A Black-Owned Natural Beauty Brand Existing To End Human Trafficking

When we first learned about Apple Rose Beauty we knew we wanted to feature founder Kristy Alexander. Not only does she create natural and organic skincare products but the pulse of the brand supports victims of human trafficking! Check out this exclusive interview:

When and why did you start Apple Rose Beauty?

I launched Apple Rose Beauty in July of 2015. I launched on my birthday of that year. It was a 20-year old dream come true and the absolute best birthday present I could have given myself. I have had a passion for studying ingredients in personal care and mixing my own natural products ever since I analyzed face powder in Chemistry class at age 15. I wrote a life-plan then, that I would one day launch my own cosmetics company. After leaving a decade long engineering career and living with human trafficking survivors in Thailand for a month, that passion and vision for starting a cosmetics company took on a whole new urgency and purpose.

How do you support victims of human trafficking and why did you choose to support this case?

Our mission is to impact the fight to end human trafficking in 2 ways – to employ survivors and donate to organizations that rescue and rehabilitate them. In fact, Apple Rose Beauty is named after 2 victims of human trafficking I met in Thailand during an 11-month sojourn to 11 countries. During that time, I lived with survivors and it became real. I held their babies, they became my sisters and I realized that had I faced different circumstances in my life, that I too could have been a victim. Around that time the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ movement involving the students in Nigeria who were kidnapped by the Boko Haram was under-way. The terrorist organization was threatening to sell the girls into trafficking. These injustices came crashing down on me and broke my heart in a way I had never experienced before. I knew that I had to do something to help bring freedom and opportunities to those impacted by this horrible system of exploitation.

What are your product ingredients?

I was born and raised in the Caribbean twin island of Trinidad and Tobago. Many of the ingredients in our Apple Rose Beauty products have been influenced by my time spent in the Caribbean and Latin America as well as the time I spent on 3 continents during my world travels. From cayenne and clove to turmeric and aloe our unique formulations are crafted with the most potent, pure and premium natural, wild-crafted and certified organic ingredients sourced from around the globe. Our ultimate goal is to provide luxurious, natural beauty products that work to pamper the skin and alleviate tough skin issues such as oily skin, dry skin, acne, acne scars and signs of aging.

How do you define sustainability?

Sustainability to me is about responsible partnership between humans and the earth we are tasked with stewarding. It’s about mutual benefit – giving and receiving. It’s a principle we weave throughout our brand. We simultaneously promote giving of ourselves to better others’ lives as well as re-investing in ourselves through responsible natural self-care. We simultaneously promote utilizing nature’s best to promote health and well-being while being responsible about how we use and re-invest in those resources. We simultaneously promote being our best selves in this life, while looking beyond ourselves to the legacies and positive change we leave behind in the earth.

Does being a woman of color influence your brand? If so how?

Being a woman of color has made me aware of the importance of representation both in terms of product offering and marketing. I know the affirmation I feel, personally, when I witness such representation. As a brand, we remain sensitive to the skincare needs across demographics and the importance of women of color seeing someone who looks like them, representing a standard of beauty and, engaging in deep self-care from the inside out. We strive to be more than just a skincare company. We challenge and inspire world changers. We support, we speak life, we build-up, we restore and we celebrate and encourage the beauty in ourselves and others that is more than skin deep.