The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - How To Make Sure Your Water Is Not Causing Damaged Hair, Acne, Eczema, Or Hyperpigmentation Ft. Vitaclean

Episode Date: June 24, 2023

#582: Today we're sitting down with the founders of Vitaclean, Kristina Velkova and Sara Douglass. Vitaclean is the only triple-filtered, Vitamin C-infused shower head that removes the nasty chemicals from your water so you can have healthier hair, clearer skin, and an affordable, spa-like experience every single day. Today we sit down with them to discuss what led to the creation of their brand, how they've grown Vitaclean, and how their side hustle turned into a full time business. They get into what interested them both about the effect of unfiltered water on skin & hair, how different countries view water, and how changing the water they shower with changed their lives. They also get informational, and they give us the scoop on what's inside your shower water that's destroying your skin & hair, and what you can expect when you make the change.   To connect with Vitaclean on Instagram click HERE To connect with Vitaclean on TikTok click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE   Subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE  For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by Vitaclean Go to Vitacleanhq.com and use code SKINNY at checkout for 20% off your shower head starter kit. Produced by Dear Media.

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to The Skinny Confidential, him and her.

Aha! We did a lot of projects together and we had a really good workflow. So that was like one thing that, you know, really inspired us because we already knew that we could work really well together. And I think that that's also really tricky. Like some people sometimes ask me, they're like, oh, you have a great co-founder. Like, how do I get a co-founder? And you're like, well, you know, it's not like, oh, I have a friend, let's start a business. Like, you have to make sure, I think, that you balance each other out and like your strengths and their weaknesses, like, you know, kind of level out. I was still modeling. I was working for a content

company. Like, we were doing a lot of stuff for a while. It wasn't just, hey, we're going to do this for six months and then quit our jobs and we're going to be super rich. You know, it takes a lot. Today is a niche episode on something that we all do, which is shower or bathe. I became obsessed with learning about what is in our water after the Test My Home episode that we did. If you haven't listened to that episode, you have to go back and listen. It's such a good one. And it talks all about what's in our water, the products we're using in our home, EMF exposure, all the things. But one of the things that Ryan from Test My Home told me that we really needed to improve in our home was our water situation, especially our shower. And this really interests me because I have two kids under three, and I just am very particular

about my skin and my hair. So I really wanted to kick our water situation up. So I found the perfect two people to tell us all about what is in our water and how to improve our shower situation and our water situation. Today, we're sitting down with the founders of Vitaclean, Christina Valkova and Sarah Douglas, and they are going to talk to us about the chemicals in our tap water, what causes acne, eczema, rashes on our legs, hyperpigmentation, what non-filtered tap water does to your hair, what sludge is and why is it in our water, how other countries view water, why Vitaclean infuses vitamin C in their filters, and how easy it is to enhance your water. We're also going to talk about wellness routines and entrepreneurship, but this episode is going

to give you so much knowledge about your water so you have the best water ever. I installed their system, the Vitaclean, into my house. I started with the guest room and then I moved it to our room too. And I'm obsessed. I took a shower. I'm not itchy like I normally am. And I can just feel a difference. It's really hard to explain unless you've done it, but it's like a spa-like experience in the shower. So if you're in to healthier hair and clearer skin and just being informed about what's in your water, listen to this episode. On that note, Christina and Sarah, the founders of Vitaclean, welcome to the show. Let's talk water.

This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her. What is happening to our skin when we shower without having a filter on it? Well, there's a lot of things in your water like calcium and dirt and things that travel through your pipes that get collected and end up on your skin and hair. So when you shower, your pores expand and they're soaking all that up, including chlorine, which is used to sanitize our water. I'm so into skincare. I mean, I wrote a book on it. And for me to not really know about this is so crazy. This is something that I'm learning. When we wash our face, like what is going on? Is that causing acne, eczema, hyperpigmentation? Like how important is this?

So what happens is that like the water, your pipes get filled with something like buildup and then also like all the limescale. So what happens is that that mixes with your product. So if you can imagine like you put a cleanser on, you mix it with water, you can get like tiny particles of lime scale that really irritate your skin and also your hair. And so it stops your products working. Like, I don't know. I mean, you said you're not the biggest hair washer, but I don't know if you've ever like shampooed your hair. Never. Never? No, like literally not since 1992.

And have you ever had like when you, you kind of kind of get all out of the shower and you go to like blow dry your hair and you still have like a little patch of like product in your hair? Yeah. So that's from a build up like of your products mixing with stuff like limescale or pipe rust. And then you have to like go and wash it all over again. That's, you know, and that's that's really what's going on. How did you both sort of discover this? Well, we were living out London at the time and we kept bumping into each other randomly around the parts and of a lot of yoga studios. And we bonded over our skin and hair issues. So I, when I moved to London, had severe dandruff. It was so bad. It was like literally snowing out of my head.

