104: Beauty Crush with Karen Behnke

Justine Reichman: Welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host, Justine Reichman. Today, Karen is the founder of Juice Beauty, the clean beauty company that put organic skin care on the map long before it was a movement, and the woman who famously co-launched Goop Beauty with Gwyneth Paltrow. Goldman Sachs named her the most innovative entrepreneur.

Glamor called her a top eco leader. Elle, Forbes, and Cosmopolitan have recognized her as the OG of the clean beauty movement. But here's what I find most compelling. Karen is not someone who rests on what she has already built.

She is on her fourth company. She grows her own rare grapes on a certified organic vineyard in Sonoma County. She partnered with a leading US biotech firm to develop a proprietary plant, Exosome Technology, and she is doing all of this not because beauty sells, but because she genuinely believes that what we put on our skin, how we farm it, and how we treat the planet are completely inseparable. Welcome to the Essential Ingredients Podcast, Karen.

Karen Behnke: Thank you, Justine. Wow, you really dug up some things about me. Justine Reichman: Well, we had to give you a proper intro. Karen Behnke: Okay, I love it.

Thank you. Justine Reichman: Everybody knows why they're sitting here listening to you today. Thank you. Karen Behnke: Thank you.

Thank you. I've worked for a long time. Justine Reichman: I would want to throw this out there. So, what if the most powerful skincare ingredient in your bathroom came not from a lab, not from a pharmacy, but from a vineyard?

And what if the woman who grows these grapes also helped launch Goop Beauty? That's who I'm sitting with today. Before we dive in, if you have been loving essential ingredients, the best thing you can do right now is share this episode with one person who cares about clean beauty. This is how we grow this community, one intentional share at a time.

And if you're not yet subscribed, hit that button, so now you never miss a conversation. So let's get into it. Before Juice Beauty, before Beauty Crush, before any event, what first made you think and look at beauty industry and think about it in this way, and think that it was broken and you need to go fix it. Karen Behnke: Well, I'll tell you, and I'm so excited about beauty crush, my new company, but it's interesting when I started in fitness and wellness and environmentalism became an environmentalist very early in life for a lot of, lot of reasons, and I started looking at beauty companies when, after I had sold my corporate wellness company, and I sold it to United Healthcare, and so I worked in private equity, and I was looking at beauty companies for them, what's called an entrepreneur in residence, so you look at businesses, and so I was looking at beauty companies, and fitness companies, and wellness companies, and I had been slathering this stuff all over my body for years, and hair, and everything, and but I never had read an ingredient.

Despite having been in corporate wellness and working very diligently with UC Berkeley and Stanford in nutrition programs and things, and knowing a lot about ingredients never occurred to me what I was putting on my skin until I started in private equity consulting and looking at ingredients. And that's when I was like, oh my goodness, what are all these things, and I started researching it, and I thought I can do it better. So, fast forward to 2005 and I started the former brand, and then left there in 2023 and but I still had another patent swirling around in my brain, and more ideas, and my husband was kind of like, again, you know, my kids were like, again, and then they said, "No, it's actually better for you to start something, otherwise we'll all become projects."

So, so, yeah, I'm off to the races again with Beauty Crush. Justine Reichman: Exciting, congratulations. So exciting. So, Juice Beauty became the brand that really put organic skin care on the map.

Take me back to those early days. What were the biggest battles that you had to fight to convince people that clean beauty actually worked? There's a whole conversation around the efficacy, and what we're putting on our bodies, is that going in? So, I'd love to hear from you a little bit more about that.

Karen Behnke: At first I didn't really pay attention to what Justine Reichman: chatter everyone was saying, because I was spending all my time researching ingredients with scientists and trying to find an ingredient for high efficacy yet more healthful ingredient replacement for every toxic ingredient, for instance, just instead of all of the silicones and silicones and dimethicones, I thought, you know, why not use coconut alkanes and things that will also be good for your skin, but also provide that slip and feel, and oh my gosh, in the early days using zinc, forget it already, it was impossible, now there's zinc everywhere with sunscreen, but it was heavy and if you ever picked up a bucket of it in the lab, you needed to weight lift, and things were Karen Behnke: I Oh my goodness, three years is a turning blue, and oh my, it was unbelievable.

