Tan Organic - The Cleanest Tan You’ll Ever Find

Ramon Vela (00:02.658)
Welcome back everyone. This is going to be a great show. I have with me Noelle O'Connor, who is the founder of Tan Organic and Skin Magic. Welcome to the show.

Noelle (00:34.229)
It's great to be here and thank you for having me, Ramon.

Ramon Vela (00:38.338)
Well, I appreciate it. Thank you. I know you're overseas, so it's a time difference here. You're in Ireland and I'm in Los Angeles. So I appreciate you making a little bit of your time available to us so that my audience and myself, we can learn more about your business. So thank you.

Noelle (00:54.179)
No problem, thank you.

Ramon Vela (00:56.684)
So you and I have had like a really great pre-interview. We talked for longer than I normally do with people, but you just have this really great spirit and you've got a great story and you have so much energy and passion for what you do. So I think this is going to be a really great interview. And so we'll talk about why you do what you do and the challenges you face and what you do and what this.

these products, these things that you work so hard for, you bleed, sweat and tear over bringing these products to market. And we'll talk all about that. And then I'll even show people the products you sent me, which I really appreciate it. But before we do, I have a little opening question that I asked each and every founder we've had on the show. We've been around eight seasons. is our 13, 13, 13, 1330th.

or something like that, 35, 36, something like that. And I asked so many founders this, I think it's really important. For me, this question is, for me, it's like one of the best questions around from my perspective because this topic has helped me in some of my most difficult times and it's around gratitude. I sincerely believe that gratitude is a great way to relieve stress and anxiety. It's free and it's available to everyone.

And it's just a great way to kind of bring yourself to the present moment, put things in context, and really just a real powerful tool that's again available to anyone at any time when they're stressed or anxiety or down. And I highly recommend it. The other reason why I mentioned this or I asked this is it's also a great way to start a topic or a discussion.

on the journey, the entrepreneurial journey, because there's just so many people that you can thank for their help along the way, whether it's small, whether it's words, whether it's money, whether it's advice. There's all sorts of people that help entrepreneurs and this is a great way to sort of thank them as well. But lastly, I ask this because it's very, very easy for consumers to see a product on the market, on the shelf, online, and simply think,

Ramon Vela (03:21.014)
it's just some faces corporation. They don't really think about the people behind the company, behind the brand. And I really want people to know the listeners of this show to know that the brands that we feature, there are real people, small business owners who love what they do, who build these products or passionate about their products, who care about the community, care about the quality, care about everything surrounding this.

and who really work hard to bring this product to market. And it takes a lot of money, time and energy and sacrifices to do this. And I just want people to get to know who those people are. And by connection also get to know who the brand is. And so hopefully we can sort of bring this conversation down to a person to person level and humanize the brand by getting to know who you are, And so with that said, if you don't mind,

Can you share a moment or memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful because it meant that they believed in you, your vision, or your potential?

Noelle (04:24.213)
Okay, so I'm going to pick two. One from my work and the start of this brand and a personal one. which is, you know, both. And what the second one might be a bit funny, First, to start, I've always practiced gratitude and for me, it instantly makes me feel better that the brain cannot be.

is not capable of being negative when we're being thankful. So it just takes three things in the morning to be be grateful for. And it's also one of our core values in our company, gratitude. And you'll see it on our website. So in my work and the start of this brand, I'm grateful for a dragon, which you call a shark.

because in Ireland I was on the equivalent of Shark Tank many years ago, which is called Dragon's Den. And that dragon shark is called Gavin Duffy. He'll probably die if he hears me thanking him for this, but we're still very good friends. But he's seen potential in me. And you know, the brand, this was an idea I went on. And I'm very grateful for him to see the potential. He liked what he's seen.

And he invested in me and we were partners for four years and we've remained friends ever since. So I'm very grateful for that. And because I don't think I'd ever seen somebody that didn't know me and see something in me and go to the trouble of what he did and he invested in me. And the second story is I call her Betty Cosmoprof.

That's not her name. name is, know, Cosmoprof I have in her name because it was a random act of kindness. And I was going to a show, a beauty show, and many people that, you know, might know this, if they're in beauty brands, it's called Cosmoprof. It's in the US and it's in Italy. And I was on a late flight in from Dublin to Pisa and my flight was late. And of course there is...

Ramon Vela (06:14.861)
.

Ramon Vela (06:30.477)
Hmm.

Noelle (06:40.281)
My husband was already in Florence because we were staying there but there was no buses so I said look I'll stay in in Pisa I'll go in the next morning. I arrived there and I got a text message because the flight was so delayed from the B &B guy at the airport it must have been a tiny B &B I'm not waiting any longer to cancel my booking and I forgot my charger and my phone died so I had nowhere to sleep I had no phone

Ramon Vela (07:05.645)
Hmm.

Noelle (07:08.601)
I had no way of paying because we all have everything in our phone. And this is only two and a half years ago. And this lady must have seen the fear in my face. Complete stranger. She walks up to me and she said, Would you like to use my phone? And I was like, Oh, my God. She was like an angel. She said, I said, I have nowhere to stay. I've no. She said, there's actually a late bus going. I didn't know about it, but she gave me her phone and

Ramon Vela (07:12.215)
Mm-mm.

Ramon Vela (07:27.469)
you

Noelle (07:37.369)
I was able to call my husband and say leave the test and say I was on my way home. And I got her number when we got off in Pisa and I was going to my hotel. said I must take your number. But I only knew her as Betty. So I entered her as Betty Cosmoprof. And, you know, she stayed at my house at the weekend. We had a barbecue on Saturday and she stayed over. She's one of a dear, friend of mine. And now we kept in touch and yeah, ran the back of my kindness. And that's just.

Ramon Vela (07:49.842)
Hehehe.

