Rancho Santa Fe-based Lovesong Beauty keeps it fresh and eco-friendly

With 15 years of experience working in the natural product industry, the concept of clean, environmentally friendly beauty products was not new to Rancho Santa Fe resident Emily Bowman. Even as she watched the quantity and quality of the items available in the market grow, she still saw a big piece was missing. “There’ve always been more options for natural skincare available — and good options — but when it comes to haircare products, there really aren’t a lot of brands,” she says. “Anyone who wants to clean up their haircare routine may try some of these [existing] products and be turned off by basically the efficacy of the product, so I definitely saw that there was a need to make products that work like conventional alternatives but that are made with natural and organic ingredients.”

Recognizing that, she did what any industrious, knowledgeable entrepreneur would do: she launched her own line of natural haircare. Together with her husband, Matt, Emily founded Lovesong Beauty this past February, debuting with two products: a dry shampoo gel and leave-in conditioner — both organic, vegan, and non-GMO, and made free of sulfates, petroleum, phthalates, and synthetic fragrance. The pandemic way of life, in a way, shaped why she chose to start with these, as well as her own personal preferences. “We’re all at home more right now, we’re not washing our hair as much, and the dry shampoo options that are available, I personally just wasn’t a fan of,” she says. “I wanted something that was both a dry shampoo plus a scalp elixir that would work toward making your hair healthier over time. An ointment leave-in conditioner is another finishing product, and you’re taking care of your hair from root all the way to tip, so it seemed like the two of them would be a great pair at that point to initially launch.” 

With her depth of knowledge in the realm of natural products, Emily is responsible for ingredient selection in the Lovesong suite. “We really wanted to focus in and make sure that these formulas were perfect,” she says, noting that it took months to get them just right. As a result, says Matt, “We feel that we hit a home run with the formula.”

As both a consumer and a professional in the industry, Emily is well aware of the ambiguity that sometimes can be confusing for those seeking a truly clean brand. “You get products and you don’t necessarily know whether they have gone through any testing, you don’t know what the shelf life is, you don’t know if what’s on the ingredient label is accurate,” she says. “I think that there’s a fine line between small businesses that maybe are making products from home or are making products not in a way that is at a level where you could sell them nationally, and then [there are] big companies that really are just thinking about the bottom line.” Though Lovesong is a small, bootstrapped business, Emily says that they are able to accomplish both making their shampoo and conditioner as natural and organic as possible as well as conducting the appropriate and required testing (cruelty-free, of course), so that the products can scale to be sold on a national level with a two-year shelf life and a stable, consistent formula. “We tried to take away that small brand scare about ‘What actually is in this bottle?’ and ‘Where’s it made?’ and ‘Is it clean?’” explains Emily.  

She acknowledges that for some, switching from conventional brands to natural alternatives can initially require some patience. “They may feel a little bit different or look a little bit different from the products that you’re used to, but once you make that transition, you feel good knowing what you put on and in your body is truly good for you and made with love,” Emily says.

Currently available on the Lovesong website, the Bowmans’ goal is to ultimately expand the line and make the brand available in luxury department stores and traditional beauty channels. “Anything that really makes you feel good, that’s something that I’m definitely interested in developing,” says Emily. “Our goal as a brand is to one day become a destination where people know that they can come to Lovesong for really high quality natural and organic products.” lovesongbeauty.com