It Started With My Greek Grandmother
Tammy Demos still remembers the first time she realized the power of plants to create beauty products. As a nine-year-old visiting family in Greece, she has a core memory of walking through a cypress grove with her maternal grandmother. Her Yiayia picked cones off the trees, brought them home, and
made soap and candles.
Tammy remembers thinking: "Nature is amazing. Plants have so much to offer." It was this philosophy she would return to years later, harnessing the power of plants to create the cleanest skincare line she could create.
Many years later, in 2019, Tammy found herself in Colorado, stressed, divorced, raising four kids, and with skin that was a total wreck. "It was dull and dehydrated, with fine lines, rosacea, hyperpigmentation, and dark splotches. Not a good look for someone in the beauty industry," Tammy recalls. Her self-esteem plummeted.
“I became disenchanted with what the world of ingredients (from a lab-derived ingredients) had to offer. There was nothing I hadn't tried before. I had no choice but to turn my back on it all. That was a very lonely and scary place. What's next? Only plants were left for me to try and learn about".
She'd been thinking about opening a greenhouse to supply plant ingredients to beauty companies, but the timing wasn't right. After co-founding two beauty companies with her ex (CosMedix and Osmosis),
Tammy wasn't looking to do it again.
But her skin was a disaster. She tried an elimination diet and got rid of all her beauty products to avoid toxins and chemicals. While traveling, she paid close attention to what aestheticians were using and realized that skincare was the same everywhere.
