Three Must-Try Dallas Natural Beauty Brands
By Katie Berger
Many women know the struggle of finding and purchasing cosmetics that A) get the job done, B) they love, and C) have ingredients they can feel good about using on their body. Why break the bank on conventional beauty products when you can choose an option that both supports local businesses and is better for your health? Here are three Dallas-based beauty brands made with all-natural ingredients.
Hard Night Good Morning Skin Care
D’Andra Simmons, the brains behind Hard Night Good Morning, was no rookie in the world of skincare when she built her brand. Simmons has a background in nutrition and skin care; when she started the company, she had been in the nutrition and skincare industry for over 12 years. “I felt I had gained enough experience to develop my own products and share with women and men of all ages what I have learned about anti-aging and healthy skin care from my knowledge of nutritional ingredients.”
Simmons, a Texas native, then put her skills to good use and created her own brand using ingredients locally sourced in her home state; All Hard Night Good Morning products are made in laboratories in and around the Dallas area. “We love having them local so we are able to pop in and check on the current fill of a product or be really hands on in the development of a new product,” Simmons says.
Simmons is the only woman in her family who has yet to battle cancer, and her story is her motivation behind seeking out the cleanest and most natural ingredients. “At the time I started my line, not many people were paying attention to what was going into their products or what they were putting on their bodies,” she says. “My extensive knowledge in nutrition really drove this need for an all-natural skin care line.”
Must Try: Detox Toner ($20.40 right now at hardnightgoodmorning.com) “The detox toner is packed with antioxidants such as fruit stem cells from pumpkin, strawberry, carrot, kiwi, and mango that nourish and protect your skin. It also shields against free radicals in the environment.” One of Simmons’ favorite bonus uses for the toner is “as an after sun exposure soother. Because of its aloe base the cool mist of the spray can help to relieve and heal sunburns!”
MopTop Hair Care
Founder Kelly Foreman was tired of being teased for her curly, unruly hair. After being called names like “poodle” and “cotton head” by mean girls in her childhood, Foreman decided to take a step to hopefully help other young girls enduring the same thing. She reached out to several friends in the cosmetic industry and after repeatedly being recommended to the same lab in Dallas, Foreman suddenly had an “overwhelming sense that she needed to take this a step farther.” The rest is history.
Foreman’s inspirational story eventually gave way to her own line of hair products—MopTop Haircare. “It’s about empowering people,” Foreman says. “My vehicle just happens to be a hair product. I just did not want my kids to go through the same things that I did without a tool. That is the guiding force behind every decision I make. To get the opportunity to make a difference in somebody’s life—that is my goal, to help people feel better about themselves.”
Because skin is the human body’s largest organ, Foreman is a big believer in monitoring what goes on it. “Everything you put on it can be absorbed up to 60 percent,” she says. “Our bodies are these amazing machines, and we’re so resilient, but we have to take care of them.” Therefore, all MopTop products are free of parabens, sulfates, and silicon, and instead are composed of natural, good-for-you ingredients including coconut oil, aloe, and honey.
Must Try: Mongongo Oil ($14.99 at moptophair.com)
MopTop’s Mongongo Oil is a blend of natural oils that nourish and smooth hair, and it can be used as a sealer for split ends.
Abundantly Aromatic
Owner and creator Renee Mitchell was a self-proclaimed major consumer of candles. She spent a lot of money on them, as most of us do at our favorite generic smell-good shops. One day eight years ago, she decided to take a shot at making her own and soon she had a booth at the Dallas Farmers Market, where she routinely sold out. Now, Mitchell has expanded her business, adding soaps, sugar scrubs, and body butters to her repertoire.
Abundantly Aromatic’s products are as simple and unrefined as they come. For the first few years of her business, she made them in her garage. “There’s a lot of companies and soaps that you buy that say handmade, but it is actually a block of glycerin melted down, and the retailer will add essential oils to it,” Mitchell says. “That’s like buying a roll of cookie dough, cutting it up, and putting it in the oven. However, my cookie dough is made from scratch.”
Simple, natural ingredients are important to Mitchell. Instead of using unsubstantiated words such as “organic” and “cleansing bar” to describe soap-based products and cover up processed ingredients, she focuses on putting wholesome and recognizable ingredients together to create products customers can feel good about.
Must Try: Handmade Soap (available at the Dallas Farmers Market)
Largely vegan, Mitchell’s soaps are made from scratch with ingredients you can pronounce and are friendly to all skin types.
Katie Berger 