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The percentage of moms who say they’ve become more eco-friendly since having children, according to a national babycenter survey conducted earlier this year. |
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JESSICA ICLISOY
When this former fashion executive couldn’t find organic skin care for her sons, she dug in and created her own.
By Dana Wood
Photography by Mei Tao |
CALIFORNIA BABY FOUNDER JESSICA ICLISOY ISN’T A FAN OF HALFWAY measures. When the Los Angeles native, now 39, decided to create a family, she didn’t just pop a few folic-acid capsules and call it a day. “I started cleaning up my lifestyle—eating organically and becoming a vegetarian,” she says. And when Ian, the first of her two sons, arrived 16 years ago, she felt that he needed a healthy beginning, too. There was just one problem: At that point, there wasn’t any all-natural infant skin care around.
Above: Iclisoy’s sons (Ian, left, and Miles) are deeply into music. “The older one wants to be a rock star—the universal wish,” she says.
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So, armed with little more than curiosity and a desire to do right by her tiny guy, Iclisoy, a former fashion buyer with zero cosmetics experience, set about crafting chemical-free kids’ bath potions. First out of the gate, in 1995, was Calming Shampoo & Bodywash, a best seller to this day. “The retail price was $15.75,” she says, “which was considered outrageous at the time.”
Fast-forward 12 years: Iclisoy, who’s as stylish as she is fanatic about Pilates, hiking, and meditation, currently oversees a line of roughly 45 California Baby products, a selection of which can be found in every Target store in the country. “We’ve moved from small to medium,” notes Iclisoy, whose husband, Arthur, recently left the world of real-estate development to join the company as operations manager. The couple live in Beverly Hills with their two boys (their younger son, Miles, is 13) and commute to company headquarters in Culver City. “Arthur functions as the CFO,” she says. “He makes sure there’s money, so I can spend it on good ingredients—some can cost $1,000 a pound.” The couple’s business-creative yin-yang partnership thrives on mutual respect: “We have different skill sets,” she says. “I can’t do his job, and he can’t do mine.” |
Iclisoy applies a similar “let them do their own thing” strategy to her sons, now that they’re teens. For example, though they were raised as vegetarians, they both now eat meat. “Three years ago, Ian declared, ‘I want a hamburger,’” she recalls. “I said, ‘Fine. But it’s going to be a good, grass-fed one.’” Still, some habits have stuck. “I always encouraged them to drink mint tea,” she says. “And now I’ll see them wandering around with cups in their hands. They don’t realize they’ve been doing that since they were 5 years old.”
Iclisoy’s living-room shelves, stacked with her favorite magazines; picking herbs for dinner from the garden; heavy-rotation California Baby products (like sunblock) in her bathroom; family photos, spliced with paintings by the boys: “They learn by copying the masters,” she says. “I’ve requested a Van Gogh and a Monet.” |
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FROM EARTHY DELIGHTS TO A CHIC GETAWAY, HERE ARE ICLISOY’S MUST-HAVES.
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| “A cup of peppermint tea before bedtime calms the stomach, eases the mind, and relaxes the body,” says lclisoy, who prefers Choice organic peppermint tea. “And it’s caffeine-free, so it’s perfect for kids.” $3.30 for 16 bags, choiceorganicteas.com
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“I ‘borrowed’ Portnoy’s Complaint from a hotel room,” she says of the coming-of-age classic. “It hooked me from the start, because I have a 16-year-old boy. I started thinking, Oh, so that’s what’s happening with him.” $14,
Vintage, bn.com. |
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Oversized Marni shades are just one way Iclisoy protects herself from the blazing Southern California sun. “I’m pretty obsessed. I wear SPF 18 every day, and I also have a UV-protective jacket and big hats.” Sunglasses, $309, marni.com. |
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“I’m a hard-core farmers’-market fan. My stomping ground is the Hollywood open-air market on Sundays—it has the largest selection of organic farmers, and you can’t beat the eclectic atmosphere.”
