Bobbi Brown x Alitura Naturals Founder Andy Hnilo

Hey, guys. Bobbi here. Bobbi unplugged. I'm here today to talk to. I don't think I've talked to a guy before, have I?

No.

My first guy. So this is Andy. And Andy, what's your last name?

Nilo.

Nilo. Now, Andy has an amazing story. He's a founder of a new organic skincare. Is it just skincare?

It's just skincare. We have a supplement, and we have two instruments used for skincare, like a razor and a derma roller.

Okay, so. So I love interviewing founders, and I love talking to them, but Andy has a really special story, and I want you to tell everybody. So welcome, Andy.

Thank you.

So, Andy, tell everyone your story and how you got here. I mean, clearly, he used to be a model.

Okay, well, yeah, that was cut short in 2011. I was hit by a westbound heading vehicle where I lost consciousness, and I was hitting the eastbound lane and run over by a toga tundra.

And were you on a bike?

No, no, it was a pedestrian just crossing the road. Just what time of day I was at around 10 at night. I looked down, lost focus, just. It's a horrible habit. Don't tell my mom.

No, no, no. Don't tell your mom, but tell everyone not to do it.

No death. Absolutely.

Don't do it.

Texting driver while I wasn't driving. Anything to do with that? Just maintain extreme focus.

So you were just walking across the.

Street and looking down, Just went to check, and boom.

Who doesn't do that? Everyone does that.

Yeah, especially this is one of those, like, out here in New York. It's everywhere I'm seeing, but it's just. You kind of. There was no crosswalk, but it was, you know, you kind of, like, make your own crosswalk. It was very bad, my mistake, and I paid very dearly for it. But what it did, I mean, it led to my absolute purpose right now. And. But, yeah, I woke up at a Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles ICU bed with severely fractured compound fracture in my jaw right here where my chin was poking through the bottom of my mouth, where I also had seven broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and just really unrecognizable. It's a situation that still gives me goosebumps to this day.

And how long ago was it?

This was March 20, 2011.

Wow. All right. And how long were you in the hospital?

I was in the hospital for, I think, six days. They transferred me from an ICU unit to a regular unit. The maxillofacial surgeon from Cedar Sinai actually Couldn't deal with the surgery. He said it was the worst compound fracture that he'd ever seen. So we had to hire a private. A private surgeon from Beverly Hills. Luckily, we're right there. So we found someone that was pretty good and he did a great job.

Like this.

What's that?

You still look like this. Now I'm talking.

Oh, yeah.

No, because I. I mean, I'm looking at you really close. I don't see anything.

Yeah, well, you didn't, you didn't know me before, but there are little things that kind of.

There's not even a scar.

Oh, right here.

Okay.

Right here. Right.

One little scar right here. Uh huh.

See that guy? I have a big one right here. Yeah, I think they want to see. And then another big one right here where the chest tube was inserted. I had seven broken ribs, collapsed lung. I severed a nerve right here that communicates from the brain to the side of your face. So I had to cheat my smile. I still do it a little bit. I mean it's, it's. I had two. Titanic. Yeah, I don't know if I already said that. I say about the plates. No, no. There's one titanium plate on top, one on bottom.

Your poor mom.

That's your poor mom.

Yeah, yeah.

My parents were both. Yeah, rocked.

Were they local?

They were from the Bay Area. Okay. So they drove down immediately. They drove down, you know, can you imagine that? But yeah, seeing them walk in for the first time is pretty difficult, but it drives me. I don't want to lose that. It gives me ultimate perspective.

So you were modeling at the time?

I was.

And aren't you a baseball player?

I used to be.

Used to be. Tell me about your baseball career.

Sure. So out of high school I played in the Junior Olympics. I was a top 100 outfielder coming out of Palatine High School. I got a scholarship to UC Berkeley and bounced around a little bit. I went to finished up at St. Mary's College, West Coast Conference champions, I think last year. Correct me if I'm wrong, I don't know. But I had my opportunities. I was a little bit of a wild child off the field.

No.

