local storiesApril 8, 2024

Community Highlights: Meet LĀ SOL Collective

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to LĀ SOL Collective. They and their team shared their story with us below:

Staci Barrett

The brand was started by two lifelong best friends who grew up in Orange County, CA, and attended UCSB together. Angela pursued a career in beauty, and Staci pursued a career in advertising. Always wanted to go into business together, but after one tropical family trip together, they saw an opportunity in the sunscreen business. They could not find on the shelves of any store a well-priced, truly clean sunscreen product that would not rub in their kid’s eyes, didn’t become ineffective after an hour, and didn’t have hormone-disrupting or cancer-causing chemicals. Oh, and that also didn’t make you look like a white ghost.

Min-year 2022, they launched the beauty and wellness brand, LĀ SOL Collective. All products are naturally derived, cruelty-free, and do not include any ingredients that are bad for your body or the environment. All products you can feel safe putting on your skin or your children. They take the guesswork out of clean beauty. The champion product is sunscreen and has grown to 5 products (sunscreen, sunstick, body oil, SPF and non-SPF lip balms). In 2024, they plan to launch a sunless tanning oil so you can keep that summer glow year-round.

LĀ SOL is a self-funded women-owned business that is exceeding expectations in its first two years in business.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There have been a lot of lessons learned over the first two years in business. For example, spending $10k to be in a beauty event in year one was not worth it. It was a fail to join an event like that while promoting only one product, most brands in attendance featured ten+. It made LĀ SOL take a hard look at who their core audience was – it was not customers just into beauty products, but rather moms looking for a safe option for their children and those into their health, people who are conscious of the ingredients they use in products.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Staci Barrett has been in advertising for 30 years. 20 of those years, growing an agency that, when she left, was the largest women-owned marketing agency in the US. For the last five years, she has owned a boutique marketing firm, GRA3 Agency. GRA3 specializes in corporate B2B and B2C marketing. Their client roster includes Allergan Aeshteic (Botox), Rakuten, LendingClub, and more.

After a career building corporate clients’ marketing strategy and delivering on execution plans, Staci quickly realized with her firm, she was best suited to partner with corporate clients. She gets great joy out of giving advice and meets a few times a month with small start-up owners, giving pro bono strategies on how to work through their marketing challenges.

Staci prides herself on having grit with a side of compassion. Getting those traits from her father, who was a high school teacher, putting himself through law school to be a lawyer for 20 years and then was elected by the judges he tried cases before to become a judge. Being elected by his peers was a big honor and came about because of all the pro bono work he did for those less fortunate. Working hard for your success and selflessly giving back to your community are part of Staci’s DNA.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Being 100% honest all the time Karma is real; you get back what you put out

Pricing:

CLEAR Zinc Sunscreen $24.99-$32.99
CLEAR Sunstick $14.99
Lip Balms (SPF + Non) $8
HYDRATE Hair + Body Oil $28.99

Contact Info:

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