For anyone looking to shake up their hair routine, we suggest you take a closer look at the ingredients of the products you already have and ask what you were really using that entire time. You may want to consider looking at our ingredient standard, as often there are a lot of ingredients that you would be surprised to find, even in brands that claim to be better for you. Our top-selling haircare brand at Beauty Heroes is Innersense Organic Beauty. With their product range and brand efforts, they have seriously set our expectations high for any brand, hair care or otherwise.
How the Brand Came to Be
Innersense Organic Beauty is a passion project that was truly born from a place of love; love for what they do and love for family. The founders, Joanne and Greg Starkman met when they were both working in the beauty industry. From a young age, Greg Starkman was inspired by his mother’s successful career running her own cosmetics company and grew up to make a career for himself as a hairstylist before taking on roles working for some of the top hair care companies out there. Joanne Starkman was a respected hairstylist with over a decade’s worth of experience hands-on, working with clients, and trying to find the best products to work with each person’s particular hair needs. While both of the founders were pushing further into the industry they were passionate about, something happened that influenced how they wanted to develop their careers.
The couple met while working in the same industry and fell in love. After tying the knot and starting a family with the birth of their daughter, Morgan, Greg, and Joanne’s careers would soon make a major shift. Their daughter was diagnosed with a genetic disorder which would then move the family’s intentions towards health and wellness much further. Joanne and Greg Starkman were already passionate about their work and sought out the best products in hair care with the highest quality ingredients.
Unfortunately, many products on the market were full of abrasive, harsh chemicals that were not the best for the hair and scalp and contained problematic ingredients for health and the planet. Even out of the professional, salon-quality products they worked with regularly, they had difficulty finding products with safe, non-toxic ingredients. Inspired by their daughter and passionate about their work, the couple decided to make a change in the industry together. They used their years of experience, genuine passion, and love for family to drive themselves into starting their own haircare brand. And that is where Innersense Organic Beauty began.
Plant-Based, Organic Ingredients
With their many years of combined experience in the hair care industry, Joanne and Greg had a working knowledge of what they like to see in hair products. They understood what certain ingredients were for and how they perform on which hair types. They did not just want a brand that will work for people with a certain hair texture or curl type. They wanted a line that could be used by anyone. They knew their products had to be safe, yet effective and there would be no compromise on that. With all of their experience and determination, the couple began working on a line of products containing only plant-based ingredients. They spent years doing research, consulting with lab experts, and exploring different avenues to create their unique formulas that would be silicone, petroleum, sulfate and quaternium free. Finally, all of their efforts resulted in exactly what they wished to see: safe, clean, effective hair products with only the best ingredients.
As the founders note, while many people are careful when selecting their skincare and body products, looking for all of the right ingredients, and learning which ones they want to avoid, they do not always adopt that same attitude when it comes to their hair products. They seem to forget that the scalp is a part of the body and needs to be treated with as much care as the skin on the rest of the body.
To address this concern for ingredients being used directly on the scalp, and as new co-founders of Innersense Organic Beauty created a long list of ingredients that they would make sure to avoid, which included sulfates, parabens, phthalates, petrochemicals, PEGs, artificial colors, artificial fragrances, and ethoxylates. Add to that, the brand is gluten-free and sources the vast majority of its ingredients from organic sources, a priority for Greg and Joanne. Eliminating this long list of harmful ingredients opens the door to a long list of healthy ingredients that Innersense Organic Beauty would become known for, as well as formulas that were ultra-concentrated, delivering a lot of value for clients and customers.
As an example, in one of their top-sellers, Pure Inspiration Conditioner hair gets to benefit from soothing organic aloe vera plus nourishing organic cranberry and pumpkin seed oil. Harmonic Healing Oil calls on the strengths of lotus flower oil, lightweight safflower seed oil, strand-nourishing macadamia, and oil-balancing tamanu oil to deliver moisture in a perfect synergy of organic ingredients. The ingredients across these products are carefully selected to leave out anything that artificially coats the hair and gives it that slippery feeling that builds up, while including complex blends of high-quality, (often costly) organic ingredients instead.
Sustainable & Ethical Practices
Transparency
Innersense’s commitment to certain ideals dates all the way back to the company’s beginning. As Greg and Joanne were seeking out a healthier lifestyle, they began examining product ingredient labels more often and more thoroughly. They noticed that many companies were very unclear about what ingredients they were using and where they came from. It began to feel like it was almost intentional and that did not sit well with the Starkmans. Just as they wanted to know more about the products that they were using, they wanted the consumers of their own products to be able to do the same. They wanted anyone to be able to pick up one of their products and know what is inside. That is how the brand became so dedicated to transparency with all of their ingredient lists. Innersense Organic Beauty also became a compact signor of the Safe Cosmetics and Truth in Labeling Acts to further drive home the message that consumers should have access to information on the products they use. They hold themselves to this high standard and hope that other brands would follow suit.
