YYC Feature: LOWENS
Chad and Lindsay Zelensky natural skin-care company is committed to ‘sensible sourcing’
Named after their daughter Lowen, Chad and Lindsay’s natural skin care company started as an innovative solution to treating Lowen’s diaper rash! From the beginning, the pair were committed to using organic, fair-trade, and/or locally-sourced ingredients in their product, setting them apart from commercially available treatments. As a veteran pharmacist, Chad is a pro at research and experimentation, and this has lead to them expanding to other high quality products like lotions, balms, scrubs and more. They are committed to never testing their products on animals, and are PETA certified. In addition, they investigate where all their ingredients come from, and where/how they are harvested—this means you can expect not only high quality, but complete transparency. You would be hard pressed to find a pair with more diligence and passion for what they do! Their steadfast commitment to valuing earth, animals and people is one that all modern companies should aim to learn from and replicate.
Find them at: https://lowens.ca/
Congratulations on your success! What role do you think your background as a pharmacist played in helping you form your company and develop your products?
My interest and background in chemistry certainly helps and that paired with the therapeutics element of how things should work and translating that from theory to final product are foundational. Having gone to business school really helped with the latter part of implementing a concept. As well, when I started out in the natural product segment, I hoped the credibility of my being a pharmacist would be an instant selling point for our line but that wasn't the case 10 years ago as there was some hesitancy I feel in my being from the "medical establishment," which I am of course. Thankfully, these days consumers are looking for credible natural products and being a pharmacist, one of the most trusted health professions, certainly supports that - as does our partnerships with the Environmental Working Group and CertClean as third party certifications of safe, effective and environmentally sound personal care products. Finally, the reason Lowen's came to be is my being a father and a pharmacist. Necessity springs innovation and when Lowen had a resistant diaper rash combined with sensitive skin and commercially available products weren't working, I got to formulating...
You don’t test your products on animals or purchase ingredients that have been tested on animals. You are both PETA Certified and EWG Verified— why was meeting these standards important to you?
As far as being PETA Certified, personally I've always struggled with the testing that takes place in industry and was involved in a drug trial back in my undergrad that had a lasting impact. We were testing a drug that was ancient by conventional standards and I had a hard time with the justification of the test and the value of the research being conducted at the expense of the animal's welfare. When it comes to personal care items, I just feel that you don't need to test on animals when there is so much literature already available. Now while many question PETA's methods, I respect their purpose and mission and I see our Certification i as supporting their mission. For EWG, we've been working with their Skin Deep Database from day 1 when evaluating ingredients. IT is important to note that just because something is "natural," that doesn't mean that it is safe and a site like the Database provides a ton of primary literature backed evidence to cross check against. When the opportunity to become part of their Verified program presented, we were thrilled! What we didn't expect was the extra rigor that they put your ingredients and final product through to attain the certification. That said, it really helped us tighten up on our procurement of ingredients as well as build confidence in our formulations for not being allergenic, their safety and environmental impact.
On your website you indicate that any single ingredient in your products can provide multiple benefits for users. Could you give me one example of this?
Lecithin is a good one. Alone, it is an emulsifier - working to disperse and stabilize mixtures of oils and water. It also acts as a thickener, being rather viscous so when formulating with it, you need to add less or no thickening agents. Third, it is quite an effective moisturizer in and of itself so when combined with other ingredients in a lotion, the overall impact is greater due to synergy. Lastly, it is also chock full of naturally derived vitamin E, which is a potent antioxidant, that helps stabilize any given product's shelf life, plus vitamin E has some pretty positive impacts on the skin as well.
Could you give me one example of Lowen sourcing locally?
There are lots but I love telling the story of Highwood Crossing's organic canola oil. The oil is produced in High River by the Marshall families business. Their family has been farming the land since the 1800's and they are genuinely the best people one if fortunate enough to work with. Now canola oil, or the 'olive oil of the prairies" often gets a bad wrap. A lot of it is indeed GMO and much of the stuff we have on our grocery store shelves has been processed to the nth degree - often using organic solvents in the process (which isn't something you want to consume). However, Highwood Crossing's oil is not subjected to this processing. They cold press the seeds and the waste is used as feed. The oil is certified organic by Canada Organic, and by virtue of this, cannot be GMO. Finally, if you were to put their canola oil side by side with a regular bottle, you instantly can tell the difference in the colour, texture and viscosity of the Highwood variety. It is a key ingredient for us as it is so incredibly rich in essential fatty acids which have such a profound therapeutic impact on the skin.
Inclusiveness and balance are listed as two of your corporate values— I’d be interested to hear the significance of these values to your company!
We practice "inclusiveness" in our social media presence. Or this is our aim at least. I want Lowen's media to impart a positive impact, as we see such vitriol on social media these days - I feel more unifying voices are needed and using our growing following to this aim if the overall goal. So specifically highlighting gender race equality (or inequalities), toxic masculinity, mental health endeavoring to be a voice of BLM and the LGTBQ community is part of that. Balance is one that I am working on. I mentioned earlier that we have a couple of businesses on the go and I also work full time as a pharmacist so overextending myself is a recurrent issue. Particularly when I'm trying to manage a few chronic immune diseases. So, including "balance" in our corporate values is a reminder to myself to keep that in mind and not to fall down the rabbit hole and sacrifice self-care and forget the priorities.
What would you say in the greatest challenge or obstacle that you’ve had to overcome thus far in your entrepreneurial journey? Do you have a ‘favourite failure’?
Scaling up production has always been a real challenge. Having others do it for me has has mixed results but I know that we need to continue to seek out the right fit. A favorite failure was one of these scale up efforts. We had a large batch of Rub it in Why Don't Ya! manufactured for us and the initial limited run came out as expected from the facility. However, when the large batch was put through, the lotion, for reasons that are still unknown to this day, came back smelling like processed cheese. Now we don't scent our lotion and it has an "earthy" natural smell due to the canola, coconut and camelina oils we use. When people were complaining, I thought they were new users unaccustomed to the natural, unrefined nature of our products. When I started going through the inventory (and remember some spelled no different than our previous batches) and I came up to the cheese batches, I knew that something was up. So we had to recall the whole batch and we emptied all of the bottles to that we would at lease recoup some expenses and prevent needlessly filling the landfill with more plastic.
What is your hope for Lowens over the next 5 years?
Keep it going slow and steady and to have Lowen and Simone take a more active role in the business. (provided that they want to)
What is a valuable piece of wisdom that has helped get you where you are today?
Forge your own path.