Pursuit of Wellness - Secret To Your Best Skin & Hair, Why You Should Filter Your Shower Water + The Vitaclean Story w/ Founders Sara Douglas and Kristina Velkova

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

Ep. #119 Join me for another episode of Pursuit of Wellness as I uncover the secrets to radiant skin and luscious hair with Kristina and Sara, founders of Vitaclean. It all started when a peculiar sludge problem in their London shower led them to explore the unsettling effects of hard water on beauty routines and the importance of effective filtration solutions. I share my own battles with hard water in Austin and London and how Vitaclean’s innovative three-layer filtration system has been a game-changer for my skincare and hair care. We talk about entrepreneurship and the challenges of being a female owned company. Kristina and Sara share their own journeys, from securing their first round of funding to the rewarding experiences of working together. Tune in to today’s episode for a breadth of knowledge about water quality, and for a special chance to win a Vitaclean kit! Leave Me a Message - click here! For Mari’s Instagram click here! For Pursuit of Wellness Podcast’s Instagram click here! For Mari’s Newsletter click here! For Sara’s Instagram click here! For Kristina’s Instagram click here! Check out Vitaclean  click here! & use code POW20 for 20% off! For POW Brand Promo Codes click here! Sponsored By:  Right now, Hungryroot is offering Pursuit of Wellness listeners 40% off your first delivery and free veggies for life. Just go to Hungryroot.com/POW, to get 40% off your first delivery and get your free veggies. For a limited time, you can get $30 off the first box - PLUS free Croissants in every box when you go to Wildgrain.com/POW to start your subscription. That’s Wildgrain.com/POW, or you can use promo code POW at checkout. For a limited time, get 15% off + a free Starter Kit and bottle of Propolis throat spray when you shop Piquelife.com/pow Show Links: Réalisation Par Topics Discussed 02:15 - What started Vitaclean 03:02 - Sludge and London plumbing 05:03 - Filtering water after it goes through the pipes 07:15 - Be your own advocate and filtering your water 08:41 - Understanding your water quality 10:14 - Symptoms of poor water quality 11:50 - Vitamin C technology and benefits 15:32 - Vitaclean’s filtration system and how to use their products 20:18 - Water quality in different locations 21:13 - How often to change your Vitaclean’s filter 22:47 - Aromatherapy and scented options 24:25 - Overall routine and health tips outside the shower 29:48 - Making time for hobbies while being an entrepreneur 33:24 - Entrepreneurial journey and their work dynamic 37:42 - Going full in on their business and challenges of being female owned 42:31 - Creating the best products and where to find Vitaclean 43:28 - Tips for starting your own business 44:20 - Branding is everything 46:36 - Vitaclean giveaway

Go in your shower and look. If you have a lot of like white, crusty residue, you have hard water. This is the Pursuit of Wellness podcast, and I'm your host, Mari Llewellyn. What is up, guys? Welcome back to the show. And today we are talking to two amazing female founders, Christina Valkova and Sarah Douglas. We are talking all about water quality today, specifically shower water. We're talking about the secret to radiant skin, why you need to filter your shower water and things you can do to really improve your overall house's water quality. I learned a lot of shocking facts about water quality in this episode. I think a lot of us don't realize how poor quality the water we're using is every single day and the

effects it may be having on our hair, skin, and nails. I know I personally saw a huge difference when I started filtering the water in my shower. I think it really, really helped with my acne. Sarah and Christina are the founders of VitaClean, which is a female-founded and led business. After struggling with the damaging effects of unfiltered, hard, mineral-filled water on their skin and hair, they set out on a journey to create VitaClean, which is a triple-filtered vitamin C and aromatherapy showerhead. They have helped thousands achieve healthier skin and hair with their life-changing showerhead and filters. We learn so much in this episode, guys. We talk about understanding water quality, the symptoms of poor water quality, vitamin C technology and

benefits, water quality in different locations, so particular cities that you'd want to look out for this. We talk about overall routine and health tips outside of the shower. We talk about their entrepreneurial journey and some tips and so much more. I know you guys are going to love this episode. All the information will be in the description box. Without further ado, let's hop right in to this episode with Christina and Sarah. Christina and Sarah, welcome to the show. Thank you for having us. We are talking all things water today. And I think that's something that we all are using on a regular basis, but we don't think about the quality, what's in it. And you guys are the founders of VitaClean. So I'm so excited to dive in. I'd love to start with how you became

interested in water quality. Like what sparked everything? Well, there was a story. And it's a very funny story. Do you want to tell the sludge story? Yeah, for sure. So Christina and I, we actually randomly met in a lot of hot yoga studios like all around the world. Especially in London. Yeah, and then one in New York. And she just graduated college and she was looking for a place to live as well. So I was like, hey, like, why don't you move in? Because I had a spare room. And then what happened was one day our shower just completely stopped working. So we, like, turned the tap on. Nothing came out.

