Root Beauty

Eye of the beholder: LA-based filmmaker/entrepreneur Kristin Ross Lauterbach's
newest venture is an organic skincare line called Root Beauty. 

If you can't find what you want, then take matters into your own hands. That's what my friend, filmmaker/budding entrepreneur and self-professed urban hippie, Kristin Ross Lauterbach did after scouring every drugstore, beauty counter and boutique for skincare products that wouldn't irritate her sensitive skin.

After inspecting labels, Kristin realized many of the ingredients in her so-called "natural" products contained chemicals she could barely pronounce (try saying propylene glycol, sodium laurel sulfate or isopropyl alcohol five times fast). So she began experimenting in her kitchen. Starting with deodorant.

"I thought, 'Maybe this will work if I make it,'" says the 37-year-old founder of Root Beauty, a homegrown, all-natural and organic skincare line. "I researched the healing power of essential oils and the benefit of natural oils. All things that have been used for centuries by women all over the world." 

The result? Powerful yet gentle products, including a delicious-smelling deodorant made with organic arrowroot powder, baking soda, organic virgin coconut oil and organic rosemary oil. This one is my fave and it works like nothing else I've tried. 

Root Beauty's best selling product, an organic virgin
coconut oil-infused deodorant, smells good enough to eat.

Satisfied with the success of her deodorant, Kristin, who studied  chemistry-biology in college, continued with other homemade products like facial moisturizers, a hand cream and body butter bar. "I would give them as gifts to friends," she says. "And they would tell me, 'You should really sell this!' At first, I didn't feel any compunction to open a business."

But after some soul searching and needing a hiatus from filmmaking (her most recent project was "Flesh," a documentary she wrote and directed about sex trafficking in the US), Kristin founded Root Beauty. Since launching in May, she's enjoyed positive feedback about her line. "I just wanted to let you know that I am completely enamored with your product," gushes Laura G. from Miami on Root Beauty's website. "You have a customer for life!" 

Being a one-woman business means juggling a lot of plates all at once. "I wear the chemist hat, the marketing hat, the accounting hat, the promotion hat, the design hat, the ordering and supplies hat, the party planning hat," she says, laughing. "Someone asked me today, 'Are you exhausted?' Yes, I am. But I'm having a great time."

She wears many hats: Root Beauty founder Kristin Ross Lauterbach labels products in her LA home.

For beauty junkies in the LA area, there's a Root Beauty Launch Party happening on Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. Send your RSVP to Kristin herself at kristin@rootbeauty.com for more details.

For more information, visit rootbeauty.com.