Vintner’s Daughter founder talks the power of plants

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April Gargiulo always knew she wanted to branch out from the family business.

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Winemaking has been in Gargiulo’s family since 1992, when her parents started Gargiulo Vineyards in the Napa Valley.

While she was clear about her desire to do something different, she admits her chosen venture — and just how big it has grown — has taken her family of winemakers by surprise.

“I don’t think they even knew that it was a company that people knew for a while, to be honest. Because, they’re doing their thing. They’re super busy,” Gargiulo says. “It’s not that they’re not supportive, but I think it took them by surprise the first time somebody came to the winery and recognized Vintner’s Daughter before they recognized Gargiulo Vineyards.”

A natural, clean beauty offering that is billed as being cruelty free and climate neutral, the company focuses on creating products that adopt a “fewer is better” philosophy by offering just two products — Active Botanical Serum ($240 for 30 mL) and Active Treatment Essence ($310 for 50 mL at Thedetoxmarket.ca).

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Since its launch in 2014, the line has developed a loyal following of customers that includes celebrity facialists and stars including Gwyneth Paltrow, Hailey Bieber and Naomi Watts.

While Gargiulo’s growing business has seen her step away from the world of wine, she still sticks to the industry’s high standards of creation.

“I grew up in this community that was very focused, and is still very focused, on making the very finest of something,” Gargiulo explains. “And what I was taught to believe that means is that you start with the finest raw materials. And you honour those materials through very meticulous and diligent craftsmanship.”

Speaking from her home in California, Gargiulo says it was her personal history with wine, her struggles with her own skin — coupled with a transition into motherhood, that prompted her to consider putting her appreciation for good ingredients into a skincare line.

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“I had cystic acne and pigmentation, and all of the things that come along as you get older. I was using what I thought were the best products in the world,” Gargiulo says. “It wasn’t until I was pregnant with my first daughter — a super familiar refrain for first-time moms as you start going crazy looking at all the ingredients in all the stuff — and I was just so shocked to discover that these so-called ‘luxury’ products that I had been using were anything but. At least in terms of what my definition was.

“They were certainly very expensive. And they had beautiful packaging. But, what was in them was .01 per cent active ingredients. The rest of it was filler, very low-quality filler that was, in many cases, toxic.”

This realization proved to be the jumping off point for her new brand.

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“That really became the genesis of Vintner’s Daughter — how do I create a true, luxury skincare company based off those same philosophical foundations as the fine winemaking world that I had come from of quality and craftsmanship,” Gargiulo says. “And never cutting corners, never taking shortcuts. Always doing everything it takes to make the very finest of something.

“If you want to make one of the finest wines in the world, you have to really honour the process.”

Gargiulo spent nearly two years developing the formula for her first release. With the aim of creating something “that had a very deep connection to the skin,” she recalls being met with skepticism from industry experts about her idea to start formulations with whole plants, much like the wine industry begins with grapes.

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“It was not clear to me how products were made at that point,” she says. “I went to dozens of labs across the country … and I was turned away one by one. They told me, ‘Oh my gosh, no! This is absolutely not how this is done. You would never start with a whole plant. You use this extract, or this synthetic or this powder. Take it from us, we know what we’re doing. It’s cheaper, it’s faster, it’s better.’”

Instead of caving, Gargiulo took her product development elsewhere, narrowing in on her ambition to make Vintner’s Daughter a skincare line that didn’t compromise.

“Using a powder, using an extract, using a synthetic felt like cutting corners to me. And I refused to do that,” she says. “Had I listened to them, I would have made the same product that everybody else has. And, for me, that wasn’t the point.”

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With its products, which Gargiulo says use ingredients that are “equitably and sustainably sourced” and take three weeks to prepare, the company aims to “feed” skin.

“Most skincare is a meal-replacement bar that’s made in a lab in a matter of hours,” she says. “What we’re feeding the skin is a beautifully prepared meal of food, plated with the freshest of local, in-season ingredients.”

With only two products in the line, Gargiulo says the ambition is to simplify skincare, while also eliminating the usual industry jargon and buzzwords from its vernacular.

“Words are powerful. And, we very purposefully don’t use words like ‘corrective’ or ‘correcting’ or ‘anti-‘ or ‘anti-aging’,” Gargiulo says. “All of these words that really create a fear and an insecurity in a customer so that they buy the product. We don’t play that game.”

Instead, the company looks to offer products that work so well that Gargiulo says the brand has never had to pay for traditional advertising. Though, she admits this approach also stems from her winemaking link. 

“I was coming from the world of winemaking where nobody has a publicist — it’s just not like that,” Gargiulo says. “We have been 100 per cent lucky that we have grown from word of mouth and friend to friend. And, I feel so grateful for that.” 

Aharris@postmedia.com