North Bay Woman

46 NORTH BAY WOMAN | F A L L 2 0 1 7 By PJ Bremier W hat do we women really want from the beauty products that we lavish on our skin, body and hair? Novato resident Stacey Kelly Egide, founder of Andalou Naturals, has a pretty good idea. "Women want products that have quality, healthful, and nourishing ingredients that make their skin feel great, they want the company and the ingredients to be transparent and, ultimately, they want products that are affordable," she says. And, that's what she and her husband of 36 years, Mark Egide, offer women – and soon, men — with Andalou Naturals, created by their Novato-based company. Their line consists of 120 products, addressing various skin, body and hair care conditions, all formulated with the company's innovative Fruit Stem Cell Science based on a "super antioxidant defense system" of heirloom apple and grape stem cells, certified organic bioactive berry complex, and certified organic aloe vera. Launched in 2011, Andalou Naturals broke ground when it became the first non-GMO project certified beauty brand two years later. The products are also cruelty-free, gluten- free verified, organic, vegetarian but mostly vegan, with sustainably sourced and fair trade ingredients. Naturals for the industry Pioneering natural products industry comes naturally to the Egides, who both grew up in San Rafael. While he managed Carmé, his family's natural product business in Novato throughout the 1980s, she had purchased, and was turning around, Oasis Naturals in Novato and the Bon Air Health Store in Greenbrae. After selling their ventures in 1990, they were ready for a new start. That's when her husband spotted a magazine ad for a small UK brand called Beauty Without Cruelty. It offered a line of cosmetics that shunned the deadly and common industry practice of testing products on animals. "The name was provocative and asked the question right on the label," she says. "Compassion for animals, and making a difference, has always been important to Mark." Once the couple secured the U.S. license for BWC, they developed a line of skin- and hair care products for it and took the cruelty-free testing policy a step further by not using animal based ingredients, either. BWC became the first product for their company, Avalon Naturals. While in the UK to secure the license, they happened upon one of the only two Body Shops at the time. Beauty Wise, Business Smart Above: Stacey Kelly Egide, (center), and her "right hands" from Avalon Naturals, Nathalie Internicola, (left), and Alissa Berihu.; Below: She-Can Scholars. – Photos provided by Andalou Naturals

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