How To Be WellnStrong

90: The Truth About Clean Beauty | Emilie Toups

• Jacqueline Genova

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Emilie Toups is a mom of five, homesteader, and founder of Toups & Co Organics, a skincare and makeup brand dedicated to truly clean ingredients. Emilie’s journey into non-toxic skincare began when she healed her daughter’s eczema with tallow balm, an age-old remedy made from grass-fed beef fat. That experience ignited her passion for ancestral skincare and developing products that are both safe and effective — straight from nature. In this episode, we dive into what it really means to live a non-toxic lifestyle, which skincare ingredients to steer clear of, how to nourish your skin through diet, and nature-inspired skin solutions that work for all skin types. Right now, you can use the code “wellnstrong10” for 10% off at Toups & Co! 

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Toups & Co offers non-toxic skincare and makeup products that truly make a difference. Their ingredients are pure, organic, and ethically sourced, which means your skin gets nothing but the best. So, if you're ready to treat your skin to the best, head over to Toups & Co and use the code “wellnstrong” for 10% off your order. Trust me, your skin will thank you!

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Let’s talk about fueling your body with the best nature has to offer. If you’re looking for premium, sustainable seafood delivered straight to your door, you need to check out Sizzlefish! Head to sizzlefish.com and use my code “wellnstrong” at checkout for an exclusive discount on your first order. Trust me, you’re going to taste the difference with Sizzlefish!



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*Unedited Transcript*

Jacqueline: [00:00:00] Well, I am your number one fan. I discovered your company, I wanna say like two years ago when I was looking for a solid, organic, clean foundation. . And then I started looking into all of your other products and, and your mission. And I just love everything you do. , You've been someone I've wanted on my podcast for quite some time now since I've started. So yeah, just really excited to, to sit down and chat with you today.

Emilie: Awesome. Thank you so much.

Jacqueline: Yeah, absolutely. So first thing I love to, to start with Emily, and this is for my own knowledge as well as for our listeners, but I always love to ask what inspired you to start your brand? Um, and I've personally found that a lot of folks in the wellness space typically have varied different backgrounds from what they're currently doing.

So I'm always intrigued to hear the story.

Emilie: Yeah, for sure. So, um, I was actually in college pre-dentistry. I was, um, working in dentist offices and wanting to be, um, in the dental field. And I had [00:01:00] our first daughter and she just had very sensitive skin and a lot of eczema and that was like the spark into our wellness journey, you know, um, we kind of spiraled into all things.

Wellness and um, making products that were good for her skin and for her eczema was kind of one of the first things that we did. And so, you know, between her and my own, you know, just issues that I was having with my health, we just were like on this quest seeking better health. And so what better way than to start with your personal care products And, you know, I learned about tallow and so, um,

Jacqueline: the rage right now,

Emilie: yes.

Jacqueline: everywhere you go, everyone's talking about tallow.

Emilie: Tallow is definitely having a moment right now for sure. Um, everywhere, everywhere I look, there's, there's good, and then there's some negativity around it too, but it's just giving it a lot of, you know, all no press is bad press, right? And so [00:02:00] everybody is definitely talking about tele right now.

Jacqueline: So true. I love that. Well, just for your own knowledge too, Emily, my background is in finance, so I actually went to a business college up in Massachusetts, studied economics, um, was in finance for the past eight years, and left in December of last year to pursue well and strong full-time. Um. and my journey started with my mom and, and her breast cancer.

That's always been like, foundational content of my site is an integrative approach to cancer. Uh, but certainly I've expanded beyond that and here we are two years later with the podcast. So it's, it's been a journey too.

Emilie: I love that. I, I really feel like a lot of people's stories starts with like their why and or this pain point in their life that they wanna solve, and it just. Makes you dive so deep into all the things and then once you learn that knowledge, obviously you can't unknow it and you just want to continue like with this quest and crave for knowledge.

And so I feel like I'm still on this like quest of like learning [00:03:00] and understanding and you know, it can go both ways. It could be there's, there's a little bit of too much sometimes, like so much noise and a lot of things in the wellness space that are contradictory and, uh. I think that I try really hard to just kind of settle in the middle and understand all the things, but at the same time understand that, you know, we live in a world that's not perfect and we're, we're doing our best and so is most people around us.

And so, um, just understanding that everybody is. In their own place, in their journey. Because throughout my wellness journey, I feel like I've been in lots of different places and grown and evolved and changed my mind, um, about things. And so I try to understand that we're all on this quest, you know, for, for knowledge and understanding.

Jacqueline: Yeah. Amen. That was perfect. Very well said, Emily. It's funny, I feel like the more I learn in the wellness space, the less I know.

Emilie: Yeah.

Jacqueline: And I think too, I mean, [00:04:00] having been in this space for quite some time, I. That happy medium, right, is truly, I feel like where the sweet spot is. 'cause at the end of the day, I feel like the anxiety about the things people are talking about, whether it's self-care products or food, like that's often worse than the thing itself.

Emilie: It is, the stress of it is almost more toxic than the actual thing. I agree.

Jacqueline: is. It really is. So I think yes, we are to be stewards of our bodies and, and learn and, you know, be educated to, to what we're able to do. But at the end of the day, you know, we also have to take everything with a grain of salt and live our lives and, you know, just do the best we can.

Emilie: For sure.

Jacqueline: But with that, Emily, so skincare and makeup, this is just such a huge field, and I know we only have an hour, so I'm gonna try to cover as much as we can. But with that, let's just start from the basics, Emily. So someone who is completely. You new to this, right? Like they've never heard of quote unquote clean, non-toxic skincare.

What is your basic definition of what clean skincare is? And we could perhaps maybe start with like, [00:05:00] ingredients to avoid, I'll put that, put the ball in your court, however you

Emilie: Okay. Um. So to me, clean skincare and makeup is just made without harmful chemicals that are harmful to humans. And so we just are interested in human safe products. We all want effective skincare. We want makeup that works, but we wanna do that in a way that avoids chemicals that are harmful to our endocrine system, to our hormones.

