Angela Gargano: Co-Founder of Lola Arnao

Episode 775

On today’s episode, Kara welcomes Angela Gargano, Co-Founder of Lola Arnao — the slow beauty brand redefining what it means to care for your skin, your health, and the planet.
A lifelong wellness entrepreneur and breast cancer thriver, Angela founded Lola Arnao alongside her mom during her own treatment journey, when she couldn’t find products gentle enough for her sensitive, healing skin. What started as small-batch, handcrafted formulas made in her mom’s kitchen has evolved into a plastic-free, intentional beauty brand rooted in simplicity, sustainability, and self-care.
In this episode, Angela shares how she turned one of life’s hardest moments into a movement — creating skincare that’s as mindful as it is effective. We talk about the power of slow beauty, how self-care can become a form of healing, and why conscious entrepreneurship is changing the face of the beauty industry. It’s an inspiring conversation about resilience, reinvention, and the beauty of building something with purpose.

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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 you. 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, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. So excited to have my next guest on with us today, Angela Gargano, co founder of Lola Arnao a slow beauty skin care brand that’s redefining what self care really means. And Angela’s story is deeply inspiring a lifelong wellness entrepreneur and breast cancer thriver, she launched Lola Arnao alongside her mom during one of the hardest seasons of her life, and what ultimately ended up creating Lola Arnao has turned into a mission driven brand built on care, sustainability and lots of love and intention. Such a great job building this company, and I’m very excited to have you here today to talk a lot more about the journey of building an incredible brand as as you have so welcome.

Angela Gargano 1:41
Thank you so much for having me. Kara, I’m excited to be here absolutely.

Kara Goldin 1:45
So let’s start with the definition of how you define the brand. Lola Arnao, and how did it

Angela Gargano 1:53
come to be? So the brand started because I couldn’t find what I was looking for when I was shopping. So I was looking as my wellness journey kind of grew, I was looking for products that were good for my sensitive skin, but that also didn’t come wrapped in a lot of plastic and packaging. I’ve been on a journey to try to try to really eliminate and cut down on my personal plastic use, because it’s such a huge problem internationally. And I think it feels good to try to do a little bit to make a difference. So I was looking it started with a shave product. I was looking for a shaving cream, and everything I used was irritating my skin. I’d get red bumps on my legs. My skin would be really itchy every time I shaved. And I had this moment, I went into Target and looked at all the different products on the shelves, and all of them had fragrance in the in them, all of them had, you know, a lot of chemicals, and all of them were packaged in either plastic or metal, like really heavy packaging, and I just wasn’t able to find what I was looking for. And my mom has been a chef for her whole life, and when I chatted with her about it, she’s like, Oh, maybe I’ll just see what I can whip up in the kitchen, a very common response from my mom. So we started playing around with it. And of course, it didn’t begin as a business. She was just looking to create something that would help leave my skin less irritated. And we started to play around with old school shave bars. And I actually have the brush that we use. This is what we use to shave with. And then our Lola Arnaow packaging, and she came up with this shave bar that’s solid, and this is the equivalent of two like traditional canisters of a shave bar. And again, it didn’t start out as a business. It started off with something that I used, and then I started to share with friends and family members that had sensitive skin, and then other products have kind of developed from there, but that’s how it began, and it’s amazing what a difference it has made in my skin and other people’s skin, especially for for those for whom shaving is really a challenging part of their like personal care routine, and then the brand. So that was sort of the beginning of the origin story, and then we decided to turn it into a business. And the week that we were going to be launched, that we were planning on launching, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. We were planning on launching on Tuesday, and I was diagnosed on Tuesday, we still launched, which, in retrospect, you know, I’m not sure if it was a good decision or not, but we launched on Friday of that week, and the products really began to develop through my cancer journey. So I was diagnosed with, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and had surgery, and then went through radiation afterwards. And as I was going through radiation, my radiation oncologist was suggesting things to help, kind of ease my skin, and you know, one of them was calendula oil. So we started to I started to use, I started looking for products that had calendula oil. And a lot of those were even difficult for my sense of. Skin. So I began using pure calendula oil, and it made a huge difference in my journey with radiation. My radiation oncologist said that my skin was said it was in the top 10 of all of his patients for the year. And so we took that and with the calendula oil, developed a solid lotion bar and body wash bars that were really great for sensitive skin. So it turned into, it began as one thing and turned into something a lot deeper and a lot more meaningful, really, really quickly, as we launched. And I think the most meaningful part of this journey has been, you know, when we’re out there in the world and we’re doing pop ups, sharing the products with with other other women and other people who have gone through either cancer or who are going through menopause and their skin has changed, who have eczema and their skin hurts them every day. And to talk to those, to talk to those women, and to really discuss, like, how can we make your skin feel better? Has been really meaningful and powerful. So that’s, that’s sort of the journey in a nutshell. Again, it, it? It became something a lot different the week that we launched. And, you know, in retrospect, as scary as that week was, a lot of really meaningful relationships with other women have developed from it.

