Glowing Success: A Candid Conversation on Sustainable Beauty with Kari Tribble of Avari Beauty

I’m so excited to share that I was recently featured on the Glowing Success podcast, hosted by the lovely Heidi Manchea of Sapphire Spa! We had an amazing chat about Avari, the inspiration behind my brand, and our journey to create biodegradable lash extensions. If you're passionate about sustainability in the beauty industry, you’ll love this episode. Listen here!

For all my fellow beauty pros (and anyone else!) who may be hard of hearing or just prefer reading, I’ve included the full podcast transcript below so you can follow along easily.

I can’t wait for you to dive in! Here’s the transcript:

[Heidi] Welcome to Glowing Success. My name is Heidi and I am your host. This podcast is for beauty entrepreneurs. Join me weekly as we dive into the beauty industry's ins and outs from business strategies, top selling services and taboo topics. I will be interviewing industry leaders with empowering stories and game changing insights. Let's illuminate your path to success together. Let's jump into this next episode. Welcome back to Glowing Success. I'm so excited about today's interview. I am interviewing Kari. She is the founder of Avari Beauty. And we're gonna be talking all about biodegradable lashes, sustainable lash extensions. It's gonna be so much fun. Avari Beauty has been something that's on my mind for a while, because this is a game changer when it comes to the lash extension world. So without further ado, welcome Kari.

[Kari] Hey, thanks so much for having me on. Hello, everybody.

[Heidi] So Kari, for anybody that doesn't know you or doesn't know Avari Beauty, can you go a little bit into detail or not, share as much as you want about yourself and maybe your business? 

[Kari] Absolutely. So my name is Kari, and I am an indigenous woman. I am from a reservation called La Coute Orielles in Northern Wisconsin, but I do live in the Twin Cities area. I started to open up, at first was called Kari's Lashes back in 2016, but I changed the name to Avari Beauty, which means of the heavens from the sky. And it's actually a combination of my son's name and my name together, because the story of us is a huge part of why I created Avari Beauty and just the reason why I'm here and survived through horrible illnesses. And after I survived that, I created this business and it has taken off and I'm so excited for it. Avari Beauty is an esthetician salon and brand, and we create both professional products for other professionals in our industry. And we also create some consumer products. 

[Heidi] That's amazing. And I think a lot of us in this industry, we have so much that propelled us in this industry or just propelled us to start a business. So it's amazing to hear about everybody's unique stories and kind of what inspires them and what really kind of draws them in. Now let’s talk about biodegradable lash extensions. I have been doing lashes for about 13 years now, and there's been so many different things in the lash extension world. I mean, when I first started, all lashes were just little individual lashes in a jar. And now there's- So like now there's just so many different kinds of lashes.There's just so many different techniques. I mean, it's so endless of possibilities, which I love as an extension artist because that means we can really customize our clients' lashes, and that means we really can give any look that our clients really desire. But really, the one thing that caught my eye about your business, so I'll kind of go into detail, you guys. So recently, I started to get to know Avari Beauty because I switched over to her products for lash lifting solutions. So I was looking for a different company. I was curious about possibly a local company to support. I had another friend of mine in the industry use your company, and I talked to her about her experience, what the products were like, and so forth, and she's been really happy. So I made the switch and have been really happy, and that's kind of what started this process of getting to know you and getting to know your brand and getting to know your products on a professional side. So I've been really just blown away by it. But so when it comes to the beauty industry, you guys, I'm sure anybody that's listening can agree with this. We come from an industry that's kind of not as earth friendly, right? I don't know if you would agree with that, but I feel like we can see, right? I feel like there's a lot of disposables, and obviously some of that is never gonna go away just because of sanitation purposes.  But there is a lot of ways that salons and spas over the years have tried to make their businesses, their practice a little bit more sustainable. So it's been really cool to see that in many different ways. But lash extensions, I really just haven't seen a ton of earth-friendly products coming out. I haven't seen really a lot of that. So when you posted about your biodegradable lashes, which are made from cornstarch, if I'm correct, and then the HDPE fibers, I was like, I need to know more. So can you go into a little bit about either of them or both of them and just let everybody know a little bit more about that?

