Karen Behnke: Founder of Beauty Crush Skincare

Episode 873

On today’s episode, we welcome Karen Behnke, Founder of Beauty Crush Skincare — a regenerative skincare brand bringing together biotech, sustainability, clean beauty, vineyard luxury and decades of product innovation. Recognized by Elle, Forbes and Cosmopolitan as one of the OGs of the clean beauty movement, Karen helped shape the organic and clean skincare industry long before it became mainstream.
In this episode, Karen shares what she has learned as a four-time founder and why she decided to build again with Beauty Crush Skincare. She talks about how the beauty category has evolved over the last 20+ years, what is different about building a company today, and how she is approaching regenerative skincare from her solar-powered organic beauty vineyard in Sonoma County. We also discuss clean crushing, biotech, sustainability, product innovation, brand trust, and what it takes to create something truly differentiated in a very crowded beauty market.
A must-listen for founders, operators, beauty lovers and anyone interested in clean beauty, regenerative skincare, sustainability, biotech and what it really takes to keep innovating across decades.

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up. That I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be. We just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don’t get knocked out. Knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin Show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go! Let’s go! Hi everyone! Welcome back to the Kara Goldin Show. What does it take to help define a category and then decide to build again? Today, I’m joined by Karain Behnke, founder of the incredible brand new brand called Beauty Crush Skincare, a regenerative skincare brand, bringing together biotech, sustainability, clean beauty, vineyard luxury, and decades of product innovation. So, Karen is not new to this. She is a serial entrepreneur, multi-time founder who has built incredible brands. Most recently, you may have been familiar with Juice Beauty. Incredible, incredible brand that was really, really at the forefront of clean and organic and all things that Karain really killed it to to bring to the forefront, so now with Beauty Crush Skincare, Kara is building again, and this time from her solar-powered organic beauty vineyard in Sonoma County in Healdsburg. So the brand brings together regenerative biotech and sustainability and clean, as I mentioned, but I am so excited to hear much more about this brand. And got a chance, an early chance to try the the products. And wow, I mean, so so good. Not surprised because Karan works magic and it knows what she’s doing, but Beauty Crush Skincare is going to be massive. So, Karen, welcome! So excited that you’re here, Kara.

Karen Behnke 2:30
It’s so great to be here, and we’ve known one another as entrepreneurs for a long time. So it’s it’s just fun to be on on camera with you, and I’m excited to launch Beauty Crush Skincare, my fourth business in the in my in my 60s. We won’t say where I am in my 60s because it’s advanced, but my fourth fourth business. My goodness, it’s so incredible. Well, so Beauty Crush Skincare, how would you describe the brand as the founder? Well, I wanted to go into a much more elevated modern era of science and biotech, and compared to what I did before with formulations, which was leading clean and organic formulations, these still have these formulations have all of that foundation of organic ingredients and sustainability, but much much higher biotech and regenerative medicine, medicine. Sorry, regenerative skincare. So my husband’s a physician. So we were just talking about regenerative medicine. Sorry, regenerative skincare, and that’s all about skin longevity and skin health, and not masking a problem for you know five minutes or an hour or three hours, but really rejuvenating the skin for prevention and for long-term health. So, using the power of exosomes, which we developed a proprietary ingredient with a leading biotech company from our vineyard, and peptides, and so biomimetic peptides. Our biomimetic peptide mimics vegan collagen action on the skin, and then supported by all the tried and true ingredients of vitamin C and hyaluronic acid, and and the foundation with our Superglow grape, which is a powerhouse antioxidant.

Kara Goldin 4:15
That it’s so so incredible, and I I’m so excited that you did this, and as you mentioned, your husband is a retired physician, but was more and more involved in this process than maybe he’s been with some of the other ventures that you’ve done. So, why do you think that that was so important for him to join you, you know, and I mean, he’s sort of doing a next act as well, right? Through this, and it’s a lot of fun.

