“What goes on your body goes in your body”

We are so excited to kick off our first Local Feature Friday with a brand that’s not only local, but it’s also 100% natural and organic. Our aim with this monthly feature is to spread the word about local brands that carry the same philosophies as us: they care about our wellbeing, our happiness and about our planet! Today, we’re sitting down with Kristina Breckon- VP, Marketing and Operations at Consonant Skincare, a 100% natural Toronto based award winning skincare company that we absolutely adore.

1) As Nutritionists, we like to emphasise the importance of clean ingredients in skincare products, because we know that what you put on your body is just as important as what you put into your body. That’s why we love your tagline “What goes on your body goes in your body”. Could you tell us what inspired it and how you got started?

Thank you! That really was our founding principle. It is a fact that up to 60% of what you put on your skin gets absorbed into your body. Think about smoking cessation and birth control patches. Most people don’t give a second thought to what they’re putting onto their skin and into their bodies with their personal care products but there are a lot of chemicals that can be lurking in there!

Our founder, Bill, started Consonant about 9 years ago out of necessity. He had developed chronically dry and itchy skin and was on a topical steroidal prescription to help alleviate some of the symptoms. One day at his old job he bought a bar of 100% natural soap that a co-worker had made. Once he tried the soap his skin cleared up overnight! He then started looking at the personal care products he was using and made the connection between sulphates, synthetic fragrance and his irritated skin. The more research he did, the more he learned about the harsh ad irritating ingredients that are used in common skin care products.

Once he learned about the toxic 10 he went around the office and asked coworkers if they’d heard of parabens and phthalates. Not one of them had and he thought once they did they would really care and want to make the switch to healthier products.

There weren’t many options for natural skin care at that time and most of them were being made in someone’s kitchen and were very heavy and oily. Nothing had a cool, urban apothecary feel that appealed to Bill.

And so Consonant was born out of necessity. As a natural skin care line, free of any of the harsh and harmful ingredients found in traditional products, that delivers amazing results and feels good to use.

2) Can you tell us what makes Consonant stand out from some of the other organic and natural skincare lines available out there?

We’re taking natural skin care out of the health food store and making it mainstream! Our products are 100% natural high performance skin care. Natural products are no good if they don’t do what they promise.

We’ve won a number of awards for our products including: Best Cleanser from both The Globe & Mail and Best Health Magazine, The Grand Prize at the Canadian Beauty Innovation Awards, One Minute Miracle from The KIT and Best Canadian Beauty Product from Chatelaine Magazine. All of these were not in a “natural” category. They were all up against chemical based-products as well. We’re proving you don’t have to give up anything to switch to 100% natural formulations!

It’s important to us that all of our products truly are 100% natural. A lot of “natural” products are actually 98-99% natural and use chemicals like phenoxyethanol or synthetic fragrance. We think the magic is in that last 2%.

We also provide a 100% guarantee on anything that goes out our door. If you’re not completely satisfied you can bring the product back for a full refund. There is no time limit on that policy. We want our customers to be happy and are confident that our products deliver.

Finally, we believe your skin care should be about what it does for you not what it smells like. We don’t add any scent ingredients to our skin care products. Not even essential oils or masking scents. The resulting scent is a light, slightly medicinal olive oil that dissipates as soon as you put it on. The lack of scent ingredients, which are often irritating, makes our products amazing for even the most sensitive skin.

3) We love supporting local products, that’s why we get so excited when we find a line that is local but also clean, toxin free and works wonders for our skin. Can you tell us a little bit more on where you source your product ingredients? Where is the production facility?

We make as much as we can close to home. Our products are all proudly made at a few Canadian facilities. Most are in the GTA and one is produced out in BC and is filled at our lab here in Ontario. We also produce our labels and boxes in Ontario.

We source our ingredients from all over the world. Quality is our #1 consideration when we’re picking our ingredients and some things simply aren’t available from Canada, like organic olive oil.

That said, we’re proud to feature a number of Canadian-made ingredients in our products. One beautiful example is Manicougan Clay. It is harvested from the site of a meteor crash in Quebec and is a mineral and algae rich clay featured in our DHE Mask and 20% Clay Bar.

4) We like to encourage our readers to take time for themselves, to de-stress and relax. Can you share a nice weekly soothing skincare mask or ritual?

Personal care is so important!

My favourite way to de-stress is yoga followed by a bath! I really believe there is nothing a good flow can’t fix (or at least make you forget about for an hour). Then when I get home I like to pour myself a glass of wine, light a candle and draw myself a bath. I’ll pop in one of our fizzy Bath Bombs and slather on our DHE Mask and just sit back and relax for 20 minutes. It’s insane how good your skin feels after both of those things! The bomb is hydrating and the mask makes my skin look so radiant! After my bath I hydrate and try to avoid my phone for the rest of the night.

5) Could you tell us about your best seller? Also, what’s your favourite product?

Our best seller is our Natural Foaming Face Wash. This is a fantastic 3-in-1 cleanser, makeup remover and toner. Most of the foaming action comes from the coconut derived surfactant that we use and the physical pump so it’s not drying like most other foaming washes. It’s also incredible how well it removes makeup! Men love this product just as much as women and we have customers aged 10-89 that use it.

My favourite product is HydrExtreme. This is our hydration boosting serum and I wish I could bathe in it. It’s SO light but potent and my skin just drinks it up. It makes skin radiant and helps to plump up the fine lines I’ve started to notice since I turned 30. I like to blend a few drops of it with my sunscreen every morning and I use that as my moisturizer. There’s a reason our customers call it liquid gold.

6) What are 3 things that everyone should be doing in order to keep their skin healthy and to help achieve a beautiful glow?

We believe in the power if internal health to support your skin. So eating a healthy diet full of good fats and drinking lots of water is definitely important.

In terms of skin care these are my top 3 tips:

1. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate: Moisture is your friend! Well hydrated skin is plump, supple and radiant. Make sure you’re giving your skin the water and oils it needs to function properly and look its best.
2. Protect your skin: Daily sunscreen is so important for the long term health of your skin. I like to wear it every day of the year regardless of weather. Up to 80% of the sun’s UV rays can penetrate light cloud cover and haze can actually increase UV power! Putting it on every morning also helps to cement it as a routine so you don’t forget.
3. Exfoliate regularly: Exfoliating once or twice a week gets rid of dead skin cells which immediately improves radiance. It also helps your other skin care products penetrate more effectively.

7) Give us the scoop, what new products do you have in the pipeline?

We just launched our Come Clean 100% Natural Bamboo Cleansing Cloths. They’ve been insanely popular with customers and professional makeup artists who are stocking them in their kits!

In June we’re launching our One for All Kit. It’s a limited edition, super value kit that will be available exclusively on Sephora.ca while supplies last. It’s everything that you need to have your best skin wherever you choose to travel this summer.

Finally, we are in the final stages of testing a new skin care product slated to launch in September/October 2017. I can’t say too much about it but the early panel testing results have been really exciting. It will give you spa-level results at home.