[Kari] Absolutely. Yes. Oh, gosh. You and I share the same feeling. When I was lashing, I kept thinking about, okay, yes, these are beautiful. I'm sending out my beautiful clients into the world. But then when their lashes fall out, we know a lot of times we're not knowing where they're coming off. They're going to be in the ground, in the soil when we're washing our face, going down our water drains. And that did not sit right with me. And so I started to research and learn about the materials that were used to make them. And most of them are made from a PBT type of fiber. It's a plastic fiber, and it takes thousands of years to disintegrate over time. So that did not feel right. So I was like, can I try to do something about this? And it took a very long time. It was a year of researching, trying to find a manufacturer to work with. And can we source materials to then create lashes that can biodegrade faster. So then I did find two of those resources eventually. And so our first line is, and our largest line, is made of recycled plastic fibers. So it was like our first step towards sustainability. And they were also able to help us find boxes, like actual cardboard, ours are made of plant fibers. So they were able to help source that for us too. Because again, if you remember, everything was packaged in plastic, hard plastic, I'd end up with tons of these boxes. And even though you think about repurposing them, like sometimes when I'd run out of lashes, I would just put little spoolies in them for clients, but there's still a problem and waste, can I try to eliminate that?

[Heidi] Yeah.

[Kari]  Yeah, so we did. We actually came up with our first line, which is the HDPE lashes. And they're beautiful. They're very lightweight. They're comfortable. The material is a little bit more flexible. So a lot of our clients love the way that they feel. They feel more weightless, but then we have like our fast fanning or easy fanning line, and we have the.03, .05s. The fast fanning, those ones can be very dark and really pretty. The other ones, I feel like are a little bit more of like a lighter black. So it kind of gives more of a natural look. You can still get voluminous quality out of them and that effect, but they're just beautiful. It's a really good line. So that was our first step toward sustainability. But as time goes on, as a company, we're thinking like, how can we improve and how can we do this better? And so after about maybe four or five years, we were able then to source cornstarch material. So that's our next phase. And we only have this available right now in a 0.07. So we use that sometimes for classic lashes or sometimes we'll do just like a 3D fan with those just to keep the health of the natural lash in mind. So that's like the phase two that we're moving towards. And that's going to take a little bit of time just because again, this is new. We're still a very small business, but as more people invest in us and we continue to invest in the business, we can then therefore expand it and then hopefully get to phase three, which in the back of my mind, I already know what kind of material that I want to source for that. That's going to take some time. That's going to be like our huge step. So yeah, that's our process so far.

[Heidi] That's amazing. I mean, so much research has gone into this. This is crazy. Like I know, you know, I don't know if anybody's listening that has like developed their own product or even private labeled and kind of played around with ingredients or you know, so forth. You know that it takes a lot of effort, time. It takes a lot of going back and forth with these manufacturers. Like this is amazing. And we, I just want to tell you Kari, we appreciate you because I know how much time and effort that takes to like go into all that. And you're doing big things. And I think that's like something to really keep in mind too as like we're being challenged in our careers and our lives, right? It's like, we definitely need to know that like, okay, this is going to impact the industry leaps and bounds. And just knowing that you're using a product that is going to biodegrade eventually is really amazing. And I'm so curious to see what you come out with next because obviously  like we had mentioned earlier, like lash extensions, they come in like so many different widths, so many different curls, so many different lengths, so many different colors, like there's so many different kinds. And so obviously that is a big feat to be able to offer either the biodegradable or the HDPE fibers in all of those different variations. So it's quite amazing. And I think clients, I've had a lot of clients ask me, and I don't know about yourself, but I've had a lot of clients ask me over the years, like, what is your lash extensions made out of? Like, how is this affecting me? Or how is this affecting the environment? So people are aware, your clients are aware of people. Like, they know the effects that everything has on them, especially because like the beauty industry, I feel like people, I feel like this with my clients, and maybe you can agree too. like clients are a lot more, they know a lot more information, right?