Um, and to the toxic burden that our body has. And so at tubes, we very thoughtfully formulate the products to avoid those ingredients. And, you know, if, if someone's brand new and they're, they're looking for skincare and they're looking for makeup that they, um, that is safe for their bodies, there's a handful of things that they want to avoid.

Um, I would say first and foremost, they're going to want to avoid fragrance. It's. The biggest offender of all fragrance can [00:06:00] hide up to 14, or I think it might even be 1900 chemicals under that one word. And so it's protected by trade secret law that says that you can formulate the fragrance that you want for your products and it can be proprietary so that no one can take that and and replicate it.

Jacqueline: Mm.

Emilie: But what companies have really done is really exploit that law and they're putting a multitude of things into what we call fragrance that are extremely harmful to our bodies and our, our endocrine systems, our reproductive systems, our hormones. And so, um, using those products, I think there's a. There's a study that says that women use on average 12 products with 168 harmful chemicals in them per day, and when they're using these products seven days a week, 365 days a year, that toxic burden really builds up and there's only so [00:07:00] much that your body can handle.

We are incredibly designed with an excellent detox. System and detox pathways that can handle a lot of the toxic burden that's in our environment and even in some of the products and, and things that are around us. But you know, now in 2025, products have become so toxic and our world has become so toxic and our food and our water, and it's such a.

Barrage in this, um, you know, so much on our bodies that are, as we can see from this increase in disease and hormone dysregulation in women and in children that we're unable to handle the toxic burden anymore. And so our bodies are, um, detoxing what they can and the rest is coming out in the form of different diseases.

And so I personally dealt with, um, thyroid disease and Hashimoto's and. Um, when I was in college, I was so tired that I would go to class and [00:08:00] then I would run home in like the two hours that I had a break and I would sleep and I would get back up and I'd go back to school and my mom was like, some something's not right, like you shouldn't be coming home.

And then like, I'd go straight to bed and just be sleeping. I was so tired all the time. And that's when I did some testing and realized that I had thyroid dysfunction going on. And so, um. The, the medical system's answer to that is medication that you'll be on for the rest of your life. And I think in my teens and early twenties when I was in college, I was just kind of wanted a solution.

And I don't think I was at the place in my life where I was like looking for a root cause answer. And so as I. You know, got older and had my first child and then she was dealing with eczema and some dysfunction on her own that I now truly believe was a result of myself just not being healthy, [00:09:00] poor gut health and, you know, having some hormone dysregulation going on.

Um, I, I then was like, I, I, I'm not satisfied with, it's not. It can't be healed. She needs to be on steroids.

Jacqueline: Mm-hmm.

Emilie: there's no cure. And so, um, that catalyst was enough for me to look into root cause and look into deeper. And so as we look at personal care products, for me, it's one of the easiest things to change.

Like we can't change a lot about our environment and it can be very difficult to make. Excellent food choices all the time. But what we really can control is the products that we're bringing into our home and that we're putting on our bodies every single day, 365 days a year, you know, and so in addition to makeup and skincare, you know, I think that that flows into our laundry and our cleaning product, all those things.

So whenever you make that conscious decision as a whole to remove those, [00:10:00] toxic, those toxins from your life, um. I a lot, there's, there makes a lot of room for healing, right? Maybe then our, um, detox pathways are not overloaded and can start to see, um, some changes in and things for the better. But what I, I like to tell people is that if it took years and years to get to this point where our system is overloaded, we're not gonna feel better maybe in the first week like it a lot of time for our body to slowly work its way and get that out.

So, um, I. I guess you asked me, you know, what is clean skincare and makeup and that is just free from harmful ingredients, good for human bodies, and not just free from the toxic burden, but good for you, nourishing to the skin and, um, you know, healthy for our skin. So that's kind of my definition of, of what clean skincare and makeup is.

Jacqueline: That's perfect. That's such a powerful story. And one thing too, Emily, as you were talking, that [00:11:00] I was thinking is, you know, people don't necessarily realize that our skin is our body's largest organ. Right. And it absorbs what you put on it. So, I mean, I used to think of things like externally as, oh, it's just putting on my skin.

I'm not ingesting it.

Emilie: Right.

Jacqueline: have the people who have the mindset of don't put anything on your skin that you wouldn't necessarily wanna ingest, which.

Emilie: Yes.

Jacqueline: Several years ago I thought was crazy, but the more I learned, I was like, actually, no, there is definitely an element of truth to this. Um, and you mentioned endocrine disruptors before. For someone who has never heard that term be term before, what is an endocrine disruptor and why does it play such an important role, especially for, for women?

Emilie: Yeah, so endocrine disruptors are things that mimic, um, hormones in our body. And so that could be phthalates, parabens, and these look like maybe thickeners emulsifiers, um, preservatives and things like that in skincare. And so what they do is they come into the body and they, they're so [00:12:00] similar to what our hormones would be, but not, and so they, they attach to those hormone receptors except that they don't give the right signal.

And so that causes hormone disruption and dysfunction in the body. And so when your body is getting these wrong signals from the correct receptors, it's following that lead. And so in the case of women and hormonal health and re reproductive health, that can look like, you know, um, heavier and more difficult menstrual cycles that can look like PCOS, that can look like thyroid dysfunction.

Um. It can be as simple as like dealing with chronic headaches and fatigue and we don't know why. And so I think at this point people assume because it's common that it's normal and those things aren't equal. Yes. Our, our headaches, tiredness, um, brain fog, are those things common? Yes. But are they normal?

No. We can function at a level of [00:13:00] thriving instead of making it through the day to day with these. Kind of low grade symptoms that truly affect our lives as a whole. And I think that cleaning up your skincare, your makeup, your your home products is kind of the biggest first step.

