Melissa Chats - High Beauty CEO
MELISSA CHATS Part 1:
Why High?
Melissa Jochim is High Beauty's Founder & Formulator. We asked Melissa some questions we thought our readers would like to know. First off, to get a little background on Melissa, she started working for various beauty brands and wanted to make a change in the beauty world. She took the knowledge she learned from working for other companies and decided to make a change and create what we know today as high beauty.
Why did you start high beauty?
Throughout the course of her career, Melissa has maintained the ability to create a skincare line and impact so many. It all began with her early childhood. Melissa’s mom was a beauty queen; she loved makeup, fashion, modeling, etc. Melissa, however, wanted to be different, the opposite: "what you see is what you get.” Her goal from early on was to create something better for you and your skin; she studied chemistry and began to fall in love with essential oils. Throughout her journey working in the skincare world, there was a noticeable trend where consumers started using hempseed oil for various things. There was hemp milk, hemp protein, and hemp oil that grew in popularity. Melissa realized the power hemp held; it has the highest essential fatty acid load and hemp is full of vitamins and nutrients. With this and her interest in Cannabinoids, high beauty was created.
Why is being natural, organic, and vegan so vital to you?
Melissa talks about back in the ’90s; there were no USDA organic standards. People at this time didn’t understand that when something is called organic, it’s 95% organic ingredients. When something is made organic, it’s 70%, and the remaining 30% has to be from an Allowable list. What led to this was natural; everyone wanted something natural, but when you would look at your products, you would see parabens, germaben, and sodium sulfate in the ingredients list. These were products being advertised as “natural.” Organic really helped define what natural is. Now onto why vegan was essential to Melissa; there are so many products out there that test on animals and include ingredients that come from animals. Melissa believes in having clean ingredients that are better for the environment, and while doing so, she created a line that is Vegan, Organic, and Natural.
What does clean beauty mean to you?
Everyone has a different view of what “clean beauty” is. Brands each list what is good and what isn’t for that specific product. Melissa says, “you need to be an educated consumer of what’s important to you that you would put on your body.” Each consumer has certain things they wouldn’t use, so the true definition of clean beauty is pretty vague since we all interpret the meaning differently!
Stay tuned for Part Two where we talk more about Melissa and what her everyday life looks like working and creating high! For more skincare blogs click here.
