Canadian entrepreneur Jen Carlson to launch teen personal care brand

14-Aug-2019 - Last updated on 14-Aug-2019 at 18:28 GMT

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After launching and leading 2 food brands for babies and kids, Carlson has spent the past year building a non-gendered skin and body care brand for teens. Her new Thirsty Naturals brand is set to launch in retail stores across Canada on Monday.

Inspiration for the new brand came from founder Jen Carlson’s experience as a parent and her concerns about the safety of conventional personal care products. The Thirsty Naturals brand is one of many to launch in recent years that positions ‘natural’ ingredients as safe and ‘synthetic’ ingredients as toxic.

"As kids enter adolescence and teen years, suddenly the ongoing parent-to-kid conversation moves from brushing and flossing teeth as part of a daily good hygiene routine, to encouraging them to use deodorant – awkward – and to get into a skincare routine: wash, cleanse, treat those pimples, pop on a facemask,” explains Carlson in a media release announcing the brand’s launch date. “I was shocked,” she adds, “to find that all products recommended to this age demographic used toxic ingredients, pore blocking silicones and hormone disruptors.”

For Carlson, skin and body care for teens was the next logical step from her food brand Baby Gourmet and her organic snack brand Slammers. “I spent a lifetime promoting good nutrition and I couldn't, in good conscience, start my kids personal body care journey with toxic products,” she tells the press. “So, like we did with Baby Gourmet - we wanted to create the best products for the next stage of our kids' development, so we created Thirsty Naturals.”

More options for kids and teens

At launch, Thirsty Naturals’ product portfolio will comprise 6 products formulated according to skin type: sensitive, oil-prone, dry, combination, etc. “The scent appeals to boys and girls, and the packaging is formatted in easy-to-use, hassle-free pump containers which works well for teens according to our focus group.”

Carlson’s new brand isn’t the only founder-led skin care business hoping to bring so-called clean beauty to kids and teens. Nicole Sullivan launched SkinBuzz, an organic skin care brand for tweens and teens at the start of 2018, with a similar idea—to give parents and teens an alternative to the corporate-owned conventional products on the market. SkinBuzz products are all formulated with bee ingredients.

And in 2017, Michell Houp launched Prep U, a personal care brand for tween and teen boys. In her Indie Beauty Profile, Houp explains that the brand was “created specifically to solve this challenge of stinky boys. Our products,” says Houp, “are designed not only to offer a natural, effective way to deal with the stinks and sweats of boyhood, but also to foster independence and confidence as boys begin to develop their personal care routines and rituals.”

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Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.