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THE COMPANY, PHILOSOPHY AND STORES NEAR YOU
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ARTICLES ON AUBREY
Talking Natural Hair & Skin Care with Aubrey Hampton, Founder of Aubrey Organics
by Rachael Baseley
When it comes to cosmetics and personal care products, Aubrey Organics, of Tampa, Florida, is the supreme model of success in the natural products industry. Here is one company that has combined market growth — some might even say dominance in the area of natural cosmetics — with a super environmental and social consciousness. There has been no compromise when it comes to consumer safety and reliance upon ingredients as close to nature as possible, and that is one of the most admirable qualities about this company. Aubrey Organics is the vision of Aubrey Hampton. To find out more about the man behind the company, managing editor Rachael Baseley interviewed Hampton at length, engaging him in a wide-ranging discussion that encompassed cosmetics, social and environmental consciousness, and Hampton's literary legacy. What she found was a man, who after founding Aubrey Organics more than thirty years ago, is no less committed today to providing people with the most effective and safest means of caring for their bodies — the same mission he set out upon when he started his company in 1967.
Since then, Aubrey and his team have created more than 130 truly natural products. The practical philosophy behind the company revolves around using natural ingredients instead of their synthetic counterparts. Aubrey Organics was among the first companies in the United States to list all ingredients in their products, which they began, doing in 1967. They were also the first cosmetic company to be certified organic as a processor in 1994. Clearly, the company has had a longstanding commitment to using natural, and, where possible, organic ingredients in all their formulas.
Aubrey Hampton is a man of strong beliefs, who is not afraid to speak out in favor of them.
"I am an herbalist," says Hampton. "What we might call phytochemistry, which is studying herbs, and using the chemistry in herbs. My degree happens to be in organic chemistry, but I got into herbology quite young."
Born in rural Indiana and educated in New York City, Hampton, in fact, has a graduate degree in organic chemistry, but he developed a love for herbal ways from his mother whom he often accompanied in what was then a much more rural land, gathering wild herbs. From those early lessons, Aubrey honed his skills. Aubrey Organics is the result.
The Doctors' Prescription for Healthy Living: What were your reasons for starting the Aubrey Organics line?
Aubrey Hampton:
When I was nine years old, I helped my mother, who made products out of herbs and natural sources. After going to university, I got a job with Faberge, a cosmetic company. I looked at everything they created there, and thought to myself "I can do all this naturally," and just started doing it. That was in 1967.
DPHL:How are Aubrey Organics products different from mainstream products?
AH:
I think the main difference is that we use as many organic materials as we can. We use all natural ingredients, and we're very adamant about it. We don't put anything synthetic in our products. Products from other companies that are called natural put synthetic ingredients in their products, but not us. And our products really do something for the hair and skin. There are a lot of claims made by products out there, but ours deliver a lot more than they ever claim they do. Consequently, that's why a lot of people use Aubrey Organics products: they discover their effectiveness from using them, and then they stay with them, because there's nothing they can go back to. My products are really made to address a myriad of hair and skin problems, and improvement of the skin. I made them with that in mind, and I formulated them that way, and thought about it in that way. We are different because we are 100 percent natural, we use as many certified organic materials as we can, and we are adamant about using no synthetic chemicals in our products.
DPHL: Aubrey, how did the cosmetic industry come to rely so extensively on synthetic ingredients?
AH:
Natural ingredients, which have always been around, were substituted by cosmetic companies following World War II when the petrochemical industry became so entrenched in our lives. The use of these synthetics grew out of the need to supply products on a mass scale, and because a product with synthetics could be produced for pennies, aiding corporations' bottom lines. In fact, the whole aerosol industry came out of the post-World War II petrochemical revolution. That's just one example. A lot of other chemicals came out of that time and era. A new industrial complex, if you will. So the chemical industry began selling its chemicals to all the cosmetic companies, and in the whole shuffle, natural things got lost. They are not used any more, except for a few companies like ours.
DPHL: Around what time did natural ingredients begin to make a comeback?
AH:
The concept of getting back to nature and use of natural ingredients started to become really popular with the rise of the health food industry, which occurred in the late sixties and early seventies. It is said that timing is everything and my starting Aubrey Organics around this time couldn't have been at a more propitious moment. My philosophy and products meshed with a growing concern for the environment, organic foods, better nutrition, and use of herbal remedies. I went along with the flow.
