S9 Ep50: Skin Deep: The Surprising Power of Natural, Locally-Sourced Beauty Products with Nancy Rimbergas
“You follow your passion, and when you have a purpose behind it, everything becomes a little bit clearer.” —Nancy Rimbergas
Clean beauty isn't just another Instagram hashtag—it's a real movement that starts with actually caring about what we're putting on our skin. Every lotion, cream, or serum is like a tiny decision that ripples out, affecting not just our body, but the whole planet. We're not just buying products anymore; we're voting with our dollars, pushing brands to be real about their ingredients, and showing the beauty industry that we want something better.
Nancy Rimbergas is the co-founder of Earth Based Body, a purpose-driven skincare line that harnesses the potent, scientifically backed ingredients native to the Sonoran Desert. By prioritizing local, non-toxic ingredients and maintaining a commitment to transparency, she aims to bridge the gap between natural wellness and high-performance beauty.
Tune in as Justine interviews Nancy about her inspiration and challenges behind creating a clean, non-toxic skincare line, the unique healing properties of Sonoran Desert ingredients, the importance of local sourcing and ingredient transparency, how to balance creativity and business strategy in product development, entrepreneurial lessons learned in starting and scaling a business, and the power of relationships and community in business growth.
Connect with Nancy:
Nancy Rimbergas is a Chicago native drawn to the mythical desert from an early age when visiting with family. Her connection grew with each visit, and she finally took the leap and moved to Arizona to experience the desert every day. True to her maximalist vibe, she now lives the Earth Based Body lifestyle with her husband, surrounded by an obnoxious amount of original artwork collected through their travels.
Episode Highlights:
01:14 Crafting Natural Skincare
07:05 Clean Beauty: A Personal Mission
10:02 Product Development and Ingredient Selection
13:15 Packaging with Purpose
16:06 Challenges of Starting a Business
20:24 Prioritizing Relationships OVer Rapid Expansion
Resources:
💲Discount
Get a 15% discount when you shop at: https://earthbasedbody.com/collections
Use code: EI15
Tweets:
Your skincare might be silently sabotaging you! Discover how one entrepreneur turned desert plants into a clean beauty revolution as @justine.reichman interviews @earthbasedbody co-founder, Nancy Rimbergas. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #Season9 #EarthbasedBody #SustainableSkincare #EntrepreneurLife #SkincareTips #CleanBeauty #NonToxicBeauty
Inspirational Quotes:
02:21 "You follow your passion, and when you have a purpose behind it, everything becomes a little bit clearer." —Nancy Rimbergas
02:42 “When you're using organic products, the conversation of shelf life and all these different things come into play, because you want to be able to maintain the integrity of a good product that doesn't have too many different things." —Justine Reichman
03:50 "Hydrated skin is a right, not a privilege." —Nancy Rimbergas
07:07 "It's all about relationships and every venture for every project that I've had in my whole life." —Nancy Rimbergas
11:11 "Science is pulling from what nature already knows... nature is not trying to catch up." —Nancy Rimbergas
11:55 “Everyone has a different value system and chain.” —Justine Reichman
15:00 "Start with your heart, and then the rest kind of will spell itself out and reveal itself to you." —Nancy Rimbergas
21:18 “We want our lives first, and then the opportunity second." —Nancy Rimbergas
Transcription:
Justine Reichman: Hello, and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I want to welcome my friends and my colleagues here today. My name is Justine, and I'm going to be your host. So for those folks that are just tuning in for the first time, I want to welcome you. I'm so happy that you've chosen to tune in today to hear from Nancy. She is the Co-Founder of a new skincare line. They make creams, they make some brushes. They have about 12 products, and you're not going to want to miss this because the inspiration behind this is just so beautiful. Her products are non toxic, and they're better for you and better for the planet. It's a really inspirational conversation, and I think that whether you're interested in cream or just interested in entrepreneurship, you're not going to want to miss this so make sure you're not going to want to miss this. So make sure you stay here for the whole episode. And at the end, there's a little discount code. But you got to listen to the whole thing to get the discount code, so thanks again for tuning in.
Nice to meet you.
Nancy Rimbergas: You too. I'm so excited.