So we had to call a plumber. And he came over and he was like, you have a sludge problem. And we're like, what the hell is a sludge problem? What is sludge? Do you know about sludge? No, what defines sludge? Like, what a sludge problem. And we're like, what the hell is a sludge problem? What is sludge? Do you know about sludge? No, what defines sludge? Like what is sludge? Sludge is like a thick tar-like substance that gets built up in pipes,

especially if you live in a hard water area. And London is notorious for having a lot of lime scale and really hard water. So that in combination with pipe residue and just things that naturally pass through your water is what happened in our shower that time. It's crazy. So it was like blocking all the water flow. And then what happened was he was like pumping it out into the toilet. And it was like, we're like, this is crazy because when you go and you have a shower, it's like a really cleansing experience. You want to know that you're like getting clean. And, and we were just so surprised that this was in our water. Like we lived in London,

which is like a first world developed city. And we asked him like how we could kind of make sure that this would never happen again. And he said the only way for it to never happen again was basically to get a water filter. And, you know, we were like, what's like, what's the water filter situation look like? And at the time there was no like, what's like, what's the water filter situation look like? And at the time, there was no like lifestyle branded shower head filter that discussed all these things. Like, hey, if you have dry scalp, itchy skin, if you have brassy hair, you should probably filter your water. Like that wasn't a thing. So we had almost a light bulb moment because I was experiencing severe dry scalp and eczema. And I really haven't had that

prior to. I have sensitive scalp, but I've never really had. I wasn't experiencing. That was like really bad. And I didn't automatically think like, hey, this is from the hard water. So it was a light bulb moment where we're like, maybe this is why we're experiencing all these skin and hair issues. So we started looking into shower filters because the plumber said, if you want to filter your home or your apartment, you have to filter the base because this is a shared unit and you know what water filters, you have to change the filters out. And he's like, it's going to be about 6,000 pounds, which is like $8,000. And we're like, we're moving out in three months. Like this makes no sense.

Right. Does it have anything to do with how old the building is as well? Because I would imagine in London, a lot of the buildings are really old and the pipes have been used for years and years and years. Not necessarily because the pipes are so old as well. It hasn't really been invented. It hasn't really been restructured for a really, really long time. And you can definitely get new builds which have certain water filters built into them. Like a lot of

developers look at that now. But then, I mean, I just got a text the other day from my friend who lives in Florida and she's like, oh, you know, we all moved into this new build and there's like 400 units. Can we get biterclean because everyone has a water problem. So it really depends on the developer. Like some people think of it, some people don't. And just to answer your question, for example, in New York, and I feel like this is my moment to redeem myself. So I had a viral video, my first viral video go. Oh my God. No, it was like actually not good. What happened? No, honestly, if something goes viral, there's going to be negative feedback no matter what. I think it was mostly negative feedback.

What was the viral video? So last year we were on the Skinny Confidential and we were talking about New York. And Lauren said like, you know, her skin looked really bad in New York. And I said, well, yeah, New York actually has really dirty water. But what I was talking about, it has really old pipes. So by the time the water comes on your skin and hair, the pipes are so old. Yeah. And we have three filters in our showerhead. And the last one is a microfiber cloth. And New York, after a week, it's like black. Wow. And that's the only place that's been consistent. So yeah, going back to the conversation, and this is my moment to

redeem myself. Well, yeah. What were people so upset about? Because New York has really good water, which is true at the source. We have like amazing water. It's called like the champagne of water. It's been really, really like amazing. But by the time it gets on your skin and hair, it passes through a lot of pipes that are really old. Yeah, that makes sense. So you could have really good water at the source. You can even be filtering your home. We actually just had like back toto-back customer reviews of women who said, hey, my whole house is filtered, but I'm still using your showerhead and my cloth is still black and dirty. And I'm like, well, that's because it's filtering at the source, but it's traveling through the pipes. Wow. So you really need to like be your own advocate and get in the middle of no matter what kind of filtration system you have,

there's always more you can be doing. Clearly. Amazing. Yeah, especially if you're sensitive or if you have like certain problems with your skin and hair, because that's what was happening to me. I had the worst dry scalp.

It was so, it was like snowing out of my head. Wow. And I was modeling. So that's what I did before VitaClean. I had a really, it was a very fun time in my life. I was modeling. That's how I ended up in London. And my hair started falling out. I've always had really good hair. Genetically, my whole-

Your hair is amazing. Thank you so much. Can confirm for anyone who's listening. Both of them have amazing hair and skin. And when I got to London, my hair was just like, it stopped growing. It was like kind of falling out in chunks. And it was just really brassy and brittle. and my hair was breaking. I was like trying to cut it to grow faster and nothing was working. And it was just so devastating, especially if you're in a career like modeling where you have to have really good skin and hair. So that was just like a really, really terrible moment for me. But it was like, it kind of like got us here.

Yeah. I mean, honestly, I feel like sometimes those low moments are what make the most magic. I feel that way about my company as well. Sometimes you need to experience that low moment to come up with something new and innovative. I found when I moved to Austin, I have very, I mean, I've struggled with my skin for like 10 years and moving here, my acne got so much worse. And I'm really excited about using Vitaclean because the water here is so hard. I guess it's, I don't truly understand like what makes water hard or like what makes water bad quality. Can you explain that a little bit further? Yeah. So you have hard water and soft water. So hard water is like what you would have experienced in the UK. And you also have it here in Austin where it has like a really high mineral content, otherwise known as like limescale.