DPHL: How can Aubrey Organics products help chemically sensitive people and people dealing with cosmetic allergies?
AH:
We have a list of the top ten synthetic cosmetic ingredients to avoid. Well, by eliminating these ingredients alone, we can help so many people because these are the chemicals that cause the most problems for the most people. Our products simply don't contain chemicals that tend to cause the most problems in terms of allergies, blemishes and dermatitis. In fact, we avoid the use of all chemicals that cause these problems. If you were going to be allergic to something in our products, you would have to be allergic to the herb itself. We don't necessarily use the term hypoallergenic, however, because it's a misnomer; sensitivity can vary from person to person, and so-called hypoallergenic lines often contain alcohol and other ingredients, which don't lend themselves to people with allergy problems. I will say that our products are recommended by allergists and by people who have tried a lot of different products and who have found our line to be best for their needs. We probably have more people with allergic problems using our products than any other company today, including the well-known "hypoallergenic" lines.
DPHL: With so many different products to choose from, how should people go about finding what's right for their particular hair and skin care needs?
AH:
I recognize that we have a huge variety of products, and it can sometimes be difficult for people to zero in on what they want. Often people read magazine articles, visit our website or seek advice from their local health food store. People can often recognize what a product's ingredients can do for them from its name and description, and know what they want. Or they try out the product and realize this is what they like. We have some smaller sizes of products available in our lines, so people can conveniently try them out. A lot of these products you can't get anywhere else except from us, because other companies don't make them. So if someone goes to a health food store and asks for good quality green tea product for their hair and skin, they will most likely recommend Aubrey Organics. If someone wants to use sea buckthorn products, only Aubrey Organics makes them. I've also written a number of books that have are very helpful for people who want to learn about natural hair and skin care.
DPHL: Yes, that's right. In fact, I would recommend your
Natural Organic Hair and Skin Care
. It's truly a classic. Our editor Dave Steinman, whom you know, calls it the beginning and end on natural hair and skin care. What new products are you currently working on?
AH:
We are working on a new product, which utilizes Rosa Mosqueta to help protect the delicate eye area starting at an early age. We are also doing a little bit of repackaging. We are not over-packaging, but we are bringing a certain aesthetic look to the packaging. We're trying to make the packaging convenient to use. As a result, one of the things we're doing is getting rid of all our tubes. I never liked tubes. The plastic is not great, and sometimes the herbs inside can discolor the plastic. I'm working on new products for the future, and I usually always am, so hopefully some of those will come through at some point.
DPHL: How much involvement do you have in formulating new products on a day-to-day basis?
AH:
I usually start a project. I do the original formulations. I go through about a sixteen or seventeen step process. People bring me herbs from all over the world because they know me. In fact, that's how I got sea buckthorn. People from Russia and China sent it to me and wrote me a letter about it, so I asked them to send me some. These people don't expect anything in return; that's what's interesting about it. They're usually not even selling anything. They just tell me about it, and then I have to resource it myself by going to the farmers who are doing the growing. For example, we obtain our shea butter from The Women Of Wisdom, a women's co-op in Ghana, whose livelihood is roasting shea butter.
I also have three people in my lab. It's all women in my lab, by the way. In fact, Aubrey Organics is about 90 percent women. Women tend to like hair and skin care products, and they like nature and health foods. So they naturally gravitate towards our company. One of the three women in our lab is head chemist, and she has a background in making kitchen cosmetics. You might think that is unusual, but since none of our products are mass produced and all are made by hand, when we look for people to work in our lab and formulate products, we want someone who is more a cook and chef than chemist. There's not a lot a chemist can do for me, because with most of them, I have to retrain them to get rid of all the ideas about chemistry that would foul up a natural product. We don't want to be thinking about chemicals and they need to forget they exist. For what we are doing, we don't want them; we don't like them and we don't need them. That's a big step for a chemist to take.
DPHL: Aubrey, we know that you receive hundreds of letters and e-mails from customers and fans. How can people write to you and express their thoughts and feelings or learn more about your products?
AH:
Just e-mail me
.
Aubrey's Contact Information
Phone: 1-800-282-7394
Fax: (813) 876-8166
Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday
9:00 AM - 7:00 PM (EST)
Postal Mail:
Aubrey Organics
4419 N. Manhattan Avenue
Tampa, FL 33614
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