EP195. The Birch Babe beauty journey from midlife to beauty entrepreneur

Sometimes the very best business ideas stem from discovering a hobby that you love. A hobby that brings you so much joy. And this is also typically how most formulators start. They discover a DIY natural beauty recipe either in a book or online, or someone teaches them at home, and then they're off and making their own skincare. Now, We've taught around 20,000 formulators across the world how to formulate their own skincare and hair care. And most of them started exactly that way too, by formulating as a hobby at home and then deciding to become a beauty entrepreneur. And that's why many of those graduates have then created their own lovely beauty brands, selling those wonderful formulations all across the world. So if you're listening to this podcast and you're in that hobby phase right now, making your own skincare or hair care, and you're thinking about what the next steps of starting a business to sell your formulations would look like, you definitely need to hear today's podcast. Because today I have the privilege of interviewing another one of our amazing and inspirational graduates who's taken their hobby and up leveled it into a brand that's now stocked in over 300 retailers across North America. And better yet, this graduate had already retired when she decided she had so much more to give and then created her business empire in her 60s. I love hearing stories like this because it shows you exactly how you can take something small that might just seem like a little hobby and turn it into something huge and impactful. So you want to feel inspired. Well, believe me, you will settle in for today's interview with Debbie from Birch Babe. Welcome to Green Beauty Conversations, the podcast that challenges you to think about how you buy, use, make or sell your green beauty formulations. In my weekly episodes, I explore the sustainability of the beauty industry and encourage you to join me in changing the beauty industry for the better. I'm your host, Lorraine Dallmeyer. I'm a chartered environmentalist, biologist and the CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school, Formula Botanica. We have thousands and thousands of students in over 190 countries around the world who study with us to become organic beauty formulators and entrepreneurs. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you want to be the first person to know what's happening in green beauty, make sure you subscribe to this podcast in your favorite podcast app. So in today's episode, I'm joined by Debbie Algeria, Formula Botanica graduate, founder and lead skincare formulator at Birch Babe. Debbie has been a serial entrepreneur, business owner, health enthusiast and nature lover for many years and founded Birch Babe after a six month solo hike from Patagonia to Chile. It was on this hike where Debbie's passion for the environment deepened and led her to come home and then start making skin, hair and body products that were better for the health of our bodies and the planet. In addition, Debbie has spent years deep in repetitive discovery of exploring science and perfecting formulations ranging from the perfect sourdough to the optimal regenerating skincare. It's her wide knowledge of ingredients and the science behind formulations rooted in nature that have made Birch Babes formulation such a success and loved by many across the globe. Hi Debbie, how are you doing today?

I'm great, Lauren. Good morning.

Good morning. I am thrilled that you're here for our listeners. Let's start by introducing your brands plural to us and tell us about the products that you make and sell, please.

Okay, well Birch Babe is a natural skincare company, organic, mostly ingredients. And thanks to your beautiful courses we've grown to like 50 plus products. I started with three or four or four years ago as a DIY first formulator and got serious, you know, four years ago with your courses. And we've just grown exponentially. And we just launched our second I guess brand Birch Baby, which is our baby. So that is our, we cover basically all skin care products from like head to toe, hair products, face serums, men's line, beard balms, deodorants, body butters, mouthwash, toothpowder was one stop shop.

That's amazing. Absolutely amazing. Over 50 products. I don't know how you do it. That's insane. I mean do you, do you sleep at night? That's an awful lot.

To make it sell, my partners, my, my daughters allowed me like six hours of sleep and then stopped to work.

Well, we'll come back to that but for all the listeners, why Birch Babe? Why did you choose that name?

Yeah, make it picking a name. That's a good question. It's really a, it's a tricky thing. You want it to be resonate with people and not be hokey, not be silly. But I live in the country, on a lake and there's birch trees all over and I love birch trees, as you can see. I have like five pictures all over our office so it had to be in the name. And then with my son in law was visiting one weekend we're going, oh, Birch, Birch Tree, Birch Road, Birch Creek, Birch Bay. And then he goes, well you're a Babe. Let's always call it Birch Babe. So that's how it came.