And I tried everything from dandruff shampoos, vitamins, scalp serums, you name it. I tried it. I even tested my blood because I was like, there's something wrong with me. Like, I don't know what's happening. And everything was fine. I also developed eczema on my body and I just couldn't figure out what was happening. So Sarah had similar problems. And one day when we're living together, our shower stopped working. And sorry, I think you should

tell the sludge story. So our shower just completely stopped working and we like turn the pressure on and nothing worked. And we're like, God, like, what do we do? So we're like, okay, we'd better go shower at the gym. But we also, we had to call a plumber. And this like lovely Irish guy came and he takes like the bathtub apart, like attaches all his equipment. And he starts pumping this like crazy brown liquid. Into the pipe or it's coming out? Like into the toilet, like from the kind of bathroom.

It's just draining the pipes. Yeah. And so for like, for those of you who don't know what sludge is, it's like a brown kind of goopy tar-like liquid. And looked at us and he was like you got a sludge problem we're like how do we combat this like how do we make sure this never happens again and so he said that we had to get a water filter but we lived in like a like a complex of like 35 apartments so we would have had to filter every single apartment because that was like I imagine that's like what you talked about with what you're getting like in your house, like a

water main. And he then gave us a quote for that, which was like around 8,000 US dollars. So 6,000 pounds at the time, because we were both in London. And it just wasn't, I mean, that just wasn't an option for us at the time. Like we thought we'd probably move out of the flat like in about six months, maximum a year. But we obviously didn't want to shower in sludge anymore. So it really sparked like a light bulb moment for Christina and I because you know as Christina said like she was suffering from her own skin and skin and hair problems and I was

suffering from my own skin and hair problems so I would get out of the shower and my face was like really red here and it would just get so irritated all the time. And so what I would do is I would use these products and I would use like this green concealer when I would go out and like slather on all this makeup as kind of like a defense mechanism because I would just always feel really hot and then not confident. And so it really sparked this life of idea

and like, you know, this is crazy. Like maybe this is what's actually causing like our skin and hair problems. So how did you find out it was that? We started looking into shower filters just on Amazon and where you would, and there was nothing really branded. There was nothing really very effective. We probably tried like everything available. One day we read an article that Leonardo DiCaprio was selling his apartment in Manhattan. And the highlight of that article is that he had a vitamin C shower in his apartment. So we were both looking at each other like, oh, this exists. So we found out that in Asia, that's common that people use

vitamin C showers. So we saw the opportunity to go out and basically create the best one. Leo uses a vitamin C shower. I feel like you need a vitamin C shower on that hair, on that mop of yours. Listen, I'm always... You're so serious about your hair. I mean... I don't wash my hair either, though, just so you know. Oh, you don't? No, no, no, no.

That's not true. I saw the shampoo you used the other day. I'm wondering... Do you really not? I really don't. I'm wondering if... Is this mostly like in the major cities or like as you guys both grew up in different countries is it was this an issue when you were growing up or is this only in the municipalities like only in the big populations

or is this everywhere so this is everywhere so that's like we started it initially in london because that's where we were suffering from skin and hair problems but then we've noticed that we started to get a lot of sales from america like around 2018 and so we started looking more and more into it and America has all kinds of water I mean here in Austin or in Texas in general you have like like what we had in the UK which is a really high mineral content but in places like the tri-state area or New York you have really dirty water so there the water is it's not as hard with calcium, but it's really, really dirty from the pipes. But that spreads outside of New York. Manhattan actually has the dirtiest water. And I grew up around New York and we always pride ourselves that we have the best water.

It's actually the dirtiest water. We have three filters in the shower head and the last filter is a microfiber cloth and it captures residual particles tiny little particles and in manhattan after a week it is so black it's dirty it's like you dipped it in mud and that's where you're showering in so with the pizza tastes is that what's happening i'm not gonna get into this debate you know a lot of new yorkers are gonna be pissed because they say they have the best water it's the best pizza and it's because it's literally filled with dirt. It's the best of everything. Yeah. And the dirtiest water. My skin looks like shit in New York. Yeah.

