Mandi Niambi is the co-founder and CEO of Baalm, a membership designed to match you to the right products, services and people for your skin. She is a scientist, writer, and entrepreneur passionate about skin tech.   Mandi, please tell us about Baalm? Baalm is a community built on the audacity of loving your skin. We’re making skincare transparent with a radical membership club. Instead of wading through thousands of new skincare products with hard to pronounce ingredients, we cut through all the noise. Our digital platform matches users to the right products for their skin. Member benefits include one-on-one skin consultations, personalized shopping, product exclusives and discounts, custom events and so much more. On average skincare junkies waste $300 a year on unused or ineffective products because they don’t know what they’re really buying. We’re on a mission to help them reclaim that money and put it to good use with a membership for their skin. By putting skincare in the cloud we help our community members understand how skincare products work, the science behind ingredients and create tools to match them to the best products for their individual skin needs. We put on events like custom facials, workshops and gatherings with experts so that they can experience skincare in so many different ways. Our priority is to make sure that each experience brings you more calm and knowledge, so that skincare can become something you indulge in everyday.   How did you come up with the idea of starting Baalm? What inspired you?   I grew up with eczema and sensitive skin, so trying new products has always been a scary thing. Products have cause insane breakouts and allergic reactions for me, and I didn’t have anyone I could turn to. My mom wasn’t familiar with a lot of products, few of my friends had answers and I didn’t see a dermatologist until I was 19 when things got really bad. When I started doing regenerative biology research at Harvard, I began to apply my love of research to my skin journey. I read research papers about different skincare ingredients and used that as a guide to find the right products. But no one should have to have a biology degree to figure out what to put on their face. So Baalm came from a personal quest. It’s the community I wish I had when I was building out my first skincare routines.   I have heard that you are working on publishing a book with your beauty secrets and rituals, please tell us more.   Fresh Face is a guide to skin care that offers countless ideas, tips, and tricks for maintaining healthy, radiant skin. I believe that skin are is not just about managing blemishes but can be used as a coping mechanism to radically change the way your soul and psyche are fed. So I go through ways to set up your home to promote better skincare habits and selfcare habits. There are tons of affirmations in the book because it’s just as important to feed your self esteem as it is to feed your skin microbiome (by the way, I dig into that too!). Fresh Face covers the anatomy of the skin in a really approachable way, and provides dozens of routines to help with fresh breakouts or to relax you after a full day of listening to mansplaining. Is there one beauty secret you can share with us?   I change my towels and wash cloths constantly. I buy face towels in bulk on amazon so that I always have a fresh one when I need it. Kailey Bradt is the founder of OWA Haircare, the first water-activated haircare line. Kailey holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and an MS in Product Development, and formulates OWA Haircare’s products herself.   Kailey, please tell us about OWA Haircare and what makes it special.   OWA Haircare is the first water-activated haircare line that delivers your same liquid products in a powder format. Conventional liquid shampoos are 80% water on average. It’s not just shampoo though, conditioner is similarly mostly water & even a hair gel can be 95% water. When I discovered this, I couldn’t imagine continuing to package and ship water all over the world! The concept behind OWA is to deliver your liquid products in a new way.   You started OWA Haircare while working for a clean-tech startup. How did you come up with the idea of launching your own brand?    Working at an early stage start up in Los Angeles, I was constantly in and out of airports traveling for work. If you’ve ever flown into or out of LAX you know the frustration getting through the checked bag line, through TSA security check & then to your gate assuming your bag made it too. Working in sustainability day in and day out, I had also learned about reducing your CO2 footprint by traveling with only carry-on baggage.   Packing liquid hair products was frustrating. They took up the most space, they depleted the most quickly and mine always seemed to leak in my little ziplock bag. I had tried the bar alternatives to liquid shampoos & conditioners and was not satisfied with the results for my hair type. I have a lot of very fine hair, which is sensitive to many ingredients and easily is weighed down by the ingredients in a bar soap. I wanted my same liquid haircare delivered to me in a new way.   This is when I began researching the formulations of liquid haircare. Discovering that liquid products were mostly solvents, I imagined there had to be a better way to deliver the ingredients that we needed without the bulk “fluff” which was water in most cases. Essentially, I wanted a concentrated alternative that would form a liquid product, so that is what I set to create. It hadn’t been done before in a powder format, but I was determined to make it work.   Congratulations on the recent launch! Can you tell us more about the product and the new collection?   OWA Haircare launched with its first product, Moondust Collection: Hair Wash in June 2019 in an exclusive retail deal with Credo Beauty. Our second SKU, a fragrance-free version of Hair Wash launched in July.   Both versions of our Hair Wash are naturally derived, vegan and cruelty free. Additionally, they’re free of water, sulfates, parabens, synthetic colors and synthetic fragrance. They are both clean formulas and if you’re familiar with Credo you know they are leaders in defining clean beauty. The fact we were able to launch with them was a dream come true for me! Starting in September, you’ll see OWA in more stores, so be on the look out!   Besides the shampoo, do you see other possibilities in the water-activated personal-care space?   