meet the mama

meet Carly, the original mama behind Not My Mama's

As a mother of two young daughters, I had become increasingly more committed to the clean beauty movement.  I was always pretty careful with the foods I bought for myself and my family, but for many years I overlooked the products I was using on my skin.  When my oldest was about 2.5 years old, she started playing around in my bathroom with my products.  She wanted to use all of my lotions, loved everything with a scent, and of course dove into the makeup drawer.  It was at that moment that I realized how important it was that I make a conscientious effort to ensure that all of my own products were clean.  It made no sense that I was careful about what I put in my body, but not on my body, especially when my own girls had access to it.

As I went through the process of swapping all of my remaining chemical ridden products for clean and natural ones, I thought about my daughters and how I hoped that they could get started off on the right foot and avoid the chemicals altogether.  Perhaps instead of digging around in my drawer, they would have access to their own products that I knew were non-toxic and they loved.  In speaking to my mom friends, many with kids older than mine (I'm 40), they universally told me that they struggled to find basic products for their kids that had safe ingredients and that their kids were excited about.  Most products were full of chemicals or simply made for mom, or parents didn't have the time to obsess over labels.

Having recently sold my last business in digital marketing, and having always had a desire to build a thoughtful consumer brand, I set out to create Not My Mama's.  I wanted to build a brand that moms could trust and shop confidently, and kids would actually be excited about it. Who said personal care has to be boring?

We launched with deodorants because body odor is such a hot topic among tweens and teens and starting out with natural aluminum-free deodorant is so important.  Deodorant is a personal care product that is a daily must, so I wanted a deodorant that was safe, effective, and also fun (check out our amazing scents and beautiful packaging) so that kids are excited to use it and not embarrassed about it.  If it's something that you actually need to use every day, then why shouldn't it also be something you want to use.  Let's be honest, most other deodorants are just plain boring. 

So there you have it.  At Not My Mama's, we are obsessed with getting the next generation of kids started out with a product line that's not only made for them, but that's made right and made for FUN. Finally, mom has an excuse to raid her daughter's bathroom cabinet for products to borrow.

A bit more about me - after living abroad in Mexico City, and Bogota for a number of years, my husband and I settled with our family in Delray Beach, Florida.  (Before that we lived in New York for a long time, though I was born and raised in Philadelphia - go Eagles.)  We are raising our daughters in a bilingual household as my husband was originally born in Colombia, and doing our best to balance our full-time work with spending time with our amazing, and very active, girls.  By the way, my husband and I use Not My Mama's deodorants exclusively for ourselves too - my personal favorite is Day Dream and his is Pool Party.