This podcast episode is part of a new series, "Talking To Jane", in partnership with Start it @KBC, (Facebook) a Startup Incubator with the largest Startup Community in Belgium.

In this series, Jane interviews entrepreneurs of Tech Startups, put forward by Start it@KBC. You will hear their inspiring journey's and the role of incubators to start and grow their business.

Here is what is shared and discussed in this episode:

Links and Resources:

• Marleen's company and Social Media Links:
  • http://www.enfleur.be/en/home -  Her blog is on her website
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook (closed)-Enfleurtjes
  • Facebook (public)-Enfleur
• Marleen can be contacted through:
  • Social Media
  • Enfleur website contact form
  • Email: info@enfleur.be
• VIB - VIB is a life sciences research institute, based in Flanders, Belgium. Marleen worked at VIB for 11 years doing Research
• Marleen get's business coaching from Stefan Schippers at Startit @KBC
• Marleen get's further business coaching from team at http://www.thinkwithpeople.be/
• http://www.gova-benelux.be/ - Marleen got a lot of advice on ingredients from this company in Antwerp/Belgium, and she get's mentorship from the owner, who is a Formulator himself.
• Organizations and dermatologist that provide detailed consumer information on ingredients in skin care products. Marleen uses these sites often for consultatation:
  • http://www.cosmeticanalysis.com/
  • https://www.ewg.org/
  • https://www.cir-safety.org/
  • Dermatologist Jetske Ultee - https://www.dr-jetskeultee.com/blog/
  • Dermatologist Perry Romanowski: http://chemistscorner.com

For more:

• Right-click here and save as to download this episode to your computer
• You can find the shownotes to this episode on: http://behindthestory.be/podcast/episode12
• Subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe on Android

• If you would like to be part of my storytelling community, please join my Facebook group here

The interview:

Marleen is owner of Enfleur Pure Natural. She started her company using her experience as a scientist, her passion for nature, and concerns about ingredients in cosmetics, to develop and produce her own brand of natural skin care products.

She has a Ph.D. in Biotechnology and she was (and still is) a scientist and an account manager in the Life Science field for years, before she ventured into entrepreneurship and started her own business.

As a child, Marleen was always interested in plants and animals. Around the age of twelve, she knew she wanted to be a biologist. After finishing her Bachelors in Biology, she did a Masters in Biotechnology and to obtain her Ph.D, she worked at the research institute, Vlaams Instituut door Biotechnologie (VIB), doing research projects in different domains. One of the projects she did was about ecotoxicology and she saw the impact some chemical components of consumer products had on our environment, causing pollution and affecting wildlife. These compounds can even end up in the fats of Polar Bears on the North pole. She believes with good efforts and good will we can help our environment and the generations to come.

Over the years, she got more and more inspired to develop her own skin care products. She experienced some skin problems from creams, other creams lost their effect, and she got concerned about the fact that we don't always get the correct information about all ingredients in commercial products. She then started developing creams with natural ingredients in her lab. Marleen would do research on the ingredients to determine which ones would work and be safe and which ones were toxic and even cancerous. Even though it was more a hobby doing it on a small scale, she decided to start the process of commercializing her products.

Education is key to Marleen, as cosmetic labels are not easy to understand and we are often not familiar with the ingredients. She consults specific databases on websites she trusts. But even information on good websites can be conflicting and contradictory. Also, a negative review or two is not enough to have assumptions about a product. She therefore always verifies specific information and doesn't rely on one source. She sees a role for herself to give her audience simple guidance and clear information.

One of her favourite sites is cosmeticanalysis.com, a quite reliable source. The site provides detailed information on ingredients, as well as scientific references of cosmetic products. To take advantage of some of their detailed information, you do need to become a member. Other cosmetic database websites to check out are EWG and CIR (links at the top). She also reads comments and blogs from e.g.  Jetske Ultee and Perry Romanovski. These dermatologist provide good information as well.

Marleen collects needed information from all different sources, before she draws conclusions. She also relies on her own tests and feedback from clients.

It took Marleen three years before she mastered making and testing her first cosmetic products. It took a while because she was new to the industry, and there were many challenges to overcome, like doing tests, providing safety reports and finding good providers. She also mostly invested her own money. It was a long and at times, dissapointing process, and she felt like giving up sometimes. But now, she can proudly say that after 3 years of development and getting through the paperwork, her creams are not only safe and well tested, she gets very positive feedback from clients on its use.

She offers about 15 skin care products, from day creams to night creams to body creams. As mentioned, many compounds end up in the environment and stay there permanently. Her products are 100% biodegradable, easily broken down in nature rather than adding to the number of used products polluting it more.

While ingredients for cosmetic products are easy the find, good providers are not. As time went on, she learned which ingredients were good, and which providers were reliable. Also she is thankful for expert formulators and scientists she met who helped her on this journey.

She applied to become part of the Start it @KBC startup community and get proper guidance on her business, so that she could grow with her products. She first heared about Start it@KBC during an interview on the radio with new business owners who had had good experience with them. Marleen was hesitant at first, not confident she had a good business idea. But she did apply at the last minute and to her surprise she got selected. She now works closely with Stefan Schippers, who is her mentor.

Marleen was also invited by THINK with People, and was offered mentoring and advice from them as well. She says that these start up incubators helped understanding the business side of things.

One of the first advices she got was to take a good look at her costs and revenue, know the exact numbers, make her calculations in much more details. Even though it sounded logical, it made her see that her she had