Justine Reichman: Oh, me too. And guess what I got here. We were trying it this morning.
Nancy Rimbergas: What do you think?
Justine Reichman: I like this rose water and bergamot.
Nancy Rimbergas: We want it to just be fresh without nondescript. But some people are like, is this like bergamot? I'm like, well done.
Justine Reichman: My partner, he was like, oh, I don't like bergamot. And then he tried it. He's like, oh, it's not heavy.
Nancy Rimbergas: No artificial colors or fragrances so everything kind of rings true in a pure way.
Justine Reichman: Consistency. When you put it in your hands, it feels a little like powder does.
Nancy Rimbergas: It's soft without being greasy. And I always say like you can do something, like open a door after you put on hand cream, what a concept.
Justine Reichman: Like the consistency of powder. No, I think so too. And you were in what? The beverage area?
"You follow your passion, and when you have a purpose behind it, everything becomes a little bit clearer." —Nancy Rimbergas
Nancy Rimbergas: So that's where I cut my teeth, so to speak. And yeah, took a real hard left turn like, hey, let's join a more competitive industry than even that was. But you know, we follow your passion, and when you have a purpose behind it, everything becomes a little bit more clear.
Justine Reichman: And I also think that there's a lot of skills that you get running a beverage company that are transferable supply chain or operational, all sorts of things And when you're using organic products, the conversation of shelf life and all these different things come into play, just as they do in beverages. Because you want to be able to maintain the integrity of a natural product, or a good product that doesn't have too many different things. And equally, wanted to be shelf stable, at least for a while, so people can utilize it.
Nancy Rimbergas: Exactly. And it was interesting too with turning industries, this weird haze came over, and I almost forgot some of those skills that I had until somebody reminded me, didn't you just sell into Costco? I'm like, oh, yeah, that was me. I forgot. Like, okay, cool. How do we approach that? Instead of coming from a place of your deficiencies, or I'm not an esthetician, and just kind of playing into your strengths of like, no, but I still know what a great product is. And I can help you serve a purpose. And as desert dwellers here and everywhere, we believe hydrated skin is a right, not a privilege.
"Hydrated skin is a right, not a privilege." —Nancy Rimbergas
Justine Reichman: So we have the Rose Glow. I love roses, not just because my grandmother's name was Rose. So you have the Rose Glow, which is the hand cream. Which to me, like I said, feels like powder. I could still touch my phone after.
Nancy Rimbergas: Nice and soft. I sometimes find myself petting my hand if it's on, it's a little soothing mechanism as well. And people sometimes have adverse reactions to the word rose because they're afraid of smelling like their grandma or whatever that is in their head. We use rose water, which naturally softens your skin, so that's where the rose comes from.
Justine Reichman: Of course, we have the Cactus Crush here, which is a natural body cream with prickly pear hyaluronic acid and organic shea butter. So I'm curious because I know you came from beverage, what was your process to come up with the ingredients and the formulas for these?
Nancy Rimbergas: Creating beverages is a whole other ball of wax because there are so many different levels of maintaining carbonation. Those things were way more interesting to me, and I did not have the technical skills for that. So it was more me observing and absorbing what that whole process was, but also just being aware of the ingredients themselves. At that point, it was more of what was the shelf life. How do we make this a craft beverage that can sit on the shelf and last, and still deliver the same taste? Carbonation levels, all those things. When it came to skincare, it was almost a lot easier. Because being in the desert, our backyard is the Sonoran Desert, and there's these native plants and minerals that we had access to. Literally, we're down the street from a cactus farm. Down the street is where we get our prickly pear juice, for instance. And celebrating what we have is the whole purpose behind it. That brings joy because we get to share all these ingredients with people everywhere. And these ingredients also just happen to be like the longest living plants in the world. They're also the most hydrating plants in the world.
Justine Reichman: You move from the Midwest to Arizona. This was new information for you, I imagine. You're now learning about the Sonoran Desert, and you're learning about all these plans. So how did you take that interest, and who did you lean into to create the product? Because you were interested in it, but I imagine that you had to do some research, or surround yourself with some other experts so that you're able to build or create a product that is both impactful, creates change in the skin. Beneficial, and maybe can show some studies or something because there's so many products out there.
