Back to basics

They say beauty is only skin deep — but the cosmetics women use are not.

As a matter of fact, the average woman who uses makeup on a daily basis absorbs about 5 pounds of chemicals every year, including sodium lauryl and steralkonium, among others. Compounding that danger: the same study also found that many women use more than 20 beauty products a day, and nine out of 10 apply makeup beyond its expiration. And another study found that between all of the cosmetic products a woman uses, she applies 515 different synthetic chemicals every day.

If that makes you feel a little like a test tube, you’re not alone. Sales of natural beauty products — that is, products that contain no synthetic chemical ingredients — have increased in recent years, thanks, in part, to consumers’ growing interest in all things green. One company leading the charge is Upurea, a Racine-based retailer specializing in all-natural beauty and personal care products. The four-year-old company is campaigning on two fronts: helping to spread the green gospel and prove that an eco-lifestyle doesn’t have to be granola.

Zuzu Luxe eyeshadow in Prism, $15.24

Why go green?

According to Hefferon, the skin absorbs more than 65 percent of what is applied to it, so it’s important to know what’s in your beauty products. In the case of Upurea, every ingredient is 100 percent natural and in most cases organic, as well.

“Your skin is really absorbing what nature intended,” says Bradley Cuttress, Upurea’s vice president of operations and co-founder.

Hefferon and Cuttress say potential long-term consequences of mainstream cosmetics and personal care products can include rashes and irritations, among other conditions. It’s also hotly contested whether such chemicals have connections to cancer.

If you’re curious about what’s lurking in your lipstick or moisturizer, you can call Upurea or bring the product into the store. Upurea staff will assess the product’s ingredients and tell you if they pose any risk. However, Cuttress said people typically don’t need much convincing before making the switch.

“Once people start using the natural products, the organic products, they really do see a big difference,” he says.

To add to the all-natural argument — all products carried by Upurea are cruelty free.

Priti NYC nailpolish in Cornflower, $10

From Europe to the World Wide Web

Upurea was born in 2006 when life partners Hefferon and Cuttress returned from a 4-year-long stay in Berlin working in the media industry. While overseas, the two fell for the European lifestyle — and the natural products that were popular there.

“We really saw how trends and things evolved over there before coming over here typically a few years ahead of time,” Cuttress says.

After returning to Toronto to be closer to family, Hefferon and Cuttress discovered North American stores lagged behind their European counterparts —the personal care products they were hooked on were nowhere to be found.

“If we’re having a hard time, then potential consumers were facing the same obstacles,” Hefferon says.

They converted the 800-square-foot building toward the back of their Toronto property into offices and launched the Upurea website. Initially the company sold 12 lines of personal care products, including Trilogy, a New Zealand-based natural skin care line, and Kimberly Sayer, a botanical-based line of skin care products. Makeup would hit the website the following year. Currently, Trilogy and Kimberly Sayer are the top two lines both at Upurea.com and at the Racine location.

While Hefferon and Cuttress were a little nervous about diving into a new enterprise, they were confident the green cosmetics movement would catch on in the States. It didn’t hurt that they had previous business experience while working together at the television and film production company Hefferon founded in Berlin.

To get the ball rolling, Hefferon and Cuttress spoke to family and friends about the benefits of the all-natural products they used in Europe. By the time they moved back, people were beginning to think green.

“It was a lifestyle decision we had made and kind of touted to friends and family even before we did move back, so that shift or transition here was already taking place before we started a company  just on a much smaller scale than what it’s become now.”

Little did they know how in demand they would become.

Eye Candy eyeshadow by Ferro Cosmetics in Boho Chic, $15