance, and there are so many strict rules and guidelines. It's not something that I make the rules up for."
"Everything from the ingredients has to go through them. And also every part of the packaging, the inside, the outside packaging, even every word that I write on the packaging has to be approved through Ecocert Cosmos. And I really wanted to have that because that's what I was looking for."
"That's why I created KORA. It was a long time ago, my parents and I were reading this book called The Chemical Maze, and we realised that there are a lot of different additives and chemicals in so many products that we might use, whether it be household cleaning supplies, the products that we use on our hair, the products we use on our skin, food that we put in our mouth. We just assume that it's safe because it's out there."
"I'm not saying everything has to be organic, but if you can put a product on your skin that's certified organic, and you can get better results than using these other products that may not be as healthy for you, then why wouldn't you? It seems like a no-brainer to me."
I told Miranda I always think, logically, how can anybody think that SLS or mineral oil can possibly be better for our skin than something that's grown by Mother Nature? We all grew up with Dolly Magazine and Cosmo, and we put everything on our faces thinking it was going to work.
"I think it was a trust thing," Miranda said. "You're naive, and you think that because it's out there, it must be safe."
2. The face oil and the turmeric scrub are an at-home facial
For anybody that's new to KORA, the number one product that everybody needs to try is the Noni Glow Face Oil.
"Yes, I agree. Totally," Miranda said. "If you have that product along with the Turmeric 2 in 1, I feel like that's an at-home facial for everyone to have as part of their routine."
I asked Miranda what it is in the oil that makes it so good. I've used plain rosehip oil, and I once used an oil from another brand because I'd run out of hers, and it doesn't feel the same and it doesn't look the same.
"It has rosehip oil in there. It has the noni fruit extract. It has sea buckthorn oil, so sea buckthorn has your omega-7 fatty acids. It has a good source of vitamin C and A, and it has pomegranate oil in there as well, which helps with the moisture and helps the cell rejuvenation."
I'm sure it's not just all those oils, it's the way they work together, because I can put all those oils on my face together and I won't get the same results.
Miranda explained "we're so blessed to work with the best organic chemists in the business. They will send me products back and forth, and I tell them, no, we need a bit more of this, we need a bit more of that. Each product takes about 18 months of that back and forth to refine it and perfect it."
"I keep in the shower my turmeric 2 in 1, which I'm obsessed with. I use it mostly more as an exfoliant than I do as a mask. It's a microdermabrasion scrub and a mask, because it dries like a mask, but it's an organic version. It has the physical exfoliation with the rosehip seeds."
After Miranda had her baby, she had hormonal breakouts on the backs of her arms. A KORA customer had written in to say they'd had the same thing all their life, and nothing had cleared it until they used the turmeric scrub. So Miranda tried it. "And mine's gone too."
I told Miranda that if you get little hormonal chin hairs, I'll sometimes only do my chin, and it stops those hairs getting blocked so I can pluck them out. "You can also do your ingrowns around the bikini line," Miranda said. "That's another one."
3. Her morning and night routine
Miranda told me "having a routine is important not only in your life but also in your skincare, because if you do the three simple steps, cleanse, mist, moisturise morning and night, you will see a big difference in your skin. I really feel like healthy skin is the most beautiful skin."
"In the morning, I like to use a foaming cleanser. I then mist my face, which is like a toner. I then use the vitamin C serum."
I asked Miranda how she layers them all.
"Cleanse, mist, serum, oil and then moisturiser. That's morning. And then I switch the serums. I use the AHA resurfacing serum at night, and the vitamin C in the morning." I asked how long to wait before the oil. "I just do it one after the other. I do the serum and then I do the oil, and I do my moisturiser."
I asked Miranda about the night serum. "It's blowing my mind. I'm so obsessed with the results that I'm getting, and I feel the tingle when I put it on. It's helped me with my pigmentation, it helps with my fine lines, it helps with my pores being noticeably smaller."
"It's got the willow bark in there for your BHAs. It's got the lemon peel ferment for the AHAs, the tonka bean ferment. If you use that product every night for at least two weeks, you will see big results in your skin. It gently exfoliates the skin, but it's not too aggressive, so it's good even if your skin's super sensitive."
I said you've got to spend hundreds of dollars to get that done if you want to go and get a facial.
"You buy the right products, and if you're using them religiously, you will get results. So I encourage everyone, please try this routine. Do it consistently, two weeks. Even if you do it for a month, your skin's going to be glowing."
About the Author
Irene Falcone is the founder of Clean Nectarine and co-host of The Lee & Irene Show. She started her first clean beauty business in 2011 with $100 in her garage and grew it to $20m in four years. She has spent over 15 years reading the backs of beauty and wellness labels, is a Telstra Business Women's Awards winner and an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, and has been featured on A Current Affair, The Project, Sunrise, Channel Nine Mornings and Sky News.
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