Q+A With AbsoluteJOI Founder Dr. Anne Beal

Q: What inspired you to start AbsoluteJOI?

A: I am a physician and had the opportunity to live with and work in Paris. I was excited to experience everything there, including all the wonderful skincare and beauty products they have available. However, I discovered that my skin was not happy — very irritated, and not responding well to the products available in the European Beauty Capital. My daughters were also having problems with their skin due to their sensitivities, so I was very motivated to find a solution for us.

Using my medical knowledge, I decided to make basic products that would work for my skin. When I visited a store near the Sorbonne that offered ingredients for DIY skincare, I was struck to see the place was filled with Black and Brown women — just like me — all crammed into this tiny store in the middle of Paris. I realized they were also making products at home.

That’s when I realized there was a need to create a skincare line for women of color, which was confirmed when I found market research showing that 70% of Black women say the current products don’t work for them. I learned the three key issues for people with melanin-rich skin are:

1. Differences in anti-aging needs
2. High rates of skin sensitivity among women of color
3. Increased exposure to questionable ingredients used in personal care products.

These three unmet needs provided the roadmap to develop AbsoluteJOI, an inclusive clean beauty brand that offers women of color clean, effective and easy to use skincare products designed for melanin-rich skin.

Q: What’s your "hero" product?

A: Our hero product is definitely our Skin Refining Night Oil with Retinol and Vitamin C+E. The three pillars of anti-aging are retinol, vitamin C, and sunscreen. Our Skin refining Night Oil with Retinol and Vitamin C+E is designed to cover two of those three. By combining retinol in an oil, we can offer the benefits of retinol without the negative side effects like skin irritation and flaking. And by combining two good anti-aging ingredients into one product, it helps simplify the skincare routine.
People who would benefit from our Night Oil are:

• Those whose main concern is anti-aging
• Those concerned about dark marks and hyperpigmentation
• Those with sensitive skin
• Those with mild acne

This product builds collagen, reduces wrinkles, lightens dark marks, treats mild-moderate acne, and is formulated with no fragrances or comedogenic ingredients.

Q: What's the most important thing you want people to know about AbsoluteJOI?

A: AbsoluteJOI is clean beauty. We are manufactured in Europe to EU standards, which are much better than manufacturing and ingredient standards in the U.S. As a physician, I think it is important to make sure every ingredient has scientific evidence for its use, and we say our products are “based on science, not hype."

Our products are great for all skin types, however we are specifically reaching out to people with melanin-rich skin for three specific reasons:

1. Skin of color ages first with hyperpigmentation and loss of tone, rather than fine lines and wrinkles. As a result, our products focus on anti-inflammatory ingredients (i.e. antioxidants) that address hyperpigmentation as the primary aging concern.
2. People with melanin-rich skin are twice as likely to have sensitive skin as the general population. It’s important for our products to be non-irritating, and our product ingredients to be limited to the essential ingredients needed for an effective product.
3. We are promoting clean beauty among women of color. Clean beauty is not always inclusive in its imagery and outreach to women of color. We target them because clean beauty for them is more than a “nice to have,” it’s a health imperative. (Read more here)