"It's all about relationships and every venture for every project that I've had in my whole life." —Nancy Rimbergas
Nancy Rimbergas: It's all about relationships. And every venture, every project that I've had in my whole life and just kind of thinking about it before our chat today, I was like, wow, I've been really fortunate. I have so much gratitude for relationships. I did start the brand because a friend of mine that I've known since high school was diagnosed with melanoma for the second time. So that started my journey, and it came from a passion of wanting to help her. And then in turn, I was able to learn all this about natural skin care and how much your skin's absorbing.
Justine Reichman: When you said it was the inspiration from your friend who had melanoma for the second time, was it about creating something to prevent melanoma? And were you thinking that this was going to be something with an SPF to prevent the sun, or was it the ingredients? I'm curious what was the impact of your friend's illness, and how it manifests itself in the product?
Nancy Rimbergas: Absolutely. So it came from the ingredients. She was kind of leading that discussion too about how much toxicity we can absorb in our skin. And it never occurred to me, it's the largest organ. We can take in 60% of what we apply topically to our skin. I let her educate me to a point, and then diving into it. SPF is definitely a part of her life. I was focused more on the ingredients, making sure that they were wholesome, good, clean and non toxic. So that's where that kind of conversation led. And then my husband actually was working with somebody who was looking to expand her line of skincare, so we connected. And Christina is now our 50/50 partner, and she was as passionate about the formulation side of creating only natural, non toxic ingredients. I was fortunate enough to partner up with somebody who was an encyclopedia, who has grown up in the area, who knows these ingredients, who suffered herself from different skin ailments and wanted to have something that was clean, that was effective as all get out and beautiful. So I got to be on the sales and marketing and brand creation side of it. And then working in synergy with her of creating the lineup that we have and making sure it's served a purpose. So it did come back to relationships of just being open to it, knowing I wanted to take action, and then manifesting the whole partnership.
Justine Reichman: So now she's a co-founder and she brings to the table the experience of creating products, is what I understand. Is that correct?
Nancy Rimbergas: Absolutely. She's like, I want to be in the lab. I want to do math. I want to figure these things out.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. So when she did that, she's done this before so it's not her first time at the rodeo. There's been a lot of questions around natural products, the impact and the efficacy of them. What did you do to address that as you're building this product? And you want a beautiful product, you've got great ingredients. But you want to be able to let people know that X percent of people, when using this, we'll do blah, blah, blah, right? So tell me a little bit about how you pulled that together, and what you did to communicate and educate consumers around that?
Nancy Rimbergas: Sure. When we started, the number one kind of pushback is a lot of people, if having a natural ingredients, or it being vegan or cruelty free, if that wasn't their number one concern, it usually was, how is this going to make me look glowy younger, like fill in the blank of what that was. So it's definitely something we addressed well. People think that something made in a lab will automatically be more powerful, will automatically give you this different result, but we remind people that science is pulling from what nature already knows. So it's not vice versa. Nature is not trying to catch up, we've been evolving. So it's really talking about the ingredients and talking about how they're different, how they're made, and what they naturally provide in terms of benefits. And then weaving together those ingredients, and that's the formula. How can you best combine ingredients and only deliver the amount that your skin can actually take in? That whole process was just the lift of education. And sometimes, it was literally trying it, getting it on people's skin.
“Everyone has a different value system and chain.” —Justine Reichman
Justine Reichman: I think that everyone has a different value system and chain. So your values, as the owners of these companies, and we want to investigate them. We know that you're really interested in the ingredients. You're really interested in keeping the footprint small, and keeping it local, and sourcing local. And I think that everybody has their thing, and that's yours. And I think that there's so many people that resonate with them because they care about their health, their wellness and the planet. And this is impacting health, wellness and the planet. Because you're working locally, your carbon footprint is less. But like food, you want the taste to be king. And impact is king. I just think there's a variety of ways to get there, and I'm not here to dictate to anybody to better understand who you are and what helps you make your decisions to inspire others. You're inspired by your friend who wanted to make sure she had really clean products on her body because she didn't want to take in the toxins. From what you're saying, that locality is important. And using what's in your backyard, so to speak, is important. And understanding that helps us understand a little bit more about you and your choices. And I look at the packaging, and it's so pretty. Talk to me about your packaging and what you guys were thinking as it relates to sustainability?