I love it. But it's very memorable. And then obviously birch baby very naturally flowed out of that, I presume.

Exactly. And the logo is so cute. Is the little leaf. It's a baby Birch Babe tree.

So I love it. So why did you start your beauty brand? Let's go back to the beginning of what inspired you to get going initially.

Oh, wow. It's a. It's a. It's a bit of a story. Thanks for asking. Before I retired, I was having kind of a midlife crisis. In my mid-50s, I was office job, your cubicle world. And I just. I couldn't stand. So I said, I need to take a break. So I took six months off work and I just. And I did a solo tour of South America. So I went from Buenos Aires and down the very lower tip, sitting in Patagonia for a month. I just hiked, I bust. I just found myself. I text once a week to my family. I'm alive. I backpacked the whole thing. I just did it really cheap. And it was daunting, scary. But the main thing is when I was down there, I found how much, especially at Patagonia, people really appreciate their environment. They were so conscious of garbage and being clean and keeping it pristine. They would pick up a cigarette button, put it in their shoelace. So I just became a really evaluate more the environment down there. I did before, but even more so down in South America. And then when you go to bigger cities, you saw the plastic waste everywhere. So I just kind of, when I came home, I said, I got to do more for the environment like this. It's possible they're doing it down there. So I said, okay, well, I'm going to hunker down and just reevaluate what I put on my body. I was already clean inside, like, no processed foods. So I thought, okay, let's make sure my outside is pure too. So I just started delving as a DIY researcher. Sorry, you know, Google scientist. And I just made my own lip tint, a soap and a body butter. Oh, good. I'm doing good for my body. Um, but then my friends started trying it. And then a couple years in, everyone wanted to try it then, you know, the craft shows. So I kind of got a little. I maybe should get serious about this. So four years ago, my kids were. Started getting, mom, you should do something serious. So really, that's when the name came out and I took your course. I want to be really serious. I know what I'm doing here because I made some mistakes and that's really how we're just like really passionate. I've always been passionate about taking care of your body and the environment and it's not that hard. It's to be very conscious of what you're putting on inside your body. So I hope that maybe explains my evolution to this point.

I love it and it's very relatable because I think a lot of people listening will have also found themselves in that situation. I know I did as well, where I just started like a Google scientist, just sort of looking for formulations online and it's, it's a really nice way to start. And then there comes a trigger point that you go, I need more information. What was that trigger point for you? I know you said your family was sort of going, let's take this up a notch, but what made you feel I now need to get my formulations into shape?

It was very close to not doing it because you know as you start you're not making a lot of money. It's like in what comes in goes out. And my son in law, I saw this course come. I said, this looks interesting. You know, it's affordable but it's really hard for us as we're on a budget. He goes, I think you should do it. I go, I think I should too because I really want, I really want to be serious. So that was, I guess I'm not sure the certain trigger point, but I just realized I see going forward with this, it wasn't even a company yet, but I see going forward into a company and I have to make sure I cross all my T's. And I so did the course and got totally like immersed in it. Like you just blew my mind with the information. Oh, so glad I took this. And I took the second one that they advanced formulating course. So I guess the tipping point was I saw the course come up in my feed and I was like evaluating funding. I'm so glad I spent the money to take it. It was well spent.

Oh, well, that's lovely to hear. I'm really glad that you enjoyed it. That's amazing. I mean, just for our listeners, which courses did you take with Formula Botanica? Because I'm sure people are wondering.

Well, I started with the organic skincare formulator course. It was challenging but not too hard. Like it was like, okay. And you felt so, so proud of yourself when you got, oh, I passed the test. It was really informative. And then after that. But six months later, after finishing that, I thought, you know, I saw the other course of the advanced skincare formulating course, and I thought, yeah. And that was a good anchor to everything I learned before. I learned so much.

Oh, well, that's lovely to hear. Thank you for sharing that. Let's go back to your roots as an entrepreneur. Did you. Because you said you were in Cubicle World. I remember that world. I worked in Cubicle World for a while, too. Did you always dream of being an entrepreneur or did it sort of happen organically?

