International Women’s Day is coming up and it’s something that is SO near and dear to my heart. I’ve celebrated this day every year on the blog for the last four years and I’m SO passionate about this holiday. This year, I wanted to share with you some INCREDIBLE women-owned and women-founded companies that are CHANGING THE WORLD. I was so inspired when I was researching these products and companies and made a point to include companies that I use all the time. They are an integral part of my product routines and I am so grateful these women have such incredible stories to share. We should all walk away from this post SO INSPIRED. Let’s dive into this.
International Women’s Day 2020 – 10 Female-Founded Brands I LOVE!
This post is sponsored by Solid Gold. All opinions are mine and mine alone.
Solid Gold.
Solid Gold’s story began in 1974. Sissy McGill made a choice for her dogs: they deserved natural and nutritious food that would check off all the right boxes. She believed that diet was the main reason European Great Danes lived longer than American Great Danes. She did some research in the European pet food and from that research, Hund-N-Flocken was born. It was Sissy’s first recipe and it is still made today. It has real meat, whole grains, and superfoods. It was and continues to be unlike any product on the market. Sissy successfully launched the holistic pet food category into existence.
Every pet deserves to be happy and healthy – truly living their best lives. Sissy “single-handedly changed the face of the pet food industry”. 45 years later – Solid Gold now serves the nutritional needs of every dog and cat. Nutrition is the base for lifelong health for every animal. Solid Gold aims to create the kind of nutrition that will change pets’ ways of life in mind, body, and spirit – more than simply masking symptoms – by providing foods and supplements that can be combined for three important factors:
- CLEANSE: Whole fruits & vegetable superfoods to boost gut microflora
- BALANCE: 3 strains of living, protected probiotics to promote good bacteria
- FUEL: Omega Fatty Acids to boost immune system, skin & coat
Recently, Sissy celebrated her 86th birthday. She still works 5 days a week at her retail store in California and is the “greatest Solid Gold advocate”.
Billie.
Georgina Gooley co-founded Billie because she wanted to take on the pink tax and provide a razor for women that was created SPECIFICALLY for our unique bodies. The vision for Billie? Georgina wanted to “create an unapologetically, female-first company in the boring, male-dominated shaving category”.
Even better than the high quality, no-pink-tax, made-for-women razor? Billie donates 1% of ALL revenue to women’s causes all over the world. They strongly believe that we can build a brighter future for all women.
Plus – their products are free of toxins and additives. So it’s good for you, good for the environment, good for women everywhere.
Thrive Causemetics.
Makeup artist and product developer, Karissa Bodnar, created Thrive Causemetics because she realized that beauty products need to go BEYOND your skin. They need to be good for you – which is why their products are vegan, 100% cruelty-free formulas containing proven ingredients without the use of parabens or sulfates. They donate a portion of your total to helping women thrive, so you can feel good knowing your money is going to help women in need.
With over a decade of experience, Karissa has spent much of her time traveling the world to find ingredients that are changing the beauty game so that she can provide clean formulas with skin-loving properties. This company empowers women and dares them to thrive in a world that wants them to simply exist.
Ritual.
Ritual was founded by Katerina Schneider. When she became pregnant for the first time – she scoured her home to get rid of every product that may harm the new life she was growing. That detox went all the way to her prenatal vitamin. When she discovered that most prenatal on the market have questionable ingredients, she decided to make her own.
Katerina believes that better health begins with better ingredients. Rituals makes sure you know every single ingredient and where it comes from. It’s transparency at it’s finest.
Women run this company – all of their leaders are women! Liz Reifsnyder (COO), Katerina Schneider (CEO & Founder), Lauren Hayes (VP, Community & Partnerships) and Kadie Bowen (VP, Program) believe in making the world a better and safe place, one little vitamin at a time.
Saalt Co.
Cherie Hoeger and Amber Fawson came together to create the perfect menstrual cup. When Cherie learned that her aunt in Venezuela hadn’t had access to pads and tampons for years – she immediately thought of her very own 5 daughters. What would they do if they couldn’t access period care? They were dependent on these disposable items – not to mention how unregulated the entire system is anyways.
Cherie began designer her own cup so that she could help her family and friends have an option that worked better for everyone. Amber joined the party when she realized that a period cup would give people a healthier way to care for their periods, divert waste, and keeps girls in school. They believe the best way approach to period care should be simple.
They empower women and girls in need by donating reusable period care products that truly provide LONG-TERM solutions. They fund educational scholarships and life skills training. As they say – “When you help a woman, you create change for generations”.
Ouai.
Jen Atkin is the woman behind this hair-care company. She believes that Ouai is creating a “breath of fresh hair” in the beauty community. It’s a line for REAL women in REAL life. They’re luxury quality at affordable prices because you shouldn’t have to spend an arm and a leg for products that work.
The Ouai shampoos and conditioners are sulfate-free and use keratin to repair and improve the actual hair strand. Jen took the time to make sure every product is good for your hair and easy to use.
Briogeo.
Meet Nancy Twine. She made her entrance into the world of Natural Product formulation when she was just five years old. She’d make visits to her grandmother’s home in West Virginia and would help make her homemade haircare (it was coveted in their little town).
When she was in her early 20s – she tried to trade out her homemade essentials for store-bought products and realized that those products just didn’t live up to their claims. SO – she took her grandmother’s coveted beauty recipes and an amazing chemist team and Briogeo was founded.
It takes beauty products back to the basics: high performance products that are naturally based and provide visible results.
Daily Harvest.
Rachel Drori found herself eating junk because it was convenient. She was busy – so she realized she was grabbing a handful of any kind of snack and pretending that was good enough to be “lunch”. She knows how hard it is to take care of your body when the world is moving at an almost impossible speed. Women have careers, kids, relationships, self-care…when does nutrition get a front seat?
Rachel created Daily Harvest so that she could have something that quick, easy and healthy. It’s delivered to you and ready in minutes.
Modern Fertility.
Afton Vechery + Carly Leahy started Modern Fertility because they began to hear some buzz about fertility but didn’t understand how it applied to them. They weren’t ready for kids yet..but should they be worried? It’s a common feeling for women EVERYWHERE.
They are both planners by nature, which meant they obviously didn’t like not knowing. SO. Modern Fertility began to take shape. Afton and Carly realized that it’s pretty easy to head to a fertility clinic to get a blood panel done. But it’s not easy for everyone to be able to afford the tests, and often the results can be tricky to decipher anyways. They thought – what if we got smart about fertility like we did with everything else in our life?
Modern Fertility is an easy way for every woman to get the information she needs so that she can make informed decisions about her fertility.
MaeLove.
Jackie Kim (an MIT grad) was a skin-care obsessive who simply wanted to make luxury skincare more accessible. Her products are $28 and under with a cult following.
She worked with a team of expert scientists and doctors to research exactly what skincare ingredients really work so that she could find a balance between cost and quality.
Jackie believes that good skincare doesn’t have to be out of reach – good skin can be for everyone.
Alright – I know this post was a long one but man was it worth every word! To finish us off – I want to leave you with a fun contest that Solid Gold recently ran called “The Women That Inspire Us” Contest! Fans were invited to tell them why a woman in their lives inspires them in order to be entered to win a spa day!
Here’s the fun part – although submissions ended on March 1, the voting period is from March 2 – March 8! So, YOU can celebrate International Women’s Day this year by voting for these final nominees and reading incredible stories from around the country! Check them out HERE.