And I always thought it was the pollution. That's a normal thing. I always thought it was. When I was in London, I was like, oh, it's because I'm living in a different city. Because there's not enough sun. Like, you think it's everything. But so much to do with your water. And you spend so much time and money on products

and they just don't work as well because you're still showering in the same water. So when you guys got a shower, did you guys go out and just buy a random shower head to try it out and see if there was differences? Yeah. So we started looking at what options were available. And so we bought like normal water filters, like especially what was available on Amazon. And it did. That's like that's when we started to notice a change. We're like, oh, you know, my skin's less irritated. Christina's dandruff started to go away a little bit. But I have to say that it wasn't until we actually started using vitamin C's when we read about the Leo, the Leo article. What does the vitamin C do in water? So the vitamin C neutralizes the chlorine. it's the best agent like ascorbic

acid is the best agent to neutralize chlorine which is what our water is treated with so like every water main so that you know people don't get sick or there's no bacteria that's like what they use to treat water and the vitamin c it really combats that and it also it leaves like an amazing kind of sheen on your skin and hair so it's not like a greasy sheen it just like gives you a really amazing glow and like makes your skin really like glowy and your hair really soft and silky no no we had dr dennis gross on this show i mean a few times in front of the show and his he's like huge on vitamin c for the skin he thinks it's one of the best things you can do for your skin yeah i mean we are so big on vitamin c like christina and i like one of the

things that we bonded about when we were working together is like our love for beauty products we're both like very minimal people like we don't use a 10-step skincare routine but we definitely try like the best product well now we don't yeah now we don't but there was a time we did and it's so frustrating when you try all these products and you spend so much time and money and nothing works. And for us, that was the light bulb moment where like, hey, we're showering the same water full of sediment, full of mineral buildup and dirt and chlorine. And that's why my products are not working. So what kind of conditions do people have that they think is maybe caused by something like Lauren mentioned earlier that she thought something was from

breast implants or something, you know, a rash, whatever. Like what are things that people think that is being caused by other things that you believe is being caused by the water definitely brassy hair whether you color your hair don't that's a big one and it's color safe because this is diluted when it goes through the water so it's not going to damage your your hair color is actually even better also if you have a dry scalp tight skin itchy skin face gets hot like that was happening to you and also eczema and paralysis it's really it irritates it and so what we were talking about before is like the itchy legs like for me I used to have the itchiest legs after shaving or after showering it's like you know the lower part around your ankle and I would just scratch it so much which would probably just make it more irritable. And so that really, really helped me. And also like little patches of eczema, like I don't have crazy eczema,

but definitely like just in my elbows, I get a little bit and it really, really helps. How quickly does someone notice when they change their water situation? Like how quickly do they notice the rash go away, their skin? What have you seen? Like what are some testimonials? It's amazing. I think the most common word people use to describe the experience of showering vitaclean is life-changing. Even if you go on our website, we have so many reviews of people saying, oh my god, this has changed my life.

This is a game changer. This has helped me so much. My itchy legs or my dry scalp is just gone in one shower I mean that's the feedback and you will experience is notice the difference because the other thing that's amazing about vitaclean is that it has a really amazing aromatherapy experience so we have seven different vitamin c shots is what we call them we have citrus citrus, mango, lavender, jasmine, unscented, and coconut and vanilla. So it makes showering such an elevated experience. And we shower to disconnect,

to feel clean, to feel good, to melt the stress away. Guys do other things in the shower. Yeah, all the guys are like, they do all kinds of things in the shower whatever you do now it's elevated that is not elevated what you guys do in the shower adding a couple of flavors in a room might enhance the experience as i'm cleaning myself up when you say you add all these flavors is it toxic chemical anything no it's not it's all plant-based ingredients and essential oils

these essential oils and then we also have the unscented version with no essential oils, nothing fragrance for people because, you know, some people, they don't like fragrance. Why wouldn't someone just do this with their water? I mean, if they have the funds, this seems to me like a really smart thing to do for yourself, for your kids, for your husband who's beating his meat in the shower yeah I mean it just really upgrades your life like when you like I don't know if you've ever had a shower and smelt that kind of like metal like in some in some places there's like a lot of heavy metals in water somewhere yeah and so it takes that all away it's like chlorine and

metal smell it's the worst and you really notice it after you've showered with vitaclean because it smells so nice and fresh and clean. And when you go back to a non-VitaClean shower, you're just like, whoa, you really notice a lot. You're like, my skin's really tight. You get like flaky skin. We almost never not shower. We travel with our shower head.

We actually changed our shower head in the hotel. I always have a handheld in my bag. Wait, so you actually brought it to the hotel and put it on the hotel it's that easy to switch here comes another thing I'm gonna be lugging around the airport here's the thing I when I knew you guys were coming on I switched my guest bed shower because I was like I'm gonna try just the guest bed first guest room shower if I like it I'll do my own and I really really liked it and I I I did not do it myself. I'm going to full transparency. I had my assistant do it. So I guess my question is, is it something literally that I could do?