Noelle (08:05.815)
something I'm really, really grateful for. I try and, you know, there's things that happen every day in my life that I'm very grateful for. I'll tribute to those two, to one in business and one in personal life. Both of them who are still very good friends of mine. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (08:20.653)
Well, I love that and that says a lot about you as well. But it's so, it's just such, know, I love this idea of being open to the kindness that's around you. Sometimes we're so busy, we don't see it, we don't welcome it. But I feel like there's all sorts of opportunities for...

for people to show kindness, for us to show kindness and to have it be given to us if we're open to it. And I just feel like it's beautiful when we can do that. Especially nowadays, feels just like everything, things move so fast and people are just kind of heads down on their phones and they don't really pay attention. It's just really nice to be able to hear stories like that. And it also says a lot about you that

you know, someone will come up to you and want to help you, but then also you turn this into this, you know, this friendship now that you have. And I think that's pretty great. It's a great story to tell people about how you met and it's just really interesting. And again, that says a lot about both of you actually, that you can have this friendship like that.

Noelle (09:39.577)
Actually, we had about 13 people at the barbecue. And of course, my family hadn't met or some of them hadn't met or some had. And how did we meet? And that's the story. And I haven't changed the phone. She's still Betty Cosmoprof. Her name is Elizabeth Lavery. But I think I'll just keep Betty Cosmoprof because the story was so lovely. She saved my life that night. But yeah. And it's about connection, really. Everybody needs connection. And connection doesn't

Ramon Vela (09:53.933)
Thank

Noelle (10:09.133)
have to be with people that you know or your family. people, there's a positive energy from connecting with, there's a lot of lonely people. I'm not saying Betty's lonely, she's not. But you just never know who, random act of kindness can change somebody's life or friendships that can come out of it. it's sad that people are on their phones and a lot is done online because there's a lot.

to be gained from connecting with people with random act of kindness, whether it's receiving or giving it.

Ramon Vela (10:44.609)
Yeah. No, and I love that, that spirit about it. And I think for me, it's like, it's not just connecting with people, but it's also just connecting with the moment and connecting with those things around you. Like every, like I love to take little walks and listen to podcasts or to music while I walk and so forth. every now and then I think, you know what? I should just like not have my headphones on like

There was a time in my life when I didn't have headphones to put on and have a phone. I think I was late to the party. I don't think I got an iPhone until 2001 or 2002. I think it came out in 97. I didn't get one until like four or five years later. I still had to flip phones and all that other stuff. But every now and then I want to just disconnect from those things, which I love, but then just connect with whatever's out there.

You know, I live right by the mountain. So I look at the mountains and I live, there's a lot of trees here and I just want to enjoy it. And I think sometimes we need to, we need that connection. You know, we need that, that connection to remind us of things. And I think it's a beautiful sentiment that you just mentioned. I also kind of feel that all of the stuff that we're just talking about, I know that it's, I know that it may seem like it's separate from,

the product and the brand, but I also feel like though that I've had these conversations enough with founders that the brand is many times a reflection of what the founder is all about or the founder's personalities or has elements of the founder's personality. Walk us through, I wonder if you would entertain this, describe.

your company and these pro and those brands to people and and and how do they and how do they connect how do they connect with each other how do they connect with people and and how do want people to feel about these products from from that standpoint what we just talked about

Noelle (12:53.665)
Okay, so the product when I originally went on Dragon's Down or Shark Tank all those years ago, I was presenting a brand and a product that had kind ingredients to our skin. Because I am fair hair, freckly, redhead, I burn in about three minutes. And the only way I could have a tan was out of a bottle.

Ramon Vela (13:18.199)
He

Noelle (13:22.841)
there weren't any ones that were kind to the skin. were very drying on the skin. And that's how I came about producing Tan Organic. And, you know, we say we are as kind to your skin as we are to the planet. And I'm a skincare therapist from the age of 18. I was a beauty therapist. My previous business, had a chain of high-end spas, skincare. And our soul, you know, what we did was being kind to the skin.

and the best skincare ingredients. out of that, know, Tan Organic was born out of what did they say? Recession is the mother of invention because when everything collapsed in 2010, I had a chain of high end spas. So that's where the brand that collapsed and I had to start again. And that's when I went on Dragon's Den equivalent to Sharp Tank. But our products and everything

Ramon Vela (14:04.736)
Okay.

Noelle (14:21.753)
that's in it, the integrity, the ingredients, the cleanliness, the kindness. And that's when we went to put our core values, what was this brand built on? And that's what it was built on. Our core values are kindness, gratitude, integrity, quality, and innovation. The team that we have,

are a beautiful team. They're all beautiful souls. And, you know, for example, we work remotely on a Monday morning, we have a question, you know, we get to know each other all the time so we can connect that question on a Monday morning. This morning, this Monday, it was what's your ideal weekend look like? And on a Wednesday, we learned something on a Friday, we have gratitude Friday and that gratitude Friday just makes our Fridays. We get to thank somebody and

on for something that they did. It's really, really hard, but it's a lovely way to finish the week. So that gives you kind of a feel of what the company is like. And we have a really beautiful, we've really beautiful products that have really everything that we do. We try and do it to the best of our ability to create it the most ethical, sustainable way in what we can afford to do.

It's always more expensive than my supply chain team like it to be. But I push hard on that. Because that's what I get up in the morning to do. You know, I want our products to be quality and they do cost a lot to produce. But what we produce is probably one of the cleanest sub town brands in the world. And that's what I wanted it to be from day one. And so I don't know if that answers the question.

Ramon Vela (15:54.881)
Mm-hmm.

Noelle (16:20.249)
of what our company looks like and what our brands look like. And Skin Magic, which I sent to you, which is our second brand, which is brought up for airlines. There was another brand. I won't mention the brand, but they probably weren't as clean. And so we took the honey out and we replaced it with beeswax with Japanese wax tree. So it's all vegan, all organic. And that's the product that I sent to you.

Ramon Vela (16:47.757)
you

Noelle (16:48.649)
and which is Skin Magic, which is a sister, very small, sustainable skincare brand. Our main brand is Tan Organic. It's a Sonneth's Tan brand. And then the second mini brand, Two Skews, is Skin Magic, which, yeah, yeah.