I had been one before. I had a cafe, coffee shop for supper. That was fun. That was fun. But I realized there's no money selling coffee and muffins. So that's why I went, because I was starting in the chemical world. After school, college, university, I was a programmer, like an application developer and a website maker. So then I need a break. So then I did the coffee shop for, like, six years. No, I'm not making any money. So I went back to the cubicle world and that's.

And then the world of skincare opened up.

Yeah, I always had some entrepreneurial blood in me.

I love that. Well, I mean, you. You said, right? You were working in this cubicle world. You decided to take your break for six months through South America, which is amazing. Had you finished work at that time? Had you retired?

Oh, sorry. Yeah. Thanks for asking. That's awesome. I hadn't finished working. That was a break from work. And I got back and I immediately said, I can't do this anymore. So I. I quit. I said, I'm giving my notice for three months, renown. And then I retired. It was like, I have to be free of this environment.

But most people probably wouldn't sit there and think, right, I've retired. My next thing is to start my own business. How did you get to that stage? Was it just because your DIY beauty started to really take off and people were really showing an interest in it at that point?

Okay, well, it wasn't that smooth a transition. I did retire for about two years. And, you know, I read books, I did yoga, I walked hours a day, and I. I sewed and I baked and I gardens. And then I start realizing I need a better hobby. That's how I got into this holistic body care. And that's. So it wasn't an immediate retirement project. Took two years to finally realize I could do something better. And then two years of growing that.

So we have a lot of prospective students who come to us and they say, I Don't think I can do this. The one thing I hear a lot at the moment is I'm too old. Which I always find really sad because I think there's this impression that entrepreneurs all are men in their 20s. I don't know if you feel that way, but that's the sort of image that's been painted for us across the Internet. And a lot of these prospective students come to us and they tell us, I'm too old to start again. Do you really think I can do this? But you say, right, I retired. I sat around for two years. I did lots of things I enjoyed. And then I thought, I want something to sink my teeth into. You started your brand. What message would you have for those people out there who think, I can't do this?

Basically, stop saying that. And just, if you have a dream, if you don't do it, then it's always a lost cause. Like you. Unless you go out and do it. Like, I was 58 when I started making little lip tints. Now I'm almost 65. And I'm like, I'm a corporation. Like, people want to work here. We're growing. But if you want to do something, don't. Don't say no. I always say yes to everything. I may make another company in five years from now. I'm. I'm not ready to stop stopping for quitters.

Just stop saying no to yourself. Obviously, those little inner voices are the things that often hold you back the most. So you entered retirement, you came back out of retirement, and now you've built an empire. We're going to talk a little bit more about that in a minute, but how does that feel?

Every day I'm excited to come into work. I have a hard time leaving just from exhaustion. I leave. You can probably relate. I'm sure you've been here too. How does it feel? It's so exhilarating. And even when you're exhausted, you go, oh, my God. Maybe not a good day. I just, just read a couple of good reviews and we get good reviews, like, non stop. It's like, oh, your face cream changed my life. Or it fixed this, or my daughter's, you know, eczema cleared up. Or my hair is beautiful. Like, it just, like, makes my day. So, like, this is a really good feeling. And I feel like I'm helping people and that's what makes it worthwhile doing.

Oh, I absolutely love that. It's always so wonderful to hear these stories. I speak to a lot of graduates from Formula Botanica and it's a common theme that comes across in all the interviews I've ever done. It's the heartwarming feeling of knowing that your formulations are really helping people. And I, I am not surprised in the slices to hear that you're constantly being inundated with positive reviews because that's amazing. Let's talk about the success you're seeing with Birch. Babe, can you paint a picture for us? I mean, obviously it was you, starting with your lip tins. Where are you now? How big is the company? Where you obviously have a lot of products. Where are they sold? Paint a picture for us.

