How Mama Sol Created Sunscreens That Feel Like Self Care

0:00Hey guys, welcome back to Skin Anarchy. This is Ekta. I'm really excited to be introducing you guys to a new brand today that is really focused on safe sunscreen. options. I know this is a very hot topic for many of us that are very particular about sunscreen and making sure that we're applying every day using the best options that are available. I'm very excited for this interview. So without further ado, I want to introduce you guys to Ariel Moody, who's the founder of Mama Soul. Welcome, Ariel. I'm so excited to host you. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Yeah, I'm really excited to learn about, you know, what led to the creation of your brand because sunscreen is a very, very slippery slope.

0:36I feel like, you know, I think there's a lot of options definitely out there but when it comes to understanding what's safe what's worth our dollars you know what I mean what's worth coming back to it can be really hard to you know kind of grasp for general consumers you know I'd love to learn about you and your career if you could walk us down memory lane and talk about what led to the founding of the brand I've been in the beauty industry for over 15 years I've worked for brands like Smashbox, Dr. Paracone, Bite Beauty. And I was also head of product development and packaging for leading manufacturers.

1:12And while I was working at these companies, I noticed that they really were more focused on performance and not as much as on the ingredients. And I felt there had to be a way to prioritize both. And so when I was five months pregnant with my first son, And I started researching ingredients to avoid when you're pregnant or nursing. And the list was just so long. And sunscreen is just one of the most toxic categories out there because I had so much experience and I had so many connections. I called a chemist up and I said, I really want to make a clean 100 % mineral sunscreen brand. And we got started and it was a long journey, many, many ups and downs.

1:58but I wouldn't want to be in any other category because sunscreen is so important. That's really interesting because you brought up pregnancy safe because, you know, I think that especially during pregnancy, a lot of things come to light, right? That you don't really think about before you're in that position because everything now you need to scrutinize. And I think a lot of women, especially, we don't really think about like our makeup products. Yeah. Like for in general, We want them to be safe. I would love to learn about the journey of creating Mama Soul. Funny enough, I had a psychic reading.

2:36And I don't know if your listeners are into the woo, but I love psychics. And I've had some amazing readings in my life. And it was actually probably eight years ago. It was before I was pregnant. We had a psychic reading. And she said to me that I was going to start my own natural skincare brand. And I was so thrown off by this because at the time I was sketching like makeup brands because I actually started my career off as a makeup artist. And so I was thinking I was going to be in creating high-end fashion of high-end fashion makeup line. And she said this to me and I'm like, what? And she's like, yeah, it's going to be really successful.

3:22It's going to be like the honest company. And I see you on access Hollywood. And she starts listing all these publications. Well, the cool thing was three weeks into our launch, we actually were featured on access Hollywood. So it was really cool to have it come to fruition in that way. And of course it, the whole idea really did come naturally to me. It wasn't forced. It wasn't like, Oh, this psychic told me I'm going to do this. So now how do I do it? It was really an aha moment for me. Um, when I was pregnant. Well, that's really cool. I was really into psychics as well. Back in the day, I remember getting readings.

3:54I mean, that's really fascinating that she was so spot on. You know, I'm just curious, you know, when you were doing your homework, right, for crafting the brand and especially the ingredients, what were some of the most harmful ingredients that you found in over-the-counter sunscreens? It's a great question. For your listeners who don't know the difference between mineral and chemical sunscreen, I'll just do a quick overview. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah. Chemical sunscreen absorbs into your skin. It takes about 20 minutes to work and it actually can get into your bloodstream because it is absorbing in their mineral sunscreen.

4:27Think of it as a physical shield. It sits on top of your skin and it works instantly. And the chances of it getting into your bloodstream are significantly less than a chemical sunscreen. Essentially, when you look at the active ingredients on a drug fact label, you want to make, if it says anything other than zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, then it is a chemical sunscreen. so look for ingredients like oxybenzone and that oxybenzone was actually the ingredient that led me to start the company because at the time although oxybenzone is not in a lot of sunscreens now but when I wrote the business plan oxybenzone was found to cause low birth weight it's an endocrine disruptor it's found in breast milk causes skin allergies cell damage the list goes on.

5:10And I was like, how is this allowed in, in our skincare? And then octisoli and octanoxate, Ava Benzone is a chemical filter that protects you from UVA rays. And now something interesting that I recently learned because I actually expert series through mama soul's wellness community. So if you follow us at shop mama soul on Instagram, you can follow along. But last month, I interviewed a world renowned dermatologist named Dr. Kilgore. And when I asked him what he prefers between chemical and mineral sunscreen, he said that he preferred mineral because chemical sunscreens in the United States do not have good UVA filters.