Ramon Vela (17:04.619)
Mm-hmm. Well, and thank you for that. I think that you did a great job there. And we'll talk more about these as we go along. And I really feel like in terms of the connection side of it, mean, these products, the way that I always look at these products, not just yours, but whenever someone tries, whether it's...

a solution to help you with certain skin ailments or whether it's clothes, there's always a level, some emotional level there where people are trying to connect with themselves, connect with their health, connect with their values. Obviously, a company like yours where you're trying to be kind by having the best ingredients and the most.

kind ingredients in there, vegan, et cetera, and so forth. Those are values that people connect to that they want to have. mean, not everyone, but a larger and larger segment of the population want to have products that are not only clean and good for the environment, but also clean and good for themselves. I've noticed in the time that I've been doing this podcast where...

there are more label readers, even my children, maybe it's because of me, but when they buy stuff, when they're looking, when we're in the market, they turn around and read the label immediately, like, you know, what's in this? And I think more and more people are doing that. And I think that's one of the values that they have that your brand can connect with, with your brand.

Noelle (18:38.263)
Yeah, and I love that. I love that you're saying that because, you know, when I originally started this, I probably was ahead of my time. I was too early with it, but I really believed in it. And I love when I see somebody reading a label. I love when I see someone scanning something to see how high the score is. I love when someone cares what's in those, what ingredients are in there. So.

Our ingredients are super clean. They're all organic. I think it's taken a while, but, you know, I think that younger generation, if they care about what they eat, they really should. That was the line actually that got me investment on Dragons Den. If you care about what you eat, you really should care about what you put on your skin. And I think this generation, they're so conscious about what they eat and they're like, hey,

Ramon Vela (19:22.743)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (19:27.789)
Hmm.

Noelle (19:33.783)
You know, I need to look at what I'm putting onto my skin every day. there's also people are using more personal care products than they did 20 years ago or 15 years ago. And back when I had my spas, we had the odd male come in, you know, but not, you know, you nearly have to convince them to have treatments. Now it's just standard.

Ramon Vela (19:57.037)
Thank

Noelle (20:00.087)
you know, men are now up there with their full skincare routine. And people care about what they're putting on their skin now. And it absolutely brings me joy because that's what we did and that's what I do for a living. And I've done it since I was 18 years of age. But I think people are becoming more more educated. A lot of it is social media and some of what's on social media is correct and some of it is not.

But I think it's certainly going in the right direction. And it excites me that people will now know, you know, you wouldn't eat junk. So why would you put junk on your skin when you're doing it every day? when people are using on average, men use about 12 personal care products a day and women about 20. That's a lot. So when people say there's safe levels of XYZ in a product, they're not assuming you're going to put 20.

Ramon Vela (20:33.346)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (20:51.765)
Wow. Yeah.

Noelle (21:00.181)
of those on. So when you're putting so much personal care products on, it's a lot. So you want to have it as clean as possible because that is a lot more. Everything is a chemical. Water is a chemical. But that's a lot more ingredients and chemicals that are going on the skin that people put on now that people didn't put on their skin 20, 30 years ago. I think that definitely

Ramon Vela (21:25.293)
Mm-hmm.

Noelle (21:28.717)
does have an effect on our bodies when that much is going on our skin every day.

Ramon Vela (21:34.028)
Yeah. Yeah. And I'm glad you brought that sort of scenario together because we don't always think about that. We think about this one singular product and we think, okay, well, this is my, these might be safe levels, but we don't think about all the other products and then the aggregate of it. Yeah. We don't think about that. And you're right about the, about more people using it because I feel like, I think it coincides also with

Noelle (21:51.895)
Yeah, yeah.

Ramon Vela (22:03.329)
the education of the market. Like I've been educated since I've been doing this podcast. I never used to put, I used to use like, what was it? I can't remember the name zest or was it zest or I don't remember. It was a very harsh soap. and cause I didn't care. I didn't, I didn't know what the difference was. didn't understand, you know, by drying your skin and all this other stuff that you could do. And then I didn't realize that the, the skin is a, is, you know, your largest.

Noelle (22:18.189)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (22:31.113)
Oregon and all of that, if I'm saying that correctly. And it really matters what you put on your skin because your skin absorbs it, right? And that's why those transdermal patches are so effective for nicotine and everything else because it goes right into your bloodstream. And so I think more and more people have woken up to the idea that what you put on your skin really matters. And I know nowadays I use like moisturizers on my face and my neck.

And I'm much more cognizant of that. You know, I never used to be, but the last four five years I've been much more cognizant of that. And I think a lot of people have woken up from that.

Noelle (23:10.893)
Yeah, I mean, you are absolutely right. Your skin is your largest organ and we really should respect it. And so, for example, on average, now this could have changed, but I know about two kilos of chemicals that we put into our skin on a year on average. We'd never dream of putting those kind of, well, I'm not going to say chemicals because everything is a chemical.

with synthetic ingredients or synthetics. You'd never dream of putting that into your heart and lungs. Never. But yeah, we put it onto the largest organ of our body without thinking, what am I putting, you know, on here? And it is an organ, but then a lot of people don't know that a skin is an organ. And I'm glad you brought that up, Raymond, because it is. the more we educate people, the more they'll know how important it is.

Ramon Vela (24:00.568)
Hmm.

Noelle (24:09.497)
for us to respect our skin.

Ramon Vela (24:09.549)
you

Yeah, and especially like underarms, know, like deodorants and stuff like that. That's terrible with some of the stuff that's in there and then the petrochemicals that are used in some products. I mean, it's ridiculous. Like if you understand what petrochemicals are, you think like, how can you put that on your skin or how can that be in the product? But we do, they still find, you know, they still use that in certain things in the plastics and the microplastics. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that we need to be concerned of. And I think little by little people are awakening.

or being kind of aware of these things that are around us. And that's why I think people are now, like you said earlier, you were a little ahead of your time. And I've talked to brands like this who were, you know, 10 years ago, you know, providing organic foods and things like that. They were, you guys were ahead of your time, but the market has sort of now started to catch up because people have become aware of the value of these ingredients and everything else.

Noelle (25:10.561)
Yeah, ahead of our time. And I think those that stuck at it were really passionate because you couldn't keep going to work when it was so difficult because the market of people that cared about them was so small. I just thought everybody thought like me, but they didn't. It was really small. And so you were fighting, you know, for your sales because the products were a little bit more expensive and people just weren't as educated as they are now.

Ramon Vela (25:26.433)
He

Noelle (25:40.057)
And I don't think if you hadn't got that passion or purpose, you couldn't keep going every day and fighting the fight when you were before your time, you know, because you kind of go, oh, I could have relaxed for five or 10 years and done this. know, really was when I seen the tide turn, start to turn was really about 2018, 19. And COVID then, we all became more aware of our

Ramon Vela (25:47.469)
Yeah.

