The phrase ‘you are what you eat,’ is accepted as being synonymous for living a healthy lifestyle via the food we eat. If we eat junk food, then our bodies reflect that.
According to Jeffrey James, the same is true for what goes on your skin. The entrepreneur behind Jeffrey James Botanicals, who started out selling nutraceuticals for other companies began his dream project when hit with a family crisis.
“When my father got skin cancer back in 2009, I started formulating my plans for a skin care line that was organic and really healthy,” Jeffrey James tells ConnectWithLife.com. “I just wanted to show people a better way to take care of themselves.”
Whether we realize it or not, our skin is our largest organ, making it also one of our most vulnerable. “90% of men and women out there, are using these department store brands. They’re putting nothing but pure chemicals on their skin and it’s absorbing into their nervous system, their breasts…it’s absorbing everywhere,” says James. “Why are we putting chemicals on our body? People just are really unaware. I was determined to give people an education to give them a better option.”
So where does one start? “Our skin is an organ,” says James. “We want to feed it nutrition, just like we would any other part of our body.” What he’s getting at is that we have to have products that nourish our skin. Giving it the right amount of hydration from natural products without the chemicals. “We don’t use any parabens, chemicals or anything harmful to our bodies. All our ingredients are botanical,” he says. “We call them beautifying minerals. That’s really what the skin wants. The skin doesn’t want chemicals. The skin wants nutrition. It wants something that balances the pH of your skin and gives you a radiant glow.”
James product line—which costs between $15 and $35 per item and is sold in Whole Foods as well as online, focuses on the face and neck. It also doesn’t include anything that he can’t stand by as being 100% free of unnatural chemicals. Which is why he doesn’t actually stock SPF. “We do not have an SPF. The chemical in SPF is really dangerous in my mind,” says James. “We stand for every product.”
The ingredients used honestly sound like a fruit salad; cranberry seed oil, swiss apple stem cells, blueberry seed oil and green tea. Consumers are promised that they are not used sparingly. “Our hyaluronic acid serum is award winning and that is one of the most hydrating ingredients you can put on your skin,” says James. “Both of our competitors sell the hyaluronic acid serum with a concentration of under 5 percent. Our percentage of hyaluronic acid in this serum is over 50 percent.”
Even though he has enough product to give you an eight step daily routine, James also caters to those of us who don’t have the time for anything mildly complicated. “Your skin is going to go by how it feels, you’re going to find products that really speak to you,” he says. “Maybe it’s an eye cream, maybe it’s an eye gel. Maybe you have a toner that clears up bacteria. It depends on what’s going on with your skin, but everybody needs to wash. Everybody needs to exfoliate, and everybody needs to hydrate.”
And as for dad, thankfully he is doing much better. “Dad’s good, he still has to be proactive, says James. “But I’m a firm believer in the fact that what we’re putting on our skin is as important as what we’re putting in our body. I made this line for my father, my best friend. The fact that the world is paying attention is because we made it just like we wanted it. I knew if I loved it, I could sell it.”