[Kari] Exactly, I know. And we get a little bit challenged, which is a good thing, you know? We're gonna be putting out a, just a one page on our website dedicated to really talk about our lashes and how they can be sustainable, what you can do with them, like our phase one, phase two, our future plans, you know? Because we have, there's also a little bit of sensitivity in the more eco-friendly, sustainable community. And I think there's a lot of like righteous anger because of how, you know, companies are not as transparent and just what we're doing to the earth and everything else. So, it's kind of one of those things where I felt nervous coming into that community because, you know, you are deemed, you have to be perfect, and you have to be this and that. And what we all kind of fail to realize is, we all need to be working together, and in this society, it's hard to be perfect. You can't be perfect. I mean, we're using internet right now. We're using electricity to do this podcast. And so, I think it's one of those things where if there's more communication and education out there for what it really takes for a company to move towards sustainability, it's really hard, and it takes phases. One of the companies that I really love and I'm inspired by is called Cheekbone Beauty, and they're based in Canada. And this is an Indigenous-owned makeup brand. And I remember when they first came out, she released some liquid lipsticks, and they're absolutely stunning, and they were in plastic packaging. And as people invested in her company, she was therefore able to afford to develop and create better packaging. That's eco-friendly, which really resonates with our culture. And so it's one of those things where you realize as a community for us to make change, it's not just on the company, we have to do it together.

[Heidi] I agree, I agree, and that support, I'm all about this. So in my community, for instance, I live in South Minneapolis, and there's so much that we have to support as a community in order to see that change. And that's essentially what you're saying, is we need to continue to support these efforts because then these companies and these people can continue to go further into this. And so if you guys wanna see more of something, like for me, for instance, when I wanna see more of something in the industry, I am going to support that company. I'm gonna support that cause. I'm gonna do whatever I can. And that support, it could look different. So for me, I always tell people your support has to be genuine to you. So whether it be sharing something with another person, liking something online, buying something, there's so many different ways you can support a company and a business and an action that you wanna see out in the world. And so I think that's amazing. And anybody that's listening, I really think that you should think about that in every aspect of your life, right? So not only your business, but you as a service provider, and then you as a community member in your own community, just you as a person in this world, right? Like how are you showing up? And where is your time and money going? Because that really speaks volumes. I mean, we've seen this with corporate America, right? So corporate America, if people aren't feeling it nowadays, they won't support it, and they won't put their money towards it. And we've seen a lot of corporations go under because of it, because they don't have their practices, because they're not being transparent, because they don't pay their employees. There's so many layers to that, but that's probably a whole other conversation.
[Kari] Right, I get to go off on a tangent, yeah.

[Heidi] So like, but I can see how this transforms into the beauty industry, right?

So like, I always tell people, so like, I think you've been like this for a long time, and I've been like this for a long time, but I've always kind of been a person that questions things or asks why, or I'm like, hmm, can we push that a little further? Or pushing it outside of that envelope, and there's nothing wrong with that. So obviously sometimes in society, and maybe even the beauty industry, that can look as like defiant. and it can look all these defiant, and it can look all these different things. But really what we're doing is we're thinking outside the box, and we're kind of thinking, could this be better? Could this change? Could this be what I'm envisioning? And I think that us putting our time and effort into those choices and those things really impacts the world, but it just impacts everything around you. So your clients are going to come to you knowing like, wow, she really put a lot of time and effort into understanding this product, into understanding the sourcing of that product, into caring about the environment in such a different way when we could just be lazy and pass it by, right? Like, why do that? Because we got to take care of where we're living on this planet, right? We got to take care of the earth. We got to take care of what, it's not going to just always give it back to us. We have to give back to it. So I'm all about that too. So, and I see that's what you're about as well. The other thing I kind of want to talk about, which doesn't have to necessarily include lashes. So I'm going to go off topic a little bit, you guys. One of the things I saw on your website, which your website is beautiful by the way, like-
[Kari] Oh, thank you.

[Heidi] Yeah, I really like your blog. So like I've kind of been lazy on my own blog, but like I love blog articles because there's just so much, not only so much information, but you can really read about a brand by how they talk in their blog. So that's really cool. But the other thing I touched on was you have a whole charities page. And I think that's really interesting too, because I do think that more salons and spas, including myself, this is definitely something I'm gonna work on in 2024, but what are we doing to further our support, not only in our own beauty community, but like maybe in other communities? You had mentioned earlier, you're an indigenous-owned business, so that's very important for you to probably support charities I see on there. My husband works very closely with NDN Collective. My husband's also indigenous. So I kind of see from his perspective and the things that I've seen of how important it is to support our communities around us, but what's important to that company is really interesting. So I don't know, could you share a little bit more about the charities you chose, maybe why you chose them? You don't necessarily have to talk about every charity, but like...

