Get Clean (Beauty): Meet Jessika Noda, Founder of Jiyubox – An All Natural Subscription Box

By Emily Merrell 

When navigating the world of “clean beauty”, it’s hard to know where to look and what to shop for. Jiyubox, is a subscription box that does that hard part for you. Clean up your beauty act and start your clean(er) beauty journey today.

SDS: In the past few years I’ve been hearing more and more about clean beauty. What exactly is “clean beauty” and why should we pay attention to this new movement? 

JESSIKA NODA: Clean beauty is definitely making its rounds in the beauty industry – it’s used as a blanket term to encompass ingredients that are not harmful to our skin. With that being said, many people (and companies) have their own definition of what clean beauty means to them. Since there are no strict regulations in North America about what this means, at Jiyubox we think of clean beauty as a spectrum, and err on the side of keeping ingredients that can be nature identical. This means we’ll work with an ingredient not derived from nature (synthetically processed) but is identical in chemical structure to the same ingredient found in nature.

SDS: While we’re careful with what we put in our body, our skin seems to be so forgotten. Can you talk about the importance of consciousness with what we put on it? 

JN: We should be paying attention to this new movement because it’s important to understand that the ingredients we put on our skin can have an effect on our overall health over time, even if we don’t notice immediate issues. I would say the most important part about the clean beauty movement is understanding what each ingredient is, their benefits (or hazards) and making an educated, informed decision that’s best for your health. A lot of large companies use the term “clean beauty” as part of their marketing. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that every ingredient in the product is good for your health. 

SDS: What are your favorite natural skincare and wellness routines? 

JN: One of my favorite routines is a Gua Sha massage. I don’t always have time to do it, but when I do, oh boy, it feels good. A Gua Sha massage is a facial massage using a specially cut stone (usually jade or rose quartz) and gently massaging the face muscles after applying an oil to the skin. It helps to relieve muscle tension and helps with lymphatic drainage by moving our facial muscles since we don’t move them as often during the day. I’m currently using SCHMEARnaturals Rosehip + Sea Buckthorn Anti-Aging Face Oil with my Gua Sha!

My quick, go-to wellness routine is spraying a few pumps of MIFA & Co’s Eucalyptus Mood Mist into the bathroom while I’m running a shower and turning it into my eucalyptus shower sauna! 

SDS: How does Jiyubox work and how does it differ from products we can find locally? 

JN: Jiyubox is a seasonal subscription box of full sized clean beauty and wellness products made by passionate indie beauty brands. We ship our boxes every September, December, March, and June – or you can shop individual products in our store. I decided to go with a seasonal box instead of monthly because it can take up to 6 weeks for our skin to adapt to certain products, so it didn’t make sense to over clutter our bathroom shelves with too much product. Each box is curated with the season in mind, and what our skin and mind are craving during that time. 

We like to think of ourselves as a “boutique in a box” because the products in our box and our e-commerce shop are typically only found in boutique stores or online from the brands themselves. That makes them more difficult to discover if you were doing research on your own. We also want to make clean beauty accessible to everyone. A lot of the time when we think of clean beauty, we think of pricey products. While it is true that clean beauty products are more expensive than your average drugstore brand, there are a ton of products that can fit within any price range. Most of our products are less than, or fall between the $30-$50 range. 

SDS: Everyone has their “aha” moment with clean beauty – what was yours and what do you wish you had changed sooner? 

JN: My “aha” moment was when I was transitioning to a plant-based diet a few years back and realized that if I was this careful with what I was putting into my body, I should definitely be aware of what I was putting onto my body! I realized that I was doing so much ingredient research into the foods I was eating, that it would 100% make sense to do the same for my skincare products. 

The one thing I wish I changed sooner was my bad habits with makeup wipes – I used them for years not second guessing the damage they were doing to not only my skin, but the environment as well. Since then, I have stuck with using an oil cleanser every night to remove makeup – I’ve never looked back!

SDS: Lastly, what steps do you recommend taking to reevaluate the products you currently use. Any apps, websites, etc. you recommend for starting?

JN: I would say the first step is to really do your research and decide what ingredients are on your no-no list. This will help you quickly weed out which products on your bathroom shelf need changing. I find a lot of great information from YouTube, some of my favorite YouTubers for skin care information are Mixed Makeup, Cassandra Bankson and Hyram . One app I really love is ThinkDirty. They have a whole list of products with different ratings of how clean they are based on their ingredients. You can also scan different products and learn about different ingredients. 

Jiyubox is offering SDS members a special discount! Use codeSDS15 for 15% off anything in the shop or on the first box of a Seasonal Subscription (their Fall Boxes start shipping September 1st!)