Now, more than ever, we need to pause in our daily/weekly routines to take care of ourselves. What better time than now, to take care of the largest organ of your body (your skin) . Make sure that it’s just as healthy as the rest of you, especially during this time when it is so important to stay healthy.

Bay Area Beauty Brand Free +True was formulated to “free you from unhealthy chemicals + complicated routines.” This tightly edited skincare range offers more than feel good, smell good products. Simply said, they can transform your skin.

Founder, Tami Blake, is a multi-hyphenate if there ever was one; beauty entrepreneur, licensed esthetician , certified cosmetics formulator, eco-warrior, adventurer + Mother. Tami created this line for women like herself; women who have an active lifestyle + want a convenient at home skincare regimen.

Each formula has been handcrafted in California using locally grown botanicals, boosted with high tech clean ingredients. FREE + TRUE fills the niche of simple , effective clean beauty that delivers results.

We first brought FREE + TRUE to Supple’s shelves just a few months ago, not long before the shutdown. Fiona had been introduced to the brand + shared it with me. Soon after placing our opening order we placed a re-order. I quickly became addicted to the Moonlight Milk ( I LOVE a balm cleanser! ) + Body Prophet.

Body Prophet is an award winning creamy gel serum loaded with skin soothing, free radical fighting botanicals like sea buckthorn berry + rose flower extract to tone + firm skin. I love it because it feels like the best of two worlds; a body oil + a body cream. I use it daily right out of the shower + my skin quickly absorbs it.

My other new obsession is Mama Pacha. Inspired by the resilience of the Andean Goddess of fertility “this tough mother lives up to it’s name.” Infused with arctic peptides that are known to thrive in the harshest environments, this moisture cream infusion supports skin resilience too.

But enough about my FREE + TRUE obsessions + more about Tami. After the initial shock of Shelter In Place (AKA Frozen In Place) wore off, I started thinking about local brands we carried + their founders. I wanted to be sure to support them as fellow small business owners.

I reached out to Tami to talk shop + see how she was doing. I wanted her to know how much we loved her line. We’ve never had the chance to meet in person, but we will. Supple will be sure to host her at Supple when the time is right.

We would love to introduce you to the FREE + TRUE lineup + her simple, yet very effective Universal Routines. They are perfect for times like this when life is Covid-Complicated + may not have time or the bandwidth for complex, time consuming rituals.

But as my Mom would have said, we don’t need to let our skin “ go to hell in a hand-basket” either. Simplicity can produce high performance results . Check out the FREE + TRUE products in our online apothecary.

After launching her own innovative sugaring hair removal product line Sweet + True as well as a spa, her own understanding of skincare evolved, inspiring a deeper definition of beauty that’s achievable only “through purpose-driven work, self-care + time spent in nature with loved ones.”

While she credits much of her success as an entrepreneur to her intensive ballet training + the tough lessons she learned while pursuing her MBA as a young mother, today Tami defines success by the ability to help health conscious women reserve their youth + vitality through mindful living + an active lifestyle.

When I called her, I found her working at home with her husband + son, juggling more than one family business. Like us, her spa had closed, as were all of her Sweet + True wholesale accounts. She + her sister operate those together. Her husband owns a restaurant in Berkeley + that too had temporarily closed.

We talked about the future of our industry post Covid-19 + shared our concerns about a myriad of things both business + personal. I found her just how I imagined her to be; open, honest, strong, capable + determined.

Self discovery is such a powerful process. It’s healing, inspiring + makes us better people. It allows us to give back to the world in a meaningful way. - Tami

Tami is prepared to weather the Covid-19 storm + chart the future course for FREE + TRUE, just as we are ready to do the same for Supple. I have no doubt that we can do it + feel certain Tami will too. I would venture to guess that her DNA would reveal more than a bit of Mama Pacha Andean resilience.

I’m so happy that we have partnered with FREE + TRUE . We look forward to working with together in the future. Free + True, as well as Supple will navigate the new normal together, as small local businesses, with our compass steadily facing our true North, bringing our families + our businesses to safe harbor.