When Care Connelly worked in cosmetics at MAC, around 80 percent of her clients confided that their skin usually reacted adversely to beauty products. Connelly could relate.
“Even though I’m interested in beauty and skincare, I would spend a lot of money on a product and use it once. My skin would react…and I’d have to throw it away,” she says.
She researched alternative products online. Two years later, Connelly’s skincare startup, Careology, surpassed its Kickstarter goal by 23 percent, rounding up $8,617 last October for her one-woman line of all-natural, sensitive skin-friendly products.
A St. Thomas University grad who also attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, Connelly began developing formulas in 2014. She worked long-distance with Allure Labs in California, where skincare laws are stricter than in Minnesota. Careology carried two products in 2016, a facial cleanser and a night cream. She debuts four new items this year, including an anti-aging cream.
Her Sweet Raspberry Soy Softening Facial Cleanser features coconut oil-based emollient that, instead of lathering, transforms from gel to milk. In her Sweet Raspberry Soy Recovery Night Cream, Connelly uses shea butter and jojoba seed oil in lieu of artificial moisturizing chemicals.
“You need a solid foundation to even start putting on makeup,” Connelly says. Sustainable makeup could be in Careology’s future.
