Arielle Moody Founder of Mama Sol Joins Dori DeCarlo on The Mompreneur Model

0:01 She is, praise, pray, she is, she is you. Hello, everyone, Welcome to today's Word of Mom Radio Here on the Word of Mom Media Network. I'm your host, Dori Di Carlo, and you know we are here week after week, show after show breaking those myths that morepreneurs and business women, especially those of us building our businesses from home, that we're not just dabbling in between bake sales and getting our nails done. We're not. We are smart, we are savvy, and we are sharing the wisdom of women in business and in life. And I'm really excited about bringing today's guests into the show because I love mom made products and the reality is women start with why. While pregnant with her first child, docked by how many toxic ingredients we're lurking in everyday products, and after trying dozens of natural mineral sunscreens, Ariel Moody was determined to create one that didn't make her immediately want to wash her face, and two one that didn't leave that white cast on her skin. Oh and it needed to be something that she looked forward to using daily No Baby. As Mama Soul's product development whisperer, Ariel has been immersed in the beauty industry her entire adult life, starting as a beauty sales trainer for Smashbox, Doctor Parcone and Bite Beauty, then rising to become the head of

1:33 product development for Skin Cosmetics, and most recently, the head of sales for a leading cosmetic packaging and formulation company. She's always known one thing that she would one day create her own product, something truly different that had never been done before. And I have to tell you, because I have used Mama's Soul, your sun care product is awesome and I can't wait to talk to you about it. So with all that being said, Ariel, welcome to Word of Mom Radio. Wow, thank you, Dorry. I'm really excited to be here. That was a great intro. It's fun to hear all that stuff about you. It is Oh yeah, I thought I did that. I really want you to take us on your journey. And really, seriously, Ariel, what inspired you to start your own sun care brand?

2:27 Yeah? I mean you mentioned it a bit, but I've been in the beauty industry for over fifteen years, and I saw how unregulated the beauty industry has been, and I would see, you know, the owners putting in ingredients and moving it around on the ingredient deck so that it looked like it was higher up or lower down to deceive the customer. I really believe in transparency. And when I worked for Bite Beauty, their tagling kind of was it needs to be is so good that you could eat it? Kind of you know, the ingredients have to be so good. So that really inspired me in my subconscious I think about how I wanted to create my own brand and bring something to women, moms and really families, men or women that they could trust. And that was really important to me. And so the light bulb went off when I was five months pregnant with my first son and I like just could not find something that I wanted to use. And I think the biggest thing was that sunscreen was the most toxic of all the categories that I was researching, and people don't really know. So I really wanted Mama Soul to be a sanctuary, a place where people could go and just trust and know that they don't have to do the homework, that I've done it for them.

3:51 I love that. And again, women start with why, And so as you were developing this, what sets you apart from the other so called I'm gonna do finger quotes. You know, natural products on the market, and what kind of challenges did you face because of it. Well, I want to explain the difference to your listeners. What the differences between chemical and mineral sunscreen, because I think a lot of people don't know. So chemical sunscreen has to absorb into your skin and it's it is more likely to end up in your blood stream because of that, right, So mineral sunscreen in order to work, just you put it on sits on top of your skin as a physical shield and it reflects the rays off of your skin. It's much less likely to enter the blood stream. So what had alarmed me when I was doing my research was particularly the ingredient oxybenzone, which was in about ninety percent of sunscreens on the market at the time. An oxybenzone was found in breast milk.

4:59 It can cause skin allergies, cell damage, all the things, and I think that really added to the fear mongering around sunscreen. I don't want to discourage anyone from using sunscreen, whether it's mineral or chemical, but you should know the difference and you shouldn't be able to make an educated decision I just want you using it because it's really important to use sunscreen every single day. So yeah, I mean, that's that's what I would say. And then I also would say a lot of brands say that they're mineral because they have mineral sunscreen like zyncoxite in the formula, but they also have you know, octanoxy octasoliate, ava been zone.