I don’t even know where to start to talk about this because I’m honestly SO excited about what’s to come. There is so much opportunity in this space and I see it as the future of the haircare. We’re also seeing more in skincare & color cosmetics right now, but I think this will move into body care as well.   For OWA, we are starting with the foundation of the haircare routine- shampoo & for those who need it, conditioner. We’re moving into styling and treatment products as well. I want to say more, but that’s all I’m going to hint for now!   What personal care advice can you share with us?   Listening to your body is so important. I’ve become more conscious about my personal care choices & I’ve realized how critical it is to take care of yourself inside and out. Good skin truly starts from within.   I really love skincare supplements and I’ve been using the Sundaily “The Back Up” & I occasionally will add in Hum Skin Heroes Pre+ Probiotic if I’m experiencing a breakout.   Overall eating better results in better skin for me- everyone is different so I won’t get into what diet works for me. I will just say your body speaks through your skin!   For product, I choose skincare over makeup. A good moisturizer is key! I use SPF every day no matter what. A friend of mine who is working on a skin-health line found that ~80% of signs of aging are caused by long-term UV exposure. That’s wrinkles, fine lines, etc. I was so surprised, so I take it even more seriously now. I like to use Supergoop’s 100% Mineral Invincible Setting Powder to reapply my SPF throughout the day. It also makes a good, lightweight dry shampoo substitute that protects your hairline from sun exposure. I love multifunctional products like that. Another dual purpose product is the Olio e Osso Balm No. 2 in French Melon that I use for my everyday look on my lips & my cheeks. I really have been enjoying the innovations in the clean skin & beauty space. I searched for years testing natural deodorants for example. It wasn’t until the end of last year when I found Curie– the first natural deodorant that didn’t leave me with severe skin irritation. I try to stick to the 80/20 rule with clean beauty. I know there are some products I’ve been using forever that I cannot find a replacement for- yet!   I’m a minimalist and I’ve been making a greater effort to only buy what I need for product overall. If I try a product that isn’t for me, I will pass it along to a friend so it doesn’t go to waste. I’ve also been recycling my difficult-to-recycle product packaging through Terracycle, which has numerous collection locations like Credo or Follain. You can also request a shipping label and recycle from home! Lizzy Trelstad is the founder of Beaker, a platform matching people with the best products and decoding cosmetics ingredients. Lizzy Trelstad is a Columbia-educated innovation chemist with industry experience in personal care, cosmetic, and fragrance formulation. She’s a millennial-on-a-mission to match people with products.   Lizzy, your vision is to match consumers with products that are best for them. How does that work?   The “best” beauty products aren’t always the best products for you. Beaker uses proprietary chemical analysis to read product labels for consumers, using hints in the ingredient list to understand what quantitative features a product really has to offer, and if those features are right for a consumer’s budget, lifestyle, and skin. Beaker uses a nonjudgemental chatbot to asks users a few simple questions, then direct them to a face wash formula best for them and their skin’s needs. Our secret sauce lies in asking questions consumers actually know how to answer, extract what it is the user actually needs, and connecting these needs to face wash formulas with chemical attributes that best serve them. Again, but with less science: we’ve developed the easiest, most accurate skincare quiz to match users with their perfect face wash. Beaker uses chemistry to make these matches.   You have mentioned that you would be launching an MVP this year. Please elaborate.   The Beaker MVP is a curated content platform for everything face wash: product pages that detail ingredient list dissection and summarize Beaker’s product scores; skincare school readings; and a chatbot that helps you choose the best face wash formula for you. Users can easily explore all face wash options with the chatbot as their optional tour guide at hellobeaker.com, or interact with just the chatbot curator via Beaker’s Facebook Messenger.   What is the story behind Beaker and what future do you envision for it?   Beaker was born out of my frustrations endured while working as a formulator at a cosmetics manufacturer. I was tasked with creating innovative textures and novel applications using over-stocked or common raw materials. I was to be inspired by everything at Sephora, then throw out all beauty assumptions and standards. I came up with some pretty cool product bases, but hit a wall trying to explain the new materials and mixtures to the in-house marketing team. That’s when I realized that the language discrepancies between consumers and marketers also exist–sometimes to an even greater extent–between product developers and marketers. I started Beaker with the intention to research or invent protocols for developing a common “language,” a codified procedure for translating qualitative attributes to chemical specifications, or vice versa. I succeed when this common “language” can be used to develop and discuss beauty products with scientific rigor.   To start, Beaker is focusing on face wash, or more specifically, on giving CPG brands novel and transparent ways to win lifetime converts to their face wash formulas. Soon, we’ll expand to the full breadth of beauty, personal, and home care products. The future of Beaker is an educational content-focused combination of Product Hunt for personal care products and Google Translate for consumer chemicals. Beaker doesn’t just tell you what an ingredient is or what it does in a formula, we tell you what that ingredient really means to you. It’s the “to you” that really motivates us: beauty personalization may just be a current trend, but we see the Future of Beauty firmly rooted in curation as a technology.   Do you have a beauty secret to share with us?   Hydration! Dihydrogen monoxide is my favorite beauty chemical. (I’m a huge fan of Hydrant, a CPG company that uses science for the sake of engineering a superior product, not just for the optics of “transparency.” They’re creating higher standards of product development and discussion that all personal care companies should aspire to. Plus hydration is good for the skin. It’s science.  

