Meet Veronica Hawkins | Natural Cosmetic Chemist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Veronica Hawkins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Veronica, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My business was started out of years of frustration dealing with dry breaking hair and acne prone skin that was also very sensitive. Since I was 13 years old, I struggled with bad skin. My face was covered with painful acne including several cystic acne. My mom spent thousands of dollars over time buying every product available for me to try both over-the-counter and prescription and nothing seem to help. All I was left with was red peeling skin, an ocean of acne and low self-esteem.

I also dealt with very dry hair that was prone to split ends and breakage. I tried every product out there and nothing seem to help with hydration which caused my hair to break off. As I became older I became a “product junkie” which lead me to eventually trying the natural route as I did notice that the products labeled as “natural” worked a little better than the the ones that weren’t. I started only using “natural “ products but found that they still were not good enough for keeping my hair hydrated. I would find myself needing to moisturize my hair every other day. This lead me to start mixing in additional oils and mixing in other products to the products I was using. I then got tired of spending tons of money on multiple products that I had to modify in order to work for me so I started to do my own research on natural oils and herbs that works for both your hair and skin. After years of research, trail and error and many sleepless nights I finally created products (over time) that worked for me.

Once I started to only use my products I saw a huge difference in the health of both my hair and skin. I would get compliments on my hair and how healthy and long it had gotten. My skin also cleared up drastically. People would always ask me what products I was using and when I would tell them that I made them myself using only natural ingredients. I started getting asked if they could buy them from me. This eventually lead to the birth of Naturally Born.

Please tell us more about your work. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
What sets me apart from others is that I stay true to using only 100% natural ingredients in every product. Many people see colors, thickness, and scents as being most important in a product. I believe in the quality and benefits as being most important. I’ve had people ask for “thicker” shampoos or creams because they like how it looks or is what they are use to. That would require me to use synthetic thickeners and fillers to give it that certain “look or feeling” but that would eventually turn my products into synthetic chemical filled products that you mainly see on the shelves -and I refuse to put esthetics over quality ingredients that’s not only good for your body but also good to the environment.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love the outdoors so we would definitely go on a hike to get the day started right and get in some exercise for the day. I love Piestewa Peak and Toms Thumb. They offers some amazing views. If they want a bit more excitement and challenge we would go to Echo Canyon. After hiking we would have breakfast at Butters Pancakes. We then will go kayaking or paddle boarding at Bartlett Lake (less crowded) , find us our own little “island” in the middle of the lake to pull over and have a picnic lunch. We then would do some shopping in Old Town Scottsdale stopping at the Scottsdale Fashion Center. We would have a nice dinner at White Chocolate and end the night at South Mountain (drive up trail) to watch the amazing Arizona sunset. There’s unlimited things to see and do here so this is just 1 day for me lol.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to dedicate this to my husband Morris Hawkins. When we first met my skin and hair wasn’t the best but he somehow was able to look past that. He also went through years of me struggling with my hair and skin, he happily let me use him as a personal bank account and funded all of my trails and errors as well as willingly being my guinea pig , helping me with ideas, being a huge source of encouragement as well as being my very first official customer once my business was born. He is part of the reason why I am where I am today so thank you to the love of my life.

Website: www.naturallybornhaircare.com

Instagram: @naturallybornhaircare

Facebook: Naturally Born LLC ( @naturallybornhaircare )