Visit farmernet.com for local markets. |
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| Cruelty-free Smash-box is Iclisoy’s favorite makeup. But apart from lightly tinted lips, she just lets her well-tended complexion shine through. “If you take care of your skin, you don’t need much else,” she says. Lip-gloss pot, $18. sephora.com. |
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By tacking on a few extra days, Iclisoy converts annual lavender-scouting trips to Provence into mini vacations for herself. A favorite place to stay is Le Manoir at the Oustau de Baumanière. From $300 a night, oustaude-baumaniere.com. |
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Iclisoy has been experimenting with a more vivid color palette in her wardrobe lately. “I’ve been doing a lot of TV for the Target launch,” she says. “I needed brighter colors.” Tee, $350 Ports 1961 by
Tia Cibani, www.ports1961.com
for stores. |
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California Baby founder
Jessica Iclisoy cleans up
the earth - and your
beauty drawer.
By Susan Waits
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From it's humble, homemade beginnings in Jessica Iclisoy's living room, California Baby has come a long way. The natural skincare line with organic, sustainable ingredients is collecting a crowd of eco-friendly followers. Just ask frequent customers Marcia Cross, Julia Roberts, and Katie Holmes.
Iclisoy embarked on her entrepreneurial journey after the birth of her first son. When she started looking up the ingredients of products she was using on him, she found that many, especially synthetic fragrances, were potential carcinogens. “As a new mom
I really started to panic”, she says. Today, California Baby offers dozens of hair, skin, bath and sun products for babies, children, and adults. |
The hot cult favorite also has a new headquarters in Culver City, which is on track for LEED certification. “As a company we go full circle. We're talking about sustainability from the beginning to the end,” says Iclisoy. “So we want to make sure that our packages are biodegradable and reusable, and that the type of plastic we use is highly recyclable.”
Good for Mother Earth and that tricky diaper rash, How can we resist? |
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Home Grown
For entreprenuer Jessica
Iclisoy, baby products
come naturally.
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| CONCERNED ABOUT the potentially harmful ingredients that she found in her son's baby shampoo, Jessica Iclisoy in 1991 turned a personal interest in healthful living into a professional mission to produce safe products. Fifteen years later her L.A. based California Baby, an all-natural baby care line, is being used by kids and adults around the world. |
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What goes into developing your line? It can take a couple of years to develop each product. There are a lot of things that we don't use because we have a lot of customers who are very sensitive or have allergies. We don't use any glutens, nut oils, or soy. Finding alternatives is not easy. I even deal with the farmers that we buy our herbs and essential oils from.
What percentage of your users are adults? About 40 percent. Women will call and ask, "Do you have an antiaging cream?" We are a baby line!
What do you like about L.A.? I like the diversity and that everybody has a dream.
Where do you shop for food? The Farmers' Market in Hollywood, which has a lot of organic farmers, and we supplement a little at Whole Foods. By and large we don't eat packaged foods, so we just buy what's seasonal.
What are your favorite hangouts? Our hangouts revolve around food and drink. We alternate between Lucques, Campanile, and JAR.
Where do you shop for clothes? Marni, and I tend to go to Barneys. I make the rounds, but I always end up there.
What are your favorite nightspots? We've got season tickets to the L.A. Opera, where we've been getting an intense education. We also have a season subscription to the Geffen Playhouse.
What's your favorite beach? Zuma. It's quiet, and the view is different.
Favorite hotel? Hotel Bel-Air.
Favorite hike? Right off Benedect Canyon. If you follow the trail all
the way to the top, it's open and wild. It's about an hour and a
half uphill. We go every morning.
Favorite L.A. designer? Micheal Stars. I just discovered him -
where have I been?
Favorite Spa? We've turned our house into one. We have a
Reformer and a Cadillac {Pilates machines}, and the masseuse
comes here.
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Description: Manufacturer of an all-natural line of baby shampoo, lotion and body wash.
Mother's Intuition: When she had her first child, Jessica Iclisoy went into full protective mom mode. Like all new moms, she wanted her baby to live in the safest environment possible, so when she discovered some of the questionable |
| ingredients in many mainstream baby toiletry products, she sought healthy alternatives. In 1993, this former fashion buyer began researching ingredients at the local library and canvassing chemists for information. Before long, she was mixing natural ingredients in her kitchen to create her own line of safe, natural and gentle baby-care products.