There’s no mistaking where you are as you approach the large glass doors of Gillette World Shaving Headquarters. A massive sign, towering over the expansive red brick building, spells it out in huge block letters. Of course, once you’re inside, there’s no telling where you might end up. That’s because the headquarters is comprised of over two dozen interconnected buildings, sprawling throughout 44 acres of Boston’s South End. The original building on campus dates back to 1904-shortly after Gillette was launched by businessman King C. Gillette in collaboration with MIT engineer William Nickerson. Just past the entryway is a wall-mounted timeline of products, showcasing early prototypes of safety razors and military-issue shaving kits (with magnetized blades that could double as a compass) as well as the early ’90s Sensor I remember my Dad shaving with daily. And while the history runs deep here, it’s clear that innovation is what keeps the machine moving-literally. The plant has autonomous vehicles ferrying supplies around and is constantly experimenting while continually producing more than four billion razor blades each year.

Gillette’s latest razor, the SkinGuard, was the reason they invited me to come tour the plant and meet with their R&D team. I had told them that I didn’t like shaving with a blade because it irritated my skin-choosing instead to simply use a beard trimmer. They said I was the perfect candidate for this new razor specifically designed for men with sensitive skin. I have to say I was intrigued. And so, in an upstairs laboratory, I met with two white lab-coated gentleman who walked me through their development process as well as a few shaving fundamentals. It was one part biology, one part rocket science. Afterwards, I got to try the new SkinGuard and can report that it was all that they promised and maybe a little more. You know that uncomfortable drag you feel when shaving your neck (more on that later)? This has none of it. And now I know why. It was a crash course in the science of shaving. My mind was blown, so I thought I’d share some of the most impressive facts.

I left the World Shaving Headquarters with a whole new appreciation for the daily ritual of shaving. At the end of my lesson, it was clear that there’s both a science and an art to the perfect shave. Plenty of engineering goes into these razors to make them the best possible instruments to deliver a smooth face. But it’s up to us to find the razor that works for our skin type and shaving sensibility.

Recycle Your Razors

Gillette has partnered with TerraCycle, a program that offers recycling for waste that cannot be recycled curbside. Just register and request a receptacle or public bin (for your gym, office or building) to collect any and all razors. Once it’s full, you can leave it at a local drop point or print a shipping label and send them off to be recycled.