[Kari] Yeah, oh, I would love to. Yeah, no, I'm a huge fan. Yeah, NDN Collective, they have been such a power force. They remind me of the new American Indian Movement. My dad was actually an American Indian Movement leader, so he was along those front lines with Russell Means and the other founders. They've done some great work together. He was more involved with activism in Wisconsin, and he's famous for winning a case with my uncle called the Voight Decision. It was a huge treaty rights case that took about 10 years for them to win, and it impacted the whole nation with indigenous strengthening treaty rights. So that's been in my atmosphere, just really seeing what we're doing generationally, culturally to heal and to come forward as stronger, kind of reclaiming and remembering who we are as people. And that's another thing too, starting a business, I've had great support from other local nonprofits, like Mni Sota Fund, MCCD, NDC, they are amazing, the Tiwahe Foundation. They have been amazing at helping, supporting other charities, other indigenous people, because we are behind, we're further behind in our generational wealth building and different things like that. So giving and donating, we take a small percentage of our sales and we donate to these different charities that protect, we have the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women Charity that we donate to the Romero Institute is actually connected to some other charities within it. And they do a lot of court battling for different treaties and such. So we definitely love to support them. And of course, NDN.

[Heidi] That's amazing. I mean, it's gotta feel important. It's gotta feel genuine.

And I think that's what I'm feeling from you, too, is all of these relationships that you've built and all of these companies and all these organizations that you're supporting, they feel very close to you and they feel very important to you. And so I think that's really interesting and really unique because I don't necessarily think there's a lot of companies out there that are willing to talk about, hey, this is what we do otherwise, or this is what we do with some of our profits, or this is what, you know what I'm saying? And that extension reads so much farther. Like you said, it's gonna reach generationally, it's gonna reach environmentally, it's gonna reach, you know. How did you come about? So obviously you had mentioned some of those things. Obviously you've known about those companies and those organizations for a long time, through family, through community, but maybe give a tip to the listeners that if they're interested in doing this, maybe reaching out, how did you start some of these maybe, I don't know, relationships with people and mention them and say, hey, I would like to support, and I would like to maybe put some of my support to you guys. Did that just come out as a conversation? Did you reach out to these companies?

 [Kari] Yeah, that's a good question. A lot of it was through knowing people, myself, just our community in general is small, and we reach far because of that in the indigenous communities. So in terms of learning about a local nonprofit called Mni Sota Fund, I actually learned about them through a friend who also had a business locally and we’re from the same tribe in Wisconsin. And then Mni Sota Fund therefore opened me up to learning and meeting other CDFIs and different local nonprofits that are very helpful. And then as far as more activism work, that I really feel like came through social media and just being up to date and paying attention to current issues and current things that really matter to you. And then finding those organizations who are stepping up and actually doing something about it and then getting in contact with them. You can email them directly, or sometimes they have, right on their website, they actually have a place where you can just donate and right there, you don't even have to communicate with somebody.

[Heidi] That's amazing. I think, like you said, it just takes a little bit of connection. It takes a little bit of what are you interested in? But the one thing I will say is like, our clients want to hear about these things too. So if you guys are kind of listening and you're shy about maybe sharing this part of yourself, because I think that's something that I've been toying with in the last couple years too, and I'm sure other people that are listening have as well, about sharing a little bit more about themselves, right? So maybe a little bit more personal information, or maybe even political information, or maybe there's so many different facets that we as human beings have about ourselves, and why not bring that into your business, right? Why not bring that into the front of what you're doing? Obviously, every conversation doesn't have to be about it, but I will say, for me, for instance, I love when I get to know my clients, but your clients also want to get to know you, right? So obviously, during their appointment, I try to keep it on them. I try to keep questions based on what they want to talk about and so forth. But at the end of the day, I have so many clients asking me questions about myself and my life. And so I share a little bit. Obviously, we have to keep a little bit of mystery, right? But sometimes I don't want to share everything because that's my personal life. But at the end of the day, your clients do want to get to know you on a certain level, right? And that's some of where that rapport comes from. Some of that where they're going to come back to you, maybe for those reasons as well. So I talk about client retention quite a bit, and that's kind of part of it, and part of that building that relationship. So I love that you share about that on your website and just about anything on your social media, too, because that definitely helps me get to know you as a person, but it helps me get to know the company that I'll be either supporting or getting to know or sharing. And so that's amazing. I love that. Let's talk.