I'm not good at stuff like that. Is it literally just screwing it off and on? Yeah, it's very easy. People actually always feel intimidated about that. And I think that when they get the showerhead and they change themselves, they're, wow, it took me no more than two minutes. Have you guys actually seen psoriasis and eczema clear up as well as just rashes? Yeah, definitely. Personally for us, for me it did. But a lot, like in all our reviews, like if you read our reviews, it's like, you know, people have seen it go away for not only them, but also their kids. And that's like the one thing they're like, oh, we tried everything. And, you know, this was the only thing that worked.

So because it could be like it's not necessarily even the hard water that flares that up. Like it could be chlorine. Like some people have a really big sensitivity to chlorine. So, yeah, it's I mean, you can just go you can go online and read all our reviews. And it's yeah, it's caused like drastic effects for people and that's really why we started this brand because we saw such big we saw such a big relief like we weren't really like oh let's start our own company like it was a very natural progression of a problem that we found and then we're like holy crap like this is totally changing our skin and hair routine and we're like we have to share this with the world because we were the

people out there spending a large amount of our salary on, you know, beauty products and things to like, I would coat my hair in like purple shampoo. And I would always be in the salon, like being like, make it more, you know, tone it more, tone it more. It's like, I was just, I hated the brassiness. And, you know, it's a funny story. Like even one time, like she'd over at the hair salon, like it overtoned my hair to such a point that I was like, oh God, I've got to reverse it. So I went to like the equivalent of CBS in the UK and I put like the toner on my hair and it was like this kind of warm tone, but it caused me to have like purple stripes,

orange stripes. So now it's just like, this is crazy. Like I have, I have like a bit of an obsessive personality. So I was like, I really, really just want it to be right to be right and I mean my hair like I haven't had it colored now in eight weeks but you know I still don't feel like it gets to that brassy point that it would have even after a week like after my color when you know and it just it really extends your salon visits especially if you want to color your hair I'm switching every single shower so you know and I'm like I need you to get something. Now we need to make

one for the sink. I need one for the bathtub. When you guys decide to launch a brand, you guys had no experience, you said before, and you decide to go on this entrepreneurial journey. What does that really look like in the nitty gritty? Take me back to when you guys decided to launch this. Did you guys do a business plan? Did you pitch an investor? Because there's a lot of people listening that have an idea. This is a solution to a problem. And they want to know how to pitch their solution. How did this evolve? I think we both had a lot of fire in our bellies to do stuff. So we really figured out a lot of stuff on the spot. When we first created the brand, we both really wanted to be a beauty product.

There was no showerhead on the market that was marketed as a beauty product. So I remember we were starting out and, you know, we hired a PR firm. So we were in a lot of publications like Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and Vogue in the UK, which really helped position us as the leaders in a filtered showerhead space, which was a category we were creating. And that was a hard part because you'd go to the department stores, which was a path we try to do in the UK. And we were like, we want to be in your beauty section. And they said, but you're a showerhead, you have to go in the home section. I said, no, but we're a beauty tool. So we pushed a lot for that. And I think it was just really sticking to what you believe is the right path for the company

and being able to be flexible when other moments come. I think as well, like finding, you know, manufacturing was really hard for us. So we searched like all over Europe, we searched all over America and then, you know, also tried out multiple different countries in Asia. And it took us a long time to really find someone. But, you know, that was it wasn't like a huge investment, but it just took a lot of time. We used a lot of platforms like Upwork and like Freelancer and all these things that were available to us because we didn't have like a huge budget. Were you guys both working in other careers? Yeah, we were both. So like I had a tech consultancy and Christina was working at a content company and I used to work with the content company a lot. So we did a lot of

projects together and we had a really good workflow. So that was like one thing that, you know, really inspired us because we already knew that we could work really well together. And I think that that's also really tricky. Like some people sometimes ask me, they're like, oh, you have a great co-founder. Like, how do I get a co-founder? And you're like, well, you know, it's not like, oh, I have a friend, let's start a business. Like you have to make sure I think that you balance each other out and like your strengths and their weaknesses, like, you know, kind of level out. So it's, that's, I think step one, like if you want a co-founder, you know, definitely figure out, like you spend a bit of time, like working on some projects and like figure out like, you know, if it's, you can get wins together. And, and yeah, I think it's, it's, you don't need like a

