“Pai is everything I wanted as a customer; skincare made with effective, organic ingredients, no nonsense marketing and a brand that understands products are just one piece of the puzzle." – Sarah Brown, Founder
08
Mar
Jess O'Sullivan
Women in Beauty: Q&A with Sarah Brown, Pai Skincare
Pai Skincare was born after founder Sarah Brown’s skin became unusually sensitive and easily irritated. She struggled to find suitable products, as many, although claiming to be “hypoallergenic”, “organic” and “gentle”, often included synthetic ingredients.
Taking a simple approach to their skincare; using only the highest quality ingredients. Avoiding any potentially skin-irritating nasties, Pai maintain high ethical standards across all aspects of their brand.
Tell us about the ethics behind Pai, and why they’re so important to you?
Pai was created for people like me. It’s everything I wanted as a customer; skincare made with effective, organic ingredients, no nonsense marketing and a brand that understands products are just one piece of the puzzle. At Pai, we believe in quality, purity and transparency. If you have sensitive skin, it’s so important to know exactly what’s in your products. For me, transparency means seeking external certification so you know all of our formulas stand up to scrutiny, and we’re proud of the lengths we go to to make sure they do.
Tell us about your own skincare routine
It’s good to keep it simple in the morning. Partly because I have two toddlers, but also because when you have sensitive skin less is more! I’ll splash my face with water and apply our Geranium & Thistle Rebalancing Day Cream. I’ve used it for ten years and find it provides the perfect level of moisture for my skin while making a great non-greasy base for makeup.
I use our new Gentle Genius Camellia & Bergamot Body Wash in the shower. In the cooler months, I’ll also slather on our Comfrey & Calendula Calming Body Cream after showering while my skin is still slightly damp.
As I get older, I’m finding that my skin feels more crepey in texture and really benefits from a little extra conditioning. I’ll invest a little more time in the evenings. Shutting the bathroom door and spending 10 minutes on a mask or in the bath is the ultimate ‘me time’; but most of the time I’ll just spend a little longer on the everyday steps in my routine.
I cleanse with our Camellia & Rose Gentle Hydrating Cleanser and follow with a firm facial massage using our Age Confidence Echium & Amaranth Facial Oil. It contains organic Rose, May Chang and Lime Oils which give it a gentle but deeply relaxing scent that really helps you unwind at the end of the day.
If you had to pick one hero product from the Pai range, which would it be and why?
Definitely our Rosehip BioRegenerate Oil. It has magical powers! It’s the product people report the most immediate effects with. It feeds the skin in the most beautiful and simple way.
What’s your number one beauty secret?
Quite simply – balance. When your oil and pH levels are perfectly balanced, skin will be healthy and calm. Unfortunately there are a lot of obstacles that get in the way of balanced skin – foaming detergents and alcohol being the main culprits. These ingredients both strip the skin of its natural oils leaving it exposed and prone to reaction. The first step to achieving skin balance is to invest in a detergent-free Cleanser – you’ll see a difference pretty quickly.
What are you most proud of when it comes to Pai?
We manufacture our own products so that we can maintain their absolute purity and quality.
Looking forward to 2018, what are the next big steps for Pai and Sarah Brown?
It’s been an incredibly busy year, we launched our Gentle Genius Body Wash. We’ve also been working away behind the scenes, kitting out a brand new (and may I say, state of the art) manufacturing facility. It means that we can scale up our production by 600% to help us meet growing demand. It’s a huge milestone for us, particularly when I think back to my cramped and drafty garage where I made the first Pai products. Next on the agenda: perfecting two exciting new products for 2018. Watch this space!
What was it that inspired you to create Pai. What was that gap in the market?
My inspiration for starting Pai was a really bad rash. In my mid-twenties I developed a condition called chronic urticaria; overnight my skin went into total meltdown and became hyper-reactive. Numerous visits to hospital provided no real solution, and, in desperation, I turned to natural and organic products. It proved a shopping minefield – most products weren’t nearly as natural as they claimed and my skin couldn’t tolerate those that were! I hit a brick wall and finally took matters into my own hands – after keeping many product and food diaries, I started to learn what my triggers were and how to manage my skin better. I knew there must be other people in the same boat as me, so I set about to create a line of truly organic products that was backed up by certification and underpinned by a brilliant customer support service. Ten years later, here we are!
What helps you relax and unwind from work?
To help me unwind, I dabble in mindfulness, a warm bath with epsom salts. Or when I go to bed I wear a silk lavender eye mask – it’s completely heavenly. It signals ‘night night’ to my brain.
What is your daily mantra?
I’m not sure if it’s a mantra, but a James Thurber quote that I learned from my lovely brother, ‘Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.’ It’s a nice reminder to live in the here and now and enjoy the journey. It’s also pretty pertinent to running a business – you can’t waste a minute worrying about what’s on the horizon or dwelling on past mistakes, it just paralyses you.