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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A local woman is taking the natural benefits of Wisconsin and Minnesota’s resources and turning them in to an all-natural beauty product for women.
Ashlee Assadi’s personal struggles led her on a journey to discover safer alternatives for skin care.
“I was shocked to even know that this was occurring in the beauty industry,” she said.
Assadi is on a mission to clean up the beauty industry. The northwestern Wisconsin woman started her own cosmetic company, one that uses all-natural ingredients.
Ashlee Assadi (credit: CBS)
It’s a decision she made after going through some personal struggles.
“I struggled with infertility for many years,” Assadi said.
She believes her infertility was linked to cosmetics she was using. After changing her lifestyle habits, she experienced her own little miracle.
“I ended up finally getting pregnant with my miracle baby girl,” Assadi said. “She entered our world and that’s when I decided to stay home and then launch Santosha Co. and try and make a difference in the beauty industry.”
Now, the mother of three spends her time with her family gathering all the ingredients for her company.
“When it’s harvesting time, it’s a lot of fun just to include our family in that process as well,” she said.
And her kids are really hands on with the business. But so is the rest of her family.
Her brother Luke is a chemical engineer who helps create their products.
But it was her stepfather, a forester with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, who first told her about their main ingredient. The Balm of Gilead oil “was the product that put Santosha Co. on the map,” Assadi said.
“He first shared about it, I think it was in the spring, and you can walk through the forest on any spring day — it’s very fragrant, so you can smell it in the air,” she said. “We have seen it help dermatitis, we’ve seen it completely even out the skin tone, so it really is a phenomenal ingredient.”
An all-natural ingredient for a company that vows to utilize nature.
“We’re just looking at our landscape here in Wisconsin and Minnesota and the Midwest and trying to figure out what does the earth have to offer here,” Assadi said.
Source: New feed