Nancy Rimbergas: Absolutely. Again, trying to make the best choices we can with what's available. So the tubes that you have are made from sugar cane. So that was just another choice. It's recycled cardboard, it's soy ink. Anything we can do to kind of reduce our impact. And it's all about that energy exchange. Maybe you can see some of this, but I am an art collector because I have no artistic skill whatsoever. So the designs that you see, one of our customers is a watercolor artist so she created nine paintings for us based on our ingredients. And we've infused that onto our packages, so you get to carry around a little piece of art with you. So it's not just drawings or a digital creation. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's kind of a further expression. We want our products to show that they're bursting with these beautiful ingredients that we have, and we couldn't even contain them. So that's what you see on the outside of the package.
Justine Reichman: What differentiates you is that you're in that location, and you can lean into that. So for those folks that are not in your location, but in different locations. You got your inspiration for a friend and your surroundings. What are the top three things that you would recommend to those founders and viewers tuning in today to look in front of them, just to make sure that they're paying attention to what's in front of them.
"Start with your heart, and then the rest kind of will spell itself out and reveal itself to you." —Nancy Rimbergas
Nancy Rimbergas: So starting local and celebrating something that is special to you, that inspires you, that expresses some of your values. Just start with your heart, and then the rest will spell itself out and reveal itself to you. Trust my gut, but also, trusting data is another thing. So a lot of times as entrepreneurs, we can lead with emotion, because it is a part of us. It is something we're super passionate about, and that can sometimes cloud our decision making and our judgment. So if you feel like you're going down, lean back into the data.
Justine Reichman: Oftentimes, people are working around the clock. People are doing all these things. It just feels like a little less, because you're doing it for yourself. It is my experience. If I have to do it for somebody else, it's not quite as motivating for me.That's how I feel, and why I'm an entrepreneur. You're not the first person to go from a day job to then having their own business. I can imagine we have other founders and viewers that are tuning in today that might say, what was it like? And how did you have the confidence and the drive? Did you always know you were an entrepreneur?
Nancy Rimbergas: I did not at all. I very much enjoy somebody giving me vacation days and knowing what the system was. And sometimes, being able to leave work and not carry it with you, sleep on it, and all those things. I did know I always wanted to have something of my own. I always had the thought process when I was working and telling the story of other beverage brands. I knew I wanted to tell a different story that I can control, that I didn't have to have approved, and all those things. So I guess I always had those controls. And also, the creativity of writing stories from being in school. Looking back, it's all very clear. That wasn't my ambition.
Justine Reichman: As an entrepreneur, though, you have to be everything in the beginning. The finances, the ingredients. You gotta be the lab person. You gotta be the designer until you figure out what you're doing and where you're going from doing sales to now doing all of it. What was that like? How did you feel doing that?
Nancy Rimbergas: I would say, Justine, that ignorance is bliss, number one. And just having confidence that I'm like that, I could figure this out. I'm a grown up. And again, doing it with a purpose and a passion behind it makes everything go away. And like you said, it's so much different when it's something you own versus working for somebody else. It was just knowing the things you don't know, being vulnerable enough to ask for help and getting yourself in the rooms to be able to ask the questions and just hear from a place of humility again. Oh, I'm gonna have to plan for that as well. And then, what are the steps for me? What is the one thing I can do today that I can control? And then knowing I have to stretch and find those things out. But yeah, entrepreneurship will teach you how small things you could feel, or how much you don't know. And I think the key is being okay with it from the start. I can't be expected to be an expert in 10 different fields. I can tell you what my zone of genius is, and either I know I need help with a new hire, or I need help with a coach, or I need help with my suppliers. And being okay asking those questions. I call it bursting your bubble soon, right? Because it becomes like this all encompassing place and space that can feel really lonely. So the more you can add to your community, the easier it will be knowing you're not the only one going through it.
