Features + Product Ideas

Okay, so on to the really fun stuff.

After spending hours researching natural ingredients, other company’s approach in the natural skincare industry, taking virtual classes from some incredible professionals, digging around on social media to see who was popular and who wasn’t and reading several books on communication and marketing, I decided to dive in. While I knew I had a lot of experience in the field in a multitude of ways, I knew that trying to encompass several different components of health and wellness, during strange time and completely virtually, nonetheless, would be a tricky.

I first tried A LOT of products on my own skin and wrote down the ingredients, what worked, what didn’t, what I really disliked and what I loved.*

*A little side note, I also began investing some extra money into Amazon, knowing that I’d be ordering a lot of ingredients and supplies from the site and that they were absolutely thriving, as their products and service were quite literally the mecca of happiness and questions-answered during the pandemic. While I brainstormed ideas, I was able to earn enough money to completely launch my business with that investment, which was very helpful.

The biggest priority I had in my skin product creation journey was creating a hefty arsenal of safe and effective ingredients that other people have used and have been studied and approved, either medically or very consistently anecdotally. Any ingredient that I planned on incorporating, I tried myself and gradually accumulated volunteers who were curious and had lots of faith. I also wanted to find natural preservatives; it was extremely vital for me to keep any synthetic, artificial, or chemical preservatives out of koa.’s products and highlight that quality. It was also very important to cross-investigate the comedogenic rating of every product used in order to inform the consumer what product would be best for their skin type.

Honey and vitamin E are both natural preservatives that I planned to make the stars of my products. As an antimicrobial, antibacterial, anti-fungal humectant, honey would solve a lot of my user’s issues with skin grievances, as well as keep the product fresh for 3 months. This was fantastic news. Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that helps to smooth fine lines and wrinkles, address skin difficulties, speed up wound-healing, lighten dark spots, reverse sun damage AND . . . it’s an incredibly effective preservative.

It was also very important to me to create an exfoliator that didn’t use plastic, as these tiny pieces of material make their way down the drain and into aquatic habitats. I did not want to contribute to that problem.

The other alternative I knew was popular was coffee grinds, ground nuts, powdered apricot pits and other similar ingredients; after doing further research, I realized that these things can scratch the first layer of your skin, damaging it and doing the OPPOSITE of what skincare should be doing and it can also cause infection. Huge no-no from me.

After searching for an answer for about 6 hours one day, I found the magic ingredient- hydrogenated jojoba oil. Jojoba oil is INCREDIBLE for the skin, this I knew- but in hydrogenated beads? Amazing. Seriously. Jojoba oil in this form is soft enough to keep skin safe, rough enough to gently exfoliate (even daily!) AND is safe if exposed to wild life.

I also knew I wanted to consistently incorporate:

• sunflower oil

• hemp oil

• pomegranate oil

• raw shea butter

• coconut oil

• safflower oil

• beeswax

• olive oil

• raw sugar

• peppermint oil

• tea tree oil

• lavender oil

• eucalyptus oil

The fitness component of the business required it’s own journey, but I wanted to tie it into skincare in some way shape or form to really emulate a cohesive experience. It’s my belief that these things go hand-in hand for a multitude of reasons.

First, I needed to create a landing page in order to showcase what I had to offer. Then, I created a unique email address for koa. to keep traffic separate and obviously, let people know I’m super legit and mean business. Next, I brainstormed class ideas. I needed to come up with class formats that utilized equipment that everyone had at home, not in a way that would come across as - “oops, I wasn’t prepared for this obstacle, just grab a can of beans and start tricep dipping.” Instead, I created classes like the backpack workout, which was a strength-based class that simulated an adjustable weight by filling a backpack with items (or taking items out) in order to suit your needs for class. It was a little tricky to keep the transitions smooth, but ultimately, this class was a HIIT (get it? wink wink).

I reached out to an old roommate who is an incredibly talented graphic designer and she created my logo around this point of my progress. www.katdesigns.co/, thank you, I love my logo and it did a perfect job reflecting the vision of koa.

Results + Learnings

This was SUCH a fun project. I was incredibly unprepared, as I wasn’t planning on expanding on the initial ideas to this degree. I learned so much along the way.

The biggest obstacle that koa. has faced is the actual logistics of the products being made and shipped out. While I’m not afraid of hard work, it was incredibly tedious manufacturing the different face oils for each and every skin type. The plan is to consolidate all three oils into one oil that is perfect for sensitive skin and pores that are prone to clogging. The main objective- to cater to the most vulnerable customer, without sacrificing the results for the rest of the users.

Initially, I believed that people wanted to see more ingredients in their products. If they were all natural, but there were lots of them, it was a personal bias that users would see this as a better, more efficient product that stood out from the crowd.

After conducting a brief survey with about 35 participants, every single one of them reported they preferred to see less ingredients. This was a perfect discovery, as incorporating so many ingredients per product resulted in quality-control issues, over-buying and tedious tasks for me, the manufacturer.

A natural deodorant prototype was also created and the most difficult hurdle with this product is finding the perfect combination of skin-soothing properties, pleasant scent and actual functionality of preventing perspiration and body odor. The baking soda and tea tree are capable of causing irritation and for some people, natural deodorants just don’t cut it. As I continue to iterate this particular product, my goal is to diversify the trial users as much as possible and get the most honest feedback possible, while implementing very small changes, little by little.

Another huge finding is that people don’t love virtual classes. The idea of having to log in to a program in order to join a group of people, while your face is highlighted on a screen, has been noted to be laborious by a lot of users and potential users. People just want the real thing. If they can’t have the real thing due to time constraints or COVID restraints (now that it’s been experienced, a lot of people do report preferring home workouts), it seems like the majority of users prefer an on demand style of fitness.

I plan to implement an on-demand platform in the future and it’s really important to me to maintain a sense of consistency. Even if the video locations are different, I want to create the same feel throughout each one. I also want to embed the videos directly into koa.’s site to avoid multiple clicks, user frustration and extra steps that bring the user further away from koa.’s resources.

It was also very important to nurture my relationships with clients and be very flexible. So many people wanted to invest in themselves, but given the circumstances, they couldn’t afford to do so. With koa. being an integration of so many different approaches to health and wellness, I was able to offer a multitude of options at unique rates, tailored to the individual.

For example, the Self-Made Warrior program features an individualized 45 minute workout program, in the form of a class, that is completely for that specific user. It includes personalized shout outs by name, experience- appropriate movement and specific action-oriented cues catered to this particular user. It’s completely individualized, but half the price of personal training.

On this same subject, pricing was a little tricky, too. While most of the clients I worked with, or potential clients, would have liked to invest in skincare in fitness, some simply couldn’t at that time. Minimizing ingredients would help to lower the cost of the products and the amount of time spent making them.

I loved the amber- colored glass jars and bottles I used for the products and I received a lot positive feedback pertaining to them. However, a pump bottle would be better suited for the Perfect Cleanser; in order for this to be possible, a thinning ingredient would need to be added, such as vegetable glycerin.

In the future, I’d also prefer to source all of my ingredients from local farms. Even if the product loses consistency by doing so, I’d actually like to explore this option.