BRIGANTINE — Volunteers Suzanne Marx and Jody Turner from the Atlantic County Library Foundation spoke about their nonprofit and how they support children and adult programs, such as school supply initiatives and summer reading programs. They raise funds and are a huge support enhancing Library resources and services. Children were mesmerized by face painter Paola, who made them all happy with sparkling, glittery smiling faces. The Farmers Market is grateful to the Brigantine branch of the Atlantic County Library System for sponsoring the facepainting. The Trivia Contest questions, “At the Library” were challenging this month but James Bucher was up to the challenge. Out of 85 participants, 28 had all 10 correct. Do you know who founded the nation’s first Library in 1731? It was Benjamin Franklin. Terry Andros and Kim Schenck from Insurance Agencies Inc. were the Spotlight on a Local Vendor. These personable ladies described their service-oriented agency and gave away great little gifts. The Perfect Peach Pie contest was exciting. Judges and chefs Christina Martin, Michael DiAngelo and Chris Dougherty had some tough decisions, but rose to the occasion in choosing three winners: in first place was Sossy Shishmanian, whose pie consisted of flour, cornstarch and a little spice. She explained that she chose “ripe and dense peaches” and she generally “bakes them a lot so they are not soggy and the crust is nice and tan.” She won a $100 gift card. Patrizia Violente won second place and a $75 gift card for her Peach Torta (tasted by the author — so delicious), and third place was Sandra Carberry, who won a $50 gift card. Slices of pie were then sold for $1 each and the $65 collected will go to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center at the end of the season after all contests are completed. Johnny Vibe and the Foot Petals, aka Bruce Gito, played his heart out while sitting in the sun in front of the gazebo. Everyone just loves him, and he had groups of children singing along with him! Stephanie Silverman’s Fine Art and Original Paintings were a hit, with a variety of new pieces and some miniature beach scenes. Popo Flanigan, fine art painter, was selling and will continue to sell her license plates, trivets and other inventory items for 50% off. There are some great deals. Popo stated, “I just want to paint — selling all.” Kelly Lentz, professional photographer, said she is “streamlining also” and had some items at 50% off as well as $15 Grab Bags. On Saturday, Aug. 17, the Farmers Market will celebrate Woodstock’s 50th anniversary. Volunteers will be dressed in lively tie-dyed shirts. Thank them for all that they do at the market. They are amazing, unselfish people who get up early on Saturday mornings and give of their time to build a strong sense of community that we all share. If you wish to volunteer, please leave your name and email at the Information tent. The Atlantic County Library System will host Bookstock in the Park. They will not only have books, but also handmade items in a variety of media that will reflect the Woodstock era. And they will have beautiful giveaways. If you wish to participate in the Alice B. Toklas Brownie Fest, bring your brownies made from scratch with legal ingredients, and the written recipe, to the Demo tent between 9 and 9:30 a.m. Please be prompt as the judging will begin at 9:45. Children will make flower child wooden face masks. Please bring clean jars, large enough to make snow globes, to the Children’s Activity area to be used on Aug. 24. The Fun Wave Band will play some oldies from the era. Lora Constantine, Art in the Park coordinator, scheduled Bead Artist Kelly Petrillo for Aug. 17, stating it would be a great match for the Woodstock celebration. Her art is called Kelly’s Kreations. She creates beautiful art work with beads on canvas ranging in sizes from 9-by-12 inches to 16-by-20 inches with mats and frames as finished products. The Brigantine Beach Cultural Arts commission will be the Spotlight on Community. George Loza, local Brigantine architect, and Berkshire Hathaway Fox Real Estate will be at the Chamber tent. The Green Team tent will focus on health and wellness, so bring your questions to John Addrizzo and his team. Keep collecting red Solo Cups for the recycling collection Aug. 24. The Green Team is partnering with Terra Cycle to recycle these cups, which do not go into our regular recycling bins. Drop off school supplies Aug. 17 for children in need at the Green Team tent: backpacks, lunch bags, notebooks, folders, three-ring binders, pencil cases, regular and colored pencils, glue sticks, pens and markers. Remember to bring your own reusable bags and water in reusable containers, as we are a plastic-free market. The market is 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday, rain or shine. Follow us @BrigantineFarmersMarket.

Tom Szaky's company TerraCycle's music and arts celebration is this weekend in Trenton, NJ.

❝ Celebrating a music genre that might sometimes get lost within the sea of Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi fans in the area comes the Jersey Fresh Graffiti Jam, an event held in Trenton that is all-day, all-ages, and all-inclusive … [JerseyFreshJam.com]