Jacqueline: Yeah. Do you know what's so funny, Emily, as we're talking about this, I keep having flashbacks to high school, and I don't know if this resonates with you, but I remember, at least for me, and given, my mom was always very health conscious as we were growing up. You know, she always shopped at Whole Foods. I joke that she was one of like the pioneers of Whole Foods when they first opened.

But you know, we all go through that phase in high school where, you know, you start wearing your makeup and you start checking out perfume and. I just remember going to the mall in New Jersey, the Short Hills Mall, and we'd walk into Abercrombie and Fitch, which was like the place to go for an eighth grader,

Emilie: Yeah.

Jacqueline: freshman. And the smell was so strong. And we like my friends and I loved that smell. We're like, oh, like that's the smell of Abercrombie, you know? And I would go home and my mom would be like. Go get in the shower, you wreak of that perfume. And [00:14:00] again, didn't realize at the time, but that probably is not the healthiest, uh, perfume made with the healthiest of ingredients. Um, and even to that point too with Sephora, you know, walking into Sephora and seeing all of these different makeup brands and testing things out. I am happy to say though, that I have seen kind of, and I'm sure you know, you've noticed this too, but Sephora has introduced a lot more clean skincare brands, which is nice. Um. But certainly everything is not, you know, on the same level with clean skincare. So that's my other question for you too. I mean, shopping for Clean Skincare products, like are there any certifications that women out there should be looking for? I mean, certainly like, you know, the EWG has a list of of products and

Emilie: Yeah,

Jacqueline: but

Emilie: so. I have mixed thoughts on certifications. I think it definitely does show a higher level of dedication. Um, but there are so many certifications and they are so incredibly expensive and they're, they've made this change towards their fee [00:15:00] being a percent of sales, and so that really pushes a lot of brands off.

So they're gonna continue to pay for the certification as their sales increase. So does their feet. And so I know that for me, that has put me off to some certifications that I would love to see. Um, but you know, uh, certainly there are other certifications that are less, um, of a money grab than that. And so when.

I think honestly, that it's really on the consumer to be educated on what the ingredients are. So if you're turning around a, if you're buying any product anywhere you go, if you're going to Sephora and you're looking for clean skincare, you know they have a whole like section that's more clean beauty.

Certainly several things in there are good and some are not. And sometimes it's the same brand. Some are the things I would say pass the check of being okay, but that doesn't mean every single thing at that brand is good. [00:16:00] And so, um, education and understanding ingredients and just being able to like, take the extra step and say, I don't really know what that ingredient is.

Let me Google it. And let me read about it. What is this? Is it a thickener? Is it considered a, a paraben? Do I really wanna be putting that on my body? How is my health? Um, and so a lot of people come to tubes because they're, they are experiencing health issues, or they've had cancer, or they've had surgery, or they have various sensitive skin, and they come and they're like, I'm not, I'm unable to use conventional makeup.

Can I use tubes? And so usually I give them a rundown of what. The ingredients and the products that they were using versus what they'll see in the tubes products. And then their, their eyes are kind of open and they're like, oh, like I know what all of these ingredients are. I can read them, I understand them.

Most of them are edible. Um. Okay, I can understand why this would be healthy for our bodies and [00:17:00] with the claim to like quote unquote natural makeup and skincare comes this connotation that it's not as effective. The makeup won't last. Um, and I know you use tubes and you know that that's not actually the case.

Jacqueline: your foundation right now. Emily, I'm telling you, your foundation is the my most favorite foundation I have ever used. I'm always sharing it. I used to use a hundred percent pure and I still like, I like some of their products, but

Emilie: Yeah.

Jacqueline: wise, like this is.

Emilie: I love, love to hear it.

Jacqueline: on like how you even formulated this.

'cause it's just, it's

Emilie: So foundation is just very simple. So it's an elevator base and then you ju people want coverage. And so coverage comes in the form of colorants. And so instead of artificial synthetic colorants, we use iron oxides. They're mine from the earth. We, um, their mines right here in the US and Canada. And when you have a good enough percentage of.

Colorant there and you have an application that feels smooth and it's hydrating that that's all you need, like all the other things just [00:18:00] like makes it wear longer or gives it a dewy, tacky finish, and

Jacqueline: Yep.

Emilie: it is not. They're just unnecessary. And so even some brands that have those harmful chemicals in there, honestly, if they break that formula down and take out the chemicals and just.

Put everything else back in it, they'll almost have a formula that people will love and that will work well. Um, so to me, less is more. And, um, the bare basics and the, you know, the less that there is, there still makes these beautiful, um, formulations that people really like.

Jacqueline: Yeah. I'm, again, I'm beyond impressed with you, Emily, like how did you even yourself with the knowledge to formulate these products? Like did you work with someone? Like

Emilie: Yeah, so I definitely have people that are smarter than me in chemistry and no formulations, uh, formulations better, but I will say, so we started with just skincare. And, um, I formulated most of the skincare myself by trial and error. What, what I wanted [00:19:00] for my skin, I would put together some stuff. Oh, that's a little bit too much.

Let's pull that back. And, um, I have five sisters and so I was blessed to be from a really big family and they were my. Guinea pigs all the time. I was constantly sending new formulations and samples out to everyone, and I would bring them to my mom's in a big box. And I was like, everybody take and use and give me real constructive criticism, and no one will give you better criticism than your sisters.

Jacqueline: So true.

Emilie: Um, and so, and they really wanted to see me succeed as well. And so I valued all of the things like, this stinks, or this is sticky, I don't like it. Or, um, whatever it was. And that just made the formulas better. So, so I would think, okay, what is the ingredient that's giving this feel that we don't like?

Okay, let's decrease that. What can we, what can we add instead? But when it came to it is, it was a process. And that's probably part of the reason that, um, tubes grew. Uh, slowly in the, in the very beginning because we were just doing it all ourselves. And I [00:20:00] was just getting on the little Facebook group, selling on Etsy, had a few little things.

Um,

Jacqueline: how you started. Also, when did you start, like how old is cheaps?