So I'm sure you've seen like the speckles on grass. Thinking about horses. Horses always on the mic. The speckles on glass when you like clean the shower curtain or like even on your sink. Or even your shower head. Yeah, exactly. Go in your shower and look. If you have a lot of like white, crusty residue, you have hard water.

Yeah, and that's like, that's called lime scale. And there's actually a lot of products out there like, you know, descaling kettles and the dishwasher. You have to put salts in it. And so like we think about all these things if we're like having a tea or we're washing our clothes. But then we just want to shower in it when we're going to like put it on our skin and hair. Yeah. And that just didn't make a lot of sense to us at all. It's, I mean, even like the dishwasher salts, constantly just putting salts in the dishwasher.

You know, it was amazing when we were living in London and maybe you experienced this, maybe you haven't, but you were like slip, there were slip these little flyers under the door to say like how to protect your appliances from hard water. Wow. Like constantly.

And then we're just showering in it. Yeah. But like who has that moment where you're like, oh, like my hair's dry. It must be my shower water. You don't really think about that right away. I mean, I'm sure a lot of people listening have never thought about this. What could be some other symptoms that would pop up? We talked about dry scalp, eczema, maybe acne.

So for me, I was experiencing like red, hot, irritated skin every time I would have a shower, especially like a hot shower because your pores open. And then I would get like slight rashes as well. And I would also get very, very brassy hair and itchy legs, especially after shaving. Because if you think like you're shaving with hard water, even if you're using like a shaving cream or some kind of oil or something like that, it really still causes such a reaction. And also just, I mean, I'm not naturally blonde. I have really dark hair. You do? Yeah. Oh my gosh. You give a blonde vibe. Yeah. You look like a natural blonde. Love it. But I just hated it. Like I hated it. Like I love when your natural color can kind of grow into the blonde, especially when you're not naturally blonde.

And I just feel like that brassiness creates this really ugly regrowth. And also on the ends, like my ends were always this almost like flaming orange compared to like where I just had my roots. And I'm like, it was just so annoying. Flaming orange. And that's like not necessarily a health problem per se, but it was something that I was really annoyed about because I was always in the salon spending money.

I wanted a result and I just wasn't getting the result. And if I, and I would sometimes go too far, like with the purple shampoo, like I would just let it sit there and then I would have like gray silver hair, which wasn't the vibe I was looking for either. So yeah, when we, so we discovered vitamin C technology because we read about Leonardo DiCaprio because he had an article

about how he was selling his West Village apartment and that had vitamin C showers. And so we were like, wow, that's so crazy because we use vitamin C all the time and we absolutely loved it. And that's why we decided to combine the two. And when we started actually playing around with vitamin C filtration technology, that was when all of our skin and hair problems just really started to disappear. And we just thought that it was so much better than like a generic water filter and the glow that it gave us on our skin and hair, like the silkiness and it was just awesome. Something that has been really key on my fitness and wellness journey in general is keeping healthy food in the house and keeping

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our link so they know we send you. In our household, we are obsessed with croissants and bread, especially on the weekend. We love to like have a little bit of fun with our carbs. But what I really like to focus on is the ingredients that are in the baked goods we're eating. And that's where I found Wildgrain. Wildgrain is the first ever bake from frozen subscription box for sourdough breads, fresh pastas and artisanal pastries. It's kind of become a tradition in our household that we work out on Saturday morning and then we'll have croissants fresh out of the oven. Every item bakes from frozen in 25 minutes or less, no thawing required. Your wild grain box is fully customizable,

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you can use code POW at checkout. I feel like filters at the moment are like getting really popular, but I've never seen anyone do it the way you guys have because you have the vitamin C infusion. Why does vitamin C benefit our hair and skin? Like what is it adding to the water? So it's neutralizing the chlorine, which is what is used, which is really, it's a big factor in brassiness combined with pipe rust, residue, sediment, all that stuff that can be traveling through your pipes. And it's just, it's really good because it also helps to increase moisture levels in your skin and hair when you do filter out all that stuff. And there's like certain ingredients that we have in our filters that help to soften the

waters. It's like a water softener plus the vitamin C is really good for your skin and hair. We had a lab test done in one of our factories and people saw an increase in skin and hair and moisture. We saw an increase in the moisture of their skin and hair. Wow. Incredible. And you guys have three layers of filtration. So what are the three different layers? So we have the vitamin C shot and then the starter kit comes with ceramic balls

and then also the microfiber cloth. And also you can swap out the ceramic balls for shungite so shungite is like one of the highest forms of carbon found on planet earth and it's so amazing at filtering water so people can subscribe to that after they've got the starter kit and we just see amazing results with that in fact we saw such amazing results with that especially me because again i dye my hair so that's so many times already. But we created a shampoo because Christina can tell the lab formulation story which was in our kitchen.