Yeah. Yeah. So I had my opportunities. Physically, it could have happened. But you know what, with baseball you have to just stay even keel. Just keep the highs low and the lows high. They say I would keep the high super high and the lows super low. And you can't. With 162 games, you just can't do that. And I just maintaining I'm right where I'm supposed to be, basically. But I love, you know, I love baseball, but that chapter is over and I love watching my friends play right now.

So was baseball before or after modeling?

Basically. So baseball. The story is I went from living in my parents house and training to continue to play professionally. And when I moved down to, well, my dad and I kind of like, it was just good to move out. And I moved down to Los Angeles and started working at Abercrombie and Fitch. I had $260 in my account, and I was living on the floor of an actor's house or apartment in Los Angeles. And I was running lines with him one day and it was a baseball film. And, you know, the breakdown must have college level or above baseball experience. This guy hadn't played since Little League. You know, what a liar. Just kind of fudge a little bit. And, you know, when you don't care, you kind of just. Just nail it. And so I was, you know, just, you know, critiquing him and I was nailing my lines, barely even reading them. And we both knew, like, that the character was me to critique, even considering my situation, baseball and transferring and things like that, from school to school. And so this never happens. But he got me a read for that, that role with the director. He reached out. I didn't have an agent or anything like that. No training whatsoever. But long story short, he got me in an audition, which was awesome. I was just having fun. I didn't expect to get a call back, Got another callback, screen tested, ended up getting that it was a lead role. So I got management through that. Shot for a year or shot for a month. Excuse me. But it was a baseball film, so it was cool because I was able to continue my dream of playing. But I was also acting, transferring. One Door Closes, Another One Owens type situation where, man, that was pretty exhilarating. But. And then. So I booked Days of Our Lives. Old and beautiful. Hello, ladies. Pitch. I was just most recently on pitch in 2016. Yeah, I've been working.

So this is after the accident?

This is. Well, Pitch was after the accident. Hello, ladies. Was after the accident.

So you're still with an agent and you're still acting, modeling?

I do, but I'm very specific. I'm like, if it's baseball only or if it's something close to me, because this is my passion. Skincare is what I'm.

So. So explain how you went from, you know, modeling baseball, the accident, to a founder and entrepreneur. Sure, I'm sure there's.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. So after, after I left the hospital, went home, my parents, you know, brothers, sisters, they. They left. I just had nothing to time tonight. My child was wearing shirt and like 13, right here with nubs. These are all bonded in right here because when they hit the pavement, they crack, you know, just nugs. And so. But, you know, having just nubs for teeth and your job being wired shut, you don't want to be seen by anybody. Especially, you know, go to a grocery store and you have, you know, the same conversation. You've got to talk like this and your teeth are gone. They're gonna ask you questions. And I just got a little self conscious with, with that and then also just repeating the story, it just became. It just kind of bugged me a little bit. So I would sit or stay at home. That's it. But I just became extremely passionate and obsessive with just pointing out certain active ingredients and products on shelves that I liked, but had some type of hole in it. Whether it's glycerin, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, whether it's artificial fragrance, something like that, there would always be some type of hole. And I just couldn't figure it out. It was frustrating. So I would buy those individually and start. I mean, my night creams made out of a cast iron pan, sea buckthorn oil, new Gahani beeswax, cacao butter. And it was just my little creative outlet. You know, I have a little dinghy apartment in Hollywood, California. But, yeah, it's just, you know, necessity as a mother of dimension, essentially. I mean, I had no intention to start a business. Who would ever buy into a guy with a design chemistry degree? Just. But I had an ultimate obsession with accelerating healing my scarring.

So this whole line was born out of. Out of like healing your scars 100%. And what else is it good for? I mean, I have to tell you, it feels really good.

Thank you.

It smells amazing.

Thank you.

I mean, all the girls are walking around the office going like this. It smells really good.

Yeah, it's. Well, it's. When we have control, we have the ability to make whatever we want. And I don't have the big corporate overhead, so luckily I just.

Not yet.

We'll see.

Not yet.

Yeah, I know. Yeah.

Hope, hopefully.

Right?

Not yet.

Hopefully. Sure, sure. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I love, love the way things are going, but I love to just be able to just have my dream team. You know, we don't start our products off, you know, with a certain budget. I just, I just get to create. And it's so much fun. But.

But do you have a business partner?

