Welcome to the Personality Spotlight, Donya! Your company,
Dropwise Essentials, makes gorgeous all-natural aromatherapy
products that truly please the senses. But before we get to
your company, we'd love to know more about you. Please tell us
about your upbringing and what makes you who you are.
I was
born in Cairo, Egypt, which is where both my parents are from.
Just after my first birthday my father took a job with the
United Nations and we moved to New York City, where I lived
for the first 27 years of my life.
Growing up in NYC in the 60s and
70s, I was exposed to a lot of cultural diversity and immersed
myself in the unique character and flavor of the city. We
traveled frequently -- every other summer we went back to
Egypt to see family and visited several countries on the way
there and back. By the time I was 21, I got to see most of
Europe, Turkey, Tunisia, Greece, and the former Soviet Union!
I attended the United Nations
International School (UNIS) from K through 12th grade. I did
my undergraduate studies at Barnard College, Columbia
University where I majored in English Lit and Art History.
When I graduated in the early 1980s unemployment was running
at 14%! It was difficult finding a real job that paid enough
to allow me to continue living in the city, so out of
frustration, I decided to go back to school.
The following year I entered a 2-year graduate program for a
Masters in Public Administration at the Columbia University
School of International & Public Affairs. One of the benefits
of being in this program was having access to graduate courses
at all the University’s different schools including Business
School, Law School and the School of Architecture. During my
last semester there, I took a class in Municipal Finance at
the School of Law with former NYC Comptroller Harrison Goldin,
who impressed me so much he sparked my interest in the
Municipal Bond market (something I could never have
foreseen!).
By the time I graduated I knew
that was where I was headed with my career, and I took a
position with AMBAC, a municipal bond insurance company where
I learned all about the intricacies of credit markets and
specialized in government-owned hospitals and non-profit
healthcare systems.
My brief 2-year stint at AMBAC involved a lot of travel,
meetings with investment bankers and hospital board members
(in some rural areas this involved meeting with the county
Judge or the Mayor and City Council members), reading and
analyzing financial statements and marketing data, creating
financial projections –all to ascertain whether they were
equipped to improve their financial health and preserve their
bonds’ creditworthiness. As a junior underwriter and credit
analyst, I learned a lot about negotiating legal documents and
loan agreements and I closed financial guarantees for over $45
million dollars in refinanced bond issues. Looking back at it
now, I believe this early career experience gave me the
foundation I needed to eventually go into business for myself.
But alas, my promising career in
Wall Street finance came to an abrupt end when Black Monday
(fall of 1987) turned the Street upside down resulting in
massive layoffs and restructurings. That’s when I decided to
follow my dream and move to Northern California.
Not unlike Madonna, I’ve
re-invented myself a couple of times since: starting over
first as a publicist, a music and film critic for a local
lively arts publication, a production assistant for a locally
produced nationally viewed community access cable TV show, and
another corporate gig as a marketing communications associate
for a private mortgage insurance company –all in my first 5
years living here!
In the early to mid-90s, I once
again followed my dream and became a multimedia content
producer, which quickly gave way to becoming a Web designer as
the Internet exploded onto the scene, eclipsing the world of
CD-ROMs. With a few years’ experience on my belt, I became an
Internet trainer, teaching thousands of people how to
understand the inner workings of web design and production and
empowering them to build web pages or sites for their jobs,
businesses, or personal pleasure.
As the chaos of the Dot.com era
was churning and swirling around me I was already starting
down a new path, plotting my next move, and at the turn of the
new millennium, I created Dropwise Essentials!
What were your influences in going a more natural way? Were
there any classes or books that you've enjoyed that you would
recommend to our visitors?
Here’s my story ...
I first learned about the toxic ingredients in many personal
care products about ten years ago while I was dealing with
some personal health challenges –mainly recurring bouts of
eczema and fatigue. I tried, like most people, to find answers
through traditional medicine. But after years of going to
different dermatologists and primary care physicians I was
frustrated and tired of the cookie-cutter approach they used
to address my problems. The drugs they consistently prescribed
(antihistamines and hydro-cortisone cream) simply didn’t work
and the problems kept coming back.
None of the medical professionals whose help I sought were
able to get to the bottom of what was causing my ailments. I
even had one dermatologist who, unable to provide a treatable
diagnosis, told me I needed to find activities to help me deal
with my stress and suggested I take up rose gardening!