5:54So avobenzone is one of the most popular ones and they degrade with UV exposure. So he felt like mineral sunscreens were just the most stable way to protect your skin from both uva and ubb damage yeah i've heard that as well i think a lot of dermatologists uh recommend that as well chemical sunscreens never sat well with me in general i understood the concept and the science but it just never felt as protective not to mention like mineral is also really better for sensitive skin so even if you don't have sensitive skin it's just a safer option because we don't want the ingredients being absorbed into your bloodstream.

6:31Our formulas have been tested on over a hundred people, 50 % who had sensitive skin and we've had zero skin reactions. So if you have acne skin, eczema, you're pregnant, you know, any, anything like that, I would highly recommend mineral doctors always say use so, so few people wear sunscreen every day and it's actually a problem. So that is a big reason why I, we created Mama Soul and we can talk about the unique features of it and why it's different than others. But you want to use what you look forward to using something that's going to protect your skin. So I don't want to discourage people from using chemical sunscreen if that's what they prefer.

7:11I just want to educate them on the, on the, on their options. Of course. I mean, I think that there's definitely a lot to learn though, you know, from a consumer standpoint, I don't think it's really about fear mongering. It's more about the idea that you have to understand the data and the science behind how these different two different categories work. I think with mineral, it's just a more, I would say tried and true because it's been around longer. I'm curious because I know that mineral sunscreens also have some like, you know, downfalls that kind of deter consumers. Like, for example, the white cast is a big one.

7:47You know, a lot of women of color, men of color, they don't like that. And I know sometimes I've even heard dermatologists say, well, you need to just get over it. You know, you need to just let it sink in and let it sit there and do its thing, which I understand. But how did you come, you know, go around these problems, these common problems that we see with mineral sunscreens? That's a great question. Technologies have significantly advanced over the years, and there are many more ingredients and dispersions that are available to us now to make zinc sunscreens that don't leave a white cast. So, I mean, that played a big part.

8:23And it's really just working with amazing formulators that can that can do the job. That being said, a lot of sunscreens, a lot of mineral sunscreens that you find will contain silicones. And for those who don't know this, and many don't know this, silicones help to suspend zinc oxide. So it actually helps prevent separation. So a lot of chemists will use this ingredient for, to create stable formulas, but there's some downfalls of silicones. And silicones was something that I just did not want in my formulas because silicones tend to clog your pores and they also are not biodegradable. degradable.

8:58And our formulas from soup to nuts are meaning the ingredients to the packaging are sustainable. So that is a big reason why it took five years to launch our first formula, because the, the difficulty in creating a sunscreen without silicone is, is, is so complex. And I think that's one of our unique features of our brand. And then there's others. Mama Soul is all about creating a self-care ritual. And it was really important to us to create a sunscreen that people really, really love to use. And what are some reasons why people don't wear sunscreen? Number one, yes, the white cast. So ours, our formula was designed to go on white and blend in clear.

9:41And the reason we designed it to go on white first is so that you don't miss a spot, because a lot of times people will put it on and they just don't even realize that they missed like a whole area of their face. So that, that was important to us, but it does seamlessly blend into the skin. Another feature was the smell. So we incorporated a subtle hint of a lavender essential oil. And that was to really, you know, I'm a busy mom of two. And when I'm getting ready in the morning, I want to take a deep breath and give myself a health, a mental health moment before my kids start coming after me and asking me a million questions.

10:18And so when I use our sunscreen, I like to take a deep breath and really have a moment to feel my skin and touch my skin. And then lastly, we wanted to create an experience where the packaging was luxe because it's not, our face formula is in glass. Our lip, our tinted lip oils, our 100 % mineral tinted lip oils are in glass and our body sunscreen is in a hundred percent sugar gain tube. And we wanted it to look beautiful so that you would leave it on your vanity or your bathroom counter and you're reminded to use it every day it's really important I mean that habit formation part is really important I think those kind of aspects help a lot you know with us being able to just readily grab something and actually utilize it day in and day out I mean I think one of the questions I have for you and this you brought this up earlier is this whole idea just rubbing in your sunscreen I've seen a lot of people kind of do this and it always irks me when people rub their sunscreen in way too much that's a big thing I've noticed is where you'll put it on and because of the white cast and conventional sunscreens they'll keep rubbing and keep rubbing and it's like you don't understand what you're doing there is you're actually destroying the filter so like you're you're not really allowing your skin to have that barrier you know what I mean that's what sunscreens do and I always wondered like with a lot of mineral products was this was that you know although though it's the superior product, how many times do people actually apply it correctly?

