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THE COMPANY, PHILOSOPHY AND STORES NEAR YOU

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ARTICLES ON AUBREY

Aubrey Hampton—Renaissance Man, Father
Green patriot of the American Natural Cosmetics Industry, from Healthy Living by David Steinman

Aubrey Hampton is one of America's most fascinating green patriots. To understand you have to go back to a time when there was nothing-at least no truly natural or organic hair and skin care industry in America.

It was 1967.

America was experiencing an oil glut. No one was talking about "peak oil," and the Arab oil embargo was six years away.

Aubrey Hampton was thinking about oil dependency even back then, but he had a different take. Working in New York City for Fabergé (now part of Unilever) as their leading chemist, and fresh out of graduate school with an advanced degree in organic chemistry, Hampton was concerned about the proliferating use of petroleum-based ingredients in cosmetic products. "At one point, the company wanted an all-natural cosmetic line," he said in an interview. "But the company added back tons of petrochemicals and other synthetics. I went to the owner and told him I wasn't happy. He gave me a check for $30 thousand and told me to start my own natural cosmetic company, and then he fired me. It was the best thing that could have ever happened to me." "I wasn't thinking about oil embargoes," he said. "I was thinking about what these chemicals were doing to women and men who were applying them to their skin and scalp daily."

Hampton first learned about herbs from his mother, an herbalist who made natural products for her family with her own home-grown herbs and those gathered from the woods and countryside of southern Indiana. His father was an organic dirt farmer during the growing season and a foundry labor organizer during the cold months. "My father once said, 'If you wouldn't want to see it on the front page of the New York Times, don't do it,'" Hampton told me one night in the living room of his beautiful, airy home in Tampa.

"Mom would tell me that these herbs together complemented each other," he said. "She used words like that. Com-ple-men-tary. She didn't use fancy words like synergy, but that was what she meant. My dad didn't call it organic farming. He just called it farming."

In his first-ever product, Hampton mixed ground ginger, peppermint and eucalyptus leaf into coconut oil. He began experimenting with two natural formulations, an all-herbal bath oil and a protein-based hair conditioner. He fine-tuned his new formulas and began trying them out in Manhattan hair salons and health food stores, to excellent reviews, leading to the birth of Aubrey Organics.

Today, Aubrey Organics is one of the great American success stories of our time. Aubrey Organics is a Green Patriot^TM Green 100^TM member in my new book Safe Trip to Eden (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2007) because, under his leadership, the natural product company has come to embody important American values: trust in the free market such that—the cost between products being equal—most of us will patronize and strongly support companies that reflect our own principles; belief in a safe and secure future; and an emphasis on the role that nature plays in our lives.

In other words, by eschewing toxic petrochemicals for 40 years, Aubrey Organics has been a leader in making America less dependent on foreign oil, and improving our health and beauty (call it healthy beauty).

"How can any thinking man or woman today slather on a petroleum cosmetic product and feel good about their commitment to this nation?" says Hampton.

"I believe that you have to start asking what purchasing so many petroleum-based products is doing to our country's long-term security. Aubrey Organics is empowering you completely. Little consumer actions, like choosing a non-petroleum shampoo or skin lotion, are not only good for your appearance and health but also do something good for this great land." Hampton has a mission to complete, he said.

"Each year we try to come out with more and more certified organic products that help people to feel good about their purchases—to know that they are putting their money into companies that are looking out for their interests and directly doing good things like establishing fair-trade practices among growers and supporting organic cultivation throughout the world." For example, he said, "Aubrey Organics was responsible for bringing organic shea butter to the United States. I went to one of the early international conferences with a representative from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and committed to buying their organic crops, while our USDA helped international shea butter growers learn how to become certified organic growers. Now you can find certified organic shea butter everywhere, and throughout the world communities receive fair pricing and wages for a valuable crop."

Oh, and did we mention that Hampton guided Aubrey Organics to being the largest, most diverse personal care and cosmetic company today with more than 200 different items in virtually every category? Or that their cosmetic and skin care line is internationally respected as one of the purest and best for all skin types?

Took a Trip

When I wrote The Safe Shopper's Bible, Aubrey Organics was the only American-based cosmetic company that totally understood what it meant to produce a safe and healthy cosmetic and personal care product line for every need and every skin type and age.

After that book came out, I had to go out and visit Aubrey. It was Christmas, and Aubrey and his playwright wife and author, Susan Hussey, were busy at their Gorilla Theater in North Tampa putting on a series of one-act original and O. Henry Christmas plays to which they graciously invited me (along with critic Joanne Milani of the Tampa Tribune). I could see that Hampton was at home among his troupe of actors, writers, artists, and just about anybody else who loved theater. He had just finished writing a modern-day version of Henrik Ibsen's Enemy of the People, in which he took on the wholesale aerial applications of malathion that occurred that year in Florida, and that was performed at his theater through a very successful, politically charged run. Susan Hussey, a highly regarded environmental writer, was working on a book about Rachel Carson and then was grabbed by a local tragedy in which two young children were killed when playing with trash from a dumpster that contained a deadly toxic chemical. Her acclaimed play, Toxic Wave, was also performed to stellar reviews at the Gorilla Theater. Hampton had already written Wolf Trilogy, a classic play about the "wolf" nature in all of us. I loved the work; it was great writing and it showed what you could do with language. His play about George Bernard Shaw was another great work, and I realized now that there were so many similarities between the two men. Both were scientists by training and yet also great writers who loved and cared about animals.