Fast forward years later, zinc is pretty refined and accepted, and now there's a lot of ingredients with it, but so it was in the early days, I wasn't really paying attention to what people were saying, but when I started to hit retail and entered Ulta Beauty nationwide, and was one of the best sellers at Ulta Beauty for almost 18 some years, 17 years, it was a little more challenging because maybe some of the bigger brands of the traditional conventional brands were always would try to sell against us with, well, it doesn't work.

So I leaned into clinicals hard, and that's why I'm so excited about Beauty Crush now, because it's the best clinicals and products of my career. So it was hard in the early days, but I don't know, you know, I don't pay attention to outside chatter. I just kind of point it forward and, and invent things, and and try to get them to market. long time, because usually those contracts are about a year, and you know, she needed to focus on Goop and building it.

Now she's got a million beauty products, and I needed to focus on the company I was running. And so, yeah, Justine Reichman: if they're usually one, I'm just curious, what was magic behind the three years that was chosen? Karen Behnke: We launched a lot of products. I'm trying to I think we launched, I don't know, maybe eight or nine or 10 Goop skincare products, and then we launched probably, oh my gosh, over 20 makeup products, because you know there's so many colors and everything.

It took a while to get all those out, so, and I think everything has a lifespan, so, you know, there was a ton of enthusiasm, and everything for the first couple years, and then it became more repeat purchases, and things like that. It was time to move on and do other things. Justine Reichman: Fair enough. So, and it's exciting to go back, probably, and see that too.

Karen Behnke: It is, yeah. Yeah, it is. It's again. She has amazing taste.

Justine Reichman: I agree. I think she's got very good taste. I go in there all the time because they opened one in Marin. Karen Behnke: Yeah, in Larkspur.

Justine Reichman: Exactly, not too far from me. Okay, so you went from Juice Beauty to the Goop Beauty, and now why start again? I mean, you have won Goldman Sachs' most innovative entrepreneur world. You've built and scaled multiple companies.

Most people would slow down. You're saying no, I want a fourth company. I mean, I think that's inspirational. I want to do that.

I want to keep inventing things. Karen Behnke: Well, I'm still in my '60s, but maybe not for too many more years. You know, it's in my DNA, that's all I can say. It's in my DNA, and part of it was also with beauty I knew I had another beauty company in me, or beauty brand, I want to say company.

I knew I had another beauty brand in me, and I had so many ideas. I wanted to modernize, I wanted to elevate. I wanted to go more biotech. I wanted to go higher efficacy.

I wanted to have.. I love these sleek, beautiful colors, which Kate Hudson picked my pink, by the way, so nice because we've collaborated together, I love this color she picked. It reminds me a little bit of fleshy pink, you know. So it's good for skin care.

Justine Reichman: It's a soft color. It's really pretty. I even like the outside of these bottles. How they're not - there's like, what do you call it, frosted, almost kind of, Karen Behnke: Yeah, it's kind of a frosted sheen.

It's beautiful, but thank you. But so I had more ideas swirling in my brain. I had another patent in my brain. I have this stunning beauty vineyard, and I was like, I have to put all this to work.

We have these rare grapes from Sonoma, Valencia, and Sagrantino grapes, that are among the highest antioxidant grapes in the world that are so great for your skin. So, I just couldn't let all that go to rest. And I also have an obscene amount of energy. I was born with it.

Justine Reichman: I get that. And I also, I mean, I would imagine, because you sound similar to me in many ways, I like to keep doing things and innovating and being creative, and while it is work, it also keeps me going every day, gets me up every day, Karen Behnke: That's right, I never wake up and go, oh ho, hum, I wake up and go, oh my gosh, I have so much to do today, and I want to do this, that, and everything, I mean, I don't work a million hours like I used to, maybe when I was your age, but I hope I work smarter now and less hours, and my husband's retired, but that works to my benefit, because Justine Reichman: And it's fun to have somebody at home with he's a scientist and he's a cardiologist, and so he has helped incredibly on the Beauty Crush patent.

And I call him retired cardiologist turned vineyard manager, but he's really chief science advisor, and so that it's just helped incredibly that he helps with think through ideas now and helps with the science. you doing that too. Like somebody just get excited with you, for you brainstorm. It's one of my favorite things to do, Karen Behnke: Yeah.

