Today, I have the honor of having my friend, owner of Thara Sacra here, she owns an incredible line of body products, essential oils, all with a lot of intention, care, love. This is an Ayurvedic line that I have been promoting for a couple of years. When I was in the treatment room, I loved using their scalp balm, their radiate facial oil, and all of the other essential oils that she has to offer.
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Today, I have the honor of having my friend, owner of Tara Sacra here, she owns an incredible line of body products, essential oils, all with a lot of intention, care, love. And this is also an Ayurvedic line that I have been promoting for a couple of years. Because when I was in the treatment room, I loved using their scalp balm, their radiate facial oil, and all of the other essential oils that she has to offer. She has been in business for several years. We met when I first opened kin studio, which was oh my gosh, like five years ago, and she reached out to me to see if I'd like to carry her products. And I politely, well, actually, I think I left her on red, which is, which is very on brand for me, I have to say. But she ended up reaching out again, and I just politely said, you know, oh, you know, I would love to try your products, but I probably carry them because I'm focusing on Korean skincare. But I'm bought a bunch of products just to support her, and I ended up falling in love with them and bringing some on to use it within my treatment. So without further ado, here is our interview, and I was hoping that you could tell us a little bit about your brand story, how you started, why you started. I grew up in manufacturing. We're from Detroit. I worked in automotive 12 years ago ish, so right when the automotive industry was like taking its turn, cut the ties and moved to England, I interviewed and got a job with Avon cosmetics, doing the same thing I was doing an automotive purchasing supply chain, but now I'm moving over to the cosmetics industry. And at the same time, I was like, I'm living in a new country. I want to find like minded people. So I enrolled in the College of naturopathic medicine thinking like, I'm going to become a naturopathic doctor, which obviously I did not become a natural habitat, but this combination of the shift from an engineering way of looking things to a branded way of looking things, and then at the same time, I was taking classes in her biology and learning about aromatherapy and natural treatments, and kind of like touching back into this natural roots of things that really sparked an interest in me. So I learned crazy things about branding, because I'm walking into these facilities, and I can remember walking into like a pencil facility and really seeing how the manufacturing steps were identical, until it got to this moment where luxury brand A was put on, or drugstore brand B was put on, or that was what was dictating this change in the feeling or the impression, which then dictated to price right? And I lived in England for about three years. I ended up moving back to Detroit, and I got back into the auto modem industry, and I was missing this piece of me that was this connection to wellness, as well as that whole creativity and branding side of things. And so I got into courses that had to do with aromatherapy, formulation, things like that. And I was developing stuff for myself for own ailments and issues that I had with my skin. I had psoriasis that was driving me nuts. And at the same time, I was going to yoga teacher training, and I was learning all about the mind body connection. And so when I was creating these selves for to pass my courses in formulation, I was really like, I know that when I get psoriasis, I'm stressed out, so I would make a bomb and then go meditate and use aromatherapy. And I was like, why can I not combine the energetics that I'm doing over here with a product so that while I'm doing my scalp massage, I'm also working on grounding my energy, de stressing, you know, opening up the crown chakra, all of these things. And so the first product that I kind of conceptually made was the Transcend scalp balm, just for myself. I did not know that. And then it just started coming to me, this idea of connecting your energetic wellness to your physical body wellness. And how could you create sacred rituals that kind of packed both things into one so that you didn't have to think about it? And I was like, Well, let me start with making the aromatic base for all of these chakras. And I wanted to build one for each one of the seven. I.
Everybody has that. Aveda did that. Like, there's tons of brands out there that did this, but a lot of the traditional blending is focused on the chemical attributes of the botanicals. And I had found it very interesting in the school and the teaching that I had learned the energetic properties of it, which is like, if you think about the roots of a tree, they are anchoring it physically to the earth. So anything that you're going to pull from a root is going to have a grounding, anchoring energy. Get it or like frankincense, frankincense, when you get the function of a tree that's covering a scar, so it's got a protective energy, so that kind of thing. So I developed those blends based off of it. I started with ground, which is one of my best selling buttons, and then I was like, I don't want to do this.
