Ever been on a long flight and wish your skincare routine wasn’t stowed away in your luggage? Founder and CEO of Beyonderway, Jean Colin has the solution for this—and anytime your skin needs a little boost on the go. 

Jean Colin was working a busy schedule in the corporate beauty and wellness industry when the idea for Beyonderway was ignited. Despite the seemingly saturated industry, Colin was still in search of self-care that not only makes you look good, but feel good. Thus launching the beginnings of her brand, Colin attended an aromatherapy school in 2019 to learn and connect with individuals using essential oils in various practices. It was during this time that Colin had what she calls “the epiphany moment” to create essential oils-based skincare.

Now, Beyonderway is harnessing the power of aromatherapy into clean skincare products that can easily fit in a small bag or travel pouch. The brand uses two different proprietary essential oil blends, crafted with aromatherapy experts, in their products. “Essential Blend No.1” (found in the Face & Body Oil and Hand, Face & Body Butter) uses the benefits of helichrysum, frankincense, petitgrain, and lavender to nourish and soothe. The second “Essential Oil Blend No.2” (found in the Face & Body Cleansing Wipes and Face & Body Mist) combines coriander seed, pinyon pine, bergamot mint, and lavender to refresh and calm.

To learn more about the products, V sat down with the founder of Beyonderway herself to learn more about her background in beauty and her journey in creating the brand. 

V: Your website mentions that you were inspired by a “longtime search for a self-care routine that could go beyond the surface”, could you tell us a little more about what sparked the idea for the brand?

JC: Sure. As you know, being in the beauty and fashion luxury industry, I have been traveling so much to attend fashion weeks and business appointments all over the world. For instance, starting at the beginning of the year, I would leave for a business trip after New Year starting with Maison Objet in Paris, France, and then Pitti Uomo in Florence, Italy stretching until mid-March to cover all the events, shows, and markets. And then I would come home for a little bit only to start again with market visits throughout Europe, the US, or Asia. 

Having said that, it has always been stressful to perform at my best at all times regardless of jetlag and changes of places. I grew up in an environment where eating good healthy food based on prime natural ingredients from the best provenance was primordial. Being of Korean heritage, it is almost a cliche to think about Koreans and their obsession with plastic surgery and beauty treatments, etc. but I have always been a stranger to that side of that culture. Being Natural has always been central to all the ladies in our family. And look, they age pretty well! 

I always care about looking good naturally and I always carry my own beauty kits: essential oils, a face mask sheet, rose water mist, face oil, body oil, and cleansing wipe. I was always in love with essential oils even before studying aromatherapy and it was always hard to find a good source of essential oil-based products. Later on, I learned the reason it is very difficult and expensive to create plant-based products with essential oils.

V: What was the process like working with Aromatherapy experts to craft your own unique blend? 

JC: It was definitely an arduous journey. For many many years, my father encouraged me to start my own brand but I had a great corporate career and did not have a clear idea of what to create when everything seemed saturated. In 2019, I attended Aromatherapy school to learn about essential oils as they have always been a preference of mine in terms of beauty products and because I am curious about learning new things. During the classes, I got to meet with lots of talented people who are incorporating essential oils in their own practices such as medical doctors, teachers, nutritionists, specialists in agriculture, massage therapists etc. It is during these classes that I had an epiphany moment. I wanted to create essential oils-based skincare products for people who are constantly on the go. It took me a long time to find a manufacturer willing to work with a small start-up brand like Beyonderway which has its own formula. Most other brands use ready-made formulas from manufacturers. 

V: Could you tell us a little more about the recycled materials used in your packaging?

JC: My philosophy is to use recycled materials to avoid creating new waste and limit plastic use to a minimum. That’s why Beyonderway uses aluminum bottles/jars vs glass. Glass requires more energy consumption in the recycling process and aluminum is more weight efficient reducing henceforth fuel consumption for transportation.

As the founder of Beyonderway, it is crucial to me that sustainability not be just a marketing gimmick. It has to be authentic and truly bring a guarantee of additional quality to the product. For now, I have to rely on the packaging solutions available on the market but as Beyonderway continues to grow, we intend to be able to develop our own solutions with suppliers to continue to perfect the available options. We are constantly evolving. For instance, the current product packaging label is 100 % recycled material without lamination which can result in the label getting stained after use which is absolutely fine. But the next generation of Beyonderway packaging labels will continue to use recycled material but will be laminated and the pump/mister will be changed also to aluminum so plastic is only used for the tube. Even for its mailers, Beyonderway uses a padded mailer with recyclable material so we do not use excessive paper for packaging. 

V: What has been your favorite part about starting your own brand, Beyonderway? Could you tell us how you thought of the name? 

JC: Being an entrepreneur has pros and cons but I am extremely happy to create my own world to bring the products that I believe in and serve a community of like-minded consumers I am pleased to bring together. Finding the right name for my brand was a challenge. In 2020 I started by simply using my name but one year later after the trademark registration was finalized, we were prevented by another brand from using ‘COLIN” as a brand name. So I decided to unite in one word what I felt represented the best: the fact that my brand responds to the needs of consumers who need to rely on their beauty routine while they are on the go! Beyond + Yonder + Way! Wherever you are or wherever you are going, you can take care of your well-being while you are on the go with Beyonderway. 

V: Is there anything that you hope for the future of the beauty industry when it comes to clean products and sustainability?  

JC: Hopefully, big words like sustainability and transparency will cease to be simply marketing buzzwords and consumers will truly keep brands accountable and judge the reality of the products offered on the markets.

V: Are there any upcoming launches that we should stay tuned for? 

JC: Yes! As I mentioned before about the brand name. It took a very long time to have Beyonderway to be trademarked. We finally got approved by USPTO in December 2022. Until then I did not finalize all my branding parts. Therefore you will start seeing final branding elements from the contents to the packaging. The next will be our best seller “butter” with new packaging. You will be the first one to know!