5:41 There's a lot of different chemical sun screens that they'll use in addition to mineral sunscreen, and so sometimes it can be deceiving. I've seen ads saying mineral sunscreen that doesn't leave a white cast, and then I'll see it's loaded with chemical screens as their active ingredients, and so I say to myself, well, that's why there's no white cast, because you're using all those chemicals. We're using really advanced zinc oxide right now, so it doesn't leave a white cast. But the point I want to get across is when you look at the back of the bottle and it says active ingredient, it should only if you want to use mineral, it should only say zinc oxide or titanium dioxide.

6:22 Otherwise it's chemical. These are important things for people to know because again, you hear so many conflicting things, and people put all natural on their products, and how do they get around that areal because. Well, natural doesn't really have a definition base and everyone makes up their own definition, and so we don't really call ours all that like, that's not how we define it. We say we're a mineral sunscreen brand. And so our job is to educate the public to the differences. And I will say one of the biggest differences is this mini podcasts myself and I interviewed a world renowned dermatologist named doctor Kilgore, and he had said to me something that I didn't even know, which was that ava ben zone, which is a chemical filter, is likely to degrade in the sun, and so it's not photo stable, which means that it's not giving you the best UVA protection. And so zinc oxide is the safest use of UVA protection in the United States that does not degrade in the sun.

7:34 Again, information that I did not know. And I try to really do a lot of research on things. It's funny my niece was saying to me. I was telling her how proud I was watching her with her kids and all their organics and stuff, and she said, you started that, yeah, thirty years ago, and so I was always looking for those things that were the most natural, the healthiest things like that. So creating all of this, I know that part of it was kind of making that luxury of self care. Yes, because it is a wonderful thing. Self care is not selfish, ladies in hell, it's really important.

8:17 Yeah, how did you go about that? Yeah, that's a great question. So I, until Mama Soul, had never thought of sunscreen as being part of my ritual, part of my self care ritual. I like to say one of our taglines is if sunscreen and a spot a had a baby, you get Mama Sol. And I'm a busy mom of two and when I'm getting ready in the morning, I really want to have a moment with myself, and so how do you do that with a sunscreen? So I thought, what is the most calming scent that there is? Right, it's lavender. Lavender essential oil has a ton of skin soothing benefits and it's all so very sinsorial. We use a very small amount, a subtle hint of lavender essential oil in our formulas. Men love it, women really love it. We're in sold in places like the Four seasons, and they'll do an inhalation experience before they put it on the client so they can really feel and smell this sunscreen because it's so different than anything you've ever smelled before, and so it's there to encourage deep breathing as well as protect you from the sun. And so not only that, but the formulas are packaged in beautiful packaging, right, So I'm really into sustainability and our face on screen in our lips lip one hundred percent mineral tinted lip oils with SBF are in glass, and then our body Brella SBF forty

9:50 is packaged in one hundred percent sugar cane tube and so we want not only to be sustainable, we want it to be beautiful so that you keep it on your vanity and it's there as a reminder to use it every day. I can attest to the fact that they are lovely and they work, thank you, and they work really well. And it's funny. I've been using sunscreen three hundred and sixty five days a year since I was fourteen, amazing. Because of my mom. They didn't know anything about the chemical stuff in the sunscreen, but I laughed, my. Niece and my cousin. They're like, you should show people your chest because my niece looks at me and she's like, on Dory, I'm twenty eight and your chest is actually nicer than mine.

10:37 Wow, that's accomplishment. Susan Lucci and her microdermabrasion. When I was nineteen, I saw a commercial about it and she was talking about the decoletage and that women forget. So ladies, when your sun screening your face, don't forget your neck and your chest. I'm so glad you just said that I had a facial and that I'll never forget what the astition said to me. She said, boobs en up, and that means everything up above the booth. You have to put your whole skincare routine. And so ever since I heard that, I have diligently put it all over my neck and declte and including my face. It's such a good reminder. It really is. And you know what I mean, I'm very proud of my John sixty four amazing.