Emilie: so, um, tubes will be nine officially this year. Um, but I started formulating Tali bombs in 2014.

Jacqueline: Wow. See, so

Emilie: Well,

Jacqueline: ahead of

Emilie: guess that is nine. That's nine years ago, right?

Jacqueline: Uh oh. 2014.

Emilie: 2014. Yeah, that's 11. So yes, that, that's when, um. After Micah was born, I started formulating towel bombs, but just for us, I was rendering tallow and, and adding some, you know, good pure olive oil in there. And just using it on my kids.

Jacqueline: Yeah.

Emilie: I was giving it away to friends and family members. Uh, my sister Sophie got married and I made these like towel bomb, uh, bridal shower gift,

Jacqueline: Brilliant.

Emilie: was like the first time that I had ever give them, given them out to family.

Jacqueline: That's

Emilie: And it's really funny because I would like be sitting and listening and they would like turn it over and they would say like, be [00:21:00] fat. And I heard lots of murmurings, you know, at the baby shower of like, that's either kind of disgusting or they were like, never heard of it before. And so that was like my very first.

Um, foray into letting people that I knew know what I was making and, and things like that, which was, um, really fun and funny because back then Tallow was, it was not having a moment. It was very much, um, very hippie if you were rendering tallow and making your own lotions, like that was completely unheard of.

And so.

Jacqueline: gonna say, Emily, for like people listening right now who are probably like, what is she talking about? Can you explain like the benefits of tallow for skincare? I mean, I cook with beef tallow, but as you said, tallow is having a moment in the skincare world, so what is like the rage about it?

Emilie: So Talo is 98% bioidentical to our own skin sebum. And then in addition to that is full of fat soluble vitamins. These fat soluble vitamins are only found in animal products. They're not found in plant oils. And [00:22:00] so, um, the vitamins are vitamin A, D, E, and K. And our skin is very receptive to these fat soluble vitamins 'cause.

'cause you know, that is what feeds human, um, skin cells. And so when you're putting tallow on your skin, essentially you are nourishing your skin cells in a way that they were meant to be nourished, right? Because it's animal fat.

Jacqueline: Right.

Emilie: And so our skin re responds so incredibly well. We're nourishing the skin and we're seeing better cell turnover, vitamin A, all the rage.

Um, it's like your natural retinol, right? And so in addition to that, it has, um, fatty acids that are very anti-inflammatory. And so one of the, the main ones or the one that everyone talks about. About all the time is conjugated linoleic acid. It's CLA and beef Tao has very high concentrations of CLA and I wanna go back a little bit and say grass fed beef Tao.

Has very high concentrations of CLA and has correct, uh, Omega-3, six nine [00:23:00] ratio, and our skin is very receptive to that. This is not the same as Specy farm beef. That beef is white. It is, um, like it's not as. Thick, it's waterer. Um, it's like more oily. And so the Omega-3, six, nine ratio is off. Obviously those fat side vitamins are gonna be less.

And so when people are looking for talo, if that is, if, if you're interested and you're wanting to try Talla for the first time, know your source because there are multiple ways to render, which just means melting it, straining out the impurities. Um. And I always love to talk about the fact that tubes is using grass fed Tao and we're rendering it properly because you want to preserve those fatty acids and the vitamins and, and minerals.

So they're, they're sensitive, they're heat sensitive, and so this long, low, and slow. Rendering process is helping to preserve as many of the nutrients as possible. And so people will come and they're like, [00:24:00] oh, I used the, you know, I was using tubes talo, and then somebody introduced me to this and I tried this other one I bought on Amazon or whatever, and I did get the same results.

And I was like, well, because it's the same thing. I try to relate it back to food, right? There's so, like food has a wide variety of, um, grades and you can get olive oil. That's been. Hexane extracted and mixed with another oil. It's the quality is not gonna be there of this beautiful single origin, uh, you know, fresh pressed olive oil.

So obviously that's gonna have a lot more vitamins and nutrients and be better and taste better. The same thing with tallow. The source and the quality really matters. And so, um, you know, that is the, the basis of what Talo is and why it's so amazing for skin.

Jacqueline: What type of skin conditions Emily would benefit the best from Talo? So like you mentioned eczema and like psoriasis. What about women with like acne?

Emilie: So there is a huge misconception. I'm so glad you asked this question [00:25:00] because.

Jacqueline: I was, I wanted you to go down this rabbit hole because I feel like Yeah,

Emilie: Yeah, so there's this like, because Tallows having a moment, there's this new wave of people who are cosmetic surgeons and aestheticians that are saying, I would never put beef tallow on my face. And they're misunderstanding the benefits of tallow or, or, or misunderstanding the fact that it's not comedogenic.

And if you kind of get on Google and you just do a regular chart is beef ta comedogenic, you're gonna hear. Uh, websites that say yes, and you're gonna see websites that say no. This also comes down to quality. If you're getting beef towel on Amazon that's made in China, which plenty of them exist on Amazon right now, um, I, I had to go search it myself because there was a point where like there were maybe three people in the US making towel bombs and selling them commercially.

Um, but now there's. I even more than hundreds, thousands. And you're find it on places like Amazon. So I go in there and I'm looking at all of these and I'm like, where's the, you know, what is the country of [00:26:00] origin? What are they saying about it? Um, I've even ordered one and had it come in just so like, what are people using?

'cause they're emailing us and they're saying, I bought this tele bomb, it's not working for me. Um, you know, what do I do? Um, and so. I looked at it and it's, it's oily. It's, it's definitely tainted with other oils. Um, or it's either, you know, high heat extracted or hexane extracted, um, to deodorize it. And obviously that's gonna give you a completely different product.

So when we are talking about grassed, tallow slow rendered, is it comedogenic? Is it going to hurt your acne? To me, the answer is no. And so it's very anti-inflammatory and it's also nourishing the skin. We have seen people come in who are using the tallow in combination with removing detergents from their face, um, because most cleansers are not real soap.

