Andrea Pierce-Naymon of Akron, OH always trusted the brands of cosmetics and skin care products she purchased. It wasn’t until her daughter became sick with a mysterious illness that she began to investigate the ingredients of these personal care brands she and her daughter used—and decided to create her own natural brand instead.
 
The result is OY-L (the name stemming from oil-based skin care)—a new line of natural, luxury personal products ($16-$60) that debuted this summer at the Indie Beauty Expo in New York.
 
The OY-L product line consists of a body butter, body scrub, bath salts, a face wash, hydrating facial mist, an exfoliating mask and a face cream. Each SKU is available in four scents: pink grapefruit, lavender, litsea basil and tiare lime. The line isn’t tested on animals and is free from phthalates, parabens, DEA/TEA/MEA, color pigments, formaldehyde, preservatives, isopropyl alcohol, mineral oil, PEGs, propylene glycols, sodium lauryl sulfate, triclosan, talc or petrolatum.
 
Instead, OY-L products are said to include naturally healing plant components, minerals and essential oils. For example, Pierce-Naymon uses rosehip oil because of its essential fatty acids, vitamins E and C and beta-carotene. Other noteworthy ingredients in OY-L products are manuka honey 20+, frankincense essential oil, pink Himalayan salt and lavender essential oil.
 
According to Pierce-Naymon, the hero product of OY-L is the exfoliating manuka honey facemask. 
 
“Manuka honey is produced by bees that pollinate the tea tree bushes in New Zealand. I only use 20+ UMF which means the manuka honey’s hydrogen peroxide, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties are medical-grade,” she explained. “Manuka honey has the ability to stimulate production of special cells that can repair damage caused by infection. It’s definitely a consumer favorite!”
 
Pierce-Naymon, together with a group of private investors, formed OY-L Skin Care, LLC earlier this year. The company is a well-capitalized start-up, as opposed to a home-based business, Pierce-Naymon contends. The funds have been used to market the brand and establish laboratory facilities and the operational capacity to reliably fulfill orders. On every product label there is a hand-stamped number—this number represents the specific batch of origin.
 
“Like many indie companies, my first consumers were friends and family where I gave away product as gifts and everyone loved them. I knew I had something special because not only is the entire OY-L skin care line all-natural and free from toxic chemicals, but people were telling me how the products were helping with skin problems when nothing else seemed to work,” Pierce-Naymon told Happi.
 
During this time, Pierce-Naymon’s brother, Daniel Pierce, was looking for a company that needed an investor and he was amazed at the response to OY-L products. No stranger to entrepreneurship, he founded and led a business and technology consulting firm for 25 years and recently transitioned ownership to the employees. Currently he is providing seed stage investment and advisory services to promising start-ups such as OY-L.
 
Products are currently sold on online at www.oy-l.com. OY-L will donate 15% of sales of the bath salts and body scrub to Dysautonomia International, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding a cure for dysautonomia, the category of illness in which Postural Orthostatic  Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) falls. Pierce-Naymon’s daughter is afflicted with POTS.
 
“My goal with OY-L is to ensure that there are no beauty secrets in our products – that nothing harmful or toxic is lurking in the list of ingredients on our labels,” she said. “As the business grows, it’s important to me that I maintain the brand’s independent, artisanal, rootswhile at the same time look into ways to improveproductionto handle the increase in demand.”