11:19 I've done nothing. You know, I haven't had anything done. This is me, But again it's because I sunblock, I wear hats. Your face is your calling card. It's the first thing people see and I don't want to wear face makeup. I know sunscreen is the absolute number one best way to prevent skin aging. That is for sure. It really is. And again, you want something that's actually good for your skin while you're doing it, giving it the benefit both ways. Yes, and it's interesting. I really did not know that some of the sunscreens really degrade. They do the sun. Yes, I this is the thing. Again, I don't ever want to demonize a chemical sunscreen. I'm pro sunscreen. That is just my stance. But again, you should know the difference. And I would love to tell your listeners just a little a few of the accolades we've recently received, because I think it will make them really excited to use our sunscreen.

12:19 I would love for you to share that. Yeah. So well, first I'll say this, all of our formulas have been clinically tested on over one hundred people, fifty percent of whom have sensitive skin. We've had zero skin reactions. That's number one. Number two. So our Phase sunscreen is a three to one. It's your SBF, your daily moisturizer, and a skin smoothing makeup primer all in one. So it really it takes away the need to have to use a moisturizer. This is your moisturizer. It also protects you from blue light from your screens and devices, which causes hyper pigmentation, and the irras, which is the heat you feel from the sun, which can exacerbate malasma. So this is a premium sunscreen, and it is a multitasking sunscreen, so you don't have to use so many different things.

13:05 Harper's Bizarre voted it top ten sunscreen for sensitive skin, and Women's Health voted it best for dry skin. And then I'll quickly say this about the other two. So our body Brella last month or actually yes, last month, just one Best Body SBF by Shape magazine, and our tinted lip oils SBF twenty just one Best lip also with SBF from New Beauty. And then we just found out they want another really prestigious award, but I'm not allowed to mention what it is because I'm under embargo for the next two weeks. So I really hope that your listeners will be excited about using sunscreen, because sunscreen is so much better than it used to be.

13:47 I am so excited for you. Thank you. Funny. It just took my granddaughter to this store. We bought little pump poems. I wish I had the palm poms. I'd be shore right now. Thank you. You know what. Mom to mom and busyess owner to business owner. It's exciting. It's exciting to see a mom made product create that kind of buzz, to get those kind of accolades. I'm so proud. Thank you. And we are self funded. We're bootstrapped, guys. I mean, this is all like blood, sweat and tears. We do not have a big investor. This is you know, just my partners and I putting all of our funds in to make this work.

14:31 I love it. Think of what Ariel is talking about here, All of you out there, really think about this. We're going to take a quick break, say thank you to our sponsors, and we'll be back here in just a moment. On Word of Mom Radio. She is brave, she is bold, she is you, and we want to tell your story. Are you ready to share your journey with us on Word of Mom Radio? Go to wordofmomradio dot com and register as guest. We want to tell your story because when you win, we all win. In twenty seventeen Unsilenced Voices was formed to help survivors of domestic abuse and gender based violence worldwide. The organization currently serves sier Leone, Rwanda, Ghana, and the USA. In twenty twenty two, Unsilenced Voices gifted over thirty three thousand dollars to survivors in the USA and in sier Leone.

15:31 There are over twenty six young girls who have been rescued from sex trafficking and domestic abuse and now going through vocational training school in order to better their lives. We need your help. Donations are critical in order for us to continue our work. We also need volunteers to help with research and development. Please visit Unsilenced Voices dot org for more information. And we're back here on Word of Mom Radio. We are talking with Ariel Moody, who is the founder of Mama Soul. I am so excited to hear all of the fabulous awards and ratings that you are getting from top name places that people know and trust. Good for you, I mean, really, it's an amazing accomplishment, Ariel, it really is.

