Kiss My Face Thinks It’s Time for a Beauty Revolution

When you’re stepping into the shower in the morning, the last thing you want to slather on your skin is chemicals.

Yet from soap to shampoo to moisturizer, that’s exactly what many of us are doing. Mainstream beauty brands are packed with a dizzying array of preservatives, colorants, and other ingredients designed to get the job done as cheaply as possible.

At Kiss My Face, they have a different philosophy. In their world, anything that touches your body should be natural. End of story.

“We believe that nature creates the best ingredients,” said Jean Fufidio, Kiss My Face’s head of marketing.

That means Kiss My Faces doesn’t use parabens or phthalates, like most mainstream cosmetics companies. But that doesn’t mean their products aren’t still highly effective.

“There’s a stigma sometimes that natural products don’t always work,” Fufidio explained. “So we try to create the best efficacy in our product.” Customers want products that work, like Kiss My Face’s natural deodorant and their line of sunscreens.

Although the company is branching out into everything from lip balms to shaving cream—or as they call it, care “from head to toe, and a few stops in between”—it all started out with a single bar of soap.

Back in the 1980s, long time vegetarians Bob Macleod and Steve Byckiewicz ditched their suit-and-tie jobs to start an organic farming business in New York’s Hudson River Valley. When they headed to a local shop to sell their crops, they came across a bar of unmarked pure olive oil soap from Greece. The adventurous duo decided to purchase the soap, sell it to health stores, and voila: Kiss My Face was born.

They’ve kept their office in New York (though it’s now equipped with a solar-paneled roof) and remain committed to their cruelty-free philosophy. For more than 30 years, they’ve said “no” to any kind of animal testing. Those same standards for care translate to how they treat their workforce. All of their cans, tubes, and bottles are made in North America so they can keep a close watch on labor conditions.

The company also works to “kiss the community” by donating a portion of their profits to groups like Swim Across America. The non-profit organization raises funds for cancer prevention and awareness through swim-related activities, making them the perfect partner for Kiss My Face, as the company supports skin cancer prevention through their sunscreen line.

Because for a company that believes in natural skin care, the first step to beauty is well-being.

Photo credit: Paul Delmont