North Bay Woman

F A L L 2 0 1 7 | NORTH BAY WOMAN 47 "I fell in love," Stacey Kelly Egide recalls. "It was the cutest store and it had beautiful soap bars that smelled like fresh fruit." When they returned home, she immediately drew up concepts for The San Francisco Soap Co., that would become a popular line of glycerin-based, fruit-scented soaps, shower gels and lotions found in stores from Whole Foods and Nordstrom to Target and Costco. The soap line was so successful that a buyer purchased it in 1998, and the day after the deal closed, the couple repeated their success with Sonoma Soap Co. Along the way, though, the couple recognized the need for established organic standards for personal care products began to push for a bill that would inform and protect consumers. Their own Avalon Organics was the first beauty brand with certified organic ingredients percentages stated on the label, Stacey Kelly Egide says. "We started with the organic standards for food and applied them to our brand with a minimum 70 percent certified organic content." To establish certified organic standards, industry-wide, the company hired a lobbyist and led the efforts to pass California Assembly Bill 2823, The California Organic Products Act of 2003. A year after it became law, they sold Avalon Naturals, which by then included Avalon Organics, Alba Botanica, and Alba Hawaiian. The two entrepreneurs were, once again, jobless, and because of a five-year non-compete clause, they were effectively out of the natural products business. The Egides opened Avalon Consulting to help other companies with their brand building and they both started to enjoy a slower-paced life. "What was great was that in 2004 all three of our sons (Nick, Erik, and Loren) were in college and for the first time in our married lives we got to re-evaluate what we wanted to do and how we wanted to spend quality time as a couple," she says. Back in business Then, in 2010, Stacey Kelly Egide had an epiphany. She had shopped for a night cream and returned home empty handed, as she couldn't find a single one that she liked. She remembered hearing about a $250 Swiss anti-aging serum extracted from apple stem cells that was favored by former First Lady Michelle Obama, and she figured she could make something similar but more affordable. "I thought I'd create a small line, maybe six or eight beautiful certified organic products for skincare and use a portion of the sales as a sustainable revenue source to support women and girls globally." When she told her husband about her plans and the cutting edge ingredients she wanted to incorporate into the cream, he told her to, "put the fruit stem science in all the products, not just the cream, because that's going to be your point of difference," she recalls. "Now, we were super-excited!" With the addition of their former "right hands" from Avalon Naturals, Alissa Berihu and Nathalie Internicola, the couple was back in business. "Once you start a brand, it consumes you," Stacey Kelly Egide admits. "You obsess on it Stacey Kelly Egide in front of one of their in-store displays. A Path of Light hand cream from which support women and girls' education, equality and empowerment projects. She-Can scholarship recipient. –Photos courtesy of Andalou Naturals (Descending) Stacey Kelly Egide and Mark Egide, founders of natural products since the 1980s. Andalou best seller Naturals Resveratrol Q10 Night Repair Cream. ANDALOU con't on page 53 >

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