EssenZen - Rewriting the Rules of Clean Beauty

The Story of a Brand

Ramon Vela

Business, Entrepreneurship

5 • 145 Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

I always love speaking with founders who are guided by purpose, and Reham Essa’s story is a perfect example.

After years as a pharmacist, Founder and CEO Reham set out to create a skincare brand that prioritizes health, simplicity, and integrity over hype. EssenZen is about more than beauty; it’s about reclaiming what skincare should be: minimal, functional, and rooted in science.

In this episode, Reham shares how her background in pharmacy led to a deeper understanding of skin and a passion for product formulation.

We dive into what it means to create a brand from scratch, challenge industry norms, and speak directly to the conscious consumer. If you're building something purpose-driven or just tired of 12-step skincare routines, you’ll want to hear this.

Here are a few key moments from our conversation:

* Why Reham left pharmacy to pursue her purpose through skincare

* How EssenZen redefines beauty with minimalist, science-backed products

* The challenges and wins of building a bootstrapped brand from the ground up

* Why fewer ingredients and clear messaging resonate in a noisy market

* The importance of staying true to your values—even when growth is slow

Join me, Ramon Vela, as we listen to the episode and discover how Reham is rewriting the skincare story—one intentional product at a time.

For more on EssenZen, visit: https://essenzenbotanicals.com/

For more on Radixir, visit: https://radixir.com/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Skin care in general is you use it every single day, whether you're applying a lot of it or small amount of it.
0:07.2	And I always see skincare as food, food for your skin.
0:11.2	And read it or not, it will go through your system as well.
0:14.2	So you need to make sure everyone may need to make sure that if they're using products for themselves or for younger ones or someone
0:21.2	else, it's safe for them.
0:23.3	Like endocrine disruptors can cause a lot of problems, like migraines, like some hormonal
0:28.9	change, like girls go menopause into their space because if there's skincare product
0:34.1	affecting their health.
0:35.9	You don't see it immediately, but on the long run, you can see huge or major problems in the
0:41.9	health.
0:42.4	So I would love if everyone can explore the right products for them, make sure it's safe before
0:48.7	they just buy anything cheap or something.
0:51.7	It smells good.
0:52.2	It looks good and just apply in this case.
0:54.3	That's actually the message we're trying to spread, which is, even if you're not going to buy my
1:01.4	product, always try to find the right or safe product for yourself and your family.
1:18.4	Hey everyone.
1:19.4	This is Ramon Vela,
1:21.6	and this is another episode of the story of a brand.
1:23.1	Like always,
1:23.9	we have an amazing guest in brand
1:25.4	that we're going to feature on today's show.
	...

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