I got distracted, and I was like, I don't feel like I can do the next one, the sacral, etc, but I had a blend inside of me. So I started to create radiate, okay, which is my favorite, yes. I just was like, Well, I'm gonna want this blend to just be all over grounding and expanding. I typically do all my blends with four oils, and I got this one done with four oils, and I was like, it's not working. It's not working. And I was like, it's got to have something. And I went to sleep that night, and I was like, you just need to let go, yeah, and feel what it should be. And the answer will come to you, which is so not like me, like I want to make everything scientific, and I studied this, and this is what it's supposed to be. Like, let's just ignore my intuition, right? And I probably was like, lucid, or whatever, a little bit of sleep, and I just popped up and I was like, cardamom, and the like crazy person went downstairs at like, whatever time in the morning and dropped cardamom in, and it was like, boom, that's the blend, 100%
so I launched radiate as an essential oil. And that was my first product. Got it, and then I took that out to yoga studios. People really liked it. So then I then felt the creative energy to make the rest of the blends, launched all of those, and then went back to the concept of the scalp balm, and said, How can I connect these to products that make sense, right? So I launched the scalp bomb, then ground foot massage oil. I started building that whole concept of connecting it to body care, skin care, right? And that's where the brand started growing from. I love that you gave yourself time and not pressure to figure out what you wanted to do. Because I feel like I'm very much like, No, I want it now, and sometimes it's hard for me to say, like, let's not force it, let's wait and see. Like, what inspires you, and just being quiet with it and waiting. So that's really interesting. Yeah, I think that's like a lesson that you have to learn as an entrepreneur. Because I was thinking the other day, how many products that I tried to force in my first two years that I had to literally put that stock away, or put whatever it was away, and like, three years later, I figured out exactly what it was for ground pillow mist is one of those right. Ground pillow mist is, like, one of my top sellers, yeah, and I was trying to force that to happen early on, and then I just let it go and it figured itself out. Yeah, it's hard to do, especially, you know, people that are in that space and an entrepreneurial because you feel forced like I gotta get this product out, or I gotta do this, yeah, this is what they experts tell me I should be doing right going back to your time at Avon, and it's so interesting, when you said that a lot of the products, what are the same, but like, it has to do with marketing. Did I understand you correctly? So it's like one formula, but then let's see how different companies are gonna kind of market it, put it, slapping a different label on it. And just reminds me of how my uncle, he's in the chemical business. I remember him telling me that, you know, when you go into the grocery store, there's like 100 different types of soy sauce, and there's literally only like two manufacturers in the US, and it's just who has the best branding, essentially. So my question is, do you know of any formulas that were picked up by more well known brands and marketed to sell as a luxury product
that may also be found in a drugstore. Yeah, sir. But I don't know if I can divulge though you know what I mean, because when you go into those facilities, you do have to sign NDAs, but 100% Yeah. So I always tell people, like, try out your luxury brands, but also, because you can feel a formula. If you play with formulas a lot, right? You get to know formulas. And even if we just saw cosmetics, I mostly bought cosmetics. I didn't work in skincare at Avon. I bought a lot of contract manufacturing, yeah, and that's where you get into this situation when you go to a contract.