Karen Behnke 4:50
He is, and you know, Howard thought that he was just going to golf after he retired from interventional cardiology, and I was like, you know, I kind of have other plans for you, but. He is doing a lot of golf, but but he he’s he’s so smart and he manages a vineyard. And so I pulled him in along with our chemists and and of course at the biotech company they have amazing scientists. And we really developed. We used our rare Falingina grape. We have two rare grapes on our property, Falangina and Sagrantino, and Falangina we use for the exosome. And exosome plant exosomes act as carriers, so they can act as carriers for our powerful ingredients. So they really, really, really can absorb in your skin, and that’s what we worked with a biotech company on. And then, of course, how we’re managing our vineyard, we grow our Sagrantino grape, another rare grape, for the skin, not for taste. So we grow it to have the highest antioxidants possible, and we’ve tested it, and they have up to 8.5 times higher antioxidants, 750% higher. What that does for your skin. Is it fights oxidative stress? It fights free radical damage. All the stuff that’s happening happening to us right now, Kara, as we’re under lights, we’re out in and out of the sunlight. We’re aging an hour while we’re here, etc. All of that. The Superglow Grape, which is only for Beauty Crush Skincare is a found and antioxidant foundation for our skincare, and that’s all grown in our vineyard in an organic, regenerative way. So regenerative viticulture, taking care of the soil, and instead of spraying, you know, we plant red clover to add nitrogen to make the nutrients more active, taking it all the way straight through to regenerative skincare.

Kara Goldin 6:45
That’s it’s so so incredible, and you can just tell the quality of it. It’s just it. I mean, just absolutely amazing when you look back on you’ve you’ve created. This is your fourth company, but you’ve been called one of the OGs of the clean beauty movement. And when you look back, what do you think you saw earlier than most people in the beauty industry? And it changed in industry a lot of your work. There were some other people involved along the way, not only with within your company but also in the industry overall, but you really pushed the movement. I think, and were just so inspiring watching your resilience along the way. But what do you think you saw then that maybe you see now in a different time, right? That maybe the capabilities are better, but I’d love to hear your your perspective.

Karen Behnke 7:49
Well, you know, a funny story before I start that is when Cosmo L and Forbes called me the OG of the clean beauty movement. I didn’t know what that meant. I had asked my kids, like, “What does that mean? They’re like, Mom, original gangster. I’m like, well, how does that relate? They’re like, never mind. It’s the original, original. I’m like, okay, okay, okay, I got it. But anyway, what I saw then was that in 2005, you know, I bought the name Juice Beauty, started it from scratch, bought the trademarks, and what I saw then was, oh my God, all of these crazy, potentially toxic ingredients used then, and they don’t-they’re not even great for your skin. A lot of them. So what I saw then was kind of pioneering finding a better ingredient for every commonly used ingredient that could be toxic to people or the earth. So that’s how I drove the former brand. But what I and now there’s so much technology available and so much science available, in a in a really clean and healthy manner that’s being done. If you find the right biotech companies, and so much you can do with plant science. I mean, if you think about pharmaceuticals, they come from plants a lot of them, and so that’s the same activity that you can have on your skin. So what I’m driving now and what I see is, of course, having all of the you know organic ingredients base and sustainability that fit my values, but taking the science to a much much more elevated and modernized era. And I got the best clinicals of my life, Kara. I I I knew the clinicals were going to be good, but I was jumping up and down. In fact, I think I did a stupid video where I was dancing, which I usually don’t dance on social media. But I really was dancing because we had. I did the clinicals that not only were the, of course, independent third party lab, not only the clinician reported of the you know the 30-some people where 100% felt and saw smoother skin and anti-wrinkle and and pore reduction and brighter skin. All of the self-reported was amazing. I also did instrument measurement showing that the integrity. Of the skin barrier and the health of the skin barrier was enhanced, and then I also did before and afters, which are on beautycrushskin.com under proven results. So you can kind of see up close and personal the changes in the skin over 28 days. So I went overboard with the clinicals, and I also did ingredient clinicals with the exosomes and the peptides, so they’re all on beautycrosskin.com. But I was so excited; I wanted to put, you know, the leading ingredients of exosomes and biomimetic peptides for you know firming appearance and brightening. But then I again, I also packed it with vitamin C and niacinamide and hyaluronic acid and a lot of the tried and true ingredients for three simple steps. So what I saw was an opening in the marketplace again, and something that I wanted. I wanted, you know, organic ingredients and sustainability, but I wanted much more elevated science and much more regenerative and biotech action on my skin, and I I feel like I’m the lab person as well as the independent lab people, and I’m doing pretty well since I completely fried my skin my entire youth, and it’s it’s looking still okay for my age.