Natural Order: Getting the industry to listen to her all-natural message was a challenge at first, says Iclisoy. Confident that there were other parents like her who feared the possible dangers of chemical irritants, she marketed her products directly to healthfood stores, explaining to them the benefits of all-natural baby skin care, as well as the dangers of some common product additives. "For the first eight years, my time was spent educating," she says. Her in-store demonstrations and informative Q&As established her as an expert in organic baby products.
Thinking Green: A pioneer in the natural products scene, Iclisoy remains unfazed as she watches giant companies launch their own natural baby product lines. "How we stay competitive is that we stay true to ourselves," she says. "We don't try to run around competing with other people. We are who we are, and we just try to do the best we can." Her line, which is sold online at www.californiababy.com and at Whole Foods and specialty stores around the country, includes the popular staple product California Baby Shampoo & Bodywash, as well as aromatherapy bubble baths with names like Overtired & Cranky and Chamomile & Herbs.
Mommy Talk: This mother of two is particularly keen on the needs of other mothers--especially those whose children fight peanut allergies or skin conditions like eczema. In fact, Iclisoy stopped using nut oils in her products at the request of parents who feared the allergen. Moreover, Iclisoy is routinely asked for her baby-care expertise, a role she gladly accepts. "I'm a mother and I went through everything," says Iclisoy. "[Customers] call us, and sometimes it's just for us to be supportive." |
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This is an interview that
highlights one of the stories behind the products.
by Rachel Sarnoff,
Body & Senses editor
enutrition |
When she couldn't find a shampoo gentle enough for her infant son, Jessica Iclisoy decided to create her own. Using only the purest, gentlest, natural ingredients and aromatherapy-quality essential oils, Jessica developed a line of products for children and adults. Eight years--and another baby--later, Jessica is the president of California Baby.
eNutrition: Why did you create the California Baby product line?
Jessica Iclisoy: Actually, what I really started out to create was just a shampoo. A shampoo that was different from what was already out there. I was a vegetarian, eating organically grown food, breastfeeding and using good products--I thought I was doing all the right things for my baby. Then I checked out an ingredient dictionary and I found that a lot of the cleansing agents that I was using were considered toxic. The main culprit was sodium Lauryl sulfate, as well as synthetic fragrances.
So I tried to find an alternative. I started talking to different chemists and different labs and I found out that they weren't interested in creating anything different. They were happy using sodium lauryl sulfate and they were vigorously arguing its benefits--namely that it's really cheap. And then I came upon decyl polyglucose [an alternative to the detergent sodium lauryl sulfate]. Now more people are using it, but we were the first to use it 100 percent.
eNut: What do you think of the contention that sodium lauryl sulfate is harmless when used in small amounts?
JI: I just don't think it's good enough. Why? Because there are better alternatives out there. Little girls get yeast and bladder infections that they have to fight with for the rest of their lives because of bubble baths and cleansing agents and all that other stuff. Don't take this the wrong way, but a lot of the people in the cosmetics industry are men, and they're used to doing something a certain way and they're not really interested in changing-they don't like to change. I think if they're saying that they're saying it because they have to. So I just don't believe it. I think that it's bogus.
eNut: Using substances such as decyl polyglucose instead of sodium lauryl sulfate must make California Baby products a little more expensive than, say, Johnson & Johnson. What does the consumer get for that extra cost?
JI: I don't necessarily like to compare us to a product like Johnson & Johnson, because that is actually a pretty good product--they list everything that's in there.
Sometimes in health-food markets they don't list because they want to look really clean, but they also want to provide a really cheap product. I have more of a problem with that.
Yes, it is more expensive. But when I look at how expensive other products are and how cheaply made they are, our product is actually a really good deal. Because the consumer is getting the highest-quality cleansing agent available [decyl polyglucose]. It is non-stripping to the skin, it's very biodegradable--I have people who take it hiking and camping with them because it degrades very quickly. In addition to that we use pure, aromatherapy-quality essential oils, not just oils for fragrance. Whereas other companies use synthetic fragrances and sodium lauryl sulfate--I mean, this is really cheap stuff, but they're charging really high prices for it.
eNut: Do you have a background in chemistry?