They're detergents removing the chemical detergents and cleaning their face in a very gentle way, and using the [00:27:00] towel see amazing results.

Jacqueline: Yeah.

Emilie: we've kind of put together a little three piece, uh. A kit that is a charcoal soap, so it's made with Beefalo and it's completely

Jacqueline: to try that. By the way, I have

Emilie: unscented.

Jacqueline: sitting in my, before this conversation, I was going through my cabinet and like 80% is all tubes and co. And I was like, Hmm, what haven't I tried yet? But that is, that is one of them that I'm really looking forward

Emilie: The charcoal soap, and that was probably the first soap that we released. Uh, because that charcoal is binding to the impurities in the skin, the things that cause acne, bacteria, and then washing them out, right? Because the so charcoal. The way it's polarized is a is is a draw, you know, it wants to draw out and so mixed with the soap, which is beef fat, which is repolarized.

Same thing with lie. All soaps are made with a chemical reaction between a fat and lie, and the lie breaks the bond of the fat and. Makes it go opposite. It [00:28:00] repolarizes it. So instead of attaching, it's like a magnetic force to pull away and that's why it attaches to fats that are on your skin oils and things, impurities.

And then when with water, it washes them right off. And that is how a true soap packs. Um. Detergents on the other hand, don't do that in the same effective way. They are washing off oils and things on your, on your face. Um, but they work in a different way that is stripping the, the microbiome and the memory of the skin.

And so we

Jacqueline: Right.

Emilie: people discontinue the use of detergents on the face. Use a real soap and add in base towel for moisturizing, and there's just no comparison to the changes in their skins. I, I love to read the emails and see the photos that come in and people are like, thank you so much. This is where I was, and.

Jacqueline: my life,

Emilie: this is where my skin is now, or my child or my teen.

Jacqueline: right?

Emilie: you know, that is what kind of we, we love to share that with our teen because that is why we do what we [00:29:00] do.

Jacqueline: Yeah.

Emilie: so it's so encouraging to, to see and to hear, and that's why I love Tala for Skin so much.

Jacqueline: I, I love that. And going back to, I mean, again, thinking back in my high school days, I mean with acne, you know, the thing was Neutrogena, right? Everything was Neutrogena face wash, those exfoliators, and again, the irony is that you think if you have oily skin using some type of stripping, face wash, like that might reduce which it does, but then it actually makes your skin produce more oil, right?

So it's not necessarily.

Emilie: A lot of, uh, a lot of the questions that I hear are, I have oily skin. I don't think I should use tallow, which is oil on my skin. And so I always like to give my example because I always had oily skin because I was using those harsh, abrasive things through my teens, you know, apricot, scrub, get as much as you can off.

And so as I, you know, in my thirties when I started using beef tello, I was like, oh, all of a sudden I don't have. What I [00:30:00] consider oily skin anymore. You know, it kind of went more to like normal skin, and I don't even think that I realized. Back then when I first started using it, that it was the tallow, I was like, you know, I'm getting older.

Maybe my skin's not as oily. Yeah.

Jacqueline: Yeah.

Emilie: And then when I really started learning more and understanding how it works, it was like, oh, your body says, oh, it's, I'm oily enough. I have enough. Especially 'cause it's recognizing beef tallow as very similar to your own skin's oils. So I can dial back the production.

Her skin is moisturized enough,

Jacqueline: Right.

Emilie: so then over time your body does dial back that overproduction of oil STAs out and it's. Back to, you know, na uh, normal skin. And so, um, you know, I can't, like, again, I can't say enough things about beef, callow, and skin. I've not seen it be comedogenic at all in myself.

Family. I'm excited too.

Jacqueline: I'll let you know. I'm gonna be like, Emily, I used it. Um, what are your thoughts on exfoliating and [00:31:00] how often should we be doing that, if at all?

Emilie: Yeah, so manual exfoliation, which is like with, um, you know, walnut shells or with something where you're physically removing the dead skin from your, from your face is, I think it's important to do if you have a buildup of dead skin on your face. So if you're not cleansing and you're having a buildup of dead skin on your face that you're not cleansing off.

And so sometimes I tell like my daughter. Just take your fingernail and like, you know, scrape with your finger on an oily part of your skin is all kind of dead skin coming off. And she's like, yes. I'm like, okay, well we need to exfoliate very gently

Jacqueline: Mm-hmm.

Emilie: then we're stopping the beef telephone being able to absorb in our skin.

We've got this layer of dead skin that's preventing it from being absorbed properly. So. Um, I think that just using a charcoal soap and a wash cloth is enough. We don't need all of these, like harsh physical exfoliants.

Jacqueline: Yeah.

Emilie: the only product that [00:32:00] we have at tubes that does have a little bit of physical exfoliant is the glow mask.

It's a dry mask. It's got clay, um, vitamin C, hyaluronic acid. And when you mix that with, you can mix it with water and it will dry and it'll be kind of like. Your typical mask, you can mix it with honey and have a more moisturizing mask. You can mix it with aloe vera gel. There's so many different options for you to add to it, but then when you put it on.

As you wipe it off, it has a little bit of crushed walnut shell in it. That does give you just a little bit of exfoliation. So I feel like personally, um, I'm in my late thirties that I might do that twice a month. I'm like, oh, I'm feeling a little congested. I do feel like I have some excess buildup of.

Dead skin. I will do a face mask. It kind of resets, put on the glow serum. I put on the tallow and then I'm like, I'm good to go. I can feel my skin drinking it in. I, so, I guess I feel like I'm doing it when I feel like my skin's not drinking in the moisturizing products.

Jacqueline: Yeah,

Emilie: Um, and I need some hydration.[00:33:00] 

Jacqueline: that makes sense with that too, Emily, I'm 29 and your skin is beautiful and much more beautiful than mine. So what is the secret? What is your typical skincare routine like?

