Get to know the founder and her incredible brand, True and You!

True and You is a Canadian eco-friendly, gender-inclusive, and customized skincare brand intending to avoid unnecessary skincare and eliminate excessive waste. The brand offers clean and effective formulas that can be tailored to your unique skin needs through five different skin boosters so that instead of using multiple products, you only need to use one! 

Today, HOLR is sitting down to chat with Saumya Saxen, the visionary behind True and You, to talk about the brand, its latest launch, and how they are giving back. Check out our discussion below to find out all about how True and You is revolutionizing the skincare industry. 

Tell us all about your journey in the skincare industry and how you founded your brand, True and You.

The idea of custom skincare was something that felt natural – since we all have different skin types and needs, expecting to see personalized results using mass-produced products didn’t really make sense to me. So I started to explore this further by doing surveys and interviews with people I knew, and my personal IG followers to see if they felt the same way as I did. 

Once it became clear that there was a market for custom skincare products, I started doing my research on skincare formulations. As someone who wasn’t super familiar with the industry, I decided to talk to experts about it and so I booked numerous meetings with scientists, chemistry professors, industry professionals, and manufacturing labs to understand how it worked and if custom skincare was something that could be created using clean ingredients. 

I had over 70 meetings with research labs alone, and only three of them were willing to experiment on the idea of a custom clay mask with me. It was important for me that we make this product in Canada, and so I finalized a local lab and we began our first formulations in 2019. We funded all the research with my personal savings, and to ensure I had cash coming in I kept my corporate day job. From June 2019 to June 2020, I worked my corporate job in the day and dedicated my evenings and weekends to True and You. 

True and You has an incredible product line up- what are some of the products clients can shop from the brand?

Our hero product is the Custom Glacial Clay Mask – which took us 2yrs to formulate and perfect. It’s a clay mask that’s customized to your skin type and goals, and it contains 3 components – a base that is the same for all orders, and two customizing add-ons called boosters. Together, the base and the two boosters form a custom mixture that tackles 3-5 major skin concerns and helps you achieve your dream skin. 

Along with this mask, we also have our So Clean Kit – which is a game-changer when it comes to removing makeup. The microfibre pads included in the kit remove makeup and dirt with just water and are reusable up to 150 times! They’re also super convenient while traveling as you don’t have to pack a bunch of makeup removers etc. to clean your face.

And lastly, our product line also includes five mood-boosting hand-poured soy candles that can transform any space and truly give you a spa-like atmosphere while you mask. They are made with clean-burning ingredients and are beautifully designed to fit any space. 

What are skin boosters and how does the brand’s proprietary skincare quiz help clients determine which skin booster(s) can be best incorporated into their routine?

Boosters are the customizing add-ons through which we customize our masks. We have five boosters, and every order includes any two of them. Each booster has its own unique ingredients, texture, and color – and each one of them works on multiple skin concerns. 

We know that not everyone can read ingredients and decide if that product would work for them (I certainly couldn’t) and so that’s why we developed a skin quiz – it’s 5 short multi-choice questions that help us determine which two boosters would work best for you. To make it fun and interactive, we use a lot of cute gifs in the quiz so that it’s not just a boring questionnaire but something that will make you smile all while building your personalized recommendation!

What makes True and You unique in helping clients achieve their skincare goals?

It’s really the customized approach to skincare that makes us unique. We understand that skincare can be confusing and what works for one may not work for you, and that’s what differentiates us from everyone else. 

On top of that, our products are clean, non-toxic, cruelty-free & vegan, and they are made in Canada for all genders and skin types. Not many products in the market can fit these requirements.

With sustainability at the core of the brand, what are some ways in which True and You incorporate recyclable and/or biodegradable materials and locally sourced ingredients into its products?

When it comes to our product and ingredients – we try to source locally as much as possible. We also only buy from sustainable and ethical suppliers, and everything we use is clean – meaning it is gentle on your skin and on our planet. 

On the packaging side, we spent a lot of time carefully selecting our materials to ensure we had minimum environmental impacts. Everything is packed in either recyclable and/or biodegradable materials – such as our glass jars with bamboo lids, our recycled paper inserts, kraft tubes & boxes, etc. Even the ink we use on our packaging is eco-friendly soy ink. Additionally, you will never see bubble wraps, packing peanuts, or other unnecessary materials in our packaging.

How does True and You give back to the environment?

Besides using clean ingredients and packaging our products responsibly, we also wanted to give back to a cause we believe in. For us, it was ocean conservation. We realize that more needs to be done to protect our oceans and so with every sale, we donate 1% towards plastic waste cleanup via two non-profits. One of them is focused on the Canadian Shoreline cleanups while the other is focused on removing plastics from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. All of the information regarding our Ocean Cleanup initiative can be found on our website.

What’s next for the brand?

We have a ton of exciting things coming up this year. On top of that, we have already started our R&D for a second custom product which we are hoping to launch next year. Every week there is one or more major updates and the best way to be in the know of what’s next for us is to follow us on our IG page @betrueandyou 

Published by HOLR Magazine.