I mean, it's like, I'm sure you've been through as an entrepreneur, you've been through really like moments where you're like, what am I doing? This is hilarious. You got to get scrappy. Yeah, you got to get scrappy. So we had this really good shampoo that we loved. And because Shungite had so many benefits,

we ended up like grinding it down into a micro powder and like use the funnel in the kitchen sink to put the shungite powder into the shampoo we loved and like shook it up. And when we like washed our hair with it, we just realized like it was so good because it brightened the hair color. Even if you're, if I'm brunette,

well, I started blonding my hair, but even if you're a brunette, like it brought out my color so nicely and it cleaned my scalp so well it was just a really good way to like detox your scalp I love the fact that you guys are so focused on ingredients and really like trying it out yourselves first because I think that's the best way of knowing what's actually going to work I feel like the one thing that makes people hesitant with filters is how difficult it's going to be to install. But the Vitaclean is so easy. Can you talk about the installation process? Can you travel with it? Where can you put it? Yeah, so it's so easy,

especially because we have two different kinds of Vitaclean. So we have like the hand shower, which is really common in Europe and the UK. And also if you're staying in a lot of hotels, a lot of them will have a wall shower and then also the hand shower. So a lot of our customers, including Christina and I, we always travel with the hand shower. We travel with the wall shower too sometimes. I never go out without a shower.

I mean, I can see why, because like having hard water every day is pretty detrimental. I also feel like it's just, it keeps everything the same for your skin and hair. You know, you can always like break out or, you know, get irritation when you're on holiday and things change. But in terms of installing the wall mount, it's super easy. You just get like a wrench pliers and then you untwist it and then you twist the Vitaclean on

and then tighten it. It's super, super easy. I love the consistency piece. I'm definitely someone who travels with like tons of supplements, snacks. Like I will bring meals with me because I'm so about consistency and I'm such a sensitive individual, not just my skin, but how I feel every day that I need to keep things on routine. Yeah. And I feel like that's such a big part of our routine that no one ever talks about. You shower every day yes i mean maybe you're not washing your hair every day maybe you shower every two days especially while you're traveling too yeah 100 especially when you're in austin and it's 100 degrees yeah i mean i was listening to one of your podcasts and you and you said that you only use micellar water are you sure you're trying it out that you are

only using micellar water on your face yeah how out, but you were only using micellar water on your face. Yeah. How's that? Are you still doing that? How's that going? I go back and forth with it because it feels more gentle. But at the same time, it's so hot here now that I'm sweating a ton while I work out. So now I'm washing my face again because I'm like,

I don't think the micellar was enough. My acne has really come from such an internal place, but I also think water is like triggering it more. So I'm doing all this gut testing. I mean, I've had it for years and it's gone up and down depending on where I am. And that makes me wonder like, how is water quality different in different places?

Like New York's really bad. Is LA really bad? Like is everywhere really bad or does it just depend? That's a great question. Well, New York has good water, but it has old pipes. Yeah. But my skin looks like crap in New York, even though it's soft water, it's not hard water. But because of that dirt content, it's so high. It really always breaks me out. It's the one city in America that I… I mean, it makes sense. It's like every customer. It's not like one out of ten.

Wow. I think I struggled a lot too there, now that I think about it, because I was in an old apartment. I mean, we were all in tiny apartments and old buildings. There's people who see that in new builds too. Interesting.

How about Aspen? Great. Just actually hard water, but amazing spring water, but it has a lot of high minerals. Yeah. But Vitaclean in that water, it's just... How often do you have to change out the Vitaclean? So we have the Walmart handheld, like Sarah mentioned. The Walmart, the vitamin C shots last three months and we have seven different options. Six have essential oils. So if you want the scent element, which we could talk about like the benefits of that amazing spa-like experience. But if you don't want scent, you can

have the unscented, which just has the vitamin C. And then that lasts about three months. The ceramic beads last three months and the cloth, we do recommend changing it about every month. Okay. Amazing. the ceramic beads last three months and the cloth we do recommend changing it about every month okay but people just like it just really depends like in new york people have to change it a little bit more often because of how much dirt there is and you can literally see it i want to see a picture of how bad it gets it's all over our instagram i'm fascinated it's crazy and so it's not always black like sometimes it's like a weird orange. What is that? It's like rust. It's like rust. I'm, everyone listening knows I have a hyper fixation with mold right now.

I'm terrified of mold. All of us have mold. It's horrible. And it makes me think like, is it capturing mold? You know, like I wonder if that's happening too. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, well, we don't, our shower heads don't ever have any mold inside them.

So they are treated for mold. So sometimes we've seen with some of our competitors, like we have seen that they actually collect mold because there's like a really special process for that. So that's something that we spent a lot of time like looking into and doing tests on and making sure that that was like all treated so that customers wouldn't be affected by mold because there's no point in filtering your water if you're just like collecting a mulch out. Guys, VitaClean is mold free. We love that. Talk to us about the aromatherapy aspect. You said you had different fragrances, but also unscented, which is awesome.

Yeah. I mean, there's such an element about getting a good shower and making the water really purified, infused with vitamin C, adding that spa-like experience with scent is just so good. We have citrus, mango, lavender, jasmine, coconut, and I'm missing one, rose. That's a lot to remember. Yeah. And it's just so therapeutic. There's an element about, you know, feeling good and having a scent in your shower that's really refreshing or relaxing. Yeah. So it's like mood lifting or calming. It's just really, really good. People get to try out different scents throughout, you know, their journey with VitaClean. And there's definitely a few favorites from everybody.