Manufacturer. So, like, I'm just gonna pick Mac because it's the brand coming to my navy. Am I there definitely were situations where Mac would buy a contract manufactured something from somebody else, that another person, a drug store could buy. Yeah, typically, what would happen with a high end brand like Mac is that they will make the color mix proprietary, so that maybe you can't get the exact shade match to, like, I remember when Mac had that famous lip liner, which I'm forgetting what the name of it is, but everybody's always trying to dupe it, right, right, right? You can usually get the same formula, but the shade is like, just a little bit different, similar to, like, skincare, right? Like, there's certain things within personal brand care that is patented, yeah, so, and typically it has to do with the application method that they will patent. So if you think of like mascaras, that's why, like, you can go find a cult mascara at a drugstore, and also one at a higher end brand, because if you have somebody that comes up with the brush the applicator, that's a technology win that can make a really good mascara, and that can be something that is specific to that brand, yeah? But if it's just like an eyeshadow, a blush or a formulation, it's less likely to be you can find it more places, because they'll go out to contractors, yeah, if that makes sense, yeah, no, I didn't totally answer your question, but it's just interesting because I've definitely, like, picked up drugstore products, or vice versa, picked up a more expensive product, used it, and have instantly thought to myself, like, I've used this before, yeah, and it'll definitely be in stuff that is typically contract manufactured. So like, especially over holiday, anytime you're buying kits that have multiple things in it, if it's not a specific product of that brand and it's like a holiday special thing, it's typically a contract manufacturer, yeah, but it'll Tet like lip balms and things like that. It's rare that they're making their own formula. It's not to say that they don't Right, right, but I just tell people that's something to be aware of when you're purchasing things, yeah, and looking at the ingredients and seeing what's in it is sometimes you can find what they call is a dupe, but it is pretty much the same product, and the branding is what's different. Now, to me, a product brand means a lot of things. It's not just that label, it's how they treat their customers, it's what their sustainability practices are. It's all of those things, right? So that you need to take that into consideration as well, because that will also dictate cost, right? But there's definitely a whole situation with something costing more because the brand has a certain expectation we're following when we talk about professional skin care. There's so many different we have professional skin care, medical grade skin care, cosmeceuticals, and all of these, like gray areas, and there's a lot of estheticians that will say, like, there's no such thing as professional skin care. There's no such thing as medical skin care. And I agree. I am, like, with them on that, and I think that, to be honest, a lot of what we offer when we use products, we're also offering support, like, how would you use this in your routine? And I know a lot of estheticians will argue, and they'll say, well, the percentages are different, or the ingredients are higher quality, and a brain can say anything, and they literally can say anything. And how many professional or medical grade skincare lines have been started that now are being sold in Sephora? So what are they just no longer professional like you have to consider those things, right? Yes, and if I take it into the aromatherapy world, and my experience when I first launched My brand is I, of course, like every small brand, tried to get into Facebook groups, tried to get myself out there, and I would just get attacked by people that worked for MLMs, yeah, right. And they would say, your essential oils aren't Therapeutic Grade, right? And I would be like, there is no such thing as therapeutic grade. There is no such thing as the branded phrases that the Knights companies use, right? And in fact, one of the larger MLS, because they choose to drive me nuts, because I was like, I'm this small little fish, and you're attacking me as a representative for these ginormous companies, right? Who, at the time, did not really follow regulations, or have regulations, right? And one of the companies has a whole branded thing that gets into this therapeutic branding, which is similar to the medical grade, right? And they had to do that because they were bringing stuff in that had issues, sustainability issues. They got in trouble with federal government. So I know this from my automotive experience. When they come in, it's no joke, yeah, and they make you put in processes, procedures and things to prevent what happened, right? And so the process and procedure that they put in to make sure that they were doing all the checks that you need to do to make sure that we're.
You're getting things from are sustainable, that you're not importing things that are advanced regulations. They branded it and made it like this special thing that made their company supposedly better or higher grade than everybody else. Meanwhile, all these smaller, tinier essential oil distributors were always following those practices, right? That was a part of their ethos, right? But now, because they've used marketing to create this impression that theirs is somehow the state of the art, it's hurting these lower, smaller, essential oil distillers that we're always behaving in the right manner, right? So you just have to be a little bit careful. Check it out, Google the companies, because you can google those MLMs and it'll come right up. Yeah, those things that happen. So I think marketing is something to be aware of. That's true. Yeah, I know you are now working with quite a few estheticians who are bringing your products into the treatment room, knowing that you've kind of entered our industry. Where do you see some of the trends coming up? Maybe 2025,
I study the trends a lot. I think that comes from me working from Avon, and I actually do like a highlight every year. My blogs on trends. And when you look at trends like, it's not like, it's just the new thing this year. There's usually like things that follow, that are coming up, but pushing us towards those Yeah. And the number one thing that I think is out there is we talk about applications, technology, those types of things, but mirroring that with the traditional skincare line of things, like, people still want to get back to the roots they believe in the traditions of Chinese medicine. Are you Vedic? Like all of these things, people are very, very interested in, but they also want that balance with the modern world. Can I stop you real quick? Yeah, what is Ayurvedic?