Needless to say, at the time I thought he was a quack. But
looking back at it now, his suggestion may have subconsciously
led me to start down the path that has brought me to where I
am today!
Fed up and frustrated (and still itchy and miserable), I
decided right there and then to take control of my own health
and stop relying on doctors and prescription meds to solve my
problems. Knowledge is power and so I began my quest to learn
as much as I could about alternative health practices to help
me figure out what might be going on and find a better, more
effective way to deal with and (hopefully) resolve it.
I started devouring books on herbs and aromatherapy, yoga and
meditation, flower essences, and homeopathy. If it had
anything to do with plants or the mind-body connection then I
wanted to know about it. I also started attending seminars and
workshops. Little by little I started putting the pieces of
the puzzle together.
I’ve learned a whole lot since I started down this path to
natural health and living. I learned about the differences
between allopathic (western) medicine and naturopathic
(holistic) medicine. The former starts with the basic premise
that illness is the result of an unwanted invader that must be
fought and killed, even if the process of doing so creates
collateral damage to other body parts or systems. Holistic
medicine, on the other hand, starts from the basic premise
that the body already contains within it the blueprint and
ability to heal itself if given the support it needs to do so.
The more I thought about it and applied it to my own
situation, the more it all made sense.
I have a fairly extensive library of books on aromatherapy,
herbs and natural cosmetics but some of the books that
influenced me early on were:
- Aromatherapy: A Complete Guide to the Healing Art. Kathi
Keville & Mindy Green
- Aromatherapy Oils: A Complete Guide. Carol & David Schiller
- Aromatherapy: A Lifetime Guide to Healing with Essential
Oils. Valerie Gennari Cooksley
- The Fragrant Mind: Aromatherapy for Mind, Mood, and Emotion.
Valerie Ann Worwood
- Advanced Aromatherapy. Dr. Kurt Schnaubelt
- Life Helping Life: Unleash Your Mind/Body Potential with
Essential Oils. Dr. Daniel Penoel
- Practical Art of Aromatherapy. Deborah Nixon
From 1999-2003 I attended the annual IAHA (International
Association of Herbs & Aromatherapy) AromaHerb Show – a 3-day
educational conference put on by the Schillers (David, Carol &
Jeffrey) that was jam-packed with great information and
resources. This conference was probably the biggest influence
on getting me started –it’s where I learned a lot about not
only aromatherapy but herbs and alternative healing
modalities, sourcing quality ingredients, and product-making
too. I met a lot of great people over the years at this event,
all of who inspired me in some way.
Donna Maria Coles Johnson’s book Making Aromatherapy Creams &
Lotions inspired me to try my hand at making lotions and
encouraged me to join her Handmade Toiletries Network (now the
Indie Beauty Network), which I still belong to today.
And in 2001 I had the privilege of attending a 2-day intensive
training with Dr. Daniel Penoel in Provence. This was part of
an amazing travel package put together by Jim Llewellyn &
Robbi Zeck of Aroma Tours, where we got to visit farms and
essential oil distilleries in Provence (the world capital for
growing Lavender) and see the process first-hand. Robbi’s book
The Blossoming Heart: Aromatherapy for Healing &
Transformation has also been very helpful to me.
Please tell us about your company, Dropwise, and the products
that you manufacture.
Technically,
Dropwise Essentials was founded at the turn of the new
millennium but we didn’t officially launch our product line
until the summer of 2003. As I mentioned before, my interest
in natural products developed in response to my frustration
and dissatisfaction with the medical system’s inability to
resolve my health issues at the time. I got excited about the
idea of creating a personal care product line that would
impart the tremendous health benefits of essential oils to
millions of people (flower power to the people!) --helping
them realize how plants can provide safe and effective relief
for a variety of common ailments they might otherwise turn to
needless and potentially harmful pharmaceuticals to solve.
My very first product was an aromatherapy blend I created to
relieve the itching from my eczema. The blend consisted
primarily of Lavender, Geranium, Clary Sage, and Roman
Chamomile essential oils in a base of Jojoba oil. I applied
the mixture liberally all over the affected areas of my body
and repeated the application twice a day (or more often as
needed). Within 3 days my seemingly intractable itching was
totally under control! Something I was previously unable to
accomplish (for almost 7 years!) with prescription strength
hydrocortisone creams or calamine lotion.
This is the blend in my product line called Soothe and the
Soothe Certified Organic Body Oil is the very same form that I
used to treat my eczema.