What are the favorites? Citrus. Citrus is a favorite. I could see that. Fresh. Yeah. So fresh. And it's also great for nervous system regulation, which I feel like we're all really focused on right now. It's like having that moment of stillness and calm, meditation. In your shower, that's the only like me time you get. Yeah. No one can bother you. You're not. I hope you don't have your phone in there. I wonder if some people take it to that extreme. I wouldn't be surprised. Like a wall mount. They're waterproof now, aren't they?

Yeah, you can like dive with them if you want. I've seen people do it. I haven't tried it. I don't know. I don't trust that it's waterproof. I know, I get really scared. I'm like, mine's gonna be the one that's not. I mean, I could use a second away from my phone.

So I'm happy to leave it. Yeah. Definitely, yeah. So outside of that, I'd love to hear more just about your guys' routines in general. You're both glowing, gorgeous hair, gorgeous skin. I'd love to hear more about your workout, nutrition. What tips do you have outside of the shower? Well, you know, depends on the season because in the winter, have you done uphilling?

Uphill, what do you mean? Uphill climbing with the skis. Oh, no, actually, no. Alpine touring. It looks really challenging. It is. I don't know if I want to go uphill. I love that.

It's so good because it's like a therapeutic movement. So once you get into that movement and you can't have your phone, like you can't do anything, like you just have to climb. And it's so amazing. I've listened to so many audio books and podcasts and that's like my favorite thing. And you get into such good shape because it's cardio, but it's also not really heavy on your joints. So basically, it's like you got skiing equipment. It's 90% lighter. The bindings don't clip in the back. And you have like these thicker velcros. Oh, your heels go up.

It's like cross. Okay, yeah, yeah. It's like cross country, but going up and the ski is not that thin. Got it. That's my favorite in the winter. But also like morning routine. I've gotten really into breathwork, which has been so good. Do you know the app Open?

Oh my gosh, love. They actually sponsor the show. I love them. And I've gone to their classes. It was my first breathwork experience. And I was a little skeptical, just a little. I was like, I'll try it, you know, fully cried the whole time. Yeah.

Like people told me we're going to cry, scream, laugh. And I was like, why? I don't get it. Cried six times. Yeah, it's really powerful. I mean, what you can do with breath is just, it's so fascinating. And we haven't even like, we haven't even reached the peak yet. Like we're just in the beginning of people having that access to it.

So I love that. Journaling, taking care of my body. I don't take crazy amounts of supplements. I always have this philosophy of like, take what you need versus take because something's marketed to you. Yes. So I know you said you did gut testing. I did too. I was like, let's see like what I need to do in order to like take the right probiotics. So probiotics instead of just taking something because it's like, they have a lot of marketing budget. Yeah, no, I love that approach. It makes a lot of sense. And I guess in Aspen, you're around so many activities. You can be outside all the time. What do you do in the summer?

Summer, love hiking. So good. Also, like I go to yoga every day. I'll do like sculpt class. Have you gone to an O2 sculpt class? No. Do I need to? Yeah.

Okay. Next time you come, we'll go together. I should. I need to. In Aspen, I feel like I see all the different workout classes, but I always end up like just walking up the hill or something. I mean, you're doing the right thing. Why be in a studio when you can be in nature?

Yeah. So just a lot of outdoor and like, you know, running a business is really taxing. There's just so much going on all the time. Like, you know, we work in different time zones because we live in different time zones. So my day starts off like really strong, just meetings after meetings after meeting. But taking my dog out for a walk, like making sure I'm hydrating, making sure that if I can be sensitive towards how I'm feeling that day and react to it.

Because that's for me like what wellness is, is just really knowing yourself and paying attention to yourself. And that's actually hard. Yeah. Because you have to figure it out. Yeah. So just trying to be like in tune to myself as much as I can. 100%. I think that self-awareness and knowing what you need in that moment is crucial. Definitely. Yeah. On my fertility journey, I've been really focused on hormones and really just thinking about ways

that I can make better choices throughout the day. And one of those choices being, I know you're not supposed to drink as much coffee. And that's where I found Nandaka by Peak. I've been drinking Peak for many years. I first started drinking their matcha and their green tea. I love the fact that it comes in little packets. Also the mint tea is really, really good. And I love the fact that it eliminates the tea bag. Nandaka is the only coffee replacement designed for women. It's a delicious morning ritual that nourishes rather than depletes. It has cacao that activates metabolism, slow release caffeine that provides sustained energy, functional mushrooms and adaptogens that promote promote hormonal imbalance all great ingredients that are going to do good things in our body i love the fact that peak uses the highest quality and purest ingredients for

maximized benefits and bioavailability for a limited time get 15 off plus a free starter kit and a bottle of propolis throat spray when you shop shop my link, go to peaklife.com slash pow, that's P-I-Q-U-E-L-I-F-E.com slash pow, P-O-W. So for me, I start horse riding in the morning, which I absolutely love. I think it's like such an amazing activity to just make you feel in the moment, like because you're there with a live animal and like anything can happen at any time. Unfortunately, my horse got sick two weeks ago. So he's in the hospital.