Noelle (26:09.547)
our being, I think, in COVID and how delicate we are, really. So it was just before 19 people started, I started to see the tide turn. And yeah, what an experience COVID was about, you know, us all being equal, really, and about how precious our bodies are, really, and how delicate they are. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (26:28.64)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (26:32.908)
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think, I think that was a time where our health became the center of our attention. And so, you know, I think for me, at least, and I think a lot of people, some people,

Noelle (26:44.835)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (26:51.86)
you know, were stressed out, understandably so, and, you know, over ate and snacked and everything else or maybe self-medicated. And then a lot of people really though became much hyper aware of their immune system, of their health.

I know I did. I I sort of started thinking like, oh, I better start eating healthy. Like I don't want anything happening. And, you know, I was scared to death of catching COVID and what would it do and how would I respond to it? And so my focus was how can I become as, how can my immune system be as healthy as possible? How can I be as healthy as possible? And I think, and it shows with the data, so many products.

Really started taking off in that time, supplements, personal care products, exercise equipment, yoga, meditation. mean, all these things started really exploding. so yeah, I mean, I think, I think that moment was a, was an interesting moment that changed a lot of the sort of the buyer's behavior, as well. one thing you said that I did want to just emphasize a little bit, and then I have another question for you regarding,

regarding the business before we get into some of the products is the, actually I lost my train of thought on the first question, so I'm gonna ask you the second one. You mentioned about the recession, the previous recession and how you had to close your stores, your studios, your storefronts.

I interviewed some people that had to close because of the pandemic and, you know, close physical stores and everything changed. Obviously the recession also had an effect like that. It was so bad. Were you already carrying these products? Were you already selling them to individuals or making them for your customers and then had them available when you had to pivot and only sell?

Ramon Vela (29:01.91)
products versus having your stores? Or did you decide that I better come up with a product because now I don't have a store? I mean, either way, just, curious. I'm just, I would love to know which came first. it, was it the closing or was it the product or the rise versus?

Noelle (29:19.265)
Okay, I started my, a beauty therapist and I started my first beauty salon behind hairdressers with a 2000 pound credit union loan. That's all I had. And I built that to a four million company with six bars and

It was, we had six high-end spas and then, you know, the banks crashed. Everything happened between 2008, 2009. And the writing was on the wall in 2009. I was hemorrhaging. You it was really profitable. And I was losing cash. you thought, I had previously, my business just went just one direction and never, never experienced failure.

Ramon Vela (29:57.729)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Noelle (30:17.389)
before that. So in my mind, I was like, I'll be fine. You know, I just didn't see nobody and no a lot of people in Ireland. So we had Spain, Italy, Greece and Ireland, you know, Portugal, Spain, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Ireland that were the countries that were we were bankrupt, right. And in Europe and so I didn't think it would be as bad as it was. And I thought things would be OK. It'll get better.

I had 40 therapists and I had six, six spas, high-end spas, and I thought it would get better. And we're told that female entrepreneurs have more empathy and they don't cut. So I didn't cut deep enough or quick enough. That's probably a lesson I've learned, but I didn't want to let the team go.

And of course, I kept the revenues dropped, but the overhead stayed the same and I didn't cut them. I knew I was going to run out of cash. I did because I was just a skincare therapist and I never had any form of business education. I did and I'm looking at the certificate on the wall here, an entrepreneurial master's program in MIT.

and over three years and graduated in 2008 and this was 60 young entrepreneurs under the age of 40 and you had to have a business in excess of a million to qualify. So I was very excited to do that and I did that but we loved that so much that we continued and met again in New York, some of us in the class and we met again in alumni if you like.

And I think I told you the story, but we had speakers and we didn't have much. We put all of our money in together and we met again and we paid for a few speakers. And one of those speakers was Simon Sinek. So he wasn't charging that much back then. And I mean, he was always really good and his was the finding our why.

Noelle (32:39.714)
And I think there was about 13 of us in the room. It was a hotel in New York. And we were alumni from the MIT class, which had 60 in it. And I knew the writing was on the wall. And he was telling us about her why. And I was like, I don't even know. I don't even have a how or a what, never mind a why. And I actually start crying in the room.

Ramon Vela (33:00.136)
Thank

Noelle (33:03.972)
course,

What's the two New York teams? it was a Jets and Yankees. Would I be right in saying that? Would that be right? I think it was base. it which I can't really remember.

Ramon Vela (33:41.58)
was baseball or football.

Ramon Vela (33:48.492)
Because I'm not a sports fan, but I believe Mets and Yankees if it's baseball.

Noelle (33:54.125)
Yeah, Mets and Yankees, right? And this was really a cool game to go to. And they were like, no, you can't miss this, you know? And so I said, I'll go. And the reason I can't remember is Simon was in that, he came with us. And I didn't see the game because he came over and tapped me on the shoulder and he pulled me to one side. And he says, come and have a chat with me. Cause he'd seen I was upset.

Ramon Vela (34:20.352)
Hmm.

Noelle (34:20.602)
He said, nice upset, he and he says, we're going to sit down and we're going to find your why. And I, you know, I didn't know he was going to be as big as he is now. But he was really good. And he sat down and he said, what, what do you, what did you enjoy doing? And I said, I always enjoy having things first. Or I was, I'd started to create a skincare brand and I didn't finish it. Basically, he found what I was passionate about. And so I said, right, I'm going to go back and.

start developing a brand and I had a couple of ideas. And so that's where Tan Organic came out. So if you like, that bud came out at the end of where I knew I was on a downslide, you know, and he gave me a seed and that seed is where we are today. So, yeah, if Simon Sinek is out there listening, that was way before.

Ramon Vela (35:16.242)
Thank

Noelle (35:18.682)
way before he's as big as he is now. And that was in 2009, I think. Yeah. So we're talking what 16 years ago? Yeah. So I was very privileged to have Simon tap into my why and that's where Panorganic was born out of. Yes.

Ramon Vela (35:25.419)
Well...

Yeah, yeah.