Ayurveda is the I'm going to butcher this for all of my people that hear this, but it's basically the wellness and health practice that's been practiced in India for like, millions of years, and it's based on mind, body, spirit, it's doshas. It's different herbs, and I'm starting to go a little bit into some of this stuff in my training. I haven't gone a lot into my background, but I've been going and learning it so that I can teach it. But it's basically similar to Chinese medicine. It's what they've practiced in India for years. So like ashwagandha that everybody is taking now, yeah, it comes from Ayurvedic practices. I don't know if people have heard of ghee or things like this. It's just the traditional way that they've done wellness and health media. And it has skincare regimes, it has all that. So I have another loaded question, and maybe you don't know, is Aveda true Ayurveda?
I mean, Aveda is super branded, right? I think that they initially tried to, I I have issues with the Veda, and I don't know how to get in trouble for this, but because they branded the word chakra, and I don't even think they say it right. And who is branding that that is like branding? I don't know, the cross I was raised super Christian as well. It's just crazy that they were able to brand that and put it out there? Yeah, I think that's what they kind of founded it on. But they're not doing the traditional Ayurvedic practices. And I think there's a little bit of question mark there that how much that was stealing from something to brand it up and make it appeal to an American, westernized person? Yeah, it's definitely not like if you go to an Ayurvedic practitioner, you're gonna have a totally different experience than a Veda and I experience than a VEDA. And I think Aveda has veered away from that in the years. They still own the patent or the trademark for chakra, but I don't even know that they have those as publicized anymore. I just think it's wild how much students will pay to go to school there, and really don't learn that much in school, and it's like continuing ed afterwards, yeah? And they're big now is kind of like they're you you were saying earlier, like maybe something that a brand started out as in the beginning has veered and lost their way, yeah? Or just like economies of size, where corporate gets in and it makes decision, yes, okay, I'm sorry I cut you on. Oh, you're fine. So I think that combining this modern ways of infusing things in our delivery systems that come into play with the ancient practices, these eastern, you know, getting back to the earth, getting back to herbs, getting back to all these things, yeah, there was definitely like, shift over the pandemic. Like, we were all making bread, and we were, you know, I mean, not everybody, but a lot of people were making bread, right, trying to make stuff at home, right? So it's this, want to come back to the natural and the slow. Like, I think people are more willing to have a regime and wait for results. They now know that the sun is not great for your skin and that, like, there's gonna be issues the older you get. So like, even more younger people are, like, I like having a routine catered for me and that I'm gonna wear sunscreen. And there's this knowledge and awareness that's taking us, I think, pulling us away from the modernization of quick fixes, but we're still living in.
Modern world. So we want those new, innovative delivery systems. I think that's why Korean skincare, in my mind, has become very popular over here, because it still connects its roots to those traditional cultural, maybe, ingredients approaches, but then it has this like, super innovative way of delivering things, right, tools that you can use, but it's staying anchored in that holistic wellness atmosphere I think people are craving so I think those two things married together. I would say number two is personalization, which has been a trend for many, many years. They want it to be catered to themselves and like a specific thing for them. But I think AI is going to come in with that. I think about, and I get sold on this every time the Tiktok filters, where you can get your shade match, or you can get your whatever like, I wonder where skincare is going to go with that type of technology in the future, because I think it's coming. And then the other one is sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene, every year it's come up, and the different ways that they're working with it, and I think you and I were talking where I was like, I would love to have a spot where it's like, you just get me in that state, and then you leave me alone in a room and I pass out for an hour and power and I get a great sleep. I would pay for that today. Yeah, I would too. I think everybody is struggling with sleep. And then I think some of the other things that I just like that have come up, like I wrote last year about biophilic wellness, which is bringing the Earth into your wellness regimes, not just through the ingredients that you use, but like having plants, or even having earthing, grounding, just anything having to do in nature, being brought into the wellness communities. And I think that, to me, I feel like is coming out of the lessons that we learned through everybody being in the pandemic and kind of getting all that electronics and stimulation out away from us. Yeah, we felt what that felt like. And so I think people are moving towards more wanting to have wellness experiences that connect themselves with the earth. It is interesting kind of watching these cultural trends. And we talk about COVID, that was like a really scary time, and I think a lot of people