• by Steve Ellwanger , March 6, 2020

Kris Ravenscroft discovered the power of natural remedies when they helped her recover from an illness. After she and her husband sold their Massachusetts-based medical-device company in 2017, they moved to Boulder, Colorado where Kris started the food and beverage company Beauty Gourmet.

Having launched last November, Beauty Gourmet is positioned as a woman’s wellness company with the motto “Feed Your Glam.” Its Glitter Tea line contains such ingredients as the Amla berry, the plant-based substance Ashwagandha and grape seed extract.

In this interview with CPG FYI, Beauty Gourmet president and CEO Ravenscroft talks about the rise of women’s wellness products and her company’s recent inclusion in the second PepsiCo Greenhouse program, which supports emerging entrepreneurs and brands in the food and beverage industry.

CPG FYI: So you’ve taken tea, which can be considered functional in and of itself, and added things most people have never heard of. What do those ingredients do?

Ravenscroft: We make our teas additionally functional by adding what we call ‘beauty nutrients.’ We chose them specifically because they’re beneficial to women for full-body wellness, as well as beauty. Because we believe that beauty is inner health radiating out. 

Some of our ingredients are good for digestion, good for the liver and for collagen synthesis. Grape seed extract is wonderful to help prevent the kind of cellular damage that can cause premature aging. We like to consider ourselves a women’s-wellness company in pretty packaging. 

CPI FYI: What’s the background on Amla?

It has a history of being around for thousands of years. Women have used it for beautiful hair and skin. Plus, it’s good for digestion and good for the liver.

CPI FYI: So your target audience is strictly female?

Ravenscroft: The truth is, my husband, who assists in the business, feeds his glam twice a day. Men love this beverage. When we do shows, men are a large portion of the people who have begged us for full cans. 

Our main audience is the busy, modern woman in the go—typically between the age of 25 and 45. Our mission is to make self-care more convenient for the modern woman, because that’s an issue right now. So that’s our focus. 

CPI FYI: Tell us about the flavoring.

Ravenscroft: Men typically expect a sweeter, more flavored beverage, and a lot of functional beverages are very flavored and sweetened to hide the functionals. We took a long time to design these beverages to be lightly flavored and lightly sweetened, because that’s what women prefer.

CPI FYI: So right now you’re available only online?

Ravenscroft: We launched in November on our website, and our Amazon site has just gone up.

CPI FYI: Beauty Gourmet is one of many startups that put a lot of effort into presenting at Natural Foods Expo West before its postponement earlier this week due to COVID-19. What did you hope to accomplish there?

Ravenscroft: We were attending Expo West to look for funding, primarily. Our brand has an established [intellectual property], a unique branding position in the market and the ability to be a market leader. So funding right now would really help us with a retail launch. We did get a $20,000 grant from PepsiCo that we’ll put toward our marketing budget. 

CPI FYI: You’re referring to PepsiCo’s latest Greenhouse initiative, which just accepted 10 companies. What’s exciting about that?

Ravenscroft: One of the things that I love about PepsiCo is they recognize female-forward wellness as being a huge, emerging category, and they support female founders in multiple ways. Now they’re supporting female-founded wellness. They recognize that they’re looking for innovation.

CPI FYI: What about retail distribution?

Ravenscroft: We are talking to certain distributors and trying to make good choices, like doing a geo-targeted study and then launching in retail, which is what PepsiCo is helping us with. So we can make sure that as we expand nationwide, we can be successful.