Your Name: Joanna Kossak
Business Name: Gaiavita Ltd, a maker of a skin care product for women
Type of Business: Health & Beauty
Business Location: London, United Kingdom
Reason for starting
There are over 10,000 ingredients commonly found in cosmetics which accumulate in our bodies in vast quantities of up to 2 kg per year! These substances have already been shown to produce toxic effects on living systems. We are concerned with lack of regulation in the cosmetic industry – an industry which has the capacity to harm people. Most government agencies do not require manufacturers to prove that their products are safe or effective. My partner Aldona and I, created Gaivita skincare in response to the absence of creams that we could trust. We want Gaiavita to be an example of how to be transparent, ethical and to deliver organic, certified skincare with the results that women want! We are planning to create awareness in women’s organisations and media and campaign for better regulation of the cosmetic industry.
How do you define success?
For Gaiavita, success is to influence a paradigm shift – when the sicientific truth about the potential dangers of toxic overload that we are subjected to will find its rightful place in the public domain and when women will be empowered to make conscious decisions about their health and beauty based on credible information rather than biased media advertising – when we influence the cosmetic industry to choose healhier options in their cosmetic formulations – when we have a responsible public body regulating the cosmetic industry – and when women choose our products because they understand and support our campaign.
Biggest Success
Creating our ethical skin care using pure organic ingredients and based on our philosophy that women deserve the best. Gaiavita skin care detoxes stressed skin and uses only plant ingredients to carry nature’s radiant message of health and beauty directly to women’s skin and wellbeing. Winning endorsement from the infuential mentors such as Leslie Kenton, business support from ‘Ogunte’ Make a Wave programme, research support from Cass Business School in London.
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it?
To find a like minded partners/investors to grow both the brand and our campaign.
Who is your most important role model?
Leslie Kenton, Pat Thomas, Stacy Malkan, Lynne Franks