11:46So in terms of like spreadability of your product, how much should you be rubbing in your sunscreen? Ours blends in pretty quickly. So I essentially what I do is I pump it twice, the face sunscreen, I'll pump two pumps in my hand, I rub it into my, I rub it into my, you know, in my hands and the pump of my hands, my fingers, and I warm up the formula. And then I and then I blend it all over my skin. And that really helps the spreadability because you're warming the formula and it blends in really in seconds into the skin. So for us, that's not really an issue. I think it's a big topic and especially for people who wear makeup, you know, it's something that you do have to keep in mind, you know, in general.

12:25I'm so glad you just brought up makeup because that brings me to another point that I want to mention. So there's two points that I want to bring up. So one, our face sunscreen is actually, it's a hundred percent mineral moisturizing sunscreen SPF 30. And it's actually a three in one. So not only is it your SPF 30, it's your daily moisturizer with youth preserving with a youth preserving complex, but it's also a skin smoothing makeup primer. So whether you're a man or a woman, you can use this because it's smoothing the skin, but it really allows like a beautiful canvas, a glowy canvas to apply your makeup.

12:57The other question I get a lot is what, you know, do you have a tinted sunscreen? And although this is something that is in the pipeline, there's, it was very intentional that we launched a formula that was not tinted. And that was when you wear a tinted sunscreen as your only form of sunscreen, you're typically not getting the protection that it says you're getting because you would have to apply a ton of layers of makeup onto your skin. And a lot of people really put very little because they don't want to look like they have caked on makeup. again I always tell all of our customers put on the face formula first and then apply on top your favorite tinted sunscreen or your foundation or whatever it is that you like on top I like that I like that you made that point because I feel like that I feel exactly the same about tinted products that are supposed to be sun protection and you know a lot of times if you think about how we all do makeup what are we doing most of us are not putting on this thick layer of like whatever that is even if you look at foundation how many times do people put on a really thick layer of foundation on a day-to-day basis we don't you know that's just the reality of it don't do that so when you're doing that you're almost like spot spot you know correcting or something or whatever you're doing with your makeup and that cannot be how sunscreen goes on in terms of just overall sun protection i mean i just would love to see your opinion on what you think people usually do wrong in this category?

14:26There's a lot, but I will say, I think the biggest thing that people do incorrectly is that they think they only need to wear sunscreen on warm and sunny days. As I mentioned earlier, I host this expert series every month and Dr. Kilgore had said something really interesting. And he talks about something called cumulative damage. And that is just like, if you walked your car every day, you sit by a window working for an hour. You take the dog for a walk and anything you do consistently like that, it actually adds up to a lot more damage than you realize it's cumulatively adding up in your skin.

15:02It's really important to protect your skin, whether you're indoors or outdoors. In addition, we go one step further. So mama soul's formula, particularly the face formula has blue light protection from your screens and devices. So hyper, um, blue light can actually cause hyper pigmentation. So it's, we, we, there's no excuses, not to wear your sunscreen. If someone's like, I'm just sitting at home all day. Um, I mean, honestly, unless you're in a dark room, um, all day, then I would advise that you put on sunscreen and I advise you put it on even in the winter, cover your head, the tops of your hands, your forearms, your ears, the back of your neck, the places where people don't, people really forget.

15:45And then in addition, your lips, your lips, the number one reason that your lips start to age and get lines is because of UV damage. And that's why we launched our 100 % mineral tinted lip oils, SPF 20, because we call it the love them. They love child between a lip balm and a lip gloss. They come in two shades, rise and shine and they're very subtle and they're beautiful everyday shades like a warm toasty nude and a soft petal pink and it's really going to just be a really good reminder to protect those areas that we all forget about every day one of the big things and i want to discuss this because a big deterrent to people actually utilizing sunscreen is the texture i know i've definitely experimented with a lot of sunscreen products where you put it on everything seems to be going fine but then you leave it on for like a minute or two and it feels like literally like I smeared butter all over my face how did you work with that how did you how was that for you from that formulating aspect finding the right texture and the right amount you know so it doesn't weigh people down yeah I think what's really what's so great about my background is that I've spent years working in product development and I worked with all types of different textures and scents and after feels.

17:01And one thing that I knew I wanted was I wanted this formula, especially the face sunscreen, because that's the one most people are going to use every day is to feel like, like skincare. When I put it on, I honestly, my skin craves it every morning. My skin just feels dehydrated. And, you know, I live in California and it's really dry and, you know, this really quenches your skin. It blends effortlessly, doesn't leave any film, that layer of film. And also it doesn't cause any pilling when you apply multiple products on top, which a lot of sunscreens do that. And your skin after you apply, it feels just hydrated, soft, glowy, doesn't feel like you have anything.

