Karen Behnke has been involved in health and wellness for most of her professional life. She founded the PacifiCare Wellness company in San Francisco in 1983, and helped build one of the largest fitness chains, 24 Hour Fitness.
But it was only when she became pregnant with her first baby, at 40, that she realised she had been overlooking the importance of selecting beauty and skincare products that were good for the body as well as pleasing to the eye. So she started Juice Beauty, an organic skincare line.
"It was the first time I ever picked up a beauty product and read the label. Before I would work out, be very careful about what I was eating and read the labels of my food. But beauty products I just slathered all over me," said Behnke, who was in Hong Kong promoting her brand at the A Beauty Bar in Causeway Bay on Monday.
"But when I was pregnant with my first baby, knowing that our skin absorbs over 60 per cent of what is put on it, I couldn't believe everything that had been banned from our food was in our beauty products."
Behnke thought she could do better. She spoke to physicians, dermatologists and plastic surgeons and developed a skincare line based on natural ingredients that make use of beneficial minerals and antioxidants.
Most water-based beauty products dilute the ingredients, while petroleum-based products suffocate the skin. Behnke decided to use juice as the base for her line, although she had to overcome its perishability.