The average woman is exposed to over 35 lbs of chemicals each year just through her personal care products, therefore it’s important to avoid potentially harmful, toxic ingredients and instead choose products containing natural, safe alternatives.
Beauty guru Christina Marcaccini began creating the Raw Natural Beauty Line around the time she and her husband decided to start a family.
By the time her daughter Alina arrived in November 2007, Christina had achieved her goal. She and her crack team of researchers had developed a complete line of high-performance personal care products - setting the industry standard in terms of purity, performance and safety.
“It's proven that even babies in the womb are susceptible to the effects of chemicals and that young children don’t detoxify and eliminate chemicals as effectively as adults,” Christina said. “This is something new and expecting moms need to know, and understand that there are choices when choosing beauty products.”
Not Just for Moms In 2007, Raw Color – the first of several products in the Raw Natural Beauty line - made its debut on QVC. This was followed closely by the launch of Raw Minerals through online campaigns in the same year.
A product developer and brand manager of prestige beauty products with more than 10 years of experience, Christina has talked with countless women and has conducted extensive research to determine what women want in their beauty products.
In our recent conversation with Christina, she divulged the three consistent themes that surface in customer feedback time and again. These are the pillars on which Raw Beauty was built. (We took this information to heart; because yes, she is as smart as she is beautiful. And ambitious. Not to mention nice...)
1. Performance
Currently, Christina claims, the natural category has a negative reputation to overcome.
“I've talked to literally hundreds of women, and the overlying opinion is that they want ‘natural’ products but the ones that they've tried don't function well. My mission is to develop natural products that perform better than traditional beauty products.”
In addition to short-term effects, Christina and her team conducted extensive ingredient research to seek out new, efficacious ingredients sourced from around the world to reduce the long-term impact of the line. Every product in the Raw Natural Beauty line contains exotic, natural, active botanicals clinically proven to improve the skin over time. When sourcing ingredients, the team seeks out suppliers who practice sustainable agriculture, and helps by supporting fair trade and giving back to local economies.
“In a world with diminishing resources, we promote the principle of sustainability – meeting the needs of today without compromising the future,” she said.
2. Safety
Ingredient safety is a top priority. If you ask people why they want to buy natural products, Christina says it’s because they think that these products are safer for them to use.
“Just because an ingredient claims to be natural does not make it a safe. In fact, there are numerous natural ingredients that we would never put in our Raw products because of this,” she said.
Every one of Raw Beauty’s ingredients is evaluated according to the safety ratings established by the Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database by Environmental Working Group (EWG). The company has also signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, meaning the company is committed to using ingredients without any known human toxicity.
3. Prestige
Cosmetics are a luxury item, so the Raw Beauty products reflect that image with modern, edgy packaging and designs not previously seen in the natural category.
“We want to convey a level of prestige with our line. We want our customers to be proud to showcase our products in public and in their homes.”
Christina said she will continue to introduce new products under the Raw Color and Raw Minerals brands, respectively. Raw Skincare is available on the website and will launch on QVC later in the year. A hair care line is also in the works. Prices currently range from $20-$42 for Raw Color and Raw Minerals and $36 -$59 for Raw Skincare.
Website: http://www.rawnaturalbeauty.com/
Phone:
1.866.603.9149
A Beautiful Change
In early April, Christina traveled to Washington, D.C. to take part in the Natural Product Association’s lobbying day. The goal was to influence congress's position on upcoming bills in order to give consumers better access to natural product options and information. Christina plans to continue to help educate consumers on the safety of the products they use (across all categories). For more information, visit the Natural Products Association web site.