17:42There's so many sunscreens that make you want to wash your face. And that was a huge reason why I wanted to create Mama Soul. I wanted, I wanted there to be no more excuses. I wanted people to look forward to using their sunscreen. I know I do now. I, you know, I was not an avid sunscreen user before I created Mama Soul. When I was younger, it was not a priority. And so I asked myself, why? Why didn't I use it? And so I think Mama Soul checks all those boxes. And like I said, no more excuses. Yeah, no, I love that. I love that you did that. I think it's so, so important. I think people look for options.

18:16You know, we always try to find reasons to use sunscreen, but I'm not even going to lie. the way the industry is now there's just a lot of talk and a lot not a lot of action it's like an afterthought almost sometimes that's what it feels like for a lot of brands that you're now coming out with a sunscreen i always tell people on this podcast if you guys are shopping a brand and they don't have a sunscreen what are you even doing you know what i mean because you know seriously like if you're a skincare brand and you're not creating a sun protection product i just wonder you know what i mean about like what what you're doing with your time and your money will say this You know, sunscreen is extremely costly and fun of testing involved.

18:53And we didn't want to just launch a skincare brand. And there are amazing skincare brands out there and we need our skincare, right? But sun care is very complex. It's difficult. It's very costly. You have to have a lot of capital to launch it. And that's what I think makes us so unique is we're coming out as only sunscreen. and you can go to us and trust us that we got you. We're protecting your skin. We thought of everything. And I think that's what makes us different from the brands that have a million different SKUs and then they decide to launch a sunscreen. Of course, it's great they have one.

19:30But again, like you said, it's almost like an afterthought. And so for us, it's everything. At the end of the day, you do need nourishing ingredients to help your skin on a day-to-day basis, right? Which like cell turnover and all those things. However, that does not mean that you can compromise on actual protection. That is the number one thing you need is protection. And so I really love that you have ingredients in your formulas. Each formula was designed minimal, but we pack a big punch in each formula. So each formula is a three in one. They all do three things. So you can get rid of a lot of steps when you're using our formulas.

20:08The face sunscreen, we have kakadu plum, green tea, arnica, Montana flower. We also have ectoin, which helps protect you from the blue light and has clinical data for anti-aging claims. The, the Arnica is soothing. The green tea is a powerful antioxidant, helps smooth the look of fine lines and wrinkles. And then the Kakadu Plum is a hundred times more brightening than, or even more than vitamin C. So it's really, really brightening your skin. then our body sunscreen we have tamenu and pomegranate and rose hip and acai and the lip we have sesame seed which helps to plump the look of your lips without that irritating feeling and sunflower and vitamins c and e so like you said our our formulas are so much more than sun protection their skincare i love that you have that see that's what i meant i like that you have really thought about these other ingredients because when it comes to skin minimalism i feel like sometimes what happens with consumers they'll put on that one serum or like that one moisturizer and they're like well that's good I'm good now and it's just not enough.

21:16Sun protection is absolutely first and foremost and then the fact that you have all these amazing ingredients in there that's so reassuring. Think of us as a skincare brand with amazing sun protection you know we combine sun care and skincare in one. I love the formulas I love what you've done and I'm really curious Is there any technologies or anything on the horizon that you're really excited about? Yeah, we have two really amazing formulas in the works. I'm not going to give too much information, but I will say they have some tint to it. We have been, people have been begging us to come out with something with a tint.

21:54And so there's two different ones and people are going to go crazy because there's very little like it out on the market. So we're really excited. It takes time to launch OTC formulas. so they won't be launching until spring of 2026. Well, I'm excited to see, you know, how you do the tinted aspect of everything. I really, really love the products. And for everyone curious, we'll be linking everything in our show notes for this episode. So make sure you check out Mama Soul. You can shop the brand at shopmamasoul.com and let us know what you guys think. And Ekta, I do want to mention for your listeners, we have a discount code, AnarchyMama15.

22:31We get 15 % off the entire line. and we really hope that everybody gets to check us out. Follow us at Shop Hama Soul. Wonderful. So we'll be putting that in our notes as well, guys. So keep an eye out for that discount code and definitely check out the brand and we'll be back next time. Thank you so much. Hey guys, so I hope you loved that episode. Please make sure to hit subscribe if you're tuning in to us on any podcast platform. We are available on so many different platforms so wherever it is that you're tuning in, just go hit subscribe. You will be immediately notified when we publish new episodes.

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