Okay, well, when the first two years diy, I was doing the crafts shows in the church bazaars every weekend. Well, not a lot of weekends and people are there. They. I'm sure your graduates have started there. And that's grueling. It's. It's hard, but it's fun meeting people. So from there I was, I just pushed myself. Like I would go door to door to stores and say, just try these for free. Here, try, here's a handful of seven. Eventually a couple stores took me on and I gotta tell you, it was ugly. Like my labels were hideous. Just surprised. But I mean. And then I got into 30 stories, don't know how on my own feet doing it. And then my daughter is, four years ago said, mom, you need help. Like, we're going to jump on board and help. We see this is going somewhere. They could see the seed being planted. So they came on board and rebranded me, got nicer labels and did some more. They did my website because it was hideous. Like when you do it yourself, you can't do everything. You just can't. And so from the 30 stores on my own, we're now in 300 plus stores. We have a distributor across North America and we really want to double that in a year. We really see potential to grow. We're growing 30% a year the last three years in sales and stores. So we really see the potential. And for many people think, oh, there's too many people, too many other competitors out there. It's true. I see a new one every day. But it doesn't mean you can't still succeed. You just have to push and believe in yourself and make a good product. Word of mouth does it actually.

And I'm not surprised you got taken on by 30 stores in the beginning because I can see that your passion and drive and determination will very much have sold those products too. And I think that's absolutely wonderful. Sorry, did you say you're in 200 stores across North America. I just want to pause for a minute. 300.

300 plus stores.

300 plus stores. That's incredible. And wait, how long have you been going?

The first two years was myself doing the crash shows. We've really been four years doing this. I consider it a real. We got incorporated four years ago. So that's why I consider it serious work.

That's incredible. Absolutely incredible. Well, huge congratulations. I mean, I think we just need to sort of take a pause and go, that is incredible. Results in a very short period of time. And you've created a family business in this as well. So what's it like working with your daughters? Because you must feel very proud to have them with you all the time.

Oh, it's, it's amazing. Like, it's just so amazing. My two daughters in their mid-30s, one is a marketing genius. Like she makes documentaries, she edited, she directs commercials. So she's doing that. And my other daughter is like a warehouse manager savant. She Tetris is everything. She manages staff, manages me. I just come in, what do I do today? And that's. She manages the whole shop. She does all the customer relationships, the sales part. So it's a perfect three circle intertwining of talents. And it's. I'm really lucky, blessed, fortunate that our talents work so well together.

Yeah, you are. And what a wonderful opportunity to keep in touch with your, your family in such an intimate way. But where you're building something together as a, as a family empire, really, it's amazing. Congratulations.

I have to interject the one downfall. And I know you work with your family too, so I'm not sure if you can relate. The one downfall is that whenever you have a phone call, it's all about work. Like sometimes I'll call my daughter who's remote. She's not even live near here. She's in Vancouver, I'm in Toronto and I'll call. Okay. What's up? What's wrong with business? What do you want to do? I go, I just want to see how your day is. Just for once, let's just not talk work. How was your day? What are you going to do today? Well, I'm working.

You always end up talking about work anyway. Yeah, I know the feeling. My mother is our financial controller at Formula Botanica because I have trust issues around anyone else stepping in in the money. But we're the same, you know, we end up talking about my kids and what we've been up to and then Invariably it ends up being about formula botanica. So I hear you. It's very recognizable. So when you started learning how to formulate and you, you said in the beginning you were making lots of mistakes. I mean, what were the sort of key insights you had along as you, as you learned how to formulate professionally? What sort of mistakes were you making and how did you get rid of those?

Probably two. One of the most important one I learned I was trying to do emulsions on my own. And I must tell you, that was my favorite, most informative class. I got out of your course, emulsions. It's my favorite thing to do. I could emulse all day, but. So I made this huge mistake trying to make a face cream doing the Google scientist approach. And it was great in the jar, in the bowl, it was beautiful. But then I put it in the metal tin and like, I actually sold to some people. And within a couple of weeks ago, yeah, Debbie, it turned brown. Is that right? I go, oh, no, no, no, it's not, it's not good. I'll take it up. So thank God it was only my friends that took it. I wasn't like selling it yet, but it was. So that was like, I'm going to pause and make sure I do this right next time. That might have been the pivotal time I took your course. I gotta get this right. That could have been it, but that was the big eye opener that I can't just do everything on my own.

I'm glad that our course helped you get there anyway, because I'm sure your formulations aren't brown anymore.