My second blend: Revitalize was created shortly after that. At
the time I was teaching Internet classes that involved getting
up at an ungodly hour (I’ve never been much of a morning
person), commuting for 1.5 hours, standing on my feet and
being “on” all day (8 hours), then rounding out my day with
another 1-1.5 hour drive back. It was grueling at times and I
needed something to help me get through it, so I added
Revitalize to bath salts and soaked in a super hot bath with
it for 15 minutes upon waking. The results were amazing
–better than coffee (though I still had that in the morning
too!). This potent combination of Eucalyptus, Rosemary, Pine,
Juniper, Lemon, Grapefruit, Geranium and Cedarwood, totally
changed my attitude and helped me maintain stable energy
throughout the day. It became a “must” for me on those days
that I was teaching.
Having thoroughly tried and tested these products on myself
for several years, gave me the confidence to finally launch
them, along with 3 other blends I created to round out the
line: Divine – a pampering and indulgent blend featuring
Lavender, Geranium, Ylang Ylang & Vanilla CO2 (true vanilla);
Refresh –a cooling and stimulating blend of Peppermint,
Spearmint, Lime, Cinnamon Bark & Patchouli; and Inspiration –a
heart-warming and uplifting blend of Orange, Tangerine,
Grapefruit, Lemon, Ginger & Elemi. All five blends are
available in our Nourishing Hand & Body Lotions, Gentle
Cleansing Body Washes, Certified Organic Body Oils, and
Aromatherapy Room & Body Mist Sprays. Inspiration, Revitalize
and Soothe are also available as Aromatherapy Soy Candles.
As far as standards go, I am a total stickler for quality and
purity. My motto from the start has been ‘if it’s not safe to
put in your mouth then it’s not safe to put on your skin.’
That’s not to say that you should be able to eat all your
personal care products, but it should be a guiding principle
for formulating them. We use as many certified organic
ingredients as possible and never use synthetic or
petroleum-based ingredients. This ensures the integrity and
safety of our products for every day use; makes a minimal
footprint in terms of the energy and resources required to
produce both the ingredients and the finished products; and
maintains full biodegradability at the end of their lifecycle.
If you look up our products in the Environmental Working
Group’s Skin Deep database you’ll find they have very low
safety concern ratings (anywhere from 0 to 3 out of 10) and
products that have ratings of 2 or 3 are rated that way due to
their essential oil content, which raises a flag based on the
way they’ve set up their rating system. However we use GRAS
guidelines and follow established essential oil safety
guidelines when formulating.
As for choosing scents, that’s such a personal thing. I
created all the blends as “unisex” blends so they could be
used, interchangeably by both women and men. I tried to
provide a variety of blends to address different moods, needs,
and preferences. We have stimulating blends (citrus, mint, and
evergreen) and calming/grounding blends (floral). If anyone is
interested in learning more they can look at the Product Guide
section of our web site (www.dropwise.com/products/) where the
personal care blends are described in detail.
Your company's name, Dropwise, has to do with the fact that
you must be careful when blending essential oils for
aromatherapy products. I'd love to know how you come up with
your blends. What is the process you go through, and do you
have certain rituals that you do when creating your blends?
This is an interesting and sort of difficult question to
answer. After giving it some thought, I guess the best answer
I can give is ‘The nose knows best.’ From the time I started
doing this, it was clear that I had a knack for blending so I
just trust my nose.
Having done this for many years now, and having read a lot
about the various properties of EOs, I have strong intuition
about what kinds of oils work well together –both
synergistically and in terms of their odor profiles.
An artist friend of mine recently introduced me to some of her
friends as “an artist of scent.” I guess I never thought about
it all that much before but I thought it was an accurate
description!
Unlike a lot of artists, I don’t have a specific ritual or
process I use. Sometimes ideas just come to me out of the
blue. That’s when I go to my personal collection of essential
oils and open two or three bottles of oils I’m thinking of
combining and hold them both up to my nose at the same time. I
smell them in unison and note what my initial reaction to the
combination is. Sometimes it works, other times not. A lot of
times it strikes me as a good starting point but I know it
needs some other oil or oils to complete the idea and I follow
a similar pattern to identify other oils to add to the blend.
When it comes to formulating new products, I start by looking
at what’s missing in my line and then I spend some time
(sometimes months) mulling over various ideas before creating
a prototype. For example, a couple of years ago I felt like
the collection of blends we have was great but it was missing
something –-an earthy sensuous blend-- so I got to work on
creating a new blend by pulling all the different “earthy” and
“sensuous” oils I had in my collection and visually arranging
them in groupings of 3 or 4 that I felt would work together.