So I've been like trying to find that in other things. And so I've been going to hot yoga a lot, which I love as well. Not as much as horse riding, but it's a substitute at the moment. I get that a hundred percent. Selfish question. How do you make time to ride as an entrepreneur? Well, I work really late. So because Christina is in on Colorado time at the moment. And so I usually like my day ends for work around like 9 p.m. Okay. And you start later. Yeah. So I ride in the morning and then I usually like my day ends for work around like 9 p.m. Okay, and you start later. Yeah, so I ride in the morning and then I start later

and then our day like really heats up around like 2 p.m. And then, yeah, so it's and it's like I feel like as well because I live in the Cotswolds, it's not like living like a city where you're like running out to get a juice or a smoothie or do a workout. Like I have my Pilates reformer at home and like a Peloton. So like, even if I'm going to work out, it's like 30 minutes back to work, you know? So it's, there's no like real travel time except like going to the yard, which is like 20 minutes each way.

And then I get everything delivered. And yeah, so you just have to like, I guess, maximize your time by like staying at home as much as you can. Just for context, guys, like we bonded over this because my granny lives in the Cotswolds. I've grown up going there. You recently moved there. Did you move specifically for the riding? I did. Yeah. So I've been riding in West Sussex, like after COVID, Christina and I, we lived in London and then she went back to America. And I just started, like there was no restaurants open or anything. And I used to ride when I was a kid in Australia as a young rider. And I just like fell more in love with it over

COVID. And I just always wanted to be out with the horses instead of like being social in London or doing something like that. So I started going up there like twice a week for lessons. And then I was just like obsessed. So I got a horse and then moved my life to West Sussex and had my trainer there. And then in September last year, I got a position for like an amazing yard, like one of the best yards in the world. And yeah, I just couldn't say no. It's like such an amazing way of life. It really is. It's difficult to explain to other people. And I just started two years ago and became obsessed immediately. Got my own horse. Now I'm like fully obsessed, but I only do two lessons a week. So my dream is to be able to do more and more and more. And do you ride two lessons

a week or do you have any time like riding by yourself? I hack sometimes. Like I'll, sometimes I'll hack and do two lessons. It kind of just depends. LA was a very different riding environment. It was very competitive and a little bit more intense. And here there's more of like a lifestyle around the barn. I'll just meet up with friends and we'll go sometimes. I definitely want to show I've shown once in thermal in Palm Springs and I had the best time. So I want to do that again, but it's nice to meet other adult riders. Adult riders. Yeah. And it's funny, like the eight, I feel like you can like be best friends with like someone who's 18 or 50, just like over the bond of horses. I feel like I'm the only person who's like 29. Everyone else is either really old or really young. So I feel like kind of out of place, but everyone just like, if you love horses, you end up just bonding.

Yeah, definitely. It's such a beautiful way of life. And I really feel like kind of out of place. But everyone just like, if you love horses, you end up just bonding. Yeah, definitely. It's such a beautiful way of life. And I really feel like you either have it or you don't. Like people either love horses or they don't. There's a real in between. It's like, I don't know. I don't know. Have you gone riding ever?

No, I have never been on a horse. Really? I feel like in Aspen, there's some really good trail riding. I know. I think Noah has done it. Okay. Let's some really good trail riding. I know. I think Noah has done it. Okay. Let's go do some horse riding. There is.

I just said how people do it. They Instagram it. They put the hats on. I know. A lot of people do it for the photo. My husband is not into it. Like I'll bring him to the barn and he'll wear like his favorite sneakers. I'm like, what are you doing?

You're going to end up in like a pile of shit. He doesn't get it. I'd love to hear more about the entrepreneurial journey. I'm co-founders with my husband, but I also work really closely with my best friends. So I feel like I would love to hear more about your dynamic. How do you guys work together? How did you find each other?

For anyone listening who maybe has an entrepreneurial dream. Yeah, I mean, it's again, like biologically started because we had these issues and we found a solution. For anyone listening who maybe has an entrepreneurial dream. Yeah, I mean, it's again, like, vertically started because we had these issues and we found a solution and we were like, let's try this. It wasn't like, all right, I finished business school. Let's go out and like crush my business plan. It was just like, we had skin and hair issues

and we're both, you know, we worked together prior to at this content agency and we saw that we had very different skill sets, but we were working well together. So when we were experiencing that sludge story and started really looking to water filtration, we just thought that like, you know, let's just try this. I think, and I don't know if you had this experience, but we're like, let's just, I'm like, you know, for a long time, people were like, you're selling shower heads. Because that wasn't like a beauty and wellness thing. Like we were the first to create the shower wellness category in that sense. So it was a lot of pushback and stuff. But I remember with PR, we were just pushing to constantly say like, we're in the wellness

space where this is a beauty product. This is not just a shower filter. So dynamics. Go ahead. Yeah, sorry So in terms of dynamic, I mean, it was really interesting as well, because before we even had like the sludge or before we even really realized that our skin and hair problems could be cured, we were always like working a lot with entrepreneurs. And we just found it really inspirational. And it was so, so cool, like meeting all these people who had basically created a company out of nothing. And then for me,

like I had a tech consultancy and I was working with clients, which I loved. It was really exciting. But I also was like, I hated the like, hey, like, let's go get another client. Let's go get another client, another client. And I just didn't really see like the longevity of that. And also like we're working for men at the time. And we just didn't really see like the longevity of that. And also like we're working for men at the time and we really didn't like that. I can totally get that. Yep. 100%. So yeah, I think there was a lot of, we had like a lot of fire in our belly to really start something and kind of have our own thing. Even like I ran into her the other weekend actually. Do you know Realization?