Yes. Oh, I'm happy with them. I'm very proud of them. I'm very passionate on making really, really the best quality ingredients of products that we can do.

Well, what have been the key learnings so far in running a beauty brand? Because I know, I hear what you said. You were an entrepreneur before you had your own cafe. Now you're running a beauty. What have you learned along the way?

That you can't do everything. I used to do everything, like packaging, the website, the labeling, and you can't. So thankfully I do. The family involved, they know what they're doing. And now we actually have a bigger team. We have like a PR team, we have an ad team, we have a social media team. We have Google scientists doing all the, like, checking everything, make sure we're being searched properly. We're now getting an HR team. That's like, there's so many things. The, the bigger you grow, there's so many more things to do. And certifications, like I've learned. We have many certifications where we're getting more like we're getting USDA coming up. That's a big deal. We're getting Mokra. You've probably heard the mocha. That's a big deal. There's like, when's the stop? Right? But learning is always something else. You have to be looking into. You're never done. This is never done.

And how does that make you feel?

It's daunting sometimes, yes. Because it's usually me looking into that kind of stu. But it's. We like to be ahead of the curve. A lot of companies I know aren't checking these boxes off and we just want to make sure we're ahead. So when it's regulated, you need it. We're like, yeah, done. Like we're. We have packed. We're involved in Pact right now. We have some of our own boxes at outlets downtown Toronto. We're going to enjoy the International Beauty association in January. This like EWG Circlean. We're just like getting our certifications. It's a lot.

No, I get it, I get it. But amazing anyway, because every single time you do one of these things, you push the brand further, which of course is incredibly rewarding. Now, based on everything you've said, it doesn't sound to me like a typical day is the same at Birch, Babe and Birch Baby. Is it? Or is it?

For me, pretty much it is because I'm always formulating because there's so much to make. But at nighttime, at nighttime I'm working on these certifications. So the days that are pretty similar for me, my daughter doing all the warehouse scheduling, emailing, she's always running different tangents and directions.

I can imagine when you have 300 stores to sell into, that's an awful lot of work. Which is a testament to the success. The hook back into what you just said there. So you're still formulating and manufacturing everything yourself. All 50 plus products are made by you, is that correct?

Yes. Yes. But we are in the process now finding an outsourced lab to take care of the bigger items because we're talking some big box stores now and we have to be prepared for like, oh, we need 5,000 units. So we're actually starting to outsource some items.

That is a big undertaking. Paint a picture for me. What sort of lab, if you got, is it small? Is it. Is it a separate facility? Are you still at home? Like, what sort of batches are you making? What's that look like?

Well, I started my kitchen six years ago and then it took over two bedrooms, the garage, the office and this. But now we actually have a facility which is a half hour from my home, which is awesome. It's a really big white 3000, not quite 1200 square foot area. We have like huge tables, lots of extruders, but we still work over a hot plates and it's to make all our products just bigger. More hot plates and bigger pots and bigger mixers. We still small batches.

What sort of batch sizes are you making?

50 units of the bigger products and 300 of the face creams at a time. Depends. Our baby product is big. That's. That's a hard one to fill. That's going to the lab.

That's amazing. And you're doing all of that by yourself at the moment. You must feel slightly run off your feet every single time. You've got to do one of these big orders. How long does so you are formulating? All day long.

I am. You know, it's like your trust issues. I am so like worried about having someone. We thought of having someone come in. Right. But I don't anyone to see my formulas. Like, it's a really scary situation. NDAs everywhere.

I get it. It's your baby. It's your other. Your other Birch baby. How do you feel when you walk into that facility? I mean, what did you say? 3,000 square foot with all these big benches and you're like, this is mine, this is mine. And we have created this incredible brand here and we make all these incredible formulations here. How does that feel when you walk in there?

Oh, I'm super proud, super happy. It's like, it's exhilarating coming into work. I love it. It's. We're just like, we're very passionate team. Me and my daughters like said yes. It's quite a project of love. Birch Babe and Birch baby.