I do, I do. I have a cfo. Dave Asprey from Bulletproof was my first investor. He gave me a chance. Yeah. You know Bulletproof coffee. Of course.

We all do.

Yeah. So that's a funny story. I do.

You do?

Yes.

Every day.

Every day. Didn't do it today because my hotel is a long story. But I said that's not true. I had a little thing of kerrygold butter. So what I was doing is I was drinking it and then eating it.

Oh, God.

I mean, I'm weird, but.

Hi.

How do I take a bite of butter? So do you do it every single day? You do Bulletproof every day?

Yeah.

Yeah. And does it keep your weight off?

I. Intermittent fast. Yeah. So that's what satiates my system in the morning with good. I use chocolate powder, cayenne, maca.

You could have chocolate powder and still do intermittent fasting.

See, that's the thing. A lot of people give me a hard time for that. I'm just drinking coffee, putting a little half teaspoon in there. Does that disrupt the. I know some people say I bought.

The Laird Hamilton coconut powder.

That's just awesome.

Is that mess up the intermittent fasting?

I don't know.

Would you call Dave, please? So get Dave on the phone.

I actually just talked to him.

Yeah, would you ask him? Tell him I need to know. Can I. Can you like call him now?

Oh, man. So I actually know the superfood creamer. Yeah. So good you put teaspoon in it. There's. I know, but.

But I know I need to know the rules. So we'll take that offline. And we do need to call Dave because I need all the rules. So I'm really here to talk about your. I mean, I can talk about reintroduce too. Yes, I'm going to reintroduce. So hi, I'm Bobby and we're here talking to Andy about everything from his modeling, his baseball playing, his accident to now his products. And products are called Alatura Naturals. Alatura Naturals. And we'll put the information in the Facebook Live so you can get to his Instagram to Facebook website and all.

Those things because Maria is asking where. Where you can buy it.

Well, it's online. It's actually a cat beauty out here. Cap Beauty, Los Angeles, all Air1 locations in Los Angeles and Amazon Prime. And our site, we did a little discount code for your fall in if you want.

Oh, cool, cool. Excellent. Go to his site. You'll get the discount code.

Just. Bobby.

Bobby. And what.

What's your favorite product right now? The treatment right now is Derma roller masque serum night cream.

Can we grab.

Can you get some of it?

So, yeah, it's.

It's. We're considering doing a little package on that just called Mason Radiance.

Right.

I'm a little rosy right now because of that, you know, But I mean, it's just what it does. It just.

How old are you?

36.

Yeah. You have beautiful skin.

Thank you.

She's grabbing the products.

Yeah. What it does so that.

How many products altogether?

We have 14 done. But we're at, I believe, 12 right now. We're just slowly going to release the body oil, which is called Santo Black, has two different kinds of sandalwood, black pepper, vanilla. That is where we put it in. Awesome.

And where do you make these things? Not out of your pan anymore?

No, no, not anymore. Not anymore. So that's professionally manufactured out of Hawaii.

Right.

Our cleanser is manufactured out of Los Angeles. Supplement Los Angeles Mask, Nevada.

Wow. But thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, I got the B team today. They forgot to put it on.

Just kidding.

Just kidding. It was a joke. It was a joke. It was a joke. They're a. Okay, so wait.

Make sure you guys speak up, too.

Yeah, we are speaking up.

So the. I don't know if I mentioned this, but the name Altura. Latin for feeding and nursing, nourishing. So with your skin being your largest organ, you want to treat it like another mouth. That's. That's how it came up. Just want to mention that. But that's our body lotion.

And I put it on my face.

Absolutely. I put it first. Hair every. You name it.

Oh, no. It's a really nice formula.

Thank you. Is beeswax Acai butter, Inderoba oil.

Bulletproof? Can you put that in your coffee in the morning? I know you eat it.

He already ate it Would kill. We have a couple raw ingredients in there, so it may cook that away, but it's food grade.

I mean, I definitely have to do.

Yes. And so what you do is you make tiny little X's all around your face. So that doesn't hurt. See, a lot of people are intimidated. You just went right in there.

It's awesome. Yeah.

Does that have a blade on it?