kind of reflected on what was important. And I do think that there was a shift in the beauty industry in terms of, okay, how can we not only just give a great facial but how can we really care for our clients and give them that escape, or that time away from whatever is happening in the world? And in addition to that, I feel like Western esthetics is so antiquated in so many ways. In school, you're taught there's pretty much one way of doing things without taking into consideration or acknowledging that skin changes, because it's quite literally a organ, right? I'm so tired of seeing like all these spas, like in October It's pumpkin facial enzyme season for everybody when like that is not going to be appropriate for everyone. I mean, I worked out one of those spas where it was like, All right, these are the specials. It doesn't matter who comes in, if they book that right, what you're giving them. And at that time, I didn't really understand, like, what a disservice that was. And also, in addition to that, there's really been a focus until not too long ago, on white skin, rather than higher fit skin. And so a lot of what was taught in schools is based on people who have a lower Fitzpatrick and not a higher fits. And that's dangerous, because you can't do some chemicals right off the bat, or chemical peels right off the bat, and you can't do some lasers and darker skin, but we have these estheticians that don't fully realize that. And I say, don't blame them, because I feel like in school, they should be taught more about the intricacies of melanin, different skin types, all of that. But that's why continuing that is is so important. But to go back to my original point, a, b, h, t, there is this new I'm just seeing everything kind of come together, where estheticians are wanting to provide a more holistic approach to what they're offering their clients. And I really don't think there's any other way to approach skin care, or like to approach or to anything in wellness, or anything in wellness, because everything is interconnected. You're making me think about care porosity for for whatever reason, this gets back to the personalization. That Ray we were saying is, like this trend, there's a two things that are, like, huge right, or like, just pumping through right? Is the rosemary oil and the rice water, right, right? And like that can really screw up your hair. The reason why I got into this was because of my psoriasis. It's acting up really bad right now. And like, I think I told you, like, I cannot put my scalp balm on every single night, so I'm trying to research and see if there's something that I could do daily. And I got into that interest because at some point, people were putting rosemary essential oil directly on the scalp without.
Carry Oriole and I actually have the only Tiktok that I have that went viral was me talking about that, yeah, because, like, Don't, please, don't ever put stuff neat on you. You can, but do it under the supervision of somebody that knows what they're doing, great. But I got into this whole, like, low, high, and it actually can make your hair, like, fall out or get brittle if you're using the wrong treatments for your type of hair and that goes back to what you're talking about, is not just treating the western model of things right. And I think people are getting way more educated on the fact that we can't all be treated the same, from our skin care to our hair care to our gut health and our what foods you should eat or shouldn't eat, or entire wellness spectrum, right? And I think you're right. The estheticians and the wellness practitioners that learn everything and are able to offer that personalization for any type of client is huge, right? Like to be able to know I'm going into a safe space where they know how to treat my skin and I don't have to worry about it, right? They're gonna put some chemical or something that's not right, right? Yeah, I think that consumers are starting to become an advocate for themselves, their health, their wellness, and they're demanding more of us, which I think they should it helps hold us accountable and encourages us to seek out continuing education. Speaking of you know, you have a course online. Can you tell me quickly a little bit about that? So the first course I did is called grounding in the spa. I think you mentioned about like working with estheticians. And one of the things that is in every wellness place everywhere is that you give more than you receive. You burn out all of these things. Yeah. So the first course that I did, I really wanted to give them ideas how to bring grounding energy into their spa, how they could use my products to do that, but also how they could use my products to help ground themselves. So I really go into the basics and understanding of grounding. I go into certain grounding things that you could bring into your practice. I'll give a little bit of a secret. One of the things at a spa experience that I had with a local esthetician here was I walked in and she had a bowl of warm water with some salts and aromatherapy, and she had me take off my shoes and soaked my feet while she did a little bit of prep stuff, and then came through and did the typical intake with me, but it was like so grounding for me. Coming outside, I was in a car, I had radio on, like my energy was probably horrible when I walked in the room and she had this immediate moment that grounded my energy and prepared me for the things that she was going to do, and that was so significant to me. So that's one of the things that I suggest. Giving everybody a little bit of a teaser that I think are so profound for a client