Ramon Vela (35:35.949)
Oh, wow. I love that story. I do remember you telling me that one. No, I appreciate that. And that's another one of those things to be grateful for. Right. Like someone giving you these words of encouragement, this transfer of belief. mean, he could have. I mean, of course, that's his thing. It's like helping people find their why. But I also feel like there is there was a lot of kindness and a lot of

you know, like he didn't have to tap into, yeah.

Noelle (36:07.086)
He didn't have to do that. He could have watched the game, right? Which was a really good game. Like I didn't know much about baseball, but he sacrificed watching that game, which tickets were impossible for. And we had a box, but he took the time to sit with me. How kind was that for him to do that? He'd done his gig for the day. You know, he was finished, but he still did that.

Ramon Vela (36:25.824)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Noelle (36:33.998)
He still sat down and we really kind of did that to me for me. Yeah. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (36:37.706)
Yeah. Yeah. And that's what I mean. It's like he, he, he saw something in you, took some time, just like the question that I asked, took some time and in his case, transfer this, his belief in your potential and what you were all about, and spend some time with you and share that. And then that's an amazing story. And I love that. and,

And you're very fortunate for that. And I think you ended up going in the right direction because I know it's been a few years, but this path, I feel from talking to you and hearing you and your stories and today and in our previous conversation.

You are energized. Even before we were just talking about this, we don't have to go into this, but we were talking about your husband and being retired. And he's, he's, remember you say that last, last time that he's like, Hey, we should, you we should both just enjoy retirement because he wants to enjoy retirement, but you're too passionate on what you're doing. You don't want to stop. You don't want to, you don't want to not work. You love what you're doing. you can, tells from your face, from your voice, from your smile, how much you enjoy doing what you're doing.

Noelle (37:38.371)
No.

Ramon Vela (37:49.138)
And so it shows and I think it also shows within the products as well.

Noelle (37:54.299)
And I think that is exactly what Simon says. When you find your why, you never work again, really. If you have a purpose and know what that is, you get so much joy out of that. Way before my time, it was too early, the market wasn't ready, but that passion, because this was what I loved to do, get you through those first eight years that were really difficult, really.

Ramon Vela (38:23.303)
Yeah. The thing that I was going to mention earlier was it's more of a comment, I guess, than a question. But I wanted you had mentioned price and you mentioned cost. Actually, that's what you mentioned. And I just wanted to reiterate this. I always like to say this during an interview, especially with a brand like yours, in that these ingredients, because you are

You know, these are, in your words earlier, kinder ingredients. They're better for you, better for the planet. They do cost a little bit more, right? And just so everyone out there knows, manufacturing in the way that people usually do manufacturing, it's always based on the lowest cost per unit. And that's how you make money.

Right? That's how the large companies and conglomerates make money and so forth. The other way, and the way that they do that is that they use ingredients that are not so expensive. They use active ingredients, but at lower levels they use, and this is not all products, but it's a lot of products. And they also use things such as fillers and fillers is a general term, but it's a lot. There's a lot of stuff that they put in there in these products and it's all geared towards.

helping you, at the same time though, making it as least expensive as possible. So sometimes you sacrifice the efficaciousness of the product versus how much money they can make. unfortunately that's just capitalism. That's just the way it is. But there are companies out there, yours included, that really go the extra step and decide we want to have this integrity or this

Noelle (40:00.656)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (40:14.774)
congruence in terms of our values and our mission with how we make the product. And while we can't always do what we want because, you know, is a cost to everything, we won't sacrifice the ingredients. And so I know I'm talking on your behalf, you correct me if I'm wrong. But, you know, brands like yours basically buy and use the higher cost ingredients because they're,

better for you, they're kinder in terms of vegan, et cetera and so forth. And there is a cost to this. So consumers should know when you buy products like this, it is a little bit more expensive, but the efficaciousness is typically much better. The benefit to you, to the planet is much better. And for me, I love this because for me, I love brands that are congruent with their values and mission, or at least they try to be as much as possible.

I know it's not always the case and I don't want to get on anyone's business, but I do feel that when you go the extra mile, it should be admired and it should be noted. so I just want to people, that's my two cents on you Noel and your business.

Noelle (41:28.474)
And it does cost more. So for example, with Chan Organic, we're all organic ingredients. So we don't use synthetic colors. We only use food coloring. Our products are made in the States. they're made in the US and they're made in Ireland. So we have supply on this side and supply on that side. But originally they were made in

in the US and my original formula started there and we order our colours from a food supplier in the US and we use beetroot powder, organic beetroot powder, use caramel, organic caramel and we use extract of anata which is from red pepper.

And all of those ingredients are sold to food manufacturers for food. we put them in. That's just our colors. So we have no synthetic ingredients. In actual fact, I rang Glenn. He's an expert on colors in the US. He's a really, really nice man. And he doesn't need to give me. He's very kind and I'm very grateful for him. But I emailed him and I said, hey, Glenn, what would happen if I if I ate the beetroot powder? And he said.

Well, no, I'll email you back. I don't think it tastes very good, but probably be good at D2 if you want to show you can eat it to put it in some some water and try it as juice. So I was like, OK, I'm going to do that. And I had it on my shelf here and I was so excited to do it. But the heath, it affected it. So I'm going to have to order more samples. And so that's just our coloring. And we only use and we don't use any perfumes. We just use organic aromatherapy oils.

And our preservative is even a food grade preservative. It's gluconolactone, which is a great ingredient and it's nearly like a mini secret exfoliator, which helps. That was a happy accident, by the way. I didn't plan that. So I think the universe gave me an added bonus in our products because I chose a food grade preservative. So all of these things cost more money. All of our products are in glass.

Noelle (43:53.403)
The reason I wanted them in glass is I wanted inner packaging and I wanted the efficacy and the quality and integrity of those ingredients to be kept for as long as possible. And even in Skin Magic, that jar that you have beside you, if you pick it up, we could have had that same jar looked exactly on the outside the same by putting plastic on the inside and it would have been a lot cheaper.

but you're going to open that jar and there is glass in there, which is a lot more expensive because I wouldn't put it in plastic. Yes, glass. So we want to protect how really good those ingredients are. So we put them in the best possible home that we can. And so that's why that's what costs extra. And that's why the integrity and the quality of them.

Ramon Vela (44:45.675)
Yeah.