No. They have little micro needles, little titanium micro needles. We have a 0.25, 0.50 and a 1 millimeter length. And so it just gets past that initial layer of the dermis. So it increases the Absorption level.

It makes the lines look better.

You're just like wildly.

I'm needling my face. Wildly, wildly.

But it does, it just fills that area up.

You think this is the first time.

I've been needle baby.

If some, if something works, I don't have to shoot in my face. I do it because I'm not a shooter.

Yeah, I mean you're great. Does.

You look great for 60.

Really? Yeah.

How old is your mom?

She would not like me say anything. Okay.

She's younger. Older than me. Older. Oh, sh. I hate when people tell me that their moms are like 48 or something. I'm like, really? Just keep rolling.

Just needle.

I was at last.

Needle the ears. There you go.

So what, so you going to get like a little bright now?

Yeah, I look great.

Yeah, actually I look fantastic. You don't cut. You put that lotion on, didn't you?

Yeah.

So what, what you're going to be like, you're getting a little bit of a, like a rosy complexion right now. What you want to do is heal that with the serum to heal it. So this has plate derived vitamin A, which is organic, from France. It's a, it's a, it's a plate derived alternative to retinol which is becoming very popular. It's called Medicago Sativa. Yeah. And we have copper type peptide one. It's in a space.

I actually like this stuff a lot, I have to say.

Thank you. Yeah, it's our probably most popular product right now. We just released it in December.

And then.

See, that's our razor.

What is this?

This is our. That's, that's a brass razor we just released.

This reminds me of when I was a kid. My dad used to shave with one of these kind of.

Yeah, you just put in. See that's the thing. It's so much better on the environment too because you throwing away all that plastic you just put in the blade where you buy like 100 of them for 20 bucks.

He was always walking around with toilet paper on all his knees.

Yeah, that's the technique is you miss one little thing, you're going to see. It actually happened the other day, even though I've been doing this for years because you're using a fresh blade every, you know, three or four uses.

What is the name of that device again? The micro needle or.

So this is the Derma roller. Derma roller, Yep, yep. It's. We have three different lengths. The 0.25. They're just, you know, there are 600 micro micro are made out of titanium. Some companies use stainless steel and plastic. So that's. That's the way to go if it's. You're going to go. Derma roller.

How did you know how to run a business?

How did. I was forced to. So after this. So after Dave and I did that podcast on Bulletproof Radio, I was just happy to be there talking about his products and how they helped me in my recovery.

Wait, is this the butter?

That's the apron that you put in your coffee. That's thick enough. So there are two different plants who have stem cells in there. It's made out of a Manuka honey base K factor 16. We do a double strand tea of camu Camu and schizandra. We combine that with organic hella helichrysum hydrosol. Wow.

You really know what you're doing.

I put all that stuff out on this.

I mean, I just.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so if my. My acupuncturist always has me take all that stuff.

Really? Yeah. I mean. Yeah. Chaga.

Yeah.

Seabed orange.

Eat all that stuff.

Neroli. Yeah.

Huh?

Yeah. Yeah.

So the business just kind of happened.

Okay. Yes.

That's okay.

So it. Yeah. I tend to kind of go a little sporadically, but it's. After Dave's podcast, the last five minutes, he was like, what'd you do for your skin? I'm sure my audience would like to know. It was a video podcast. And as hard as it was, I'm so glad I didn't because, you know, being the next athlete and all my teammates are going to. Sorry.

Once a makeup artist, always a makeup artist.

That's fun. But he was like, so what you do for your skin? This was not planned. I didn't have alotur. Nothing. I'm like, well, I made this mask. He said, this mask. And I just went down on the ingredients, how it helped me, how I chose collagen, how I chose pearl powder, organic cow powder. He had the number one podcast on itunes at the time. So the hidden junk.

He still knows.

