What Katari does and most other beauty brands don't.

It is expensive, it is inconvenient, it extremely time-consuming and labor intensive, it is hard emotionally, often physically demanding and yet it is the ONLY way natural beauty should be done.

So many brands these days compete in natural and organic, and yet most of them fall short in this one critical aspect - the most critical aspect of brand trust for any consumer, in my opinion.

When I started Katari in 2010, this was the only way I envisioned building a brand.

My passion for travel and history of humanity brought me to starting Katari and its discovery of ancient beauty rituals and recipes starting from artisans in the Mediterranean.

To discover and to tell stories I felt compelled to go and find those stories and meet those people. To sell an incredible flower rose or geranium water or jojoba oil you need to see where it came from, who made it and how, meet people behind the process and deeply understand the history and the story of each and single ingredient. This means going to the fields, knowing about soils, water supplies, methods of farming, families who proudly farm the land and their lives and so much more.

This knowledge does not come from buying bulk oils from a distributor. It comes from traveling to most incredible, yet often isolated and hard to get to places. It comes from roads untravelled, insanely hospitable people and food that makes you salivate every time you think about it. The travels and the process of discovery do not often become a focal point of Katari product story, but they should.

And as brand founder, I need to do more to share this other product story with you. It is the story of the entire product life - from sun and soil, to water to seed, to hands that harvest it and hands that transform it, to hands that get it to you. 

Sometimes it is hard to tell stories directly from the places where I travel - simply because Internet does not work there. 

It is always easier to bypass all the trouble of misunderstandings, being lost in translation, (not speaking the languages), governments and country-specific peculiarities and just buy from a distributor, but then I cannot tell you the story and explain why Katari collection is the best and how in its simplicity it can answer skin and hair concerns for the entire family. I cannot look you in the eye and tell stories of people I have not met. I cannot describe the process I have not seen. I cannot post pictures of the fields I have not visited and foods I have not eaten. I am just not good enough to make those stories up.

How many people travel to the places where US Department of State recommends and advises not to travel? Not many. I go there because this is where you can find some of the most unique and incredible ingredients and wonderful stories to go with.

Katari is very simple. And very complex. And I believe that what I do and what entire Katari team does now in a few countries around the globe is the movement of unity, learning, understanding and truth-in-beauty; and as all good things they should become a norm.

With love, Kate