Noelle (44:50.134)
An example, our Tan Organic mousse has 12 ingredients and we just picked a random competitor and they have 33 ingredients. So it does the same thing. We just have less ingredients and more quantity of them. Exactly what you said, Erin, you can have a lot of ingredients in your marketing. You can say I can have this, I have this, I have that. But if it's below one percent.

It does nothing for your skin. It's what we call a trace and it's only there for marketing purposes. So yeah, you want to have a good chunk of a percentage. In order for an ingredient to be anyway active, it needs to between one and 5%. And that, yeah.

Ramon Vela (45:20.95)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (45:31.54)
Yeah. I've heard it referred to as a marketing recipe.

Noelle (45:37.132)
marketing recipe that's a good one I haven't heard of that before I'll use that one myself yeah

Ramon Vela (45:41.996)
So, all right, so I want to talk more about the product and the time that we have, but I do have one more last question for you because I love the story that you had and you talked about Simon Sinek and about the recession and.

You've been through a lot. You're so passionate about what you're doing. You have this why and has kept you going. We'll talk about some of the wins that you're getting and some of the in some of the stores that you'd be you're available at now and what the future looks like in a little bit. But I do want to just get from your reflection in terms of what you've learned thus far. Like what has been like if you were to share this story to another

group of beginning entrepreneurs at that MIT program, what would you share with them? Is there one big lesson or something you would share with them that they should know about that might help them in their journey?

Noelle (46:45.198)
Well, I think we just spoke about the, you know, you got to believe in what you're doing and believe in yourself or you won't last because it's tough. It's tough. A brand in particular, and you talk to a lot of brand owners, Raymond, any kind of brand, a consumer brand, it is really difficult because we're competing, you know, for example, in beauty, know, seven companies.

owned the majority of beauty brands in the world. So those guys are who we're competing with and we're small indie brands, you know. And so you really need to believe in yourself and believe in what you're doing. I think that's the most important thing. And I think having mentors that have walked the walk before.

Ramon Vela (47:19.35)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (47:27.67)
Hmm.

Noelle (47:38.407)
And, you know, when I do retire, think that's what I would I will enjoy doing with, you know, what I've learned isn't because I know things I've learned because I've made the mistake. You make a mistake and you go, OK, I won't be doing that again. And so when you get to my age, there's a collection of mistakes. And this is what I love about the US. You know, failure is is not failure. It's just learning, you know, and.

Ramon Vela (47:53.398)
you

Noelle (48:05.42)
I don't I like to call the mistakes learning curves. And I think the rest of the world is coming on to you. It's good to fail. People fail so they can learn. And I think having mentors or and there's lots of people that just want to help and give back and asking, asking for help. People, people don't like to ask, but everybody wants to wants to help. So.

Ramon Vela (48:34.155)
Hmm.

Noelle (48:34.964)
And if they don't want to help, you don't want to be asking that person anyway.

Ramon Vela (48:37.323)
Yeah, no, I love that and you're absolutely correct and that's what I would say too in terms of make sure to ask for help and you know.

not only just ask for help, but be open to talking to yourself. Because a lot of times people get embarrassed, people are ashamed, people aren't, they don't want to be looked at as failures. And I think you're right, think the secret is to be okay with failure. Everyone makes mistakes. And the worst thing you can do is just kind of, you know.

Stick to yourself. ask for help or don't talk to people about your problem. And from my experience, most entrepreneurs, at least the ones that I've come across with, and I've run into close to thousand people, most of them I think are always open to talking to people. Like if you ask them a question and whatnot, because other entrepreneurs are the best.

They're the ones that know what you're going through and so they understand the difficulties and so most people I think are really really helpful. So thank you for that. Let's talk about the product. just so everyone knows, Noel has two products or two brands that we were we mentioned in the early on. One is Tan Organic and we've kind of been talking about these. Tan Organic is the main brand and that's at tanorganic.com. We'll go over that in just a second.

And then we also talk about skin magic.ie, which is the brand that, that I, that she sent me. So really quick, cause I know that the 10 organic is a little bit, it's larger and you want to, you know, we want to talk a little bit more on that one, but this one here, walk us through what is it, would, what is it for? Cause if we talked a little bit about the ingredients already, but what is it for? and, how do people use it? Cause I noticed there's a lot of usages for this.

Noelle (50:32.844)
Yeah, Skin Magic Multi Use Balm. So it is a wonderful product. And, you know, we have about over 33 uses and counting on our website. So it's for all of the family. that product actually is available on Costco.com at the moment. so that that product will take the anger out of any angry skin.

It can be used for the whole family. It can be used. It can be used face, body, dry skin, perfect for psoriasis, eczema, any kind of skin that's angry. It can be used healing. Actually, a new one the other day, somebody said they put it on their mozzie bites and it helped because I was just back from Italy and I had a few mozzie bites.

I went into the office and some of the day I put it on my Mozzie Bites when I was home in Brazil. So that's a new one. I don't think that's on our list. So it's all organic and it's vegan. that formula took about a year. The formulator was retired and I was from South Africa. Brilliant formulator. He actually formulated that product BioOil and many other famous formulations. And what we did is we removed the beeswax.

Ramon Vela (51:38.763)
Thank you.

Noelle (52:00.399)
These waxes in a lot of things and what you know, it's in your lipstick, it's in balms and it's in anything solid. So what we did is we removed that and we replaced it with a Japanese wax tree product. Yeah. And it's a wax to oil feel. So you put it on, you heat it up between your hands and then you've got a beautiful non greasy product that is certified organic. It's vegan.

and it's a really really good product for anybody. Kids and mothers, men and it can be used as pre shave, post shave and it can actually it'll actually take your makeup off and because we've got essential oils that will dissolve your makeup in there and if you look at that there's so many uses I couldn't mention all of them it would be here all night and so I see that you so use that and

Ramon Vela (52:56.529)
Thank

Noelle (53:00.13)
It's a great product to put on your skin at night time before you go to bed. And when you wake up in the morning, your skin feels amazing.

Ramon Vela (53:07.508)
And you would just apply it to your skin.