Emilie: So I'm a mother of five and I have very limited time, and so it, the simpler is the better. Um, most days I will do a good skincare routine at night, um, because I'm taking off the impurities from the day. Then those environmental toxins, whatever makeup that I'm putting on, making sure that I'm removing it at night and hydrating.

But a lot of times in the morning I will use a hot. Washcloth and maybe a couple drops of glow serum and I'm, I'm done. That's all I need because my skin didn't get dirty while I was sleeping. It may, and honestly, now that I don't have oily skin or overproduction of oil, it's also not very oily when I wake up.

So a hot washcloth and a little bit of moisture I might throw on a little bit of, depending on if I'm working or not. Um, so mascara and a little bit of foundation good to go. [00:34:00] Um, but. Also, this is highly controversial in the skincare world, but I make sure that I'm getting sunlight on my face. I, especially that early morning sunlight at the evening right before bed, not only does it reset your circadian rhythm, but that getting that sunlight on your face and in your eyes is also regulating your hormones.

And so I have really made a conscious effort to get up early and go sit outside in the morning before the kids wake up, all the things. Um.

Jacqueline: that.

Emilie: And really have noticed improvement in my skin. And I think that was like a secondary benefit. More than that, I kind of wanted to reset my nervous system, wanted to make sure my circadian rhythm was in check,

Jacqueline: Right.

Emilie: then I'm noticing, you know, better skin and I'm just like, oh, well that's even a, a much better benefit.

So,

Jacqueline: I

Emilie: um.

Jacqueline: on the, on the topic of light, I'm super curious of your thoughts on this. What are your thoughts on red light? For skin health because again, now, like red light is having a, a big moment and we see all of these red [00:35:00] light face masks. I have one, I have a red light bulb too that I used this morning 'cause it's, it's raining here this morning and if I can't venture outside, I'll try to do some red light therapy.

But in terms of skin health benefits, what is, what is your

Emilie: So I totally have a loom box. I have a red light therapy and I still think that we're, you are getting all of those red light therapy benefits in the early morning sun and the evening. Evening sun. So if you don't have a red light and you still want those benefits on your skin, they're free. They're free.

You can go outside and get that early morning sun as the sun rising as and the sun is setting. Um, but I don't have any issue with like at home, in-house devices. I have a little bond charge device and I also have

Jacqueline: Yep. Yep.

Emilie: little loom cube. And I do use them like in the winter when it's harder for me to get that sunlight and or.

Jacqueline: Yeah.

Emilie: if I have an injury and I wanna put it on like a direct part of the body. Like I, I went skiing earlier this year and, and twisted my knee and so, uh, I was using that on that, um, spot specifically. Um, [00:36:00] but definitely a lot of benefits to skin health for sure. I.

Jacqueline: Yeah. All right. Good to know. Um, my other question too for you, Emily, so interestingly, this has become a kind of like fascination of mine is skincare according to cycle phase, right? So there's, I mean, obviously as women are skin changes throughout the month and I notice that my skin looks best like the week or two right after my period.

Emilie: Exactly.

Jacqueline: with that. Are there, I guess certain, like, I don't know, like extra things that we could be doing, like during each week of our cycle to help ensure that, you know, we're not gonna get breakouts in the next few weeks. Or like, does, does your skincare routine, routine based on where you're at in your cycle?

Emilie: So. I don't change my skincare routine because what is affecting the quality of your skin is your hormones. And so to me, I'm gonna change, maybe my supplements change the way I'm eating and try to support internally, um, that gives me the best [00:37:00] results. If I am worried about like a breakouts be the week before my cycle, that that's my body is telling me that something without my hormones is not perfect.

And so how can I support my hormones? Maybe I might take some extra beef, liver and, you know, double down on my vitamin C and make sure that I'm supporting my body internally. And then I will see external results. Um. Well, you can only support your skin so much externally, and so the combination of internal and external, I think is the, your best bet for, you know, seeing that that glowing skin that we all want.

Jacqueline: No, I couldn't agree more with that too. Emily, I am curious, what supplements do you take as part of your daily routine?

Emilie: So I have.

Jacqueline: I just wanna, I just wanna know like everything about what you do. I'm so

Emilie: Um, I love that. So currently, and I, this has changed a whole lot. Currently I take floral essences for just nervous system regulation. Um, being [00:38:00] the CEO of this company has changed and evolved a lot, and so. Um, definitely has affected my nervous system more just because it, there's always something new.

We're always growing, there's always a change. And really that morning sun and the flower essences are like my go-to for regulating my nervous system and being able to handle whatever the day throws at me. I.

Jacqueline: Mm-hmm.

Emilie: In addition to that, I support myself with, um, magnesium first and foremost. So I'm spraying magnesium, taking epso salt baths and taking a magnesium supplement because all of our stress is, is burning through magnesium.

Right. And I think that I have a pretty high burn rate. We've got a lot going on between five kids. We homeschool, I'm running tubes, and because I recognize that my burn rate is higher, I make sure that to supplement with. Magnesium. Um, our entire family is taking mineral drops in our water. I make sure that I get that in in the morning because as we, as you know, that most people are mineral deficient.

And so [00:39:00] when I see little things pop up or I feel, you know, just not my best, I feel like I'm, I'm probably lacking in minerals.

Jacqueline: Right.

Emilie: And so mineral supple supplementation, magnesium, vitamin C, beef, liver. Uh, recently have had some, a few histamine issues. I'll throw in some beef kidney because it's natural, DAO, which breaks down histamine.

But I feel like I've really tried to supplement based on how I'm feeling and, and be very in tune to my body. What, um, what, what do I feel like is going on and how can I fix that? And then when it's fixed and I feel like I don't need it anymore, I might drop that supplement. Um. And so that, that's kind of where I'm at right now.

Um, I do take like sometimes some tar cherry at night. I try, you know,

Jacqueline: similar, Emily. Very similar.

