HealingHQ.com gets skin deep with Casi Morris from Nature’s Gate

Since 1972, Nature’s Gate has been at the forefront of all-natural personal care. What started out as a quirky creation by two friends – an herbal shampoo and conditioner formulated from rainwater collected in Venice, California – has now become an empire of body and beauty products known worldwide. Whether it’s new creations like the organic microdermabrasion kit or the bestselling shampoo and conditioner that started it all, Nature’s Gate is going strong. After meeting at a recent A-list Hollywood event, we spoke with Casi Morris, the director of marketing for Nature’s Gate.

First, explain the connection between Levland and Nature’s Gate.
Levland has always been our parent company. The name is a combination of the original owners’ names, Leo and Vladimir, who created the Nature’s Gate brand in Venice, California, back in the ‘70s. They sold the company a few years ago to an investment firm in New York called Harvest Partners that specializes in natural and organic companies.

Because your parent company is very large and ownership of Nature’s Gate has exchanged hands a few times, there seems to be that looming threat of compromise. How have you maintained product integrity?
First of all, Harvest Partners assured the Nature’s Gate brand would remain natural and organic and that the ingredients would not be compromised. And they really stood true to that. Also, the bulk of the original management stayed in place during the buyout. We have had some new leadership come on, but the people who really run the brand day to day have stayed and have been here for 15+ years. I think that’s really been important. Plus, in this industry, you really don’t have room for compromise. People know their ingredients, they know their products and they read labels. So there is no opportunity to try to slip one under the rug and say, ‘okay, well now we’re going to try to substitute synthetic ingredients for botanicals used in the past.’ That’s not an option.

Nature’s Gate has been around for 30 years. How has the natural and organic market changed over the years?
I think it’s becoming so much more mainstream. All of these brands in mainstream beauty are now jumping on the natural, organic bandwagon and it’s really our biggest…not threat, but…push because you’ve got so many people using ‘natural’ as a marketing term rather than as a true category. And that’s tough. When you’re a brand like us, you have to stay true to your roots and the product integrity. Then you’ve got other brands that tack on ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ but it’s just in a name because when you read the [ingredient] deck you realize it’s not really all natural. So the mainstreaming of natural and organic beauty has been the biggest change we’ve seen.

It’s almost a double-edged sword. While it’s good that more people are becoming aware, at the same it can be really confusing – particularly for a newcomer – to distinguish fact from marketing fiction.
Absolutely, we see it that way. It’s brought a great deal of attention because so many of the big brands are out there advertising and spending major dollars. I call them ‘organic light’ brands. So of course that’s bringing the smaller, core natural brands that have been around for decades to the forefront. But in the same respect, the mainstream consumer sees ‘natural’ or ‘all natural’ tagged on a product and they take it literally. So they are misled to some extent. One of the things that Nature’s Gate is trying to do is help consumers by providing education programs. We have an esthetician program, for instance, where we go into stores like Whole Foods and have estheticians who teach customers about real organic skincare, how to know which products are good for you and which products are not.

What are some of your bestselling products?
The herbal shampoo and conditioner that started the company in 1972 are literally two of the best selling natural items in the entire natural health and beauty category. No one can dispute the fact that the herbal shampoo, conditioner and lotion for the last 30 years have remained bestsellers across the board, so we’re really excited about that.

You’ve launched about 30 new items in the last year or so, including the organic advanced skincare and acne lines – probably two of the biggest concerns for people.
Yes! Skincare is so important and the organic advanced care line features potent antioxidant formulations and is completely paraben-free. There is a great deal of controversy right now about the use of parabens in cosmetics and personal care items because there have been studies that show it could potentially be carcinogenic. As for the acne line, we really listened to customer feedback on that one and the only effective ingredient on the market was benzoyl peroxide, which is a very unnatural and oftentimes harsh ingredient on many skin types, especially teenagers’ young skin. So using salicylic acid plus oligopeptides plus a special blend of botanicals, we have created what is really the first organic acne skincare system. It’s been on the market a very short time but so far the feedback has been outstanding.
 
Nature’s Gate has also just created the first ever 100% certified organic perfume, right?
We’re so excited about this! It’s the first fragrance ever created with 100% certified organic alcohol. If you read the ingredients of the ‘organic’ fragrances that you may see at Target or Walmart, it’ll read ‘denatured organic alcohol.’ Well that’s an oxymoron! You cannot denature something and have it be organic because that’s rendering it unnatural. So having it truly certified organic means that it’s basically as pure as a drinking alcohol. We’ve had to have ATF certification and all sorts of permits because of the extreme purity of this alcohol. In doing so, we’ve created the purest, cleanest fragrance on the market. And all three fragrances smell wonderful and retail for only $40.

What is one thing consumers should know about natural body products?
Read the labels and then you’ll know whether something is truly natural or not. We’re so crazed about eating organic food, but people forget that it’s the same principle with skincare. There are certain things that are absorbed into the skin and you have to be cautious and careful about that.

Interview by Mar Yvette

For more information on Nature's Gate go to www.natures-gate.com