million dollars to start it, to start a company. I mean, for us, you know, we're definitely on our back foot. Like it's not as if we're like, I've dreamed all my life of starting a showerhead company. Like let's get into plumbing. You know, that wasn't like what I try to do here. I mean, I think people sometimes listen to the show and they see the entrepreneurs that come on or the, or the creators that come on and they look at like where they are in their career. And it's overwhelming because they just feel like people had all these resources to begin with. And I even say like for this show, like Lauren and I started this out of our living room and it's obviously evolved, but it costs us next to nothing to start doing this. And similar to your point with you guys. And I think people don't realize the one thing that maybe we have in common

is that we all had other things going on that were supporting our living standards while we were starting these things. And so I never suggest people to just quit their day job and quit what they're doing and go all in without any money or resources. But you can start these kind of things on the side. And as they gain traction, obviously, invest a little more time and invest a little more money and invest a little more resources. But people just get so overwhelmed because they think like they look at you guys like, oh, easy for them. They had funding, they had money, they had all these resources. But to your point, you didn't. I mean, it's a lot of hard work and i was still modeling i was

working for a content company like we were doing a lot of stuff for a while it wasn't just hey we're gonna do this for six months and then quit our jobs and we're gonna be super rich you know it it takes a lot how many years were you guys working on it while you had the other stuff going on probably two it was until 2019 that we're like okay like i think, I think we got to go. Everyone's stuck in their house with crappy water. Yeah. This is a problem. Did you guys go out and decide to raise money? Did someone approach you?

How did that work when you wanted to bring on investors? We got our first round of like family and friends funding in 2019. It was like a really small amount. How'd you put your friends and family? They actually came to us. They came to yeah and they were like yeah and they were like this sounds so cool like can I invest and you know they didn't want to give us a great deal I think we we when we went we were like yeah let's make the deal then Christina and I went over with like we just made a really shit deal and that happens and yeah you know that happens but

sometimes you just have to push forward and to be honest it was hard your own family and friends gave you a shit deal well you know it wasn't it wasn't a shit deal but it was it wasn't great you know it was hard one yeah it was hard to raise money it was hard for us really hard yeah especially being you know i was women as well it's like you know i think it's only one percent of women actually get funding and and it's it's getting a lot better like there are a lot of really amazing like women focused funds and raising for us has always been like a tough one. Let me guess, you guys walk in with your idea and you know it should be in the beauty section, which it should be. I totally get that.

And you guys are beautiful and you automatically get underestimated. Yep. Yeah. It's a tale as old as time. Especially in the UK. Like, and most of the investment went into fintech there. So for us to come in with this beauty product, the showerhead, to people who didn't go to an Ivy League school, you know, didn't start four businesses before, it was really difficult. I mean, people looked at me and you're like, oh, you're a model.

Like, what do you know? And it was really hard because you got that more than you can imagine. We had a lot of investors like hit on us and it was almost like, hey, they tried to Harry Weinstein.

Harry Weinstein? I'm not aggressive. Damn Harry Weinstein. But it was very like, you know. Yeah, I'm really sick of it. My investors, they always hit on me too.

Yeah. I think that's a great thing about being a guy like you're like hey I have an idea like do you like it do you not and everyone someone's like definitely yeah it's logical yes yeah I mean listen I empathize it is I can imagine it's much harder in many cases for women to raise capital I've been in a lot of those rooms I've seen Lauren go into a lot of those rooms. But raising capital in general is just challenging. And I think it's like, Lauren always says, oh, you love this. I fucking hate the process.

I hate going to people and asking them for money and trying to pitch. Come on. No, no, because it is so counter to how I typically operate. My thing is you create the thing and then have people kind of come to you. I hate the idea of me having to go and like put myself in the situation we have to like essentially beg for not beg but you know what i mean like you go to these things it's just like it's just it's miserable anybody that thinks that you have to go in with they're lucky to have me i'm going to use the way i look as an advantage and if they don't do the deal how much advice can

i get out of this person? The other problem is if you're not a great networker, because I'm not a smooth networking guy. And I don't know if Lauren is either. That whole kind of community in that world is all about knowing people and networking and getting the next interest. I hate it. So when you guys go to pitch a brand, if there's someone who's listening and they have an idea, what are some things that have worked? I think just focusing on the numbers is always good. Even if you don't have crazy amount of traction,

you can still prove that there's a logical business model in time. For us, it was great because we have our refil component. So, you know, to have the amazing experience, you have to change your filters. Or pay customers. Yeah, definitely. Because then you spend a lot of your like on acquiring a customer. And then you can just kind of put them in your email flows to come back if you have a good product. But it's essentially a consumable.