Kara Goldin 6:20
I love that. Well, I’m happy to hear that you’re doing a lot better. And what an amazing story of three years, yeah, three years out, that’s that’s absolutely amazing. So what did you know about personal care products and skin care products, other than the fact that you were a consumer in terms of formulating, I think a lot of people have ideas that they want to find a certain product, and it’s not out there, and they start Googling around, but there’s a lot more to actually creating products and getting it out there. And I’m just curious, what was your experience?

Angela Gargano 7:00
So really the experience came from my mom’s experience as a chef. So my mom has been a chef for over 40 years, and in many parts of her career, she specialized in working with people with allergies, so she was really sensitive to that. So it was really her that took on the learning about how you actually create a formulation. And she’s, you know, completely self taught. We tried so many different products, and if something irritated my skin, we would like dig into what was the cause of that. And you know, it’s not just the ingredients, it’s also, how do you find a formulation that is user friendly, that feels nice when you use use it, that is also doesn’t require a lot of packaging or a lot of preservatives. And that’s really the hard part. So again, something like this bar, if you think about shave creams, they tend to have a ton of preservatives, and they have things you know that if you’re pressing a button and foam comes out often, those products have butane in it, which is basically lighter fluid. So as we started to dive in, we became prolific label readers, and really would dive into each ingredient and research what it was and you know, then research how it affected your health. So of course, as I at first this became something I didn’t want my skin to be hurt, like I, you know, you get if you have very sensitive skin, like ultra sensitive skin, it gets really tiring to have. Every product you try, you end up breaking out or it’s itchy. And so I got tired of that. But then, as I really started to learn more after my breast cancer diagnosis. It was also scary to read about, you know, the phthalates and all of the hormone disruptors that are in so many of our personal care products, so that became part of the mission as well. But really it was, I give so much credit to my mom. She had sort of semi retired as a chef. My mom actually, it’s her birthday today, and she’s just turned 79 and she will never retire. She’s always diving in and trying to learn something new. And she really did dive into this project and learn how to formulate herself through a lot of trial and error and a lot of like, really scientific research, but we use mostly natural products as well. Because, again, coming from that cooking background, we want everything you put onto your body to be something that you could, in theory, put inside your body, because your skin does absorb all of those products.

Kara Goldin 9:33
I’ve heard you say that clean doesn’t always mean safe. Can you expand on that a little bit?

Angela Gargano 9:40
Yeah, of course. Well, clean beauty has so many different definitions, right? And there’s no standard for how clean products are produced. And so a clean beauty product could list fragrance and it could have natural ingredients, things like essential oils, for example, and essential oils. Oils are beautiful. I love using essential oils, you know, for example, spraying lavender oil on my pillow before I go to bed. But if I use certain essential oils in higher quantities on my skin, it will really irritate my skin. So the definition of clean beauty, it can be an organically farmed lavender essential oil, but it may irritate someone who has ultra sensitive skin or who’s dealing with eczema, so it’s just, you know, it’s understanding that clean doesn’t mean it’s safe for sensitive skin and under like learning your skin and again, going back to menopause, and women who are going through menopause, that can be really different, because your skin changes so dramatically, just as my skin changed while I was going through my breast cancer treatment. So if your skin has been one way your whole life, and then suddenly it’s different and the products you used aren’t working, that’s a really challenging journey for a lot of women to like, dive in and try to figure out why. And so we’ll, you know, a lot of women will go to clean beauty thinking that that is going to solve the problem, and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s a lot to learn, it’s a lot to take in, but we deserve to feel good in our own skin. It breaks my heart when I’m talking to all of these women, and it’s, again, a huge percentage of women that come to our pop ups that say, like, Oh, my skin is always cracking. It’s always red, it’s always irritated. Like we deserve to feel good in our own skin. And I think that the larger beauty industry hasn’t really taken that percentage of the population into account.