that maybe would help estheticians get suggestions or get ideas for how to bring those grounding elements in. But then I also have a full section which was just about you like, how you can ground between clients, how you can do things with your schedule to kind of help things be a little bit more grounded. I also go into some marketing ideas and some deep dive into my products. So that's the first course that I launch. The second course from an esthetician standpoint, which is going to launch early next year, was also encouraged by you, Sarah, you give me great I had here for this. You had said to me that you wanted to learn Indian Head Massage. Oh, yes. And I was like, nervous. I'm like, I can't do it. I don't want to talk about my culture like I get, yeah, I feel this intense like responsibility. When I teach things on chakras, or anything having to do with that, that, like, even though I've studied it and I've gone to school and, like, I do know what I'm talking about, I get nervous. I worry that I don't pronounce the SANS correctly. And I'm like, Yeah, because I'm super Americanized, right? But I'm very honoring my culture and where I came from, and I want to do it service. So I was always scared to talk about it, but you definitely have, like helped me feel more confident about it. So we have written and shot a scout massage course that hopefully, I think it's going to come out in q1 probably pretty early, where we just go through the traditions. I also go into a little bit just about Scout massage and why it's good for you, and what it your clients and what it does, so you can explain it a bit more to them, because I think people want to learn and know, why is this good? How is this going to help me grow hair? How is it going to help me relax? I also go into the chakras of the energetics of the scalp, the different points, and then we demo through an example of a scout massage, where you can kind of hit all the areas. Yeah, so that will be released, and those are the two spot ones I have. And then I have, just like a straight plant energetics, one, which is me giving away pretty much all the secrets of the ethos behind the brand and how I blend the aromatic.
For people to just know I love that. Yes, I love that so much. Okay, do you want to share with our community where they can find you? I think it's important for this community to know I have two, I guess, facets of Tara Sacra. There's the retail side, and then there's what I call TS Pro, or TS professional. And you can sign up for TS professional. You don't have to pay anything to sign up for it. You just go on my website. You got to put in your details and some information that gives you access to our professional shop, where I offer discounted product for you to use in your practice. And then I also have, like, some educational materials, stuff to kind of help. I throw different things up there, and then I have a blog that I release every month where I get a little bit more into trend stuff that we talked about, but also, like the energetics of things, because I think that that's something that you don't necessarily learn in schooling and training on that you do. And I think the more that you're able to kind of talk about why you're doing something, or why are you using this aromatherapy, it educates your customer and then helps them take product home, or know how they can use it. And so that I offer kind of an educational platform for that. Yeah, you can find the information through the information Sarah put up in the podcast. But I do want to say that I love interacting with estheticians, actually interacting with estheticians launched my radiate face massage bomb I never would have thought to make that. It is an amazing massage medium. I remember the first time I smelled radiate, and it literally just reminds me of the flower gardens that my grandma had, and it's not florally, it's like a specific smell. And like, when I think of it, I remember I told you I'm like Queen Anne's lace, but I don't think that that's what it is. I don't know what, but it just reminds me of her and running the fields, because they lived in the country in Everett, Michigan, with all of her flower like, it just smells like, so happy, yeah, like that blend is so unique. It's called Devana, and I this makes me nervous when I say anything that is Indian, but, yeah, that's just my own quirk, but that is what's used typically in perfumery. When somebody like wears it and it smells different to everybody. It's actually like an herb that's thrown on Shiva. So it has, like, a huge sacred significance, I think, because that is in that blend, it is why it is a different experience for every person that experiences it. And then I've also woven into it some aromatics and different things that have energetic properties that kind of clear your energy, and it has this pull. A lot of times when massage therapists or estheticians use it, they're like, I don't know how to describe it. I don't know how to describe the energy. My clients love it and I like, that's what it's supposed to do, right? I'm very blessed to have figured out how to put that blend together. Yeah, it's beautiful. Okay, well, I won't keep you any longer. Thank you for
it's been awesome. All right. So I hope you enjoyed this little chat session with my friend. Please check out her products. I promise you you will love them. They are such great quality. She puts so much time into creating these formulations. Thank you for tuning in. If you loved this episode, would you mind leaving a review? It would help so much, and don't forget to share this with your fellow estheticians and I'll see you next time you.