Like Shaw, Hampton combined so many passions into his life's work. He was a businessman who had created a great green patriot cosmetic and personal care company that was playing a critical transformational role in the U.S. economy. He was a talented playwright and author. And besides his literary work, he'd written several books that are considered to be classics in natural beauty (including Natural and Organic Hair and Skin Care from his own Organica Press). His achievements were inspiring, and it took this unique combination of academic training and vision to come anywhere close to achieving what he had.

I visited Aubrey Organics' headquarters during that visit. I saw how the products were made in small daily batches with absolutely no need for petroleum-based ingredients, not even formaldehyde-releasing preservatives.

"My all-natural preservative system using a combination of antioxidant vitamins with grapeseed extract worked better than the synthetic petrochemical preservatives like the quaternium compounds (which turn into or release formaldehyde in the body) or the paraben preservatives anyway," he said.

"We never used the parabens," he says today when we talk about the family of commonly used preservatives (butyl, ethyl, methyl, propyl) that are coming under critical scrutiny. "I would tell any woman today of reproductive age to avoid using them because of the studies."

"The main thing we're doing is still trying to get rid of the petrochemicals in cosmetics," he said. "We're very upfront about letting members of our company become involved in organic committees. Our general manager, Curt Valva, is part of the personal care task force of the Organic Trade Association, and we were the first company to petition the federal government to create a certified organic label for cosmetic products. We've also taken a leading role in preserving what it means to be a certified organic cosmetic or personal care product. For example, we've been against use of dilutions of organic floral water to claim that products contain 70 percent certified organic ingredients. We would never do this. When we state we are certified organic with a certain percentage (between 70 and 95 percent), you will see our first ingredients are whole organic herbs (not diluted inexpensive floral water). But, most of all, given the challenges we face today as a nation and with our own personal beauty and health needs, we don't need to be using petroleum-based cosmetics and personal care ingredients; what they do to the environment is disastrous. We feel that we give people a real alternative that means something to their beauty, their health, and to our future."

Introducing Rosa Mosqueta® and Sea Buckthorn

By pursuing his dreams, Hampton has introduced some of the most important natural cosmetic ingredients to the United States. His most famous introduction is Aubrey Organics' certified organic Rosa Mosqueta® (rose hip seed oil) from Chile. Rosa Mosqueta is high not only in vitamin C but also amino acids, and retinoic acid-like compounds that encourage healthy skin cell growth.

Said Hampton, "We donate our Rosa Mosqueta to children's burn clinics because so many doctors had found that it was excellent for clearing up burns from radiation treatment. We didn't bring it out specifically for that, but it works wonderfully for all burns, including clearing up superficial surgical and other scars."

Hampton says to apply Rosa Mosqueta oil and then Rosa Mosqueta skin cream on top of the oil for maximum benefit. "Apply it on the top of the scar or cut and it definitely improves it. If you do it soon enough you won't have a scar at all. It is also good for burns. What it really is doing is changing the replication of the skin cells and the skin cells come out better than before." (As for acne scar and pock marks, "although Rosa Mosqueta isn't good for acne, it is great for acne scars.")

Sea buckthorn is another great oil that he introduced into the United States. This omega-7-rich oil is excellent internally and externally for maintaining the body's mucous membranes and moisturizing dry skin, as well as clearing up sun-related skin damage. "All these different oils I have brought to the country are not classed as essential oils but as herbal oils. Sea buckthorn is good for the hair and scalp. It is an amazing oil, which was used by the astronauts to fight off the drying of skin while they were in space."

"The main thing we're doing now is leading," he said. "We're still trying to get other companies to get rid of the petrochemicals in cosmetics. We don't need to be using petroleum in cosmetics. Aubrey Organics is the proof and has been for 40 years."

Resources
Aubrey's extensive line is available at fine health food stores nationwide. To learn more about this great cosmetic and personal care company and their green commitment and to find a store in your area with their extensive product line, be sure to visit their website, www.aubrey-organics.com. You can also call them at 1-800-Aubrey-H (282-7394).

Aubrey's Clear Skin Regimen

Green Tea facial mask

For overall excellent skin tone and coloration, Hampton says to start with a quality natural skin mask. One of his favorites? Aubrey Organics' Green Tea Mask. "Put on your skin for 10 to 15 minutes, then take a damp warm cloth (preferably made with organic cotton) and wipe it away-follow that with a moisturizer—I recommend our Rosa Mosqueta® line—and don't forget to address wrinkles around the eyes with Lumessence, then spray with mineral water. You will have very uniform-looking skin. Do the mask once a week."

December 2006

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