The end result of that experiment was a new blend called
Enchant, which combines Lemongrass, Lemon, and Tangerine
(citrus top notes) with Ylang (exotic floral middle note),
Vetiver and Patchouli (deep woody bass notes). It’s currently
only available in our Soy Candle but will eventually be
incorporated into the other body care products as well. I also
look at ways to incorporate more herbs products –mainly trying
different forms of herbal infusions (tinctures, infusions in
oil, water, and more recently infusions in witch hazel).
Without giving away any secrets, what are your future plans
for your company?
Well we just
launched our unscented hand and body lotion called Simply
Naked, and we’re looking at creating more personal care and
natural remedy products. Look for a deodorant product in the
first half of 2010 and eventually we will add some hair care
products as well, but those are harder to make in an
all-natural form so it may be awhile yet.
It’s always been my intention to expand into some form of
educational publishing so we plan to add information products
(eBooks, tele-classes, audios) on various aspects of health
and wellness. I’d like to help people create a toolbox of
alternative healing modalities and lifestyle guidelines that
empowers them to take care themselves instead of depending on
doctors, or harsh and potentially dangerous OTC and Rx meds to
address their various issues and ailments.
We would also like to supply the hospitality and travel
industries in some way but I can’t tell you any more about
that right now.
Ultimately we want to deepen the sustainability of our
business in every sense, from sourcing ingredients to
manufacturing, to everyday business practices. The goal is to
reduce our impact on the environment as much as possible
without compromising the quality of finished products and to
be in a position to influence others (suppliers, customers,
investors and other stakeholders) to do the same.
What advice do you have for those that would like to start
their own all-natural beauty businesses?
Be clear on your
business model (i.e. how your business will make money) and
your target market (who you will sell to) before you start.
There are a lot of opportunities in the market for natural
products and especially aromatherapy products, but you can’t
be successful in business if you want to be all things to all
people. Find the niche or niches that your products serve best
and build your business model and marketing strategies around
that and test, test, test.
We’re still finding our niche after all these years! We’re
trying to reach people who are concerned about their health
and well being in an increasingly stressful, polluted, and
toxic world, as well as those who prefer to make conscious
choices in the marketplace by purchasing products from and
supporting businesses that care about their customers, their
employees, their communities, and the environment.
But our market also includes anyone who suffers from stress,
anxiety, fatigue, depression, moodiness, or emotional
repression, and is looking for a natural alternative to Over
the Counter or prescription drugs to address these issues.
That includes mothers with young children, cancer patients and
survivors and anyone with a business or practice that caters
to them.
I’ve learned the hard way that when you run your own business,
to maintain your sanity you have to plan ahead, be strategic
and focused in your marketing and delegate as much as
possible, otherwise you’ll be running in 10 different
directions all the time --being reactive rather than
proactive. This is easier said than done but it’s SOOO
important!
What do you do for fun when you are not working?
When I’m not
working I love taking walks on the beach or hiking in the
mountains. Going to see live music and connecting with friends
at these events is a really important part of my life. When I
was younger I would go out to see live music several nights a
week, these days it’s more like once or twice a month if I can
fit it in! I also enjoy playing music with friends (I play the
guitar and percussion), going to the movies (because there’s
nothing like seeing a film on the big screen!), fine dining,
wine tasting, travel, trying new things (especially healthy
foods and natural products!), and I love playing with my cat
(and cats in general) ?. I stay motivated by attending
conferences and workshops and always learning new and better
ways of doing and being.
If you could imagine your perfect pampering session, what
would it be?
Another challenging
question! I think it would start with 1.5- 2 hour deep tissue
and lymph draining massage in a quiet serene environment, with
soothing nature sounds and music and soft lighting, followed
by a soak in a hot tub or mud bath.
Clean fresh smells --essential oils of eucalyptus and juniper
berry (one of my favorites) and some citrus (grapefruit,
orange, lime) and geranium (another favorite). No synthetic
scents please!
Then a facial and herbal body wrap, followed by a dip in a
waterfall or outdoor wading pool with some kind of fountain
(I’ve always had an affinity for and fascination with moving
water –streams, rivers, waterfalls, fountains).
A light healthy meal served on a veranda with beautiful scenic
views, followed by a light hike or walk along a trail in the
surrounding area and some restorative yoga or stretching
followed by a long nap! ?
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