Kara Goldin 11:15
Well, I I I understand that quite well. Growing up in Arizona, so I was yelled at by my dermatologist the the other day. So it’s definitely I’m I’m playing cleanup along the way. So I’m always looking for incredible products, but do pay attention to the science behind it much more so than maybe 10 years ago, 15 years ago. And I do believe, even you know, as low as Gen Z is paying attention to that as well. So it’s very, very, very important. So can you talk about you launched with four SKUs? First of all, how did you come up with the name? And next, can you talk about the four SKUs that you have? You know, the name

Karen Behnke 12:00
it was myself and one of my best friends, ChatGPT. My two best friends, ChatGPT and Copilot AI, back and forth and back and forth and back and forth because I wanted it to really portray the vineyard. I wanted it to be active. I want I wanted it to just be fun, also. So I finally came up with Beauty Crush because you know, and crushes is more than just a name. It’s it’s really clean crushing of of of our of our grapes and crushing it to crushing it in a manner without toxic chemicals, but also crushing it in a manner crushing the grapes in a manner that preserve the antioxidants. So, and it’s fun on social media, crushing it, crush, you know, etc. So it just all fit. So I love that, and the color. I actually fun story, you know. I’ve done a lot of a fabulous collaboration with Kate Hudson in the past, and gosh, no, at this point, almost 20 years ago, I sat in her bathroom with her and talked to her about clean beauty, and we tossed all the less than clean products into a trash can and saved all the good ones. And then, yeah, so we’ve we’ve had a lot of fun over the years. But she came up with the color, and I sat with her in her house, and we went through the Pantone book, and I just I wanted her advice on the color, and I love the kind of pale, pinky, fleshy color, and I just she has great skin. But and she uses a lot of her products. But so I wanted a simple three step. So I wanted a head to toe cleanser, and this is a refreshing gel cleanser. And I did a head to toe because I put facial cleansing for your whole body and put all the great ingredients. So I’m trying to simplify it. So you know, and I confused myself in my former brand. There were so many regimens, so many products. You know, I didn’t even know which ones to grab in today. But so a head to toe cleanser that you can put in the shower, use head to toe, luscious, luscious light plant aroma, and then a powerhouse exocellular Beauty Crush exocellular antioxidant serum, and that has our biomimetic peptides, our exosomes. So after you cleanse, use serum, and on your face, neck, décolleté, tops of hands. Always use the top of your hand as a palette. So just you know, press a little on the top of your hand, you know, press it into your face, neck, décolleté, and the end. You know, rub the two tops of your hands together because that’s where you show your age a lot. Let the serum sink in a bit with the power ingredients. Do your hair, brush your teeth. You know, just give it a minute to sink in while you’re doing other things. And then step three is moisturize, and this niacinamide for pore tightening, light, fast absorbing moisturizer. The serum and the moisturizer are in airless containers, and they’re in this beautiful glass. But also, eventually, we’ll be selling the refillables, and this. The refillable inner is made from ocean land waste collected plastic. So, and then you can recycle it again, and so it’s a simple step: 123, And then there is an anytime body moisturizer. So, and that’s just any time you’re feeling dry. I put three peptides in here: light plant aromas, and the cleanser and the moisturizer are also in a completely recycled plastic bottle. And I used as much

Kara Goldin 15:30
glass as I could, but I know that everyone puts the cleanser in their shower, and customers do not like glass in their showers, so I use recycled plastic. So we’re cleaning up the earth, using it, recycle it again, depending on your local regulations. So step 123, cleanse, serum, moisturize, and an anytime body moisturizer. I love it. And when you launched Juice Beauty, you had a huge relationship with Ulta, mainly Ulta. Yeah. So, do you see that happening with this brand as well? I know you’ve launched with direct consumer, and then you have a relationship with Ulta. But do you see yourself expanding beyond?

Karen Behnke 16:14
Well, we’ll see. I mean, I loved working with Ulta, and we were one of the top 15 skincare prestige skincare brands for almost over 15 years, and until I until I left, and I helped them form their. I was one of the original people forming their Conscious Beauty Initiative, which was huge in retail, and then I was on their Conscious Beauty, the Ulta Conscious Beauty board for for six years. So I really enjoyed working with them, and so I don’t. We’ll see. I mean, right now I’m. I my passion and my love are formulations and science and working with leading scientists in our vineyard, and so that’s where I’m focused right now. And we’ll see where it goes.