I think he still had hundreds of millions of. But it was just like. He's like, that's cool. We didn't even talk about this before. So he flew down to Los Angeles. We came to terms about a month later. And. But the exciting part was right after that podcast, because people all around the world were asking me how to get a hold of the mask. And I'm like, I had signed for. I had no website. I said it was pending. It definitely wasn't pending. I had Nothing. I was like a web website. I don't know how to make a website, but I signed up for a PayPal account and just started just. People in Sweden just came up with a price. 35 bucks free shipping. Sounded good, but my product at the time, I was going to Whole Foods, getting this, you know, those little to go containers where they use like almond butter and peanut butter and olive oil. I would go every time, you know, you're supposed to get one of those and go, the manager, same guy. All right, man, what are you doing here? I get 50 tops and 50 little jars. I'm like, hey, listen, man. They had to come up with a price for those. They charged me 15 cents for each. I needed packaging. I didn't know anything. So you.

You gave. You shipped this big?

Yep.

Little pint for $35.

I know that seems.

That's the thing. No, it turns out definitely lo. No, I just felt good. It just felt good. I didn't even know my raw goods cost at the time. This was way before, guess what?

Anyone that's starting a business, the more you give away, the more people tell their friends. So.

And you just figured out, like, that's so entrepreneurial. You went to hope they worked out a price for you.

Yeah, I mean, it was just. I was so excited. I mean, that adrenaline hasn't left, but yeah, it was so fun for me that I was shipping it off, taping it, handwriting instructions, copying those handwritten instructions, sending them off, and hopefully it would end up there. Okay. See, the people for bulletproofs, like, they're following really, like, compassionate to the, like the whole. My whole situation, because I was. I didn't know it would show up to the. Their doorstep exploded and they're like, nah, it's a great product. They would still use it, take pictures and stuff. See, they were. They're the sweetest fallen. You really are. No, with handwritten instructions. You know, usually instructions are like two. Two sentences. This was a single space, like page handwritten out. And then. And then I just realized we had to tighten it up. But that's exactly how it started. And then I started realizing that I had to, you know, calculate how much the bentonite was, how much the pearl powder, the colostrum, and then give Dave.

And now you have people that help you with that.

Oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah. This was.

How many employees do you have?

We have five full time employees. We have a cfo, we have. Dave is a consultant. But let's see. And we have, like, it. Yeah. Yeah, but we need more.

Tell Me about it. Look at these two. Girls are like they're drowning up until 2000. We're putting an ad on Instagram soon because we need. We're hiring.

That's smart to hire.

So anyone that's watching and happens to be in the New York, New Jersey area, we're hiring.

That's really. Yeah, I thought about doing that too. You get someone who's familiar with you and your brand, your passion, everything you've done, your products, that's huge because we actually go Craigslist route and, you know, attention to detail, punctuality, you know, having a sense of urgency is so important, you know, and execute, you know, go above and beyond. That's my big thing. To anybody out there, it's like, just go above and beyond. Do much, much more than your boss asks.

Our intern just left. He should have listened to this whole thing. We just hired a new, very good looking intern.

That's not why we hired him.

No, no, no, no.

But he's really cute. He's really cuties for my son's fraternity. No, because he's a whippersnapper.

Whipper snapper.

What it is.

Where'd you go to college?

I went to UC Berkeley. Sac State. Finished up in St. Mary's around a little bit.

And my son's girlfriend went to Berkeley.

Oh, really?

Yeah, no, like, she's 28. 28.

She's 28. Okay. Yeah, yeah, it's changed a little bit.

Yeah.

When I was a man, you'd step over homeless people. Get getting out of your.

Yeah. At San Francisco.

Yeah. San Francisco now. Yeah. San Francisco's getting grimy.

Yeah. So, yeah, I am really excited to watch what happens to this brand and this company. I think it's really cool. And to me, the most important thing. There's two really important things when it comes to, you know, having a company. One is the product and you have the product. The other is the founder and the passion behind it. When you put those things together and of course, hard work, but you have it. So I think you're going to do amazing and it's going to be really, really exciting and you won't have to hire any kind of face of the brand or model.

So good coming from you.

Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate it. So you guys watch this guy, follow him, buy his products. They're. They're really good.

And there'll be a story about andy on justbobby.com when it launches and April.

Yes. With a special discount code.

Oh.

Oh, yeah, that's right.

So.

So we have our first male contributor here.

That's seriously.

That's so we're really excited.

You and Ariana Huffington.

Yeah, exactly.

Serious.

Yeah. No, this is really cool. So thanks, guys. Thanks for. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you soon.

Thank you.