Justine Reichman: So we're sitting here in this beautiful place. Tell me about the Sonoma Vineyard. Karen Behnke: Oh, so the Beauty Crush Sonoma Vineyard is the heart of the new brand, Beauty Crush, and it's a center for me of innovation and inspiration, and it's now a biotech regenerative center. So that was part of what I wanted to do.

I wanted to elevate the science, and it's, you know, we've developed an exosome from one of our rare grapes with a leading US biotech company, and exosomes, it's a plant exosome, obviously from grape, but there are other things going out there in beauty that are not plant, but exosomes are kind of carriers, and that's what we designed it for to, you know, efficiently deliver more ingredients. Falanghina has some amazing properties, the Falanghina grape, there is some research that has some even melanoma inhibition.

I'm not claiming that or anything, but there's some research out there, which is interesting. But we do know that our Sagrantino and our Falanghina grapes, particularly as Sagrantino, have incredibly high antioxidant levels, up to 8.5 times the antioxidant level of organic grapes, which are already 30% higher, and you might see a lot of antioxidant serums and things out there, different things are used, but these grapes are so much higher than any, probably any other antioxidant ingredients that are happening.

What that does for your skin is it fights oxidative stress and all of the environmental pollution and things like that that are happening as we sit here. It's working, and also makes you glow that end result is it you want to glow you and, yeah, you want to glow. Justine Reichman: I want to glow and feel dewy. Karen Behnke: Yes, yes, Justine Reichman: Those are the things I strive for, glow and dewy Karen Behnke: That's what I love too.

Justine Reichman: So I'm curious, though, because you talked about biotech, so I'm curious about the intersection of biotech and clean beauty, and your thoughts on that. Karen Behnke: Well, I'm trying to pioneer that again, and I really want to be on the cutting edge of that, and I want the highest efficacy products, and so you know what's interesting to me is that if you think of pharmaceuticals, they come from really, really high-tech pharmaceuticals that cure powerful diseases come from plants, yet in beauty, oftentimes people question whether plant ingredients can be as efficacious, but obviously they can, because these were the best clinicals of my career.

And the best products of my career, both on skin barrier integrity, and as well as, you know, 100% of the purchase, the study participants reported they felt and saw smoother skin. The before and after pictures are amazing, and this will all be on Beauty Crush Skin and Beauty Crush skincare.com So the intersection for me is just really taking the science of our amazing vineyard plants, but also working with biotech companies on the latest biomimetic peptides. I mean, biomimetic peptides are phenomenal, they're in our beauty crush antioxidant extracellular antioxidant serum, and they mimic collagen, so of course all of our products are vegan.

We don't use any animal or any human stuff in there, but so this biomimetic peptide in the Beauty Crush serum mimics vegan collagen, which can help with visible appearance of firming, and I mean amazing things. So, the technology out there is phenomenal, and the biomimetic peptide comes from fermentation in a lab, which is kind of what regenerative and biotech started with. Justine Reichman: Yeah. It's exciting to really have a conversation on that, because so many people, they talk about clean beauty, and they talk about agriculture, but they don't connect the two always.

And I think it's really important to be able to share that information, so that people can better understand what it is we're talking about. What is regenerative? What are these things, and what is the impact of the biotech? Does it have to be either to be together.

But I'm saying that it's like people talk about, they isolate them, they're like, this is clean, this is biotech, the two shall not meet. Karen Behnke: And that's what I tried to do with beauty crush, is that also it, you just made me think of something else, in that with my former brand, it got to be so many regimens, and so many, like, this is for firming, this is for smoothing, and I was like, "Dear Lord, this is confusing," you know? And I know with myself, there's so much..

I mean, we're all so busy, and so these are multitasking, you know, the new Beauty Crush products are multitasking products in three simple steps, so it's cleanse, serum, moisturize, and that's it. And, of course, you can, you know, finish with mascara and things like that, but for your skincare, just cleanse, serum, Justine Reichman: Well, and you don't have to remember moisturize, and that's really what I wanted to do, but and put when you're using this and that, and don't forget to do this and ingredients in there that would focus on anti-wrinkle, firming, smoothing, brightening, you know, going for that dewy glow, that.

