Today we’d like to introduce you to Blair Hunter.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Blair. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in health and always leaned toward natural, holistic practices and modalities. I started practicing yoga almost 20 years ago as a college student before yoga was nearly as popular as it is today. I quickly noticed that when I practiced yoga regularly, the flow of life seemed much more manageable. Thus, yoga became (and still is) my “anti-anxiety” practice. In the early 2000’s, I pursued a Master’s degree in Nutrition and was extremely conscientious of the food going into my body. Artificial colors were one of the “no no’s”. One day I heard a stat that women ingest an average of 1 pound of lipstick per year. I don’t know if that stat is true, but the lightbulb went off in my head that although I was not ingesting synthetic color through food, I was definitely ingesting it when I put on lipstick multiple times per day! At that time, I used the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep website, which ranks cosmetic safety from 0 (no hazard) to 10 (TOXIC!!!) to find out about all of my personal care products. Not surprisingly, most of my skincare, makeup, hair products, etc. ranked 5-10. I got rid of everything which started my clean, non-toxic beauty journey.
After several years of ordering things online (with several horrible and humorous buying experiences!), I opened my first clean beauty boutique, Fig & Flower, in Atlanta in 2014. I was still working full time and sold my half to my business partner a few months after opening to move to San Francisco for work. I moved to Austin in 2017 and, in 2019 finally decided to quit corporate America and follow my clean beauty passion again. Lovejay Holistic Beauty opened in East Austin in May 2019, offering 20+ lines of clean, non-toxic beauty products and holistic services like reiki, tarot and a Steam + Mask bar.
A couple of weeks after opening, my husband and I were in Lovejay, and he said, “You teach yoga and you have a lot of skincare, why don’t you combine the two?” That little spark ignited a whole new business called Namasque! Namasque combines yoga and skincare rituals into one pampering self care experience! Namasque includes yoga followed by a skin mask painted on each participant by Namasque yoga teachers at the end of class when everyone is lying in the final resting position, savasana. While the skin mask is working, participants are given extra time to rest or guided through a meditation. In the end, everyone is given a warm washcloth to remove the mask, hydration spray, and skin serum. The Namasque skincare line, a clean, non-toxic used in Namasque classes, launches in April 2020.
Has it been a smooth road?
The road has been windy, bumpy, exciting, scary, and more! In addition to launching Lovejay AND Namasque in 2019, I also got married. It was such an exciting year but also extremely exhausting. It was hard for me to pick a direction and stick with it for both Lovejay and Namasque. I didn’t give new initiatives long enough to grow roots and spread. Instead, I changed the course far too frequently. Toward the end of the year, I put Lovejay on the market to sell because I was so overwhelmed with both businesses.
I didn’t realize just how burned out I was until we went on a delayed honeymoon in January. Being away for two weeks was the best medicine I could have asked for and shed much needed light and clarity around both businesses. I realized that not only did I want to keep both businesses, but I could keep both and manage things in a calmer way with a little help. I began working with independent contractors a lot more which has been amazing!
Tell us more about the business.
Namasque is a thoughtfully curated self care offering combining two powerful rituals: Yoga + Skincare. Our mission is to inspire beauty from the inside out through self care and holistic skin rituals and products. Each Namasque experience consists of yoga/meditation practice alongside a painted skin mask in savasana, the final resting post in yoga practice. The combination of yoga and skin care creates glowing beauty inside and out! Namasque is dedicated to solely offering clean, non-toxic, natural beauty products.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Namasque spans a couple of industries, mainly yoga and clean beauty. I foresee yoga continuing to grow and hope it becomes more accessible – in terms of geography, finances, and people feeling more comfortable trying yoga. I meet a lot of people who have preconceived notions about yoga – most often thinking that you have to have a certain body type, be flexible, or “be good” at yoga to practice or take a class. The physical aspect of yoga is only one aspect or limb of yoga. When practicing yoga postures, listening to your body and honoring what the body needs in every moment is yoga.
The clean beauty industry has exploded over the past five years. Because there are no regulations on terms like clean beauty, natural beauty, etc., brands can say whatever they want about their products. There are many brands that call themselves clean, whose products contain very harmful ingredients. The US has banned less than 20 cosmetics ingredients, whereas the UK has banned over 1,300 as harmful. It would be great to see more harmful ingredients banned in the US.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.namasque.com , http://www.lovejaybeauty.com/
- Phone: 404-281-5823
- Email: [email protected] , [email protected]
- Instagram: @namasqueglow
- Facebook: @namasque
Image Credit:
Cassandra Klepac
@cassandrajkphotography
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