Eat Your Skincare

Maple Mallows

In 2009, I joined the founding team of Tata Harper, one of the most recognized natural beauty brands in the world.

I got there because of a friend named Yaz. I used to produce her gala when I was doing events in New York, and one Tuesday over lunch I told her I was taking nutrition classes, passionate about natural skincare, and wanted to build something in health.

Most people would have said, "I know someone. I'll connect you."

But not Yaz.

Yaz pulled out her phone right then and there and emailed Tata while our plates were still on the table.

By Thursday, I was sitting across from Tata and her husband, Henry, in an office they shared with an investment bank. They showed me formulas in Ziploc bags. The only marketing they had was a gorgeous green flower crown logo.

 

By the end of the meeting, I had decided to join them.

I still think about that lunch. Yaz did the thing the moment it occurred to her. Twenty minutes of intention became the start of my career.

I try to live that way now.

I was the customer Tata was building for. I loved beautiful objects, and I cared deeply about what went into and onto my body. In 2009, those two things had almost no shelf in common.

Clean skincare lived at farmers markets and in the back corners of vitamin shops. Brown bottles. Handwritten labels. Nothing you would be proud to leave out on the bathroom counter.

Tata was the bridge between beautiful, effective, and nontoxic, and for four years I helped build that bridge.

People started calling me "the woman behind the woman" because I poured my heart and soul into something I believed in so deeply. I traveled the world for it. I loved creating the lifestyle around it because I was living it myself.

I have tried nearly every natural beauty brand since.

A handful of them are incredible, the ones that are truly clean. Organic ingredients, thoughtful essential oils, formulas you can read from top to bottom.

The rest too often hide behind a word.

"Fragrance" on a label can conceal undisclosed ingredients. Phenoxyethanol and propylene glycol show up in products marketed as natural. Once you know what you're looking for, you can read a shelf in seconds.

I left the beauty world in 2019.

Something that had once felt pure had become a trend, and I was tired of watching it get diluted.

After another sabbatical and more advising work, I met Erik.

He was living what I had spent years advising other people to live. Ancestral food. Back to basics. Natural fibers. A rewilding of everyday life.

Early on, he asked me to join him and build Feral.

Food became the doorway in, just like skin had been before.

And yes, what we put on our skin matters. Skin is our largest organ. I still care deeply about beautiful products and careful, thoughtful ingredients.

But a cream can only do so much.

The amino acids the body uses to build collagen. The minerals. The nourishing fats. The hydration. The deep sleep.

Those come from somewhere deeper.

One night Erik and I were at dinner talking about Feral and how, without necessarily intending it, our pantry had become a wellness line.

We kept getting invited to wellness events, gorgeous events with gorgeous people and so many influencers.

We were simply obsessed with sourcing the best of the best. High-quality herbs. Mineral-rich salts. Cacao. Collagen. Gelatin. Plants and foods people have used for generations.

Erik looked at me and said,

"Right. It's like eat your skincare."

I stopped.

By then I had been watching changes in myself that I couldn't ignore.

 

My hair had grown about four inches. Erik's had too. My nails were growing so quickly I was constantly cutting them. My skin felt thicker and stronger.

After nearly two decades in health and beauty, I had never experienced those kinds of changes from anything I had put on my skin.

And there it was.

Eat your skincare.

Before the serum or the bottle.

Give the body the raw materials first.

Gelatin and collagen from good sources, consistently. It's one of the reasons our Maple Mallows exist.

Minerals from real, mineral-rich salt. Our Full Spectrum Salt.

Cacao and collagen as a ritual instead of another sugary dessert or stimulant. The Cocoa Mocha Ritual, most nights.

Herbs as part of everyday life. Feral Tea in the afternoon.

And fat.

Butter. Tallow. Egg yolks. Olive oil. Organ meats and the ancestral cuts.

The foods an entire generation of women was taught to fear.

Then use the beautiful serum.

All the lotions and potions. Massage your face. Tone your body. Take the bath. Buy the gorgeous anything that makes you happy.

But start deeper.

I built a career around a lifestyle and what goes on the skin.

Now I'm building one around what goes in, and how we do it feral.

I was told this would happen.

Back in 2018, an evolutionary astrologer told me I would have another career, and that it might be with my partner.

Well, here it is.

And I know this is only the beginning.

Everything above lives in the Feral Pantry.

So glad you are here.

Feral Friend, beauty was never supposed to begin at the bathroom mirror.

It was always at the hearth. 

The Future is Feral 💫

Keri Joy