01.26.12
By Diane Zokle
of BrilliantFX
I have always had a fascination with skin care. This curiosity would lead me to develop a product that helped alleviate my daughter’s chronic eczema. My daughter developed eczema on her hands and legs that manifested as itchy, dry red raised patches. Her friends at school would often ask her what those unsightly bumps were. After several unsuccessful attempts to alleviate her symptoms with over the counter cortisone, I consulted her pediatrician who gave her a prescription of cortisone that did not work.
At this point my research nature took over since the itchiness and appearance was not helped by the prescription cortisone. I could not accept that in this day and age, there was not a product, OTC or prescription that could help my daughter with her symptoms. Since most of the information I encountered about eczema was nebulous and redundant, I began to research specific patient populations that had problems with wound healing and circulation. I have a strong background in biology and chemistry, have done neuropharmacology research, and possess an MBA. I felt confident that my work and research experience could help me create a solution. I gathered mountains of evidence from all sorts of resources, studied various patient populations and began to gain an understanding of herbal remedies that would go on to be contained in the final formulation.I was in search of a natural remedy for inflammatory-like skin conditions since eczema symptoms are a hypersensitivity reaction (similar to an allergy) in the skin.
I would often read about a natural flowering herb called Arnica montana, especially useful for bruising, swelling and commonly used by diabetic patients who have dry, cracked skin. I began ordering pure flower extract and combined it with various free-acid values of lactic acid, since I was very familiar with the benefits of alpha hydroxy acids in skin care, and since lactic acid tends to be less irritating and moisturizing while exfoliating. I wanted to create a compound that was both an anti-inflammatory and an exfoliant since her skin often felt rough and dry.I used all of my skills, both science training and business acumen, to develop a solution that would relieve her symptoms and as a consequence, I produced a formula that was also useful for individual suffering from dry, itchy and sun damaged skin.
After my daughter’s symptoms were greatly improved, I decided to try the mixture since I would often develop dry, itchy, “ashy” skin during the fall and winter months.I was thrilled when I began to notice that my own skin was greatly improved.I had always relied upon lotions, massage oils, or any combination of lotion and oil to stop my skin from itching and to improve its ashy appearance. Much to my delight, my friends and family started to notice my soft, glowing skin and inquired about trying it. I found myself making up batches of my “magic serum” at home on a regular basis. It was at this time that I thought about manufacturing the “kitchen sink” formula since I clearly had a product that was miles above anything available on the market today for body care.
There are countless products available for face care, but very little that are effective for body care.Since my product had both anti-aging and moisturizing attributes, I changed the formulation to include a higher percentage of lactic acid so that customers could benefit from an ultra moisturizing serum and an anti-aging formula. It was a big leap of faith to take a product to market that was a thicker, more robust serum and was an independent beauty brand.I wanted to create a line of products that was based on sound science and simple ingredients.
Shortly after making the decision to manufacture my product, now called BrilliantFx, I decided to launch my company, Trinity of Youth. The philosophy behind my company is creating products that are based on ancient and traditional natural remedies married with modern day science. I felt it was important to offer consumers products with trusted ingredients contained in simple formulations. So much information is thrown at the consumer today that it can be confusing, frustrating and over promising when trying to select a product.
My product, BrilliantFx is called so because the ingredients are very powerful, simple and tolerable by most every one. I believe that the personal care industry creates a lot of products that are difficult to use long term either because the product is irritating, or too expensive. My goal was to bring to market a product that was effective within a few uses at a good price point.
More info:http://trinityofyouth.com
About the Author
BrilliantFx was developed by Diane Zokle, co-founder of Trinity of Youth, for her then 7-year-old daughter who had suffered from seasonal eczema.
She has a background in combined sciences with a focus on biology and organic and bio-chemistry, combined with an MBA from Case Western Reserve University.Zokle spent the early part of her career in neuropharmacology and researching benzodiazepines. Diane then went on to oversee a grant for the National Cancer Institute (NCI)/National Institutes of Health (NIH) and had the opportunity to oversee various medical and basic science academic research grants and applications, gaining experience in cancer morphology and pathology. In her business career, Zokle began as a consultant with various corporations and offered expertise in financial benchmarking and re-engineering. She went on to create various firm-wide educational and sales and marketing programs for Ernst and Young Global. In addition, Zokle has spent a number of years in the healthcare medical devices and software development industries.