Yeah. And I think as well, one thing that we didn't do, and I would definitely advise people to do, is really like consolidate your brand. So I know like you guys obviously have a really, really strong brand. We just went through an amazing rebrand. So everything was Vida Clean, Vida Green. We didn't start like that. We really tried to do everything ourselves. We did it on like 99designs. When you say consolidate your brand, give me an example of what you mean. So, you know, just really figure out like, you know, what it is you're like trying to do, you know, figure out like what you want it to like look like and, you know, have that in line

because otherwise you'll end up kind of repackaging, like not really being happy. What's an example of something that's like maybe out of line or didn't work from a branding perspective? For us, with branding, mean i think you know at first we started using plastic and you know that's that's something that you know we really don't want to do but it was just an easy option at the time and we use plastic because retailers are saying oh people want to see the box so you have to use that and what's the best way to use that to show the product is to use plastic really retailers were pushing plastic retail

window I mean this is what this was years ago but it's you know the windows yeah just see the product so you could see the shower head and and and ours like we don't want people to touch it especially it's chrome and you get a lot of fingerprint and so we had to cover it whatever the packaging was it had to be covered but you had to see through it what are some other things that you guys have struggled with besides packaging and investing what are some other things that you can pinpoint like how is it working together i know at least for us there are definitely challenges it's amazing right it's not smooth sailing all the time no is it smooth sailing all the time with you guys like what's the vibe on that no it's definitely not sailing it's a lot of pressure a lot of pressure and we learn to get

better over the years and just giving someone space when they need it that's definitely really important and being aware of that so being present and having that awareness and just understanding the other person and really understanding who works how that's also important because now people work differently you know it's like not everyone's going to do it your way and you can't get angry you have to let go you have to build a team you have to grow you have to trust I think that team is like something that you know I really want to focus on because it's so important to have people around you that you can trust and rely on. And that makes everything a lot smoother. And even if that's, you know, advisors, like people who've done it before and you can be like, hey, I'm struggling with this particular problem. Like, what should I do? And then, you know, they'll give you like all different

kinds of ideas. We have a really like amazing team at Vitaclean and it's just so cool because, you know, we didn't always have that. Like a lot of it was kind of hiring people and hoping that it would work out in the beginning. And because as we said, we didn't have entrepreneurial experience. So someone was like, hey, we're really good at this. And then, you know, as we got to know how to do things better, it's like they weren't very good at it. And, you know, I think that was probably one of the biggest challenges that we figured out. I mean, one of the things that I think is great, like I'm a

big Upwork fan and I think just, you know, focus on reviews on Upwork is actually. What is Upwork? You keep saying that. What is that? So Upwork is like, it's like a freelancer platform where you can, you know, you can be like graphic designer. You would like Upwork Lauren. Yeah. It's like, it's just, if you need like some odd little job done that, you know, you, you don't want to hire like a whole new person, it's really easy to just get it done and get it done like in a few days and you know our whole team obviously isn't at work but it's it's helped a lot and it's definitely made things a lot more efficient for us the reason i like you guys talking about some of the early stuff and some of the tactics you're using is because i've been on this big kick to

make sure that people like sometimes people will look at a bigger company or a bigger entity and they'll just, they get overwhelmed because like, well, look how big that thing is and how far it's gone. And I try to remind people that like, there's so many resources that exist now. It's like the easiest time it's ever been to get started. Like you're not reliant to your point on all these retailers anymore. You could literally just build a brand tomorrow online with your own platform. It's not as easy as I'm making it sound, but I just don't think people realize how many cost-effective solutions there are out there. They just think like, oh, I got to go raise money and have this co-founder and have all these resources. It's just not true. Yeah. I think you just have to

remember it takes time. Yeah. I think people have to be massively patient when it comes to building a brand. It requires so much patience and you really have to be able to see the short term and the long term at the same time. I would be crazy not to ask both of you your beauty tips. You both have beautiful hair and beautiful skin. So Michael, go rigamortis for a second because I have a couple of questions. And obviously one of your tips is Vitaclean for hair and skin. But what are some other things that you both do? Maybe let's start with morning routine favorites. So as I said, like, you know, we're big on vitamin C. So one of the things that I use is like the Ole Henriksen double cream vitamin C moisturizer, and then also Medicaid, which is like, it's an amazing Swiss cosmetics company. It's kind of