Justine Reichman: Just want to go back to the beginning of this journey for a second. So one thing that's really challenging for people, and I could see people wanting to ask is, how do you know if you should invest in your own company, or what made you choose to do one or the other? Did you fund your startup at the beginning? Or did you go raise money? And why?
Nancy Rimbergas: We are self funded, and we remain self funded at this point. So I think having the partner that I did from the jump, and knowing that there was a process in place, that was enough of a cushion in my brain of like, okay, if she can take on half of this where I have very small amount of knowledge outside the beverage industry, then I know my skill set. I know what I can control. For lack of a better term, I had faith in my skills and her skills. I'm like, okay, together, we can do this. So there it is definitely a leap of faith, but the faith comes from the skills that you already have, and knowing where you want to end up. I feel like one of the most important things is, what is your big dream goal? And next question, how do you get back into that?
Justine Reichman: Do you see yourself in three or five years?
“We want our lives first, and then the opportunity second." —Nancy Rimbergas
Nancy Rimbergas: It's been a huge interesting plot twist along the way. So my original dream was ending up at a Sephora and in Ulta, and being in North Nordstrom and that whole darling thing. What feels good to us is our online business and selling direct to consumers, and being able to know them intimately and have those relationships, that's what feels great to us. So we're definitely open to those opportunities, but it's not the definition of success for us anymore. We want to build this online business and keep scaling it up in a way that is sustainable for our lives, for the ingredients that we're using, and it no longer is a billion dollar company that we're trying to build. And that feels great because we want our lives first, and then the opportunity second. So our dreamy dream is sharing this knowledge, sharing these products, being able to serve our audience, have those relationships and do the things that we set out to do. And yeah, that really is the dream. Now it's changed.
Justine Reichman: It is a prosperous online business. How many SKUs do you have?
Nancy Rimbergas: 12 right now. We don't have plans right now for any additional, so we're kind of like rocking our core collection and kind of seeing what happens. What we've done is offer different kinds of gifting opportunities, because that's what our customers have been asking for. How can I share this little piece of the desert and share it with people that are visiting, with people who are across the country? So we're offering different options that way, really focusing on seasonal care, and what your skin needs season by season. So yeah, it's really just about the education part of it. And just celebrating what we have, and kind of pausing in a way of like, okay, what actually is working? And setting new kinds of goals, parameters and benchmarks.
Justine Reichman: How do you evaluate that?
Nancy Rimbergas: Sales is the number one evaluator. But we also show up at live events. We have the online business, and we do have wholesale as well, especially in spa locations like Canyon Ranch in Miraval that are here in Arizona.
Justine Reichman: Nancy, thank you so much. For those folks that want to learn more about the product or be able to buy it, where's the best place for them to go?
Nancy Rimbergas: Sure. earthbasedbody.com. On socials as well, Earth Based Body. But I would love to offer your listeners a little discount too. 15% off their first online purchase, we'll set up a code. How about EI15?
Justine Reichman: Sounds amazing. Nancy, thank you. Our viewers will be super excited. It's a great product. I love the way that I can walk away and don't feel greasy, or have to wash my hands. You know how sometimes when you put face cream on, I always wash my hands after because I feel like it's going to get on everything. With this, you put it on and you just go.
Nancy Rimbergas: That was our plan. And it has some light deflectors too, so you have a little mineral veil. So check it out. Check it out in the sun.
Justine Reichman: I want to thank our listeners and our viewers for tuning in today. They are our family, they are our friends, they are our colleagues. They are what keep us going. I'm so glad that you guys got to meet our listeners and our followers. Got to meet Nancy today. She's an inspiration. She built this amazing product with her co-founder, really with the ethos of a better free planet, better for us, and both with our health and our wellness. So it's really inspirational. I'm so glad that we got to chat and learn more about that. I love to be able to bring our community into this so that they can be inspired to innovate. Not maybe in the same space, but hear from you what inspired you so that they can go off and make their own change or difference in the world. So for those of you that tuned in today, don't forget, if you're not following us on Instagram, it is at essential.ingredients. You can listen to our podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, it's essential ingredients. And for those that love a video, we're on YouTube at NextGen Purpose, so hope to see you soon. See you here again next week. And Nancy, thanks again for joining me today.
