PURSE STRINGS: VERITAS BEAUTY

It’s a given that children – curious and impressionable– often emulate their parents and other adults around them.  But every now and then, we come across fascinating stories about children who wittingly or unwittingly inspire adults into action.

The story of Veritas Beauty is one such story. Inspired by his 12 year-old daughter, co-founded Vaughn Gill teamed up with a schoolteacher to develop a line of bath and beauty products designed to promote hygiene and self esteem among teen and t’ween girls. We recently chatted with him about how Veritas Beauty is working to empower multicultural young people in every area of their lives.

 

WILES: WHAT WAS THE IMPETUS FOR STARTING VERITAS BEAUTY?

 
VG: Veritas Beauty began like most ventures – as a conversation. My partner is a school teacher, and, as a parent, it was natural for us to talk about kids. We both knew that we wanted to try to help kids – especially in combating bullying issues – but we didn’t want to employ a service-oriented approach. As a schoolteacher, she was very in tune with the issues that children face and one of the major issues she mentioned was hygiene.

During the t’ween years kids are making the transition from taking bath in a tub to taking showers. These years also bring on the onset of puberty.  What we notice is that these two factors – combined with activities like gym class or physical after-school activities like sports – contribute to changing odors within a kid’s body. However, many of them were not accustomed to taking baths every day as small children, so they weren’t necessarily taking showers every day, either. We wanted to encourage kids to like the products so much that they want to shower again and again and really take control of their personal hygiene.

As a father, I realized that there weren’t any products in the marketplace like shampoos, fragrances, scrubs and so on, that offered scents and product names that were age-appropriate for young girls. More often than not, you have young girls using products that were designed for adult women. So, we began experimenting with scents that weren’t too heavy and smelled fresh but not seductive. We used ingredients like Shea butter and cocoa butter and found that the kids really liked. Once we had the scents, we made sure that we used bright, youthful colors that young girls could enjoy and have fun with. We wanted them to truly have products that they could embrace as being something just for them.

 

WILES: WHAT NEED IN THE MARKETPLACE DID YOU IDENTIFY THAT VERITAS BEAUTY MEETS?

VG: Our philosophy is that if kids feel good about themselves, they’ll carry themselves in a different way.  Confident kids don’t bully others and they don’t allow themselves to be bullied. It’s just like when an adult gets a new outfit or pampers themselves. When we look good, we feel good.  Veritas Beauty means “true beauty” and our mission is all about building self-esteem.
 
WILES: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE KEY ATTRIBUTES OF THE PRODUCT LINE THAT DISTINGUISH IT FROM OTHERS?

 
VG: As part of our core initiative to build self-esteem, we’ve incorporated languages into our product lines to promote diversity and awareness about different cultures. We offer four scents and each of them bear names in a different language: Chinese, French, Spanish, and Swahili. This offers another element for the kids to get excited about, and we see them becoming interested in other cultures through the languages. They want to say the names, and that often leads to them wanting to learn more words in that languages.  We see them developing an appreciation for other cultures simply through learning the names of our products.

Our product line also includes a selection of sugar-based scrubs, as opposed to salt-based scrubs, which make them a lot gentler on the skin.

 

WILES: WHERE CAN PEOPLE PURCHASE VERITAS BEAUTY?

VG: While we do have an online store, our products are very hands-on products – they’re something people want to smell and experience.  We often participate in gift shows, and trade shows to bring that experience to consumers.  At some point, we hope to be in small retail chains, but we’re not looking for mass distribution.

We also work with various student groups, non-profits and student sports teams, who sell our products as part of their fundraising activities. Our goal is to create an empowerment base. We want to help organizations that are trying to provide services to kids, and we want to work with community organizations to help them generate the income they need in order to provide the programs they want to offer.

To learn more about how you can become involved with or purchase Veritas Beauty products, please visit www.veritasbeauty.com. Inquiries may also be made via email at:  info@vertiasbeauty.com

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