like Barbara Strum kind of vibes. They have an amazing lab in Switzerland and they have a super potent vitamin C serum that, you know, you can mix with your moisturizer or you can mix with any kind of, you know, other cream. Another thing is like Charlotte Tilbury makeup. I love her like setting spray. And you might love this being in Austin as well, because it's almost like my mom, when I was a kid, used to always spray my face with that Evian mist, you know, like that. So this is is like that but it actually just like sets your makeup and also it's almost just gives your makeup like a refresh or just like your skin in general I'm a big big fan of that I think for me it's both internal external so make sure to drink a lot of water exercise big part of my routine I wake up up, I walk my dog. So just getting out there, getting

air, getting hydrated. But in terms of skincare, I'm very minimal when it comes to my skincare. I don't like to use too many things. And right now in my life, I don't have to because my water's so clean from my shower. I don't have to use a lot, but I don't wash my face in tap water. That's one thing I don't do. So wait, so let me get this straight. So when you're washing your face, you're not using the sink. You use your shower, which I like too. I also like to brush my teeth in the shower too. But now you're getting all the chemicals in your mouth. Well, right. Not anymore. I'm not. I now have a Vitaclean. So you are doing that in the shower. So we need a sink filter too, right tuned lauren stay tuned yeah because one thing

that my facialist told me that i think is really life-changing is not to wash my face with hot water she always says like go cold because you're gonna get the broken capillaries you're for sure washing in hot water no i'm washing the shower yeah it's not really good to wash your face that much because like your natural oils like just dry out so quickly so i actually wash my face only in the shower and i use i try different things every six months i like to change up my skincare routine because i think what are some of your favorite products you have to get brands so right now i really like this goop jelly exfoliator, which is really good by Goop. And that one's really good.

I also use a lot of Clear Stem. You guys know KD and Danielle. I never had acne and I'm so thankful for that. But I love their products because I know that you're getting like really clean stuff. And it's good for anti-aging. I also really like Naturally Serious. It's this brand. It's really good.

I met the founder at a conference and she randomly just handed me a goodie bag and the products were amazing. They have these exfoliator pads that I use. So what I would do in the morning is I actually take a cotton pad and I put my cilia water on it. And that's how I would freshen up my face. And then I'll use the exfoliating pads. Always wearing SPF. I like the Supergoop skincare. It's wearing SPF I like the super groups skincare it's really good I like the glow getter it's awesome because it gives you this natural glow it's also SPF 40 so so I just discovered the best SPF so I have like a little bit of hyperpigmentation on my head that was something that really was flared up before I started using Avidaclean but just like I've tried a lot of laser and stuff and I just there's this last bit that I just can't get rid of. But one thing that I have just discovered is like I think you

say Eucerin, that's that's the brand. It's like they actually do an SPF 100. So I've been using that lately, which I found has really like allowed my skin not to get darker. And they also have like a dual pigment serum that you put on top. You have to put like the SPF on without any skincare underneath because otherwise it kind of creates a bit of a peeling effect. And then you put the jewel pigment serum on top and that's really kept it at bay. So that's for anyone suffering with hyperpigmentation or like melasma. I think, I think it's melasma. Yeah. What about niche wellness things? Are you guys into red light, cold plunging? Like, are there any things that you, you gravitate towards? We bonded a lot on cryo. I have to say like, we, you know, wellness things are you guys into red light cold plunging like are there any things that you you

gravitate towards we bonded a lot on cryo i have to say like we you know we absolutely love right christina loves the cold plunge i don't know i'm i always go to remedy place and just do a cold plunge people love that place i've never been it's in new york right la it's original one and they open up one in in new york they haveitaClean in there as well. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I know the founder. He's really, he's incredible. So you go and you can cold plunge there and then you can go and take your VitaClean shower. After you sauna.

Or you can just bring it in your bag and just install it yourself and then reinstall the shower. What else do you guys like to do besides cryo and cold plunge? Anything else that you do on a daily basis? like any foods or supplements that you gravitate towards? Definitely a lot of supplements. So I take like a really amazing probiotic, VBO mix. That's one that I found works best. And I also really like bulletproof charcoal as well. I feel like it just helps, especially if

