April Gargiulo: Vintner’s Daughter
In the competitive world of skincare, Vintner’s Daughter stands out. Its signature serum is lauded as the “Fountain of Youth” by beauty pros, as well as anyone who has tried it! This month we spoke to the brand’s founder, April Gargiulo about her passion for quality and craft, Vintner’s Daughters new product, and the importance of giving back.
LM:Take us back to the beginning. What led you to create Vintner's Daughter?
AG: I was someone who had struggled with my skin for my entire life. I had acne, discoloration and all the fun things that come along with getting older. I was using what I thought were the very best “luxury” products. They were the most expensive and were written about often in glossy magazines. One day I started looking at the ingredients. I was shocked to realize that they were .01% active ingredients, the rest was low quality filler that was also in many cases toxic. Coming from where I was coming from, none of that sat right with me. I come from Napa Valley, a community dedicated to making the finest wines in the world through attention to detail and craftsmanship. Short cuts are not allowed and practically every grain of dirt is considered for its quality. That to me is the true definition of luxury; beginning with the finest raw materials and honoring them through the most thoughtful formulation practices to achieve something even greater than the parts. These products I was using were anything but.
This was the genesis of Vintner’s Daughter. I wanted to build a true luxury skincare company that made products from the finest ingredients in the world, using time-honored techniques in order to bring about profound and lasting balance and health in the skin. It sounds lofty, but I wanted to build a skincare company on the very same philosophical foundations and principles as fine winemaking.
LM: How did your background in design and your experiences as a winemaker influence Vintner's Daughter's products?
AG: The same ethos that fuels the passion behind fine winemaking is what fuels my quest to make the finest skincare. If I didn't have the background in fine winemaking and had I not been exposed to the incredibly dedicated and quality-obsessed women and men of Napa Valley, I would never have been able to create Vintner’s Daughter. Like fine winemaking, our formulations begin by sourcing the world for the finest quality plants and then honoring those plants through weeks-long, temperature-controlled processes. When I first began looking for a place to make Active Botanical Serum I was turned away over and over again by the top labs in the country. They told me that no one makes products the way I wanted to. The labs told me that they would only do it if we changed our formulations to use “faster, cheaper” alternatives. Coming from the winemaking world where a bottle of wine takes 3 years to make, 3 weeks felt like nothing to me. Had I not had that strong respect for what we lovingly call “the speed of quality”, or the time it takes to make something truly exceptional, I would have backed down and accepted their lower quality options. Being from Napa Valley allowed me the confidence in my vision for something truly different and uncompromising in its commitment to quality, performance, and safety.
LM: Vintner’s Daughter products are considered the skincare equivalent of the "fountain of youth", can you tell us more about the innovation process?
AG: Active Treatment Essence and Active Botanical Serum are the yin to the other’s yang. Their formulas were created to complete one another. Active Treatment Essence delivers multi-level hydration and nature’s most powerful water soluble nutrition, while Active Botanical Serum delivers multi-correctional moisture and nature’s most effective oil soluble nutrition. Together, they form a complete skincare system in two simple, yet powerful steps.
At the heart of both of our formulas is our Phyto Radiance Infusion. For Active Treatment Essence, we begin with 13 of the world’s most nutrient-rich botanicals and spend three weeks extracting their full-spectrum of water-soluble nutrition. This is coupled with an additional two-week-long Phyto Ferment component to amplify absorption and efficacy. Added to the 70+ nutrients in the Active Treatment Essence’s Phyto Radiance Infusion are next-generation plant actives including two different sizes of hyaluronic acid, stabilized natural vitamin C, three plant stem cell complexes, probiotics, prebiotics, marine algae, and gentle micro-exfoliators. Skin is deeply hydrated, more plump, firm, smooth, even-toned and illuminated.
Active Botanical Serum’s 100% active formulation also rests on the multi-correctional power of its Phyto Radiance Infusion. It takes three weeks to produce, which is how 60+ of the most skin-beautifying oil-soluble nutrients are delivered to the skin in the most beneficial ratios. We then add a strategic group of proven botanical and essential oils to amplify the activity of the formula. Skin is brighter, more resilient, deeply nourished and radiant.
Through our whole plant nutrition, Active Treatment Essence and Active Botanical Serum affect change at a foundational level by accelerating the skin’s own powers of regeneration, balance, and healing. Even better, the results compound over time and skin becomes more healthy, resilient, and strong with every use. Used one after the other, Active Treatment Essence and Active Botanical Serum create the bedrock foundation to your most balanced, healthy and resilient skin.
LM: Vintner's Daughter combines simplicity, efficacy, and luxury. How did you come up with the formulations?
AG: I had a very clear vision for each product. They had to be multi-correctional, made from the world’s highest quality and nutrient dense ingredients and be 100% safe. From concept to final formula took 2 years for Active Botanical Serum and 4 years for Active Treatment Essence. They were both true labors of love with so many ups and downs, twists and turns. I'm still in awe of both products. They exceeded my wildest expectations for performance.
LM: We love this idea of Girlfriend to Girlfriend marketing. How did this come about?
AG: It is everything for us and is what lets us know we are actually making a difference in peoples’ lives. We have never done any kind of paid marketing. Our growth has 100% relied on Girlfriend to Girlfriend or ‘G to G’ as we call it. We are so proud and grateful that this is what is driving growth. People have real results with Vintner’s Daughter and want to share their experiences with their community.
LM: What is your philosophy when it comes to beauty?
AG: Beauty is about feeling confident in your own skin. It shows itself in how you interact with yourself and the world. When you feel truly beautiful, you have more joy, respect, gratitude, compassion and belief in yourself and the world around you.
LM: Giving back is part of your business model. Can you tell us more about how you are doing this?
AG: I believe it is all of our duty to give back in the ways that we can. For Vintner’s Daughter, that means that from day one we have given 2% of revenue to charities benefiting women and children worldwide. We are able to make an impact with our dollars and joyfully that grows every year. This is not something that we talk about much, but something we are grateful to be able to do because it is incredibly rewarding. Some of the charities we work with include Every Mother Counts, Black Mamas Matter, Futures Without Violence, Project Night Night, Color of Change, Charity:Water, Vitamin Angels, New Story, Dress for Success and more.
LM: You are an entrepreneur and a mom of two; how do you manage to balance your busy life?
AG: It is a simple answer that isn't always easy to achieve. I create priorities around the balance I want to create and ladder back to them. That balance is super personal and ever-evolving. You have to show up, do the work and have gratitude for the opportunity and process. Sometimes I have to be quite brutal about what stays and what goes, but there is no other way.
Interview: Linda Mateljan