16:28 Thank you, Dory. It's been a lot of hard work and it's not been easy, but I'm so thrilled to say that our sales year to date have exceeded all of last year's sales. And you know, this is just a testament to no matter what happens, no matter how many knows, no matter how many stepbacks, how many formula reiterations, I've had to do, all the things that I have had to do to make this work, it is if you believe in something and you are passionate, you can make anything. You can make your dreams come true. I mean, and that's you know where we are today. I want to actually talk about that with you, because before we started we were talking about manifestation and everything else.

17:15 I want you to tell us how a psychic reading was part of all of this, and how those manifestations, how you are doing this and making this happen, making this your reality. I yeah, that's thank you for reminding me about that. Yeah, I had a psychic reading. It was before my kids were born. I was knew I wanted to start my own business, but I had no idea what it was going to be. I knew it was going to be in the beauty industry. I thought it'd be in makeup. I started my career out as a makeup artist. I had no idea that it would be a sunscreen brand.

17:59 So psychic reading. And she says to me at the time, and by the way, I was sketching eyeshadows and the colors and the names of them during right before this reading. So I'm convinced at this point it's probably going to be in makeup. And she says to me, you were going to start a clean skincare brand, and it's going to be very successful. She goes, I see it on Access Hollywood. I see it across all the magazines. I have all the notes written down from this recording, I mean from this reading. And we were on Access Hollywood three weeks after we launched our first products, and I was like, wow, she really hit the nail on the head because I was so far off of what I actually was ended up doing. So yeah, that's that just made me feel like I was aligned. I wouldn't say that it made me do what I did. It made me feel like, wow, like I'm on the right track.

19:02 Manifestation is a whole other thing. By the way, So I got into manifestation about I want to say a year and a half ago. It has now become my religion. I meditate every single morning for the last I want to say two months, I've been meditating every single month religiously, because that was something I added to my manifestation routine. So it started with the book Infinite Possibilities by doctor Mike Dooley, and it was life changing for me. It taught me all about manifestation and the ways in which you can manifest. Infinite Possibilities is really about envisioning the feeling that you want to feel and not the outcome.

19:48 Not because then if you're for example, if I really wanted to let's just give an example, I really wanted to get into sofa, I was focused only on so for nothing else, I'm limiting the abilities to get into all these other places that might be much better suited for me. Who knows, right, I'm so far as of course, a goal of mine down the road. But if you focus on the way you want to feel, and you envision your products on the shelves, or your clothes hanging up in the store, whatever it is, that whatever business that you're doing, it will attract it to you if you actually can visualize it and you actually feel the emotions. So feeling the emotions and changing the way you think is really what I've been practicing the most. So now I'm reading a book called Becoming Supernatural by doctor Jo Despenza.

20:39 It is very science backed, so anyone who's not a believer, it's actually based on physics, but it's so interesting and it's helping me with my meditations and getting me deeper into my meditations. And when I started really practicing manifestation, that is when the opportunities started pouring in. I would open my inbox every single day and something wild would be in there, like orders that I had forgotten about, or you know, accounts that I'd forgotten about that I had followed up with months ago. Just started reaching out to me saying I want to place an order, and I was I'd be like, oh my god, I haven't reached out, you know, followed up with them for three months.

21:20 They just randomly started reaching out to me. And you you kind of become a magnet when you do this practice and opportunities flow in and you don't have to work as hard. You the opportunities find you. And it's changed my life. I agree with manifestation. And as you said, when you were just thinking about Sepphor, you're limiting yourself. That's right. On the flip side. You know you have to have your intentions there, you do. You need to know your intentions because you can't manifest. That's right. If you're all over the place. You have to be very clear. So, like, I'll give you an example of something I did that actually came to Fruition, which was really crazy. I wrote in my journal for three days, I am so grateful for ten thousand dollars in sales. This was years ago when we first launched, and I wanted to achieve our first ten thousand in sales.