Emilie: and I also think that less is more because I, I want to get most of my supplements from my food, and so I'm eating, you know, pastured meats and grass fed. [00:40:00] We, we kind of homestead and farm here a little bit, so we have.

Jacqueline: dream.

Emilie: Fresh eggs and, you know, good, um, quality beef for the kids.

Um, we have milk cows and so they're getting, you know, delicious raw milk, which I also make sure that the grass that our animals eat is mineral rich because we're only gonna get out of it what we put in. So if your cows are mineral deficient, then you are gonna be mineral deficient. And if, you know, I, I know that our land back here is acidic and mineral deficient, then so will the beef that I'm eating.

And so I tried to like, go ahead of the, a step ahead of the supplements, supplement the food that we're eating, and then eat good quality food. Your body is gonna assimilate that better. You're gonna have more vibrant health. I could definitely tell a difference in my children. Um, and so as I have worked on myself and worked on my internal health, as I had more children, I recognized that they were more robust as well.

Jacqueline: Mm-hmm.

Emilie: so. [00:41:00] I, no, I don't blame myself for my first child having some issues and, and having skin things. And even now, like she might be the first one to get sick or she has allergies when the other kids don't.

Jacqueline: Mm-hmm.

Emilie: it was a huge learning to me that I needed to be healthy because I'm passing on my mineral status to them.

Jacqueline: Yeah.

Emilie: so thinking of them as they grow up and they will become parents. I'm trying to equip them with. Nutrition and a mineral status that as they have children and especially my daughters, that they start off healthy and then they can have healthy children and, and robust, and we know that. Um, health is passed down multi-generations.

Like you need three generations of good mineral status and healthy to, to, to have enough. And I, I listen to Morley Robbins and his podcast a lot. I don't know if you know who that is, but he is the creator of the, um, root cause protocol and he's, his number one, um, study is on magnesium and copper and its effect [00:42:00] on the body.

And so. I've really kind of tailored our life to making sure that our minerals are at optimum levels, and that way we can enjoy the most robust health. And in doing that, I have completely come off of all thyroid medication.

Jacqueline: That's

Emilie: that my thyroid was healed. And you know, we moved to this farm and we changed our lifestyle.

And so I saw immediate effects. Not immediate, it did take some time, but I saw long lasting, long-term effects of

Jacqueline: Yeah,

Emilie: healthier lifestyle. So when people say. Oh, you know, I ate all those things and I'm fine. You know, I grew up eating junk and it's not that big of a deal. I'm fine. What do we consider fine?

Do we consider being on hypertension medicine, on thyroid medication, or all these things that a lot of people in their late thirties, my husband's 44. Um, we are not on any medication at all. And I'm not saying that to brag or to say that we have better health, but just to say that it matters, it matters so much.

Jacqueline: as it should be.

Emilie: Right.[00:43:00] 

Jacqueline: Yeah. No, I love that. I couldn't agree more. And I love that you touched on nutrition because this is something else I want your thoughts on. For someone who does want to start, um, you know, with an internal approach in terms of improving their skin health, what would you say to focus on in terms of food and what would you say to completely omit from one's diet?

If we're looking to focus on skin health.

Emilie: Okay. Um, so if I was really struggling with my skin health and I was looking to transform my, my cellular health in my skin cells, I think the first thing that I would drop is grains and not forever. Um, I don't believe that any food group is meant to be out of our diet forever. I think that it has its place at certain times, but I would drop grains focus on, you know.

Well-cooked vegetables easily, easily digested fruit and pastured meats. You, you're gonna see a huge change if you just focus on that. And then as I saw, [00:44:00] like that's what I did. I dropped all, all grains for my diet, focused on kind of a little bit of a intro gaps, um, style of eating where it was like properly prepared.

Jacqueline: I did, I did gaps for a quick season years ago, um, to try to reverse leaky

Emilie: Yeah.

Jacqueline: when I tell you my skin was glowing, like it was glowing and I did abide by the complete protocol,

Emilie: Yes,

Jacqueline: hard.

Emilie: it's difficult.

Jacqueline: it's hard, but I feel like people today, if you don't wanna go that extreme, you could still just incorporate bone broth and a lot of like the basic principles of it,

Emilie: Drink, you know, collagen rich bone broth that you're making yourself, you're not gonna get this really in depth beautiful collagen rich bone broth from a box or from a can.

Jacqueline: Yep.

Emilie: and so, and it's so simple. I have very busy life, but it's nothing to throw the leftover chicken that we had for dinner in a crockpot with scraps of some veggies and purified water, and turn that baby on and leave it on all night, because the next day it's gonna be absolutely delicious and it's very difficult.

[00:45:00] To get my kids to like drink a mug of bone broth. They're, they're like, nah.

Jacqueline: your house in a heartbeat, Emily. I'd be like, what's a bone broth?

Emilie: Um, and so I just incorporate it into all the other foods that we cook. So I'll take that and I'll use that as the water to cook rice, or I'll use it as the base to a soup or anything that we're cooking and I need a liquid, it's gonna be that instead.

So they're still getting it into their diet and into mine. And we're not sitting there having to sip hot mugs of salty bone broth, you know?

Jacqueline: Right, right,

Emilie: Which I don't mind doing at all,

Jacqueline: Same

Emilie: it's a little bit more difficult to getting into children as well. And so those are kind of some tricks.

Jacqueline: have you ever made bone broth? Hot chocolate?

Emilie: I have not, I know. It's like all the rage right now.

Jacqueline: you,

Emilie: I

Jacqueline: would like

Emilie: They would love it.

Jacqueline: sneak it in. I make it. People look at me like I have three heads, but I'm like, no, you

Emilie: So do you just thank your bone broth and you don't have like herbs or salt, just, um, meat and water or, or the carcass in water.

