It was 2011 when Adina Grigore started making skin care products with a limited number of ingredients inside her Brooklyn, NY kitchen. Now based in Denver, CO, Grigore shares her story “about fighting the good fight” as her S.W. Basics brand continues to expand nationally. 


Before I started S.W. Basics I was:A holistic nutritionist and personal trainer. 

 
Our hero product is: Our 3-ingredient cream! It's super rich and water-free. It healed my skin tremendously and is the reason I started the company. 

 
Our newest launch that has me most excited is: Our Single Ingredient Packets. We're cutting back more and more to let people learn what works for their skin and how easy it is to play with natural ingredients. 

 
Who is a person you admire in the business world? Kristin Shane (founder of Fly Fleet Running). She left an amazing corporate job after 11 years to start her own health and wellness business. She created a fitness environment that's inclusive and kind and actually hell-bent on educating people, and she's crushing it. Without any outside investors she's opened her second location, and the whole thing is just mind-blowing and inspiring. 

 
Sarah Duran and Brad Pearsall, founders of Bröö hair care ask “With all the challenges and difficulties involved in launching any independent brand, what is the one thing you love about your brand, that keeps you pushing forward to success?”The feeling of making an impact on people's lives, and the feeling that we're doing something that's right and good for the future. There are so many products that aren’t great for us and aren’t great for the planet, and in the beauty industry you have an added layer of emotional impact being inflicted on women where we just don’t feel great about ourselves (whether that’s feeling ugly or old or fat). I like feeling like we're fighting a good fight. 
 

In 2018, S.W. Basics will: Truly get the word out about who we are and what we're doing!


Happi first interviewed Adina Grigore in 2015. Her book, “Skin Cleanse: The Simple, All-Natural Program for Clear, Calm, Happy Skin,” published in hard cover in 2015, is out in paperback. Grigore’s newest book, “Just the Essentials,” a modern guide to essential oils, is available this month.