Kara Goldin 11:29
Yeah, definitely. So primarily today you are, what is your go to market strategy? Where you’re selling,

Angela Gargano 11:38
we’re selling DTC, and just like our beauty is slow beauty, we’re really focused on slow growth. I feel like a lot of businesses get into this idea that they have to be at Sephora, they have to be at Target, they have to go big. And you know, we produce all of our products in a renovated barn on our farm here in Oregon, and we produce them by hand. So our goal is not to be the next big thing at Sephora. Our goal is to reach the people that really need our products and want them, and to grow slowly and sustainably. We’re completely self funded. We also don’t want to, oh, well, how can I put this? We don’t want to be told what to do. We want to run the business in the way that we think is right. We want to use the ingredients that we believe are best, and we don’t want to be told to water things down. We don’t want to be told to present ourselves in a certain way. And of course, that comes with its own set of challenges. It’s incredibly difficult to launch a beauty brand in today’s marketplace. You know, most people are spending so much money on social media, ads, Google ads, like all of the the ways that it takes to break through the noise, and if you’re doing it as a small, self funded business, that’s really challenging, but we’re finding our way. We’re trying to do the creative, bootstrapping and marketing and just good storytelling that we think is going to help move the needle, and we’re slowly building up client base that has been repeat purchasing, which is really the nicest compliment we can get. We also, one thing I’ll add too, is that some of our products, like, for example, this is the equivalent of two cans of shaving cream. So it lasts a long time. And again, when we think of go to market strategies, that’s not actually the best go to market strategy. One of one thing our clients say is how long the products last, but it is a really wonderful strategy for being more sustainable. So again, that’s something that if you get outside funding or try to grow really fast. Might not be appealing to a lot of potential like retail partners or Venture Capital Partners, but it’s appealing to us as women that are trying to create a more sustainable lifestyle.

Kara Goldin 13:55
So as you embarked on deciding that you’re going to launch a brand at your you are, you know, exciting. It’s learning along the way. What was the point where you finally said, this could actually be a business. It’s not just about making products for me or my friends. It’s, it’s really a business that I can, I will invest in and and, you know, this is something that I’m going to be working on constantly.

Angela Gargano 14:28
I think any good business idea comes from, you know, you can’t find what you’re looking for in the marketplace. And I think when people that I shared it with echoed the same thing, like I have been looking for something more sustainable. I’ve been looking for something for my sensitive skin, and I can’t find it. To me, that was the moment when it kind of changed, when I had, you know, enough conversations with, you know, mostly with other women who said, I really can’t find what I’m looking for. And I think there’s also. So there’s a really deep need for ritual for women right now, you know, for taking care of ourselves. And I really wanted to be a part of that. But of course, there’s always a risk when you start a new business. And I come from a family of entrepreneurs and small business owners, and I’ve owned several businesses myself, and you know, you I know the challenges associated with it, but I think that idea of slow growth has made it possible for us to start something like this with a little bit less risk. You know, again, I think if you’re getting outside funding or trying to be the next big thing at Sephora, it’s a really different thing. And I feel for all of the founders who are on that path, because it’s definitely not an easy one. Definitely.

Kara Goldin 15:46
Is there a product today that you’re, you feel like the company is, is known for, that maybe is like the, the darling of your, of your line of products? Is there one in particular?

Angela Gargano 16:02
Well, I think there are two. I think one is our shave bar, and that’s the one that we have the most repeat business of, because there really isn’t anything it’s the most different from our other products to what’s in the marketplace. And then we also have a facial oil. It’s a plum oil, and it’s just a natural it’s literally just organic French plum oil. And that’s another one that is one of my favorite products in our line, and another one we get a lot of repeat business of. And I think what’s special about that is that you can use it both at nighttime as a really healing nighttime oil or under makeup during the day, and you don’t feel greasy or oily. It’s very it’s both light and super, super hydrating, and it also smells really good. It’s not so all of our products are 100% fragrance free, so there’s no added fragrance whatsoever. But Mother Nature is pretty amazing, and the plum oil actually smells like an almond croissant. And people often think that we add fragrance, but we don’t. It’s just the natural way that the plum kernel oil smells. So a lot of people will use it and just fall in love with the smell of it, too. And again, yet it’s fragrance free, so it doesn’t hurt sensitive skin. It doesn’t have hormone disruptors, just the way plum kernels smell.