I mean, it seems really doable. Karen Behnke: It's really doable, and we have four and again multitasking in three simple steps. So the biomimetic products, and so we have a step 1, 2, 3, but then we have an peptides, the plant exosomes, the super glow antioxidant great powerhouse, also supported by some more traditional beauty ingredients, such as niacinamide and panthenol, and, you know, vitamin C, of course, fermented and hyaluronic acid, organic jojobas, and shea's those are all just powerful ingredients that make these products hum, make you glow.

anytime body moisturizer too, which I put triple peptides in for firming. Justine Reichman: That's nice. Karen Behnke: Yeah, it's really exciting. I get a new ingredient, biomimetic peptides are just amazing.

What's coming out? Justine Reichman: So, what's your favorite product? Karen Behnke: Oh. If it's like choosing between your children, which I could never, but my two favorite products, I'm tied with the Exocellular Glow moisturizer and Exocellular Antioxidant Serum.

I mean, they're just the powerhouses for your face that I think you'll fall in love with. The serum, I want you to feel this. Okay, now this has no fragrance in it, so if you smell anything, it's just the ingredients, but this just feel how this glides on smoothly. Isn't that just beautiful?

And you know, I've put out a lot of serums in my life. Justine Reichman: This hand looks dry now. Karen Behnke: You better put some on, you know, I've worked with a lot of serums, and some are so sticky, or Justine Reichman: That's what I was just about to say. It's not sticky.

Karen Behnke: It glows on, right? It's that super glow grape, but also, you know, the hyaluronic acid and the hobos and shades and things, it helps you, it just, and wrap the two tops of your hands together now, does that feel silky? Justine Reichman: It does. Yeah, Karen Behnke: So that absorbs.

So, I love, love, love that, because this is just a powerhouse, clinically validated. But then the moisturizer also just, so you would cleanse, of course, put the serum on, and then the moisturizer. I want to make sure I don't spray anything on you, and you know, now this has a beautiful aroma of just light plant rose, just a light rose aroma, yeah, but just very light, it's not like old-fashiony rosy like your grandmother. Now feel your skin with the moisturizer on top of it.

Justine Reichman: Feels super nice. Karen Behnke: I know, well, you're taking this at home, of course. So the intersection of biotech and regenerative biotech, which is all about longevity of the skin, you know, for you, you want to prevent, you want to multitask, you want to really work on all those, you know, anti-wrinkle and smoothing and everything all together, and you can bring this right up on your eyes. In fact, when you see my website with the before and afters, you see some incredible eye shots.

These products are for women or men, 25 and up, so really all the way up. Justine Reichman: Why 25 and up? Karen Behnke: Ah, you know, I just think at 25 and up women and men are starting to get serious about their skincare, and they're starting to see maybe their first fine lines, and so they're going to be more interested in these powerful ingredients, and so that's kind of my target, but multi-generational, and I tell you what, those influencers, because I have a lot of influencer friends in my, in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, and someone asked me another day, Do you teach them everything?

It's like, oh my god, they're teaching me every five minutes. It's amazing. Justine Reichman: Yeah, I agree. I mean, the way that they do things now is very different than when you know you go back 20 or 30 years, whether it's advertising, promotion, models versus influencers, you know, just the way that we talk about things, what we look for, the transparency as opposed to not being transparent.

That's a huge comment. Karen Behnke: The younger generations, and our daughter is 26 and I had her in my 40s, so, but she's our chief technical advisor, she's an engineer, she has a full-time job, but she helps me technically, and she just does everything so differently than I would do, or whether it's electronically, not just because she's an engineer, partially because of her age, and shows me how to do things, or just the way they think about things, it's just so refreshing.

Justine Reichman: Yeah, I agree, I learned a lot, and you know, over the time, over the last few years, as we do these podcasts, and as we talk about them on social, because we want to give them a platform, I feel like this generation and those younger generations really have a pulse that we don't have for how to create things, how it's going to impact right, how these things work right in a different way. Karen Behnke: And that speaks my language, because you know, speaking of impact, and I know we talked a lot about ingredients and efficacy, but if we can touch on sustainability for a minute, because the younger generation is interested in that.