It's like the dresses brand. Yeah. Oh, I love them. Yeah, Teal. She's Australian as well. I saw her at her farmhouse. And yeah, I met her at like Coachella and she was like telling me how well. They'd started it within like six months ago and she was telling me how well they were doing.

I was like, wow, that's really cool. Like she seems really happy. I mean, just it seems like such a great way of life. And then Christina and I, we did have a great dynamic. We both really wanted to be independent. And then this situation just happened. So it was like life was kind of pushing us towards that. And I think, look, I would say like the first few years were definitely the hardest. It was a very slow starter in the UK. Like we were so confused because the water was so bad and we were like, this is going to be like a multimillion dollar company in the UK because the water is so bad. But I just don't

think wellness is not the same there as it is here. It's getting there. It's getting a lot better. Agreed. But even like just running Facebook ads, like we would get the most negative comments and there was so much like distrust and we got great PR, like we had an amazing PR company. But it just, it wasn't until 2019 that we actually started getting all these sales from America and we didn't even really investigate hard water in America. It was always just like a UK thing to us and we're like, oh, that's crazy. And then it started happening in certain states like California, Texas, tri-state area, Florida. Yeah. And so it just really sparked our interest. And that's, and Christina is luckily American. So it was really, really easy for us

to just, like, set up that US arm and really, like, go full throttle. But it's been growing since. Yeah, we didn't, like, we didn't quit our jobs and start the company. Like it was we didn't know anything about e-commerce or like building a website or anything like that. So it was almost like a learning activity for the like the first few years until, you know, we launched. It was definitely not full time. Yeah.

Yeah. You took time to kind of balance out your regular jobs while doing this. At what point did you decide let's go full in on VitaClear? 2009. Yeah, it was like the summer of 2019 because of what was happening in the US and the interest we were getting there. It's so interesting to me what you say about the UK because I mean, I left when I was so young. But from my perception, even just going back now, it's not super entrepreneurial. Like even launching Bloom in the UK was far more challenging than it was here. Yeah. Like there's just a lot more steps you have to go through.

It's not as... The VAT tax. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not saying I was the one handling that. Like, thank God we have a COO who was doing that. But it took a long time to launch in the UK. And I just think it's not as entrepreneurial as it is in America. Here, you can really have an idea and bring it to life relatively quickly. You have a lot more support. Yes. And the market accepts it. The market totally understands it. People are willing to try. People are willing to subscribe. And the UK was a lot of like fintech. That's where all the money was going. It probably still is.

Yeah, it was all 2019 was when we raised our first kind of round. But we did try before then with like multiple UK VCs. And it was just, you know, it was like, what are you two girls like doing trying to start a company? Do you feel like being two young like beautiful women has been a challenge yeah definitely 100 yeah it's been very challenging especially with like a lot of men in the in the investment piece of it 100 even in like wellness companies I feel like finding other female founders is surprisingly rare because you'd think walking down the aisles of like a supplement or a wellness category, you'd see far more women. A lot of them are just men like have a business idea and want to make money without having actually experienced it themselves. I mean, I feel like I end up in the room a lot with like,

it's me and 10 men, you know, I will say it's challenging, but at the same time, it's really hardened me and helped me find my voice and sort of not care about, you know, like I've learned to speak up and ask questions and just stop thinking about the way I'm being perceived because I've been thrown in situations like that so many times at this point that I'm sort of like immune. It's definitely like a really growing experience. And now it's like a lot easier. Like we have like our investors are amazing. Dream Ventures, they're so supportive and they're so supportive of female founders. But yeah, I think it was honestly just like the market. It's the same. I mean, if you go out in the UK and you're like speaking to people about like wellness

or like entrepreneurship, it's like people just aren't as interested. Whereas I feel like here, people are like, that's so cool. Tell me about it. How can I help? What can I do? And it's like, you can just say the most random idea and people are just so supportive of it. And I think that's like the American dream.

That's what's so great about it. Totally. There's so much more positivity like floating around that really creates such an awesome environment for a young company to bloom into something. I would agree. I think the UK has a little bit of a skeptical sort of, what is it? Cynicism? Is that the right word? Very sarcastic, cynical people. Yeah. Yeah. Which is funny because I feel like Australia is actually also very cynical and sarcastic.

But then there's loads of great wellness companies and like fun brands from Australia. Yeah, there are. I don't really. And a lot of female founded. A lot. A lot of female founders. I mean like Tash Oakley, Dev, all those girls. Crop Shop.