JI: I don't, but I also don't take no for an answer. I make sure that I understand when I talk to the chemists and I don't just take their word for it. Whereas sometimes people, when they're creating products, they just go to a lab and they say, "I want this and I want it to be blue..." Well, I look at it from the underside and take it a little bit further.
eNut: You researched and tested the products for three years before releasing them to the public in 1995, but you resisted testing on animals. How did you test your products, if not on animals? Why did you resist animal testing?
JI: Well most of the time you really don't need to test on animals for this type of product. For example, right now we're even working on an SPF 30. There are labs that you can send it out to and they perform tests on human subjects. It's more expensive, but it's possible. And a lot of these agents, like shampoos and these types of things, they've been around for a while, so people already know what they do and how they react.
eNut: Do you test products on yourself?
JI: I do everything! I put it in my eye, I taste it, I take bubble baths with a ton of it just to see if it's irritating, because I really want to know. And we don't have a problem revising a product if it doesn't work. One of our original products was spray-on lotion, which has morphed into our Soothing & Healing Spray. There were some ingredients in there that I didn't realize were not the greatest ones. One is a humectant, which draws moisture from the atmosphere to moisturize the skin. But if it's really dry, it goes into your body and starts drawing moisture from your body. I didn't know that at first, and I kind of took people's word for it that it was a good product. But then I happened upon some information and so we quickly took it off the market. If we had known about it in the first place, we wouldn't have used it.
eNut: What's so important about using non-talc baby powder?
JI: A lot of people are aware that talc has a bad name. Originally talc came under fire because it contained asbestos and the molecules were so fine that they could go deep into your lungs. So number one, it's got a bad name, we don't even want to use it.
eNut: Can traditional diaper wipes be dangerous to babies' skin? What can parents use as an alternative?
JI: The big problem that I have with traditional diaper wipes is the synthetic fragrances. They cause allergies, they stink, I just don't like the way they smell, period. Even those marked "fragrance free" have a masking fragrance. But our philosophy is that parents today have to have convenience as well. It's very difficult just to live with your child in cloth diapers and do everything perfectly--we have to have a balance. So I'm for diaper wipes, as long as they're good ones. We will hopefully be introducing some wipes by the end of the year. Right now we have a product that's called a Diaper Area Wash. A lot of moms these days are making their own wipes with their own cloth and using the wash with that.
eNut: Why do you use aromatherapy oils instead of fragrance in your products?
JI: Primarily just because of the dangers of synthetic fragrances. And secondly, they smell really good. We use high-quality essential oils that we have tested so we know that they are guaranteed pesticide-free and are at a certain aromatherapeutic quality, like what doctors would use in Europe. So there's that added benefit which is really wonderful. We have parents who just swear by the stuff--they have to have the Calming Bubble Bath, or the Overtired & Cranky Spritzer, because it works. They didn't believe it would, but it did.
We also have these little half-ounce essential oil drop blends. In the beginning when we came out with them, I don't think consumers really knew what to do with them. But now parents are really understanding the benefits of aromatherapy.
eNut: How should parents use aromatherapy?
JI: You can use the oils in a plain water bath or in combination with the bubble bath after you've turned the water off. We just added a plug-in diffuser to our line, which doesn't overwhelm your house with the fragrance. It uses the heat from the electrical outlet to disperse the oils and it's safe to have around children because they're not going to burn themselves and if they unplug it, it's just the plug.
Or you can use it in massage, blended into a carrier oil. I use the Resistance Builder in massage oil when I think my kids are starting to get sick. Essential oils in combinations with herbs are very effective with children, I think. A lot of the time that's all you really need to do, unless they're really sick--that's a different story.
eNut: What's your favorite product in the California Baby product line?
JI: I'd have to say my favorite product is the shampoo and body wash just because you use it all the time. And that's something that you need every single day, you can't go without it.
eNut: Who is that adorable little girl on the label?
JI: That little girl is my older son's best friend when he was a baby. She's such a mix: Her father is Greek and Swedish and her mom is Italian and Spanish. She's an incredibly beautiful and photogenic little girl. And the reason why there are no boys on the label is because boys don't like to pose for pictures--they just run away! |
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