Kara Goldin 17:16
No, it’s terrific. I love the plum oil. It’s it’s really, really amazing. So, and not very many people are are using that ingredient either. So it’s you guys are really, you know, on the forefront of it, so, and it smells so, so good. I agree. I couldn’t figure out what it smelled like, but that’s, I think you’ve nailed it exactly what it does smell like. So it’s, it’s really amazing. Yeah, so when, when you look at your definition of success, I think it’s always interesting to talk to people who have had health scares, right? You’re building this business. You started to build the business, then went through this really challenging time, and now you’re continuing to really build it out your way and slowly. But how has success? Maybe that the definition of success changed for you? I mean, what you want out of what you do every day, your business?

Angela Gargano 18:19
Yeah, I think it maybe, instead of changing it, it sort of deepened my resolve to live life sort of on my own terms. You know, I’ve been both an entrepreneur and at different points in my career have worked for other people, and I always go back to entrepreneurship and small business in one way or another, because my heart is really there. And I also think part of that is as women, I think we can be a little bit limited when we work for others. And you know, certainly maybe not everyone feels that way, but for me, it always felt that way. That was sort of my truth. When I work for myself, I’m limited by time and I’m limited by money. I’m limited by the number of hours in the day, but I’m not limited by outside sources in the same way, and I can really dream big and do what I want to do. And I think another part that’s really important to me is the ability to take care of myself, either for my family, you know, take time for friends, take time for the things that are important. There’s a, you know, there’s a saying in an entrepreneurship, you can work any 60 hours a week you want to. And there’s certainly some truth in that. I think, when you’re on this path, you know, there you work hard, but if I need to go to a doctor’s appointment, or I need to take time out to take care of myself in some way, or I need to take time to, you know, visit my brother or go see my dad, I can do that, and it’s my choice. And so for me, this whole journey has really underlined the importance of that. Yeah, and I think there’s this whole kind of discussion in the broader like Zeitgeist about return to Office, and you know that we’re more productive if we do these things. And I think women have always known intuitively that we do best when we’re able to choose our own lives. And we can juggle. We’re capable of juggling so much that if you give us the ability to do that on our own terms, we can just have such a richer, fuller life. So to me, that’s success, to be able to do what I want, when I want, and also to know that success is about more than just the bottom line. It’s about how we run our businesses, who we’re servicing like, are we running our businesses with care? Are we looking out for the people who work for us? Are we taking care of our partners? You know, like our business partners in that we do business with? I think all of that is really important. It’s about so much more than just the bottom line. It’s about how we structure our lives and how we live them in an ethical and purpose driven way. I love that. I always aim for that. You know, of course, we always try your best. How do

Kara Goldin 21:08
you see Lola Arnao growing in terms of, do you see this having many, many skews over the years? Or are you really focused on the on what you’re doing today and and just killing it with those with those products.

Angela Gargano 21:28
Yeah, every single so I don’t see us growing into many SKUs. And again, I think that’s sort of the typical like go to market playbook for a lot of beauty brands is you need that new SKU. You need that new thing to take to market. And actually, every single product in our, you know, small line is something that I personally use on a regular basis. It’s part of my daily routine, and I we will never add something in that isn’t so the plan is to add things very slowly, like the plum oil was never part of the plan. And then I got a we got a sample of different oils, and the plum oil was just incredible. So it’s now something I use morning and night. It’s really taken the place of all my serums. I just use gentle cleanser, rose water and the plum oil every day. And so a product has to be like that, and kind of feel like that to me, feel really special to be part of our product line. So no, the idea is slow beauty, like we slow down and take care of ourselves and have less products on our shelves, but also slow beauty in terms of how we grow the brand.

Kara Goldin 22:38
I love it well, such a great such a great company and great products. I know you’re off to a terrific start. So LolaArnao.com is the website, but also you’re all over social as well. So everybody should check it out. And like I said, the plum oil is really, amazing, and everyone definitely needs to check that out. So Angela, thank you so much for joining us today and reminding us that beauty and strength often come from the hardest seasons, and what you’re doing with slow beauty is is really inspiring. So thank you again and and definitely, everyone check out what Angela is doing. Thank you so much, Angela. Thanks everyone for listening.

Angela Gargano 23:31
Thank you so much Kara. Appreciate it.

Kara Goldin 23:34
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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