Eddie

Growing up in America with my Okinawan grandma in the house, I was raised with both Eastern and Western culture. Of course different sets of food, language, and spirituality were daily ingredients in the blend of my youth, but another frequent addition was medicine.

When I had a fever, I might take Ibuprofen. If I had a stomach ache I could take Tums. If I mentioned these ailments to my grandma, however, it was herbal teas and bitter broths. This was also true when it came to my skin. If I cut myself or had a rash, my grandma would break open a leaf from her aloe plant, and spread the healing juice on my skin.

As I got older and started getting into skincare, I bought countless products. Creams, face pads, face masks, toners, spot treatments, scrubs... the list goes on. Despite my constant effort, my face was usually still struggling. It was around this time that my grandma was telling me about her childhood in Okinawa, mentioning that ヘチマ "Hechima" (sponge gourd) was not only a food but a skin remedy. She told me they would split the vegetable open and apply the juice to their faces.

This story sparked a new stage in my skincare journey. I began studying skincare ingredients, striving to understand everything I would see on product labels. I found that most products had many synthetic and harmful ingredients, and searched for new products with the most natural formulas I could find. My skin became better than ever, but I still felt like I hadn't found the perfect products. The next stage of my skincare journey is Okra Origins, and I'm just as thrilled to use it as I am to create it!

Victoria

The vision behind this brand begins in the kitchen. When I was young, my mom, sister, and I loved cooking together. We made various foods from all over the world using the ingredients we had lying around the house. When we came to America, my grandma stayed in China, but my mom wanted to bring bits and pieces of her pantry into our home saying that “foods are the cure to homesickness”. 

As a first-generation Chinese American, my pantry is not of the ordinary. It's filled with obscure dried melons, crazy looking roots, and strong smelling ancient herbs; but what they all have in common is that each ingredient has many purposes. As I was cooking and looking up substitutes for certain ingredients, I was also looking up the benefits, and this is where my curiosity was sparked. 

During my early days in college, I started eating foods like fried chicken and chips. My throat would feel sore and I saw more pimples. In Chinese Medicine this reaction my body was feeling is called, 熱氣 “Yeet Hay”, which refers to the build-up of heat internally. All throughout college I would come home and ask my mom to make me soup (with ingredients like Winter Melon, Adenophora Root, Goji Berries, Red Dates, Monk Fruit, and Ginseng). I would instantly feel less fatigued and my pimples would go away overnight. This is when I realized the power of neutralizers, and the deeply profound meaning of “Yin Yang”. We want to bring this concept to skincare so that your skin can find its “Yin Yang”, without having to study these Asian practices.

I learned about caring for my own skin from my mother and grandmother. With Okra Origins, we want to immerse these ancient insights into formulations. Through meticulous selection of our ingredients to storytelling around application and routines, we can share this knowledge far beyond our kitchens for generations to come.