Sephora Has a Crush on Pangea...
(Ok, Well, Maybe Just on Joshua But We Still Feel the Love!)
by Cheryl Locke
Dreamy do-gooder and Pangea Organics founder Joshua Onysko built his company on social responsibility. It makes us rest easier at night to think that the our fave Japanese Matcha Tea with Acai & Goji Berry Facial Mask was made by content employees receiving living wages.We called this boy wonder, age 32, out of his garden to discuss everything from his veggie burger of choice (the one at San Francisco's Plant Café) to his company's commitment to women in developing countries.
Pangea Gets Its Good Sense From Nature Picture courtesy USA Today
Beauty and the Blog: Why don't you start by telling us what consumers should know about skincare? Joshua Onysko: Skin is your largest organ. What you apply to it is an accoutrement to your diet. It's important to feed your skin.bSkincare is no longer about concealing and hiding. It's about establishing a long-term ritual. You can prevent and prolong wrinkles for an extreme amount of time with nourishing ingredients. At Pangea, we take nature and reconstruct it for the skin so that the nutrients are bio-available on a cellular level. We call it alchemy.BATB: Like witchcraft?
JO: Not quite. Our modern day alchemy takes botanicals, oils, and lipids and reconstructs them for really strong benefits for your skin and results you can see and feel. Take Vitamin C as an example. What a lot of people don't know is that the molecule is too big to penetrate pores. It's not really absorbed into you. Some brands use another version called ascorbic acid, which is chocolate brown, yet they produce creams that are white. That's a dead giveaway. The Pangea solution: Eat an orange.BATB: Many of us already know your products are non-synthetic but what we don't know is Pangea's philanthropic work.
JO: For the last year, we've been collaborating with Women for Women International, a non-profit organization that helps women survivors of war. We got involved after learning some startling facts. 87% of food is grown by women, which would be fine except for the fact that only 1% of land is owned by women. It's extremely difficult to build the infrastructure. Pangea wanted to help Women for Women [International] rebuild lives through education and job skills training.BATB: Do you support other organizations?
JO: We pick and choose as we see fit. Fourteen years ago, I was at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where I met Jane Goodall and was blown away by her passion and over 50 years of working with local communities. Her work is not only with primates. We support her Roots & Shoots program, which educates youth on their local ecosystems.BATB: Your company is just as locally conscious. What's an average day like?
JO: Just yesterday, the seeds for our garden came in the mail. We call them seeds of change and we're going to grow them in our 3000 square feet garden outside the office.BATB: What's in your garden?
JO: What's not in our garden! Arugula, fennel, chilies, kale, sweet corn. I've decided that we're going to run a sustainable company from the inside out.BATB: And, what does the man who is set out to make the world a better place - one bar of soap at a time - do for his morning grooming routine?
JO: I wake up and shave; I mix dime-sized amounts of shower gel and body lotion. When I'm done, there's toner and depending on the season Himalayan Geranium & Pomegranate Balancing Oil for an extra protective barrier. And three times a week, I use a scrub.
Learn more about Women for Women International at http://www.womenforwomen.org/ and Roots & Shoots at http://www.rootsandshoots.org/.
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