Madonna Lily skin care is easy on the earth and the soul

Raluca Giurgiutiu and Diana Morari founded Madonna Lily in 2018 with the mission to provide healthy, synthetic-free skincare that's equally friendly on the planet.

Raluca Giurgiutiu and Diana Morari never expected their beauty routines to turn into a full fledged business.

For Morari, creating homemade sugar scrubs, lotions and natural cures was second nature. Only after friends kept begging for refills did Giurgiutiu notice there was a lack of sustainable and skin-friendly products on the market.

In 2018, Giurgiutiu and Morari founded Madonna Lily, an online body care company focused on all-natural ingredients and reusable packaging. Giurgiutiu and Morari, who both hail from Romania, moved to New Orleans after finding their footing with markets in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Madonna Lily offers clay masks, facial serums and bath soaks all made with sustainably and ethically sourced ingredients.

Vintage Green Review, a bulk refill store on Magazine Street, is the New Orleans refill spot for Madonna Lily customers.

Giurgiutiu and Morari discussed their dedication to all-natural skin care, the need for sustainable packaging and the ups and downs of running a small business. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What motivated you to start Madonna Lily?

Lotion bars are one way that Madonna Lily chooses to reduce waste in their product packaging decisions.

Morari: My grandma raised me for a good chunk of my life. She was an old-school housewife that always used herbs for healing, which made me naturally inclined to make my own products. I was always mixing things in bowls and bringing Ziploc bags of body scrubs to my friends. Raluca was the first to realize that we could sell these things.

Giurgiutiu: We noticed if we have this issue finding natural and synthetic-free products, other people must be struggling with it as well, so we decided to put it on the market. In 2018, after bouncing back and forth from Massachusetts and New Orleans, we decided to move here full-time. There's a strong community here, with connections and people we can count on.

You make everything in house. What's that like?

Giurgiutiu: We have a separate studio where we make everything in small batches. It’s all original recipes, made from scratch. No synthetic ingredients, no harsh chemicals or preservatives, nothing bad for you. We use nature to make our products. The ingredients that we choose are meant to help with your skin, but also your soul.

Morari: Living in New Orleans, in a very humid, hot climate, it can be a little challenging for natural products because they naturally lose color from the sun and the heat. For me, building recipes is the fun part. … We try to use local herbs and things growing in our garden like roses and mint, as well as support small businesses around town.

Why was it important to focus the company around reusable and compostable packaging?

Raluca Giurgiutiu encourages customers to reuse the packaging of their skincare products. "We always try to tell people that they can reuse as much as possible, just to give the packaging another life instead of throwing it out or recycling. Once you’re finished with the product, you can use the container for spices, office supplies, hair clips, jewelry..."

Morari: Growing up in Romania, we always reused jars and containers. You open the fridge and grab sour cream container, and you open it and it’s got soup. You could never trust a container to be what it says it is. Packaging is an issue in this country. It bothers me a little bit when I see Instagram marketing packages. It’s like 10 seconds of “oh, it’s so beautiful,” and after that, it becomes trash.

Giurgiutiu: Isn’t it more important what’s on the inside than on the outside? We always try to tell people that they can reuse as much as possible, just to give the packaging another life instead of throwing it out or recycling. Once you’re finished with the product, you can use the container for spices, office supplies, hair clips, jewelry …

Morari: Snacks.

Giurgiutiu: Yup, definitely snacks too.

Morari: It’s always difficult to find sustainable packaging that works for the products we have. When we tried compostable bags for our bath salts, the salt was eating through the bags. Glass doesn't work since it would break in the shower. We ended up using plastic containers that can be refilled at Vintage Green Review. … Unfortunately, plastic is always cheaper than everything else, and people often choose to make money over being conscious about the planet. We have to remember that we’re doing the best we can do.

Giurgiutiu: When it comes to being eco-friendly with body care, there's other ways to reduce waste as well. If you have a product you don’t like, gift it to a friend or family member. Always make sure to do research before shopping. We don’t want anyone to buy something and just leave it on a shelf. It’s meant to be used.

What have been some challenges that you've faced in growing a small business centered around sustainability and artisanal products?

Madonna Lily skincare and cosmetics products come in glass bottles and reusable containers that can be refilled at Vintage Green Review on Magazine Street.

Giurgiutiu: One of the hardest parts is doing this on a low budget. When you're small, you have to buy everything in small quantities. It’s also hard to explain to people that your skin is worth investing in.

Morari: Working for yourself is tough, too. It’s a lot of work, especially in the beginning. But there’s something very rewarding, something for yourself, and I like that part of it. When we get a good review it makes our day, since it's just the two of us that do everything. From making products to packaging, everything is made by us.

Giurgiutiu: Printing, labels, website design, website maintenance, bookkeeping, social media manager …

Morari: We always joke that our dogs are our assistants.