Haris Wellness, a new beauty and wellness incubator, is packing a punch with its first brand Safi.
Entering the exploding CBD field, Safi distinguishes itself with high concentrations of the cannabis ingredient in isolate form and thorough product testing. It’s starting with five pain and stress management items—Daily Soothing Moisturizer, Intense Relief Cream, Pain Melting Balm and Daily Wellness Tincture in two strengths—priced from $28 to $140 and containing 300, 400, 500, 1,500 and 3,000 milligrams of CBD, respectively. In contrast, Lord Jones’ High CBD Formula Body Lotion sold at Sephora has 100 milligrams of CBD.
“We are aware of brands in this space claiming they have CBD in their products that have zero CBD in them. There’s a lot of fairy dusting going on in this industry, and we believe that, if you are doing a product for pain and stress management, it really needs to help you with that. We are creating an elevated line that improves people’s lives,” says Safi co-founder Robyn Watkins. Kay Kazmi, also co-founder of Safi, continues, “We wanted to make sure we offered more than what the competition was offering to have products that are potent and efficacious.”
Kazmi and Watkins explain Safi secured third-party laboratories to analyze CBD from six sources prior to choosing one for its formulas. Derived from hemp cultivated in Kentucky, the CBD is free of THC. The word safi means “pure” in Arabic, underscoring that the brand’s CBD is 99% pure. Lab results can be accessed via a QR code on Safi’s packaging. In the tinctures, CBD is combined with organic coconut oil. Aloe vera, avocado oil, cacao seed butter, eucalyptus oil, camphor and lavender are among the ingredients in the other products. Safi avoids parabens, phthalates, mineral oil, retinyl palmitate, artificial colorants and additional ingredients deemed harmful or irritating.
“We have noticed a lot of confusion between cannabis oil, hemp seed oil and hemp extract. What is truly CBD and what is not? We just wanted to put out a quality product that has pure CBD in it.”
Watkins emphasizes Safi is dedicated to providing clean, powerful CBD products that cut through the hype and misinformation in a category filled with them. “We have noticed a lot of confusion between cannabis oil, hemp seed oil and hemp extract. What is truly CBD and what is not? We just wanted to put out a quality product that has pure CBD in it. There should be no confusing back and forth about whether it’s hemp seed oil or not,” she says. For the record, hemp seed oil doesn’t have CBD, but hemp extract does. Cannabis oil has THC, the constituent of cannabis producing a high. CBD doesn’t produce a high.
Watkins and Kazmi single out Safi’s Pain Melting Balm as a potential bestseller. Kazmi touts that it has an appealing lightweight texture and is less messy to rub onto the body than oil. The tinctures, though, are expected to give Pain Melting Balm a run for its money. Watkins says Safi’s tincture formula tastes better than most on the market. She notes, “It’s easy to incorporate into your daily lifestyle. It gives you a sense of clarity and focus.”
The target customers for Safi are “cannabis-curious” wellness enthusiasts, according to Watkins. They might be experiencing sore muscles or anxiety and searching for natural alternatives to conventional medications. To be available to its customers, Safi plans to pursue spas, high-end stores, upscale marijuana dispensaries, practitioners’ offices and natural grocers for distribution. Watkins suggests Whole Foods would be more suited to Safi than Sephora because the brand isn’t geared toward beauty junkies. On Safi’s website, products can currently be pre-ordered. They will ship May 24.
“Haris Wellness is really about moving wellness forward into the next generation.”
Safi’s aesthetics lean in the spa direction. The topical products are housed in green glass containers fastened with caps featuring a wood design. The look is intended to be straightforward and classy. In its imagery and through social media marketing, Watkins and Kazmi mention Safi will spotlight a wide array of people to acknowledge the roots of cannabis and communicate with a varied audience.
“We understand a lot of plant medicine comes from indigenous people, and it’s repackaged in a modern way and sold back to us. Kay and I hope that the brand can speak to people of color where wellness modalities often originate from,” says Watkins. She elaborates, “Safi aligns with a diverse group of people and value sets. There are people not being represented in the wellness space, and we want to further the wellness narrative.”
Haris Wellness invested roughly $600,000 to get Safi off the ground. Watkins, a beauty industry veteran previously holding product development and brand management positions at Markwins, Arbonne and Smashbox, and founder of consultancy Holistic Beauty Group, is well aware brand success usually doesn’t happen overnight. Safi isn’t pushing to achieve tremendous growth at the outset, but rather is trying to slowly build a strong business. Its goal is to sell 10,000 units in its initial year. Watkins says, “We think that’s a modest goal, and we have full inventory in terms of packaging to support that goal.” A big challenge for the brand, which prefers to keep its prices as accessible as possible, is increasing CBD costs. Haris Wellness is considering purchasing 100 acres for hemp farming to control its CBD supply and pricing.
Kazmi’s family members back Haris Wellness financially. The company describes them as “entrepreneurs from the manufacturing, product, automotive, and import and export” segments. No further details were disclosed, but Kazmi shares she spent five years in product development prior to the establishment of Haris Wellness. The second brand from the company is scheduled for release by spring 2020. It’s exploring unique formats for products such as therapeutic air and advanced patches, and categories that aren’t oversaturated like eye health. Watkins says, “Haris Wellness is really about moving wellness forward into the next generation.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.