I like go to a restaurant or, you know, change my normal diet. Even if like you want to drink alcohol, I definitely feel that and Bulletproof is the best brand of charcoal that I've personally found. But I feel like it just helps your body deal with everything a little bit better. People swear by charcoal when they drink. Yeah, but it's also just like I don't eat at restaurants a lot. So if I do, it kind of it just upsets me a little bit so really find it helps just taking like two charcoal um and you know then probiotics what are you guys's wellness or like eating habits are you big on protein are you vegan vegetarian we're definitely not vegan we eat everything yeah really clean eating I grew up eating my grandma had a

garden so like that that's how I was like this is how I grew up so I My grandma had a garden. So like that, that's how I was like, this is how I grew up. So I always gravitate to whole foods. I think it's just being intuitive, just the same as anything, being intuitive about your skincare, being intuitive about eating and just understanding your body. Everybody's different. So for me, clean eating, I don't really have a specific diet, but I eat breakfast, I eat lunch, dinner, all of it, and definitely a lot of water. And we love like green juice. Yeah, we love green juice. I personally love beetroot juice, like beetroot with my green juice. And I love smoothies as well. Again, with the charcoal, love a charcoal smoothie. We used to have them all the time when we would work together, when we lived together. And then, yeah, protein. And I like like some some starch. Like I love potatoes with my protein. But, you know, I don't have that every night.

I'll still like eat pizza like, you know, once a week or once every second week and definitely indulge in like some chocolate sometimes. Like I'm not, you know, I'm careful, but not super, super careful. And I think it's like it's just really what agrees with you. You know, it's sometimes like things work and sometimes things don't. What is next for the brand? What can we expect? We are very, very soon going to launch new colors for the shower heads.

Cute. So stay tuned. And we're also launching a cosmetics line under vitaclean or separate under vitaclean yeah so so i know you don't know you don't know you don't wash your hair very much but we are launching it's okay we'll change that we're launching a shampoo um that works really really well with hard water and and also helps a lot with brassiness without kind of causing the overtone of a purple shampoo. I can't give too many details, but it's such a great formula. There's nothing like it on the market. Yeah. So we're really excited about that.

And then also like a coconut body oil. So really helps things like itchy legs, like for shaving and stuff like that. And then, you know, it's a little bit after, but the sink filter as well, we briefly touched on, which it's, it's been a tricky development for us that for sure, you know, we finally got there. If anyone can do the sink, I feel like it's you guys. And then we need one for the bathtub. For the kids. Because they like to, they like to like put their mouth up to the thing and like Zaza's like dipping her toothbrush in the bathtub and like trying to brush her teeth with it and I'm just like you can't control everything I have to just like let it go yeah they're building up their immune system oh she's building up her immune system yeah but I think if I had something that

I knew that the water that was coming out was really like amazing for her skin would be cool. And also like just side note, you got to go into like the baby bath soap too. Because I sometimes read the ingredients for this stuff and I'm like, are they crazy thinking that I'm going to put this on my newborn? It's like so wild, the ingredients that are in these baby products. You really have to be your own guru. Like the products for babies? Yeah.

My number one favorite, if anyone's listening, is K-Pour. It's like all natural. Michael's like trying to like, Michael over here would try to slap like Juergens on the baby. That's not going to work. When I first met Michael,

he was using Old Spice, like showering in in the sewer so now he has a shower head just throw some dirt on it where can everyone find both of you to ask all the questions and then where can they find the brand and can we do a code and a giveaway christina where. Valkova on Instagram. I would be more than happy to answer any questions. Also, we have vitaclean underscore official. You can ask us there as well. And I'm Sarah K. Douglas without a H. So just S-A-R-A on Instagram. So can we do a giveaway?

Yes. Yeah, we'd love that. You guys, how many can we give away? Let's give away 10. Oh my God, that's so generous. Oh my God, wow. Okay. We're going to give give away 10 vitacleans does it come with the fragrances everything okay come to the three months supply so we go wall mount we'll give away to walmart so all you have to do is follow vitaclean underscore official perfect and then tell us

your favorite takeaway from this episode like your favorite tip about water i know i learned so much about water and immediately everything is getting changed in my entire house not just the guest bedroom and wait to see you just unscrewing all these shower heads and just getting up there it's gonna be so empowering to watch you go on up work and i'm gonna find someone who can help me it doesn't even sound like it need help. It's going to be so great to just see you get all this done. No, I'm like really like not very good at stuff like that. Sarah was it and now she's a pro. Yeah, Christina taught me everything.

I'm very handy. Should I carry this in my bag next week on vacation? Yes, absolutely. He thinks I overpack like out of it. I don't think I know. Yeah, so I'm working on it though. I'm refining it okay so you can enter the giveaway we're giving 10 away and then what's the code if someone wants to shop VitaClean

shower heads so the website is VitaClean.co and this the code is skinny love it thank you both for coming on thanks so much thank you guys I love the green and I wore green too I'm so on brand I just think what you guys are doing is incredible. Thanks so much. It's been amazing. Thank you guys. Wait, don't go. Make sure you tell us your favorite takeaway of this episode about water on my latest post

at Lauren Bostic. And make sure you follow VitaClean underscore official on Instagram.