I love this. So you started off. Well, you didn't start off. You were in retirement. You were trying to find yourself. You found this incredible brand that you created from scratch. You've built it up to really impressive levels already. And I know you have bigger plans. Yeah, we're going to come to that in a minute. How would you say Birch papers changed your life?

Changed. My husband's more. I hardly see him. This isn't his idea of retirement, but I have a big purpose. I just feel like I have so much more to do and to give and I really feel passionate that I'M helping people. It just drives me every day to do better and I'm not really sure how to answer that question but I'm just driven all the time. I'm not exhausted. I'm not worn out yet. So I'm not ready to retire. I got lots more years than me yet. My daughters were co owners. We're equal partners and they're ready to go. Mommy wanna retire. We're taking on we're gonna continue on the company. So I know it's in good hands.

And what is that big purpose that.

Drives you to answer that question? I guess what really drives me in my daughters include we're in the same vision. We want to be that brand that people when they hear it or see it they can trust that it's. They know what they know. It's going to be good for their bodies. It's going to be good for the environment because we're like 99% plastic free. Like we're just try so hard to envision every single thing that's plastic free down to even the plastic is recycled PCR plastic. We have to use it for the baby container. All our tamper proof seals are compostable. Wait. We just like try so hard. So we want to be the go to brand that people feel like oh where's Birch Bay? I know whatever they have there I can trust it's going to be good for me and good for the, good for the world. That's what we're working towards. Take over the world. Little one person at a time.

Well and it sounds to me like you're doing that which is incredible. So what's next for Birch babe?

We are aiming to get like I said into the box stores. We're right now we're on small little boutiques and refilleries. Refilleries love us because we do a lot of bulk packaging or the plastic free packaging. So that's our main gig here. But we want to get the box stores. I can't, I don't want to mention them but I'm sure everyone knows the several ones out there and they are talking to us now. So we just need to change our packaging because now they want boxes because. And we've already worked that out. It's coming out in two weeks. Well once this airs will be out and we source out all recycled, recycled cardboard packaging. So we want to make sure that when we get in these big stores we still have our own ethos, our beliefs are still practiced. So and we use like what is it? Algae ink? Like we're just trying to use everything as eco friendly as possible for everything. So that's. Yeah, we're trying to take over the box stores next I guess, and then.

Take over the world. I have no doubt you will. One person at a time. Debbie, your and your daughter's success with Birch Babe and Birch Baby is really impressive. I'm super impressed with everything you do. I absolutely love that you've come on the podcast today. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Now, if people want to learn more about you, Birch Baby and come and buy your products, where should they do that?

Our website is birchbabe.com, s b I r C-H-B-A b e.com or.ca they go the same place. And birchbaby.com and Instagram too. We have Instagram. We are on Pinterest. So just Google us, you'll find it.

We'll include all of those links in the show notes. Go and check out Birch Babe and Birch Baby and go and help Debbie take over the world one formulation at a time. Thank you so much for joining me today. It's been a really lovely chatting to you. Oh no, it's amazing. I'm so impressed with what you've done. Thank you.

Bye. Thank you.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this episode. Can you imagine turning your skincare hobby into a business just like Debbie did? Tell me what you think. Come and leave us a comment on our social channels as both the Formula Botanica team and I love hearing from you. And if you want to hear more about some of the topics we covered, please do delve back into the podcast archives. Got some other great graduate interviews in there as well. So go and listen to episode 180 in which I interviewed Leslie Reitgeld of Bella botanicals in the U.S. another formula botanica graduate who's built an incredible business by mainly selling in her local community. Or episode 157 in which I spoke to Rochan Dorsett of the Glossary, also a Formula Botanica graduate, also a superstar who's created a cult favorite skincare brand in the uk. There's a wealth of information in our old episodes and I do encourage you to go back and listen to them. So thank you for joining Debbie and I for this latest episode of Green Beauty Conversations. I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please do leave us a thumbs up, a five star review so that other people can enjoy these conversations too. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever your favorite podcast app is, and stay tuned for the next episode. Follow Formula Botanica at Formula Botanica on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, we're everywhere. And come and give me a follow at Lorraine Dallmeyer on Instagram as well. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com and sign up for our free online formulation course. Yours today.