Noelle (53:10.562)
Yeah, just a small amount. Put it in the palms of your hands and heat it and then just put it onto your face at night time. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (53:18.473)
Well, so I have here the document that you send with the product. I'll just read some of these off, so just so people have a good idea, and then we'll talk about the TAN Organic. Amazing moisturizer for soft, smooth skin with daily use. Suits minor burns, including sunburns, and reduces stinging. Natural treatment for cuts and scrapes. Perfect for eczema, psoriasis with regular use. Works wonders as a hydrating lip balm.

prepare skin for a smoother, less irritating shave. That's what I'm gonna try, cause I gotta shave a little bit later today. Reduces irritation and redness as an aftershave balm. And that actually is fantastic because I don't like to shave. Actually I've been kind of leaving this area a little bit more, but normally I just have a beard because I hate shaving. And because when I shave, no matter what I do, it leaves me like a little bit of irritation here and right here.

Noelle (54:15.767)
anger, it will take that anger out. I promise you. So you can use those pre-shave and post-shave. It is phenomenal. And that irritation is anger and it will take that right out for you.

Ramon Vela (54:17.835)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (54:30.153)
Yeah, and I hate it because especially here when I shave this area, there's all these like little red bumps appear after I shave. Hydrates deeply hydrates the delicate skin around the eyes. Perfect for massages with a smooth wax to oil texture helps heal fresh tattoos, reducing scabbing and itching. that's a good one too. Safe for babies, helping prevent and heal happy nappy rashes, softens and reduces cradle cap on baby scalp. that's a big one. I don't have kids anymore, but I remember that.

Perfect for wind burn by soothing and protecting the skin. It just has so many different, I mean, it says endless care, wherever life takes you. So it's really amazing. And then you also talk about the ingredients, what we went over a second ago. So this is great. Thank you so much. This is gonna be extremely helpful. I'm gonna try it today when I shave this area here and see how it works. Because like I said, I don't like to shave because of that irritation.

But let's talk now about tan organic. So this is the exciting one right now because you're, I believe you have some news about where it's being, where it's available in the States and you've got a lot of big plans for it. So walk us through the tan organic.

Noelle (55:44.485)
So Tan Organic was that, know, Simon Sinek was that brand that I started. It's a Sunless Tan brand. I'm going to say it's the cleanest, one of the cleanest, if not the cleanest Sunless Tan brand in the world. I always say if you can find one that's cleaner than us, please let me know because I can't find it. So on apps like Yucca App or Inky Decoder, we come up really, really high.

which I'm delighted with now that there are apps like that. You look at it and say, look, you know, our ingredients are so clean. we are just we've just launched into natural grocers, 170 stores, and we're on shelf in their lovely company to deal with, have to say. Natural grocers, in my experience, the buyers being lovely, the whole journey with them has been lovely.

Ramon Vela (56:19.915)
you

Noelle (56:43.738)
We're in California in a couple of stores called Good Earth. They're all, how do you say, those stores are kind of like health food stores, right, in the US, which you have bigger chains of. We're currently talking to Fruitful Yield. They 14 stores are going to take it in. And just yesterday at a conversation and samples gone to sprouts.

Ramon Vela (56:56.127)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (57:10.837)
Mm-hmm.

Noelle (57:11.916)
So I don't know how that's going to go, but we would love to go in there. So yes, that's our first phase of entry into the US. But like I say, our products have always been made in the US. So we are an Irish brand, but we also have a company in the US. We've got a warehouse in New York. And we're on Amazon. We do really well on Amazon. We've got great reviews.

And then, of course, we have our website, telecannic.com. But yeah, you can tell that that product is my firstborn and my favorite child. And although everything that we bring out and everything that I bring out, the quality is really good and the products are really good. And, you know, somebody purchasing something for the first time is not really testament to a product. It's the repeat purchase. It's when you buy it a second time.

Ramon Vela (57:51.179)
Thank

Ramon Vela (58:09.002)
Hmm.

Noelle (58:10.754)
I'm really excited to see how you're going to get on with your shaving and I need you to let me know how you get on. And so if you can find a product that makes your shaving a better experience, I hopefully, I'm dying to hear how you get on with this.

Ramon Vela (58:16.882)
you

Ramon Vela (58:24.171)
I appreciate that. And just to kind of give the audience an understanding here. So you've got instantan, you got instantan product, you have a self-tan product, you also have sun protection. And am I missing anything here?

Noelle (58:42.842)
We have a self tan oil, which is our hero. The reason that that just is being a phenomenal product since 2012. And that's just like a body oil that you put on after your shower and it gives you a natural growth. Cause a lot of people don't like the, sunless tanning can be a bit of a messy experience. So that self tan oil just makes it like putting a body oil on after your shower. And that is by far our most popular product.

Ramon Vela (58:45.513)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (59:06.645)
Hmm.

Noelle (59:11.194)
And we've got then a self tan lotion, which was my first product, which was my first born. That's still a strong hero. And we have our self tan mousse. They're our three hero products. But our instant, which is a newer product because some people now just want to put something on and be able to take it off at a shower. So that's...

very popular. takes us a long, we could bring out new products all the time, but I want them to be perfect. And there are lots of Sunless Tan products out there, but it's quite difficult to organicize them. So we've got to take a product and we have to do it without synthetic colors. We've got to do it without unsavory preservatives. We've got to do it without perfume.

Ramon Vela (01:00:01.046)
Mm-hmm.

Noelle (01:00:09.122)
So it's harder work, it's challenging, but it's worth it with the products that we produce afterwards. So we've got some anti-aging facial serums, we've got tan drops, we've got a remover that's a scrub bar because I didn't want to use anything harsh ingredients because I didn't want it to strip the skin. our product basically falls into prep.

that's prepare your skin with an exfoliator and then treat that supply your tan and maintain by using a bronzer or body oil. So that's how we break down step one, two, three for you to have a weekly tan without the sun because the sun as we know damages our skin and any kind of a tan skin is a damaged skin. So luckily we can have really good products without sun exposure.

Ramon Vela (01:00:46.302)
Hmm.

Noelle (01:01:07.8)
that look natural and that's what we try to do at TAN Organics.

Ramon Vela (01:01:09.109)
Mm-hmm.