Yeah. Kip Edwards from PA Nation. She's a big one as well. I mean, I love Australian brands. Honestly, Australian clothing brands. Same. Best. The best. So good. They fit the best. And they're such nice materials. Yeah. And designs. Yeah. What are you guys doing over there? Like you guys just get it. I don't know. We just, you know, we just. They just get it. We just get it. I love it. No, it is really interesting to me. And I do think the market is shifting because women want to buy from other women

who have been through it and get it. So I really think you guys have that going for you and you have the story and it's really inspiring. And I feel like I haven't seen anyone do anything like this. So I think it's so exciting. Well, thank you to like platforms like podcasts that we can share that story because I don't think, you know, podcasting wasn't around like it is now, like now back when we started. So it's just been really special to share that and build a community of people and just hear people's stories. It's been so amazing, like reading all of our reviews of how this has helped people with like skin and hair issues they've struggled with their whole life. And it's just

incredible. That like keeps things going when it gets hard. Yeah, it keeps you motivated, right? Yeah, definitely. And I mean, Christina and I have always really been about having the best product. Even like our shampoo took like 20 samples and like almost three years to formulate because we really wanted it to just be like the cleanest shampoo where you just had an awesome scalp. It actually works. Yeah, it actually works. And this is new. Yeah, we just launched it in March. It's been like a little bit since we launched something. And I don't know, maybe you can tell me if this is like just you're just like it's just like a little bit like it's really exciting you're like what's going to be the reaction you know 100% and the reaction's been

so good it just feels so nice 100% are you guys in retailers yet where can everyone find the products so you can find it on our website at the moment it's www.buy2clean.co and yeah we we will be in retailers soon you'll find all that information on our website and you can also find us on instagram by the clean underscore official would you guys just give us a couple tips for anyone listening who maybe wants to start their own business don't do it i'm just kidding don't do itink three times if you need help. I'm joking. It's definitely, it's a very rewarding, beautiful journey that teaches you so much about yourself and teaches you how to be a really quick thinker and make decisions. And I just think you get so, I would say, you know,

just have a think through, have a little bit of a business plan of like, where does this exist? Who is buying this? And, you know, what's my plan of launching it? And then my other advice is like, hire a branding agency. It is so important for today. You have to be on part and like look really good and be really thoughtful about how your branding looks. That's really important. 100%. I agree with that. I think branding is everything. That's like my portion of Bloom. That's what I focus on. And I think it's been really important. We're all green. And we are all green. Your guys' branding looks stunning. I was on the website. Everything looks stunning. The way the packaging arrives,

everything's like beautiful and really emulates the message and the experience. Appreciate that. Thank you. So I think the advice that I would give is try not to stress too much. I think in the beginning we stress too much. And even if it seems like you won't get through it, you will. Like time and thought is everything, you know, and just like hatch out a plan. And I think don't be afraid to ask people like if you are struggling with like an area because you are going to come up with things that you've never seen or never done before. And it's going to seem so overwhelming. And just, I guess, like try and like break down your network and just like get like a soundboard

and be like, what should I do? Like, have you had this situation before? I mean, honestly, even reach out to other founders. Like anyone is always welcome to reach out to us. Like I'm Sarah K. Douglas on Instagram. And just ask because it's like people are really willing to help. Yes. It's, yeah. Persistence. That's the other thing. And resilience. Yeah. Such good advice. And I agree. I think reaching out to founders is a great idea. Anyone who's a founder is probably really passionate about what they do and will want to talk to you. 100%. Yeah. And you just got to be persistent in reaching out as well. Just persistence and resilience. Love that. Yeah. It's the queen of following up so

good at it i love a good follow-up it's it's important i run a tight ship i reckon she uses the word follow up like 50 times a day i mean like people just don't want to respond you need to like i got places yeah product to move i got things you know i mean you gotta be and you're like, follow up. You just have to follow up with people. Agreed. And people's inboxes are, you know, you never know. It's like an attention economy. You got to be on top of everything. Yeah, exactly. So don't be shy to follow. Are we able to give away a couple filters and shampoos? Yeah, of course. What should we do? Do you want to do 10?

Yeah, sure. Can we do 10? The girl is excited. The girls will absolutely love that. Guys, go follow the VitaClean Instagram account. Go follow Pursuit of Wellness. Leave a comment of your favorite tip you heard on the show and we'll give away 10 kits. Thank you guys.

And shampoos, the Shungite shampoo. Guys, thank you so much for coming on the show. Can you just one more time say your personal Instagrams again? At Christina Velkova and that's K, not CH. And at Sarah K. Douglas. It's no H on the end of Sarah. Sarah and then K Douglas.

Thank you guys so much. Thanks for joining us on the Pursuit of Wellness podcast. To support this show, please rate and review and share with your loved ones. If you want to be reminded of new episodes, click the subscribe button on your preferred podcast or video player. You can sign up for my newsletter to receive my favorites at marilowelland.com. It will be linked in the show notes. This is a Wellness Out Loud production produced by Drake Peterson, Fiona Attucks, and Kelly Kyle. This show is edited by Mike Fry and our video is recorded by Louise Vargas.

You can also watch the full video of each episode on our YouTube channel at Mari Fitness. Love you, Power Girls and Power Boys. See you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and does not constitute a provider-patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor or health team.