Free time? Honestly, there isn’t much of that which is okay because I passionately love what I do and our mission of proving that true beauty does no harm. But I do have 2 wonderful, amazing children and a very supportive husband who I love to spend time with. We are also travel and outdoor enthusiast and love hiking, paddle boarding, and exploring nature and the outdoors.

My to do list (: I start every day by reviewing it and am re-arranging and re-planning things constantly. Even then, the list is usually longer at the end of the day than it was at the beginning of the day since there are always more things added than what can be crossed off. But I could not do it without it and am a confessing to-do-list-oholic.

My biggest pet peeve is greenwashing in this industry. There is so much of it and so many brands greenwash their way into claiming sustainability. Truthful sustainability is a story of depth and detail – you have to look at every aspect of your product and business from your ingredients to your packaging to your shipping volume/weight to the energy you use in manufacturing to the end of life of your products to your overall carbon footprint, etc. We go very deep here and have rigorous standards and keenly tap into bio-designed ingredient innovation to beat others on performance - all while many others just pick one element or a part thereof while falling seriously short in other areas that matter, yet still shouting out sustainability. Carbon or climate neutrality is a good example. It means that you offset the carbon emissions that you already caused but doesn’t contribute anything to emission reduction and also doesn’t say anything about other effects of your brand and products on the environment, such as the pollution and the amount of plastic you cause that all ends up somewhere, or your contribution to microplastic. Thus, climate neutrality alone should not be the core of your sustainability story but when you are truthful it should just be the last piece of a much bigger puzzle – yet you see more and more brands make this a core of their strategy while masking other practices. Another example is the use of bioplastic and touting it to consumers as very sustainable. While it is great to use renewable resources, it is still plastic, usually mixed with petro based plastic (which is allowed when using the word bioplastic and usually necessary to create a functioning bottle), causes similar emissions and resource depletion in its production, and the same or worse end-of-life issues since it isn’t recyclable in commonly available recycle streams and still causes microplastics. I am very passionate about the great progress in material science that is happening as we speak and a believer in the power of science to drive progress – yet all approaches to sustainability should be transparent and truthful. They require a lot depth and detail and transparency – it’s the only way to make an impact. While I greatly enjoy depth and detail, it’s not the easiest to communicate since it takes time and longer-form education.

Maybe that while I’m a business and CPG person, I have the heart and problem solving obsession of a scientist and engineer (I grew up in an engineering-dominated environment and family). That is why I’m so obsessed about perfecting our formulations, ingredient science and PROOF, and going into minute detail when it comes to sustainability.

A friend of mine who has been active in sustainability for a long time and working so hard on so many great projects once said to me when she was frustrated about a lack of progress that she would have her gravestone say “At least she tried”. I hope that won’t be all (: and that our team and I will be remembered for delivering truly superior products that people desire and prefer on their performance merit because that is the secret to scale and impact. We are about products that are better all around and we would NEVER ask customers to compromise between performance and sustainability. As the breadwinner in our family, I put my career and the financial future of our family on the line for superzero’s mission to help people shine bright while treading light and I hope I will be remembered for that being not only a courageous but also the right and an impactful decision.