[Kari] Heidi, real quick. Yeah. I love what you said about that because another thing to your listeners, it's something that sets you apart. We have people who specifically come to us because we're Indigenous-owned. We have the sustainable lashes. We donate to these charities that also mean a lot to them. And then as we talk about it, we don't shove anything down anybody's throat. We do it in these beautiful, subtle ways. We'll talk a little bit about, oh, thank you guys so much for supporting us. We were able to donate such and such to this charity. Our charities are focused around Indigenous people, the planet and the animals, and people love that. So it's pretty fun to be able to share that, and it makes people feel good that they're contributing to a company who does really good stuff with some of that investment that they make.

[Heidi] I agree, and I think that we need to find that uniqueness sometimes. And I talk about this too in one of my classes. You got to find how you can separate yourself from the rest of the people around you. Not that we're trying to tear other service providers down, but you really do need to be unique within yourself, and then that's why those clients are going to be attracted to you. So yeah, I totally agree with that. Okay, let's go back to talking about lashes, because I love lashes so much, but I'm very excited to not only support this effort that you're doing, but I'm so excited to see what else you come out with. I love lashes entirely, so I'm all about just extending all of this out to the world, extending all of this out to as many lash providers as possible. So you had mentioned phase two, phase three earlier. So obviously, you're coming out with more things as more support happens. What can the listeners look forward to? Do you have anything coming out in the next couple months? Are you thinking, are you going to come out with more classic lashes? Are you coming out with more volume lashes? What's coming ahead?

[Kari] Yeah. So right now, we're going to just be sticking with our current lash line, just for a little bit of the time being. We aim to expand that with different curls. And such, as we continue to grow. We are releasing a new product, though, that I'm really excited about. We are releasing Prostaglandin-Free Eyelash Growth Serum. So it has really yummy, delicious, natural ingredients that are so effective. My lashes are crazy long right now, especially paired with a lash lift. And then I'm putting all my clients on it, who get eyelash extensions with us, just to keep their lashes healthy and growing. But I'm so excited, it's also PFAS free, which means there's no Forever Chemicals. And I was surprised to find out that a lot of big brands have it, I was actually carrying one of them in the salon, unfortunately has PFAS, which is a Forever Chemical that Minnesota is banning. And I believe that California has already done that for a while. Minnesota is doing it, and we're kind of phasing into that. And just starting to prepare to make sure all of our products, follow those guidelines, and we're doing it early. So yeah, I'm really excited. We're going to be launching that in the next month. I'll have to send you one.

 [Heidi] Yeah, I love that. Well, and I like having retail options for clients when it comes to lash health. I think that's super important. And I agree with you. I think most lash serums, growth serums on the market are just, they either have a lot of ingredients in them that are to be sustainable package-wise. So I don't mean sustainable as sustainability of environment. I mean sustainable of it needs to be fresh in the packaging. But those ingredients don't necessarily help you. They're harmful sometimes, and they're not necessary. So I love that you're coming out with something a little bit more natural. Obviously, probably I'm guessing peptide-focused. This is amazing. I'm so excited about that. Well, thank you for sharing about what's coming out. And I love to hear about these efforts. I love to hear about just people being game changers in the beauty industry like you. So anybody that's listening, I will post anything in the show notes, but where can people find you if they wanna follow you online?

[Kari] Yes, yes, come visit us. We are on social media as Avari Beauty, and we also have our website, avaribeauty.com. You can email me if you have any questions. We offer wholesale and franchise opportunities. Yeah, that's how you can reach us.

 

[Heidi] Awesome. Well. Kari, thank you so much for being on today and sharing all about Avari Beauty and all about biodegradable lashes and lash extensions. Thank you so much. 

[Kari] Thanks so much for having me.

[Heidi] I hope you liked that episode and found something useful or a tip that you can use immediately. If you are wanting more marketing tips, business tips, or anything like that, I have a lot of resources on my website, so I have PDFs that you can download for free. So look in your show notes, there should be a link in the show notes that you can click on, and it'll take you right to my coaching website. And thanks for listening.