Kara Goldin 16:54
That’s so great. So you, this is your fourth company that you’ve launched. You’ve learned so much about launching companies. What do you want to do differently with this company that maybe you’ve done with some of the other past companies that you’ve that you’ve run?

Karen Behnke 17:16
Well, my second and third company, my first company was aerobics, right out of out of college, so of course I went at that myself. But I ended up getting the army contract for Northern California, which was fun. But my second and third company, my corporate wellness company, and then my last skincare brand, they were private equity funded, so it was, you know, a little different pressure of coming out with more and more and more and more all the time, and you know, so this company is I funded, and so it’s it’s I’m really focused on amazing formulations, and probably spending more on the formulations than I would if I had outside funding. So I’m doing it the way that I want to, and I’m really excited about that. But also, what’s very different about this company is that with the advent of AI, I mean, it’s amazing, Kara, how many things I can do with AI and have more of a virtual team. Of course, I am my chemist, but there’s now I’m working with a lot of people that have small agencies or one or two person agencies that I’ve known for a long time, as well as big, big biotech companies and big labs. So, I don’t need a team of employees, and I don’t have you know the pressure from investors or a bio investors or a PE company to quickly build a team and all that. I’m doing more of a virtual team, which I’m really enjoying because I’m working with a lot of people I love and that I think are brilliant. And yeah, so that’s very, very different. I also get. I, I, I think I finally stopped second guessing my my gut. And you know, whenever I’d speak on

Kara Goldin 19:00
entrepreneur, I’m always like, God, women trust your gut feeling, you know, use your intellect. But you know, if something’s not quite feeling right, trust it. But I, I, and I learned to do that more and more over the decades. And I think in my, you know, being in my 60s now, I, I definitely go with what I’m really thinking is right. Yeah, definitely. Well, you are-I mean, what you’ve done and what you’ve accomplished and continuing to accomplish is just so incredible. I mean, it’s-I look at it and it’s just very, very admirable. And I’m so excited that you continue on. When you look at ingredients, I mean, you talked about sitting in Kate Hudson’s house. It must have been incredible. And looking at all the different products that we all face, not just celebrities that are in there, and you know, often the. Packaging is great, but when you actually look at the ingredient label, are there certain ingredients that you wish just wouldn’t exist in beauty products that you just that make you really pretty angry?

Karen Behnke 20:13
Well, I don’t know why people still use hydroquinone, the bleaching thing, or I I do not know why anyone uses synthetic fragrance. It’s a known endocrine disruptor-and still, even though there’s so much information on it, it’s in still in lipsticks and mascaras, and of course, skincare all over skincare. And it’s you know, it can just say perfume, or it can say aroma, or it can say fragrance. And of course, I can hide 130, 140 different ingredients that some of which are carcinogens. So it’s that’s allowed in in the United States. It’s changing slowly, and it’s changing in Europe, which is great. You know, I was talking about that in 2005. Year it’s 2026, and still talking about it. So so much synthetic fragrance, major endocrine disruptor, and I don’t. I just never appreciate synthetic dyes either. You know, all the red and purple and all the dyes that are in makeup. I just there’s there’s alternatives for that now, and I don’t know why people still use them. It’s harder. It’s our always harder. I think there’s been a huge change into better preservatives away from methyl butyl and propyl parabens, so that shift has has really happened. Not in everything, though. You have to you still have to read the label. It’s very hard for consumers to understand what’s real because on the label it can say no parabens or it’ll say recyclable. Well, most plastic is recyclable. I mean, you use some recycled content in there too, or it just have a few claims that make you think it’s super super healthy. But then you read the ingredients, and it’s using you know all sorts of petroleum based ingredients, which are often labeled glycols, and you have to watch because if it’s labeled glycol and it has a a plant symbol next to it, those are good glycols. Those are plant glycols that are good, but if it doesn’t have a plant symbol next to it, it’s probably derived from petroleum, which can often be laced with dioxane. So, again, I don’t know why people are still using all those, but it’s easier. They’re cheaper, even though it’s petroleum derived right now with the high gas prices. But all those things are readily available, and they’re cheaper. And that’s how a lot of the big, big old labs have formulated forever. They don’t want to change, so it’s it’s still it’s still surprising to me. I don’t get the animal parts either-the snail mucin and all that. There’s other ingredients you don’t have to, or the beef tallow. I don’t know. I don’t. I don’t get any of that because bad things can happen when you start putting animal ingredients in there, and and I just don’t think it’s good for the earth. I don’t think it’s good for people either. So anyway, but yeah, that’s my opinion.