I've been an environmentalist practically my whole life since high school, and you know we're sitting right here on a certified organic farm, because my husband, I truly believe that you've got to treat the planet correctly, and you don't need to spray with all those toxic ingredients that will run off on you into the waterways and animals, etc. And so we grow ingredients here, and the ingredients in the bottle, you want as many organic ingredients as you can get your hands on, because first of all, they have higher antioxidant levels, but secondly, they're not going to be contaminated with a lot of pesticides.

So that's a whole sustainable thing in and of itself, and then practicing regenerative, but viticulture, also, which goes hand in hand with organic farm, organic viticulture, just really taking care of the land, instead of spraying a bunch of vitamins, for instance, you know, we plant red clover to put nitrogen back into the soil, and just some natural ways to do things, but then taking it to the packaging. This is a refillable, which those will come online in a few months, and it's recycled ocean and land waste plastic.

So, and then, of course, check your local regulations, but you can recycle it again. This is sustainable glass, of course, and this is an airless component to protect the ingredients, and it comes in a tree-free box. So the paper in the box is made with sugar cane and bamboo, and then all of our cardboard and everything is recycled cardboard. We're sitting in a solar powered headquarters and vineyard.

We try to take sustainability to every aspect of what we do, because when you build a company, of course, you have impact. You're shipping, you're doing this. So I try to do everything as locally as possible, like our printers in Santa Rosa, in Sonoma County, my labs are in the Bay Area, you know, just as much sustainability as we can. So I'm not using unnecessary petroleum, and you know, it's as low as a footprint as I can possibly conjure up.

Justine Reichman: So curious, because that's really thoughtful. I love the refillable bottle. I don't know how popular that is. I haven't seen it before, but I think that's really super smart.

So, I'm curious, though, as you're building this out and you're very thoughtful about all everything that you're doing, from the bottles to how you're printing. What role does education play in it for your consumers? How do you convey that, so that they know that too? Because I think it makes a difference.

Karen Behnke: Well, our website, BeautyCrushskin.com it will be a living site, because every time I talk to someone, I think, oh my gosh, I didn't add that fact, I'm sitting here talking with you, and I thought, I don't think that anyone knows on our website today, maybe in a week or so, that we made our boxes out of sugar cane and bamboo. I don't think anyone knows we went to the trouble for plant inks, you know, finding a printer that would do plant ink, so those are things that we've got to put on the website, and also occasionally put out into emails, you know, and learn more about our sustainable journey.

And it is a journey, and I think anyone that has been an environmentalist - God, I hope they don't say we've got it all figured out, you know? You've got to just go step by step by step, and do everything you can, I mean, it just from recycling, you get all that bubble wrap and stuff and things. I save it all, and so, and recycle it, because you know, if you're going to send something to Amazon and they want bubble wrap, put it in there, you know. Or, so I don't know, just as much as you can recycle and as sustainable as you can get.

Justine Reichman: So, the other audience that I feel also is curious about these things, or judges these things, is when we get packages and other people see them, and they're like, oh, another box, another package, and I always wondered, I'm like, how do we get people to realize to be curious as opposed to judging, because nobody's going to stop ordering things. Karen Behnke: We all love skincare and makeup and hair care, and I'm sorry, it just, we have to live. Justine Reichman: So I feel like, you know, I want to catch the attention of those people to get them to be curious before they judge.

Karen Behnke: Yeah, Justine Reichman: I just don't know how to do that. Karen Behnke: Well, I think through podcasts like yours, Justine, you can do that because you're spreading the word, and you can talk about. Okay, you got another package. If it's all cardboard, again, check your local regulations, if it has plastic tape, take it off and recycle it.

You know, if you have a bottle with pumps, you know, take the pump off. If it's got a metal spring, discard it, recycle the rest of the bottle, you know, just to kind of educate them that we do all live in, you know, a world where we consume things, but that's part of what I'm also trying to do, are kind of less products, more multitasking, but also to make it simpler for people, but also to have a bit of a lower carbon footprint. Justine Reichman: Yeah, I get that. I see that.

I hear that. I mean, it's really every - as you were speaking, and you're saying you're talking about how local everything is sourced from the printing, etc. It really feels like it's integral to your product and your brands, Karen Behnke: it is Justine Reichman: So you've had a lot of successes 10 years from now. If we're looking at Beauty Crush and it's succeeded in the way you dream about what has changed, and not just from the brand, but from the industry, and how we relate to what we put on our bodies.