I love that. you know, and that's the other, that's the other thing that has, has evolved or, or I said, I guess grown in terms of knowledge and education is the impact of the sun. So everyone loves to be on the sun and it's good for you, but you know, being out too long, too long, too much, too much exposure can be bad for you, can cause different.

you know, cancers and ailments and everything like that. So I think more and more people, they want to have, you know, like that glow that you mentioned earlier, they want to have that glow, but they just don't want to have at the expense of their health, of their skin's health. And then you also have people who, you know, may not have the skin that's, that is, I guess, ready for that. I mean, they might have more sensitive skin, more pale skin. Yeah.

Noelle (01:02:05.026)
No, I can't. You know, I would burn in three minutes. And actually, most of our sales are online sales, which was just online after we started launching into retailers for Tanerganicus in California. So that's obvious. Obviously, where people care about, you know, they have a lot more sun. And so they have they're looking for an alternative, but they also are.

Ramon Vela (01:02:25.919)
Mm-hmm.

Noelle (01:02:32.548)
Probably, I don't know, you can tell me, do people in California, are they a little bit more conscious of their wellness, what they eat and what they put on their skin? Is that the reason why we sell more in California than anywhere else?

Ramon Vela (01:02:41.471)
Yeah, yeah.

Ramon Vela (01:02:45.611)
I think it's absolutely true. you know, I know that the sprouts, for instance, is available everywhere, not everywhere, but in a lot of places, but there's an awful lot of sprouts in Southern California. I mean, I have one that's about four blocks from me, and then there's another one, like about two or three miles away. You know, it's like, they're very close to each other. So,

And a big emphasis on Sprouts, for instance, is the healthier eating, healthier products. A lot of the brands that we've had on the show, I see them at Sprouts, for instance, and their, their personal care and health and wellness, departments are growing. I see a lot more products than those and they carry products like yours that are organic and are healthier for you. So yeah, I think that's probably a big, a big case. And then of course we have a lot of sun in

And I think, again, it's kind of like people are waking up to this. I remember one brand telling me that, in something I never really thought about, which is if you work, somewhere by a window and you're in like California or someplace where the sun shines a lot, you can act that the sun actually, even though you're inside, the sun's still shining on you.

And I love that. I love to work by the sun. I love to be inside and have the window open and have the sunshine in and use that ambient light whenever I possibly can when I record and things like that. I didn't realize though that I'm still impacted by the sun rays when I'm doing that and that you should actually wear something indoors if you're going to be in that environment. I never really thought about that. I kind of, I woke up from that.

Noelle (01:04:25.965)
Yeah.

Noelle (01:04:29.452)
And in actual fact, skin cancer, a lot of them are truck drivers. And it's actually on the side of the face where they were exposed to the sunlight. so, yeah, skin cancer, we do need to protect ourselves. And that's why we are, you know, we have our SPF.

Ramon Vela (01:04:36.757)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Noelle (01:04:54.478)
that we developed that's ready for the US. We're just actually getting our first labels done. So we'll have our SPF, organic SPF, which we're really excited about. That probably will launch into natural grocers first before anybody else. Maybe, I don't know into the others, but that'll be coming shortly in the next couple of months. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (01:05:12.139)
Yeah, well, I hope to see you in all the great places like Whole Foods and Sprouts, and you mentioned Costco and other places for the other product. But this has been fantastic. So thank you so much for sharing. We're gonna make sure to have the link to the websites on our podcast description. But before we go, is there anything you wanna mention that we didn't talk about or anything you wanna make sure to leave with the audience?

Noelle (01:05:40.611)
No, I think it's been lovely to talk to you, Raymond. I'll probably remember something after, but you have me so relaxed. I'll probably put this down and I should have said that, or should have said, but I'm just going to end with a gratitude. I'm grateful to Natural Grocers. I'm grateful to our customers in the US. I'm grateful to our suppliers in the US.

And I'm really excited about our journey in the US. And so thank you for having me on here.

Ramon Vela (01:06:16.883)
No, you're absolutely welcome. I love to have brands like yours. Not only because I love what you're building and how you're building it in terms of how you manage the company and it shows based on your experiences, what you've learned and what you value. And so I appreciate that. And you're congruent to your values. As I mentioned earlier, like you're doing your best to create the best products, not only just for the consumers, but also for the environment. And I love that.

And I think, you know, and your passion and your why really shines through. So I could tell when you talk about it, how you, your light up and your eyes light up, your smile lights up. And, and that I think is what consumers want to know too, when they buy their products, they want to know who is that person behind the, behind the scenes and what's that team like and what's that company like? And, and I think it adds something when they know that it adds something more than just like seeing a product on the shelf until.

I appreciate you sharing your stories, your life with us a little bit here, your products. And I really feel like you are what I refer to in our tagline, which is a product worth buying, a brand worth supporting. So thank you for sharing, for trusting us to share your story.

Noelle (01:07:34.114)
Thank you very much for supporting, I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Raymond.

Ramon Vela (01:07:38.795)
No, thank you. Everyone out there. So we have just had this really wonderful conversation. And I've been holding up products and I just realized that I forgot to mention that if you're listening to this, I was holding up products. But when you watch this eventually on YouTube, you'll see the products I'm holding up. Noel was kind enough to send me some skin magic. The Wonder Bomb that we talked about. It looks amazing. If you're on YouTube right now, you can see me holding up the product.

But I'm going to take some pictures of that and I'm going to do a video and we'll post it and people can see it on social media. Beyond that, everyone, I highly recommend going to the website, either tanorganic.com is what we're talking about in terms of the tanning products, the self tanning products, or you can go to skinmagic.ie. I'm going to have both of those on our podcast description, which you can find at Spotify, Apple, and pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts, simply type in the story of a brand show.

and you should be able to find it. then when you go there, definitely sign up for the newsletter because that's the best place, I think, or best way to keep up to date on the products, where they're purchased, new stores are opening, or where you can buy them. And then beyond that, as I always mention to people, be safe, be sane, and be healthy. And one way to be healthy is by using these great products.

and supporting a brand like this, think as well. Beyond that, everyone, one last thing. We've all been going through a lot of stuff, pandemic, economics, politics, geopolitical wars. I mean, you name it, the world feels a little crazy right now. Let's just do ourselves a favor and remember that everyone is going through something. You know, it could be financial, it could be a layoff, it could just be simply the anxiety of everything in the news.

Let's just remember everyone's going through something and let's just be a little kinder to each other. And because I know that if we can do that, we can make this human experience a better one. Beyond that, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.