Sourcing Ingredients
While Innersense focuses on using ingredients of the highest quality that they can source, they take no shortcuts in getting what they want. The company puts forth the additional effort to ensure that their ingredients are sourced responsibly with care for the environment from which they were taken. Innersense works with organic and often wild-harvested ingredients that are ethically and sustainably sourced. They have spent years developing relationships with trusted partners who care about transparency, organic farming and raw ingredients grown ethically. Innersense sources from plantations, orchards, and farms all over the world to bring together high-quality ingredients that they proudly support. The brand is cruelty-free and works with partners who treat their workers respectfully and fairly an important part of the brand ethos.
Certifications
In order to hold themselves to such a high standard, Innersense Organic Beauty seeks out third-party groups and initiatives to validate their efforts. Most recently, Innersense Organic Beauty announced that they achieved B-Corp certification. If you did not know, receiving a B-Corp certification is a great accomplishment for a business because it means that their concerted efforts to sustainability and ethical business practices have been verified and made clear.
In order to be certified as a B-Corp, a company must be able to show and quantify how it is operating with transparency, accountability, and regard for the environment and humanity. The fact that Innersense Organic Beauty was able to achieve such accreditation is commendable because it means that they are not only holding themselves to the standards that they set, but they are looking to an outside source to hold them to that as well and verify that their actions show positive results. Innersense sees itself as being “part of a movement using business as a force for good.” They do not simply rest on their laurels but constantly work to improve their brand’s operations to be better, even making greater efforts and setting new goals for themselves in terms of sustainability. Innersense Organic Beauty is showing other brands in the industry that maintaining a strong set of values for a company is not only possible but greatly rewarding.
Create Your Routine
Now that you know more about this brand and its products, you probably want to know more about their amazing products. After all, this brand touts some great ingredients, so you might want to see what this brand can do for your hair and scalp. A good starting point is finding your perfect shampoo and conditioner match. Innersense has 3 sets to choose from, the Pure Line for normal to oily hair, the Hydrating Line for Dry Hair and the Color collection. The three collections are designed to be suitable for all hair types and match up with your specific hair concerns or needs.
The top-selling collection is the Pure Line which includes Pure Harmony Hairbath and Conditioner. The shampoo formulated with ingredients like wheatgrass and coconut oil to thoroughly cleanse the scalp while leaving it feeling healthy and refreshed, while the conditioner moisturizes and softens with organic avocado oil, cacao butter, shea butter, flaxseed, and dandelion leaf extract. For periods when your hair has been dry and depleted, perhaps from the weather, there’s the ultra-rich Hydrating Hair Masque. And on days when you just need a little refresher, reach for the Refresh Dry Shampoo before you head out the door. Innersense Organic Beauty has some more targeted products available as well so if you have color-treated or curly hair, you can take care of that with the right selection of products. Curly-haired folks should definitely try out the best-selling Quiet Calm Curl Control cream, which was inspired by the founders’ daughter and her curly head of hair. Innersense has a full range of styling products that are unlike most others, using complex blends of organic ingredients to support beautiful, shiny and bouncy hair.
The brand hosts a wide range of products meant to address everyone’s needs for proper hair care, so you are bound to find a system that works for you. To make it easy for you to try out the products, Innersense also offers most of its products in 2 oz. travel sizes, so you can test out the products and fall in love with the results before committing to the full size. And, Innersense also has liter sizes of all their shampoo and conditioners, so you can buy in bulk and save on shipping and plastic, once you find your ideal match. Incidentally, Beauty Heroes is the only online retailer that carries Innersense liters, something we are very proud of.
Why We are Proud to Work With Innersense
As you may be well aware of already, we have high standards at Beauty Heroes. We pride ourselves on providing a carefully curated collection of clean and healthy beauty and wellness products. Before inviting any brand into the Beauty Heroes family, we first do our own research to get a better understanding of the brand and see if their values align with our own, like with Innersense Organic Beauty. This brand is very open and transparent about its efforts for high-quality products and ethical business practices. We not only love the products they offer, but we love the people behind the brand and the message they stand by.
Everyone deserves great products for their skin, hair, body. that will make them feel their best. There should be no debate as to whether or not it can be done ethically. Innersense is a 1% For the Planet, Plastic Negative and Carbon Neutral, raising the bar for other brands in the industry to step up and do the same. With great products and a clear mission they are sincerely working towards every day, we have to take note. After all of the research, the vetting process, and sampling the products for ourselves, we can tell you now with a great deal of confidence that this brand is the real deal. Through their messages and actions, Innersense Organic Beauty has impressed us from the very beginning. We love what founders Joanne and Greg Starkman have created together and we are pleased to be able to recommend their hair care products to our community.
If you want to check out their products for yourself, visit our Innersense Organic Beauty collection and build your own hair care routine. For any questions about this brand and its products, feel free to contact us. We would even be glad to offer recommendations based on your hair type and needs. Just message the Beauty Heroes team at hero@beauty-heroes.com and we would be happy to help.