Kara Goldin 23:04
So interesting. Well, and your skin is so beautiful. So you’ve done such a nice job of taking care of it over the years. When you look at as you’re building, what is kind of the the most difficult challenge for for you either as a company trying to get the word out about Beauty Crush, or even individually, like going and doing it again. I mean, that’s that is you know, do you ever sit there and we all have doubts, right? And it’s and we’re sitting here trying to figure out: Do we go do it? Do we not go do it? But you are doing it. So, like, what what is it that is maybe a lesson you’ve learned in a way to get yourself to go? I think probably it’s funny because everyone expects

Karen Behnke 24:00
me to say, “Oh my God, the formulations are the hardest, and all. But those-that’s by love, so it’s not the hardest to me. For me, social media-it does not come naturally to me. And you know, I come from the Midwest, so it took me years to get out more in front of my brand, and you know, be the founder that was was more you know front facing because I don’t know I just from the Midwest I was always about it’s all all about the product all about the product which it is all about the product but in today’s world people want to know who’s behind the product and I and so that’s that’s that’s probably been the most difficult part for me and and just working with social media, although my daughter’s helping me, I’ve got a great social media expert helping me. So we’re just starting to build step by step on an Instagram. It’s Beauty Crush underscore Skin, and then just started TikTok a few days ago, Beauty Crush Skin. But I does that sound crazy? That that I don’t know. I just I struggle with that a little bit, even though I have people around me telling me what to do, and they’re like, “You need to get out there more. And I’m like, “Okay, okay. So that’s probably the the the my biggest challenge I need to overcome instead of just hyper focused on the formulations and and the tech part of it.

Kara Goldin 25:18
Well, I I think you’re doing a terrific job, and you’ll get there. You’ve built companies before. You you understand, and that’s just a another channel, right? That you need to get, and you will. And cutting through the noise, Kara, right? Cutting through the noise. You’ve built a consumer product. There’s so much noise, and my goodness, could beauty be any more crowded? I mean, every celebrity, everybody’s coming out with, you know, skincare. Every dermatologist, every five minutes. But you know, this this will be my, you know, going into my third decade of of working in just in skincare. So I’m confident with that. We have so many differentiating factors,

Karen Behnke 26:00
but cutting through the noise is is a lot with beauty, and hopefully I can with you know regenerative biotech with you know 100% felt felt and touched felt and their skin looked and felt smoother and and our powerhouse antioxidant super glow grape with 8.5 times antioxidant power, not clinically proven results, and and you know, an experienced founder hopefully will will be able to cut through the noise. And when people try the products, they’re just luscious. So they’re fast absorbing. They smell great. They’ve got great ingredients that are great for your skin, but also good for you and good for the planet, and so I’m excited. I’m I’m glad you love them, and you’ve got beautiful skin too. And you know what? I love that so many women entrepreneurs are supporting other women entrepreneurs, and that’s one thing I’m doing more of is just really connecting with other female entrepreneurs. We have to lift all all of us have to lift ourselves up. I’m so excited about. I feel that that’s becoming more and more on women’s minds, and I’m I’m I couldn’t support that more.

Kara Goldin 27:09
Yeah, definitely. Well, Karen Behnke, founder of Beauty Crush Skincare, so excited that you’re doing this, and such amazing, amazing products! I cannot wait for the world to see more of Beauty Crush Skincare and everything that you’re doing, learning more about and teaching about regenerative skincare and sustainability and biotech and how all those come together and incredible products. And for everyone who is listening, go get some Beauty Crush Skincare and learn more all about what Kara is doing. So thank you, Karen. And until next time on the Kara Goldin Show, thank you, Kara. Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin Show. If you would, please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin. I would love to hear from you too, so feel free to DM me. And if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal best-selling book, Undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building. Hint: We are here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now.

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