Jacqueline: Yeah, exactly. And then I'll just add like.[00:46:00] 

Emilie: I will definitely keep that in mind for our, um, hot chocolate season because we love it. I won't, I think they would probably totally drink it because when you're using raw milk in the. The, um, cream rises to the top when you make hot chocolate, you already have like the OA little bit of oiliness on the top, and so I don't think they would even notice like the, the oil on the top of they, they probably would love it.

No ex. Excellent, excellent tip. But yeah, gaps is a, a really awesome gut healing protocol and if you're seeing, um, skin issues, it's most likely a gut connection. And so really focusing on gut healing through. Bone broth and soft cooked veggies and, and quality meat, you are gonna see such a huge difference.

And then add those things in later. So we do freshly milled wheat. Um, we don't eat a lot of grains, but I will freshly mill, um, [00:47:00] kamo is my, like all time favorite right now and make muffins and things for the kids. And one, it's super fillings full of vitamin A and it's good for their, their guts and their di digestive system.

Um, and so that's kind of how we eat in our home is like this. We're going, we're going to eat all the things. We're not gonna exclude any food group, but if we are eating them, then they're properly prepared and as nourishing to the body as possible.

So when I say we don't omit any foods, we don't omit any food groups, but we're not eating seed oils and fast food. And so the seed, seed oils is the fastest way to clog up your skin and. Promote acne. And I'm not saying that we're perfect and we didn't go to a barrel race on Saturday and my youngest daughter was eating french fries.

So that's gonna happen sometimes, right? But, um, I would say not even 80 20, but probably 90 10 we're quality [00:48:00] food at home. And then even when we do go out, we're making, um, good choice gifts.

Oh yeah, for sure. Um, my oldest daughter is 13. She'll be 14. Uh, so she's using Tube. Yeah.

We literally just went through her makeup bag this weekend because like she's starting to wanna, like I say, makeup bag, but she's starting to wanna like add some lip gloss or you know, a little bit of mascara if it's like on a weekend. And so I went through everything and I was like, baby, a lot of this is like a year and a half old because she doesn't really use it.

I was like, let's do a refresh. Let's get a read of everything that you had that's old. It's me and you. We're gonna go to two. We're gonna pick some stuff off the shelf and get you some. Yeah. And so that was really fun. Um, next to that, my son is 12 and then I, I have three sons in a row. They're not using anything, um, at all.

Not for face. They're using our [00:49:00] baby wash is what we use primarily just for bathing. Uh, they wash their hair with the shampoo bar and, and that's as much as I'm gonna, the boys, they want none. And then I have one more daughter, but she is just about to be two, so she's not quite there yet. But yeah, it's, it's a lot of fun.

I really love it.

Well, you know, I think anybody can handle what is given to them in the moment, you know, and I have an amazing husband who is there for everything. Uh, we work together. We both exclusively do tubes and so we both exclusively, I. Do kids do home, do food, um, and do have some help in some areas where we've seen that, it would be very helpful.

[00:50:00] But all in all, we, I prioritize work. I get up early and work, and then once work is done, I, I close the computer, I shut it off and be. That makes a huge difference. We eat lunch altogether every single day because our evenings are just chaotic. And while I would love to sit down at a table and all of us like eat dinner every night, a lot of times we're running to lessons and different things, so that doesn't always.

Um, work out. And so to me, lunch is like the time where we all sit around the table, we're all eating. I make sure that I don't have, you know, any meetings from 12 to one. I go outside and we sit at the table, talk about how our day's going so far and enjoy lunch altogether. And so that makes a huge difference because it kinda like sets the tone for the house for the day.

If anything is going, you know, on, they can bring it up. Early and quick. And then the evenings, um, our kids ride horses, so we're always off to the barn and there's something going on in the evenings. Um, but we [00:51:00] just love it because we're outside, we're watching the sunset, and then we're going, and so. So I actually grew up in South Louisiana, my husband and I both.

And, um, now we live in Baldwin County, uh, Alabama, which is the, as south as you can go. We're maybe 30 or so minutes from the Gulf. Um, and so we. Really prioritize being outside. But Louisiana is, this is a very welcoming, very hospitable, um, culture. And while I absolutely love it, um, we also love where we live now.

And a lot of my family works at Tubes and so I've got my sister and her kids here, our brother and her kids here. Um, and just, you know, some of our family moving out here to just work with groups and his. Really amazing just to kind of have all your family come in and, you know, my sisters, they're always, they're always first ones to try out a new product or, or give new product recommendations.

But, um, it's been, it's been a wild ride [00:52:00] and one that my husband and I have just had to. Link arms and when it gets hard, no matter what, just kind of push forward. And so if I'm kind of falling down, he's bringing me up. If he's falling down, I'm bringing him up. And we've just been able to kind of plow through it together and couldn't do, um, what I do with Adam for sure.

A hundred percent, a hundred percent not losing sight of what the mission is and what our actual goal is, which is to bring people, products [00:53:00] that aren't toxic to their bodies so they can keep that. First and foremost, everything else falls into place.

We do, um, I don't know if I can share them yet because, um, we're still working on like timelines and things like that, but we've got some really fun, exciting things coming for the end of this year. And then we've got a really, some awesome, beautiful offerings and kind of, um, a, a mini brand refresh for next year.

And it's just gonna be. Exciting, um, and just kind of uplevel the, the, the vessels and the, the things that the products are in to kind of fit the market. And so I'm extremely excited about where tubes is going.

I'll just send you some, I, I'll send you some things that are in the works.[00:54:00] 

So just look for us@tubesandcode.com. You can follow us on our social media, on Instagram and on Facebook at tubes and co organics.

I think being well and strong means to me is to have the mental capacity to take whatever life throws at me, whether it's up or down, and it not, um, destroy my frame of mind. I can handle what comes, those fires don't just break you down or make you too excited and that I can actually turn on and turn off work and family and be able to like manage them both in a really healthy way.

Um, I think that's most important to me and what that means to be well and strong.[00:55:00] 

Well, good. Thank you so much, Jacqueline. It's been such a, a pleasure.

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Jacqueline Genova

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