Karen Behnke: I think this whole regenerative longevity biotech science is going to just keep exploding, and I think there'll be more fermentation lab ingredients that are done in a clean way. I think that at this organic regenerative vineyard here we will be probably, oh, I can tell you, we will have figured out how to work with our olives more. We've got the grapes kind of down, but the next step will be working with our olives, but it'll be interesting. And I am looking at a few compostable products, but so far it's they're a little tricky because you don't want them to start biodegrading before the product is out, you know, before you're done with it, because you don't want any of that in your formula.

But that will likely be perfected in 10 years, where you could literally take a bottle and just plant it. Justine Reichman: You started four companies, you've made mistakes, you've had wins, you've done things in all different directions. Was there anything that you wish somebody had told you before you started your first company? Karen Behnke: To trust my gut more, and I do that now, but I remember in my 30s and 40s, if experts would come in, or the private equity crews would come in, or something, and, and claim they were experts, but trust, oh my god, that women's intuition is wonderful.

I can't speak to men's because I'm a female, but women's intuition is amazing, and really, really trust in your gut, and that is key. And then to stop fighting, fighting your DNA. So I fought my DNA for a while. Oh my gosh, why do I keep doing this?

Why am I starting another company? And then, instead of fighting it, just embrace it and figure out how to make it work in the best way possible. Justine Reichman: I always like to close with this question, because it's the heart of what this podcast is about. Karen, what is your essential ingredient, the one thing that you value that you practice that makes everything else possible?

Karen Behnke: I would say I have to combine one positive resilience. Justine Reichman: Oh, that's a good one. I like that. Karen Behnke: I've been through a lot in my life, and I've been resilient, and I feel like positive resilience is what keeps me going.

Justine Reichman: I think that's super important. I like that, and I tend to have a positive attitude, because I feel like that, like you said, it keeps you going. Karen Behnke: I can tell. Justine Reichman: I like to shape it, you know, form it in a positive way that gives you a positive outlook.

So before we conclude our conversation, which I truly enjoyed today, I like to do little rapid fire questions. They're kind of fun. Karen Behnke: Okay. Justine Reichman: Don't take them too seriously and if you can't think of one, we can move on.

Karen Behnke: Okay. Justine Reichman: Okay, so rapid fire, quick answers, like, short, succinct. Juice Beauty or Beauty Crush, which one was harder to build? Karen Behnke: Beauty Crush.

Justine Reichman: Okay, one ingredient you'd ban from every bathroom cabinet tomorrow, Karen Behnke: Hydroquinone Justine Reichman: Farm or lab, where does the best beauty innovation happen? Karen Behnke: Starts with a farm. Justine Reichman: beauty is the biggest lie, what's the green washing that still drives you crazy? Karen Behnke: That is not a one question answer.

Ingredients. Justine Reichman: Morning skin ritual. One product. What is it?

Karen Behnke: Serum. Justine Reichman: Founder fuel: coffee, tea, green juice, or something from the vineyard. Karen Behnke: Tea. Justine Reichman: Do you have a favorite kind of tea?

Karen Behnke: Organic new me English breakfast. Justine Reichman: Okay. One thing you wish you knew before starting your first company. Karen Behnke: It's a journey.

Justine Reichman: The beauty industry in 10 years, hopeful or skeptical? Karen Behnke: Hopeful. Justine Reichman: Exosomes, overhyped, under hyped, or just getting started? Karen Behnke: Just getting started.

Justine Reichman: Awesome. Who are you closer to, Gwyneth Paltrow or Kate Hudson? Karen Behnke: Kate Hudson. Justine Reichman: I'm a big fan of both, but I do love all those Kate Hudson movies.

Okay, Karen, this conversation has given me so much to sit with. Thank you for your generosity, your science, your story, and your soil. To our listeners across 50 plus countries who show up for these conversations each week, being part of this conversation. If today's episode sparks something in you, share it with someone who needs to hear it.

And if you want to go deeper, you can find Karen at BeautyCrushskin.com and on Instagram @BeautyCrush_skin. I'm Justine, and this is the Essential Ingredients Podcast. Until next time, keep asking what is really in it for your skin, for your food, and for your life.

Karen Behnke: Thank you, Justine. This is delightful. Justine Reichman: Thank you so much. It was wonderful.