22:17 And I wrote it down for three days in a row, thirty three times, I said. And I didn't put an end date on it. I didn't put a time. I just said I am so grateful for the ten thousand in sales we did and I really felt it when I was writing it. Well, the next month was our first ten thousand in sales. And I will just say this, we were not even close to doing ten thousand in sales before I started doing this. This was a huge jump in sales. So when this happened, I was like, oh my god, I'm a wizard. I did it. The world is very magical and the universe can be very magical. You just have to really believe it. So I can't recommend it enough. If you're struggling, if you're feeling like things are just getting really hard and you don't know why, highly recommend picking up a book and learning more about it.

23:05 I agree with you, and I'm going to say to you out there, everyone out there who is telling themselves, Oh, it's too tough and I just can't do it. I can't make this happen. Don't believe it. Don't believe those words. I would say. The best piece of advice I ever got was like, don't wait until it's perfect, just. Do it absolutely. One of my favorite quotes is from Henry Ford. Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. And that's the whole thing. And it's that little red engine. I think I can, I think I can. I thought I thought it could, I think I got out and begin. That's what it boils down to. Don't give up, don't give up. You can do this, and believe in yourself. Take that time to you know, it's that business plan. If you try to do a business and don't of a business plan, you're gonna eventually get there. It's like driving cross country, yeah, west and south west, and eventually you're gonna get there, but you're gonna go places that you don't have to go.

24:10 That's right as opposed to having that business plan. It's the same thing with manifesting. Yeah, pick your goal, you know what it is, and keep you can do it. You can make this happen. I love having you here. So as we're wrapping up, Ariel, please, what would you want to leave our listeners with and how may they reach out to you? So you can find us at shopmamasoul dot com. That's shop and then m A m A s o l dot com. We have a discount code for all of you it's mom Radio fifteen so that you can try out our formulas and see what you think. And then you can also follow us on Instagram at Shop Mama Soul.

24:55 All of Ariel's links are going to be live. I highly encourage you to reach out, try these products, take that fifteen percent discount. You are going to love them, you really will. So what do you want to leave that mompredour with? Ariel? Who's out there trying to figure out how to make something happen. Yeah, I would say one of my favorite quotes that I live by right now is whatever you desire is destined for you. I want you to believe that whatever it is that you want, you can have it. You just have to believe it. What a great way to end this conversation. Ariel's podcast link is also going to be in the liners. Listen to a podcast you know me. I love sharing fellow podcasters, I really do. I'm looking forward to hearing it because I can't wait to hear what you have to say.

25:51 And as somebody who has tried the products you know me, I never put a product on the show if I haven't tried it first, because I want to always be authentic. It's a really good product line, it really is. You're going to be really happy with it. So treat your skin. It's your skin. It's really important to take good care of it. So, Ariel, thank you so much for taking the time to be here. It has been quite a journey finally getting us together with this totally. I'm so happy to have been here. Your questions were amazing, and I hope that your listeners learn something today.

26:31 I hope so too, I really do. And for all of you tuning in, thank you so much for being here. We're going to close out with our fabulous theme song from Smith's Sisters and the Sunday Drivers. So till next time, This is Dori de Carlo saying, go out and create a marvelous you. Bye for now. She is sure, she is sure, she is strong, she is straw, she is true, is true, she is brave, she is she is bold, she is you, she is she is she is sure, she is she is strong, she is strong, she is true, she is true, she is brave, she is bold, she is she is you.

27:15 She is she is you. She sure of herself. Yees, she takes care of it. Powerful and strong. Yes, she knows who she is, has integrity, woman, strong and true. You know her by name. See this woman is you. She is sure, she is strong, is strong, she is true, is true, she is braise, she is bold, she is she is you, she is you, she is she is sure, she she is strong, is strong, she is true, is true, she is brave, she is bold, she is she is you, she is she is she adds value and hope has proved to be brave. See it's never too late, never time to behave. Reaching for dreams doesn't matter. The age believes in herself, unleashed from her cage. She is sure, she is sure, she is strong, is strong, she is true, is true, she is brave, she is she is you. She is she is she is sure, she is she is strong, she is strong, she is true, is true, she is brave, she is she is you.