How This New Silky Body Lotion Is Changing Body Care

During her lifetime in 16th century France, St. Jane was devoted to healing women. In many ways, Casey Georgeson is the modern-day St. Jane, whom she named her beauty brand after. “I’ve always had a passion for supporting women, even before I had three daughters; it was integral to who I was,” says Georgeson, the founder of Saint Jane. “When naming Saint Jane, we realized that St. Jane dedicated her life to women that society cast away: the very old, very sick, unwed mothers. It was inspiring to us that we were trying to create this healing-centric approach to skincare. St. Jane is our muse for that because she loved it. She was a baroness who was a widow, had six or seven children and gave her life over to helping women and was anointed into sainthood. We have a really strong giveback in our brand as well.”

Georgeson creates products with women’s well-being in mind and a portion of sales go back to causes that champion women, such as the Loveland Foundation that helps provide therapy for Black women; Lipstick Angels, a nonprofit they met through Credo, one of their retailers, that helps women fighting cancer through the power of beauty; and Girls Crushing It, which teaches girls about entrepreneurship.

“We are committed to lifting women up, whether it’s from underserved communities, little girl entrepreneurs or women going through cancer treatment,” Georgeson says. “Ultimately, this brand is an expression of all the things that I feel passionate about, including my daughters, and I wanted them to have this legacy of knowing that they’re part of something bigger than themselves and that giving back is essential. St. Jane sits at the heart of that because she was the OG.”

Continuing the journey of deeply nourishing skin, Saint Jane just launched the Hydrabloom Body Silk, their new body cream that marks their first formulation with flowers from the sea and land. The proprietary Sea Flower Complex firms and tones while hyaluronic acid hydrates, wild chamomile calms and soothes, and jasmine softens and nourishes.

Luxuriously rich yet simultaneously lightweight, it took over two years to perfect the formula, as Georgeson was dedicated to creating one that would sink into skin without leaving any stickiness or oiliness behind. “It’s really hydrating and silky,” Georgeson says. “I loved the development of this formula because I felt there was such a white space in the market of clean body lotions. I tried so many that ended up leaving a white cast and didn’t absorb. I wanted something that honestly felt like a not very clean product, but was meticulously clean, like everything that we do.”

Hydrabloom Body Silk was inspired by Georgeson’s family. They lived in the Bay area for many years and moved to Manhattan Beach two years ago. “Now we live by the ocean and it is so incredible,” she says. “It’s been life changing for my family. When we moved down here, I wanted to create a product that was inspired by the ocean and this calming spirit of the sea that we feel living here. It’s emblematic of the brand as well—Saint Jane is all about calming and nurturing and helping the skin heal.”

At the center of Saint Jane’s healing-centric approach to skincare is the power of flowers and botanical ingredients. “Beautiful florals have been known for centuries to heal the skin,” Georgeson says. “That’s why we call them active flowers because they do so much. Calendula is one of the most active in the world. It was used to heal wounds in in World War II. It’s so powerful as an antiseptic, antibiotic wound-healer.”

Until recently, active ingredients were typically limited to skincare products for the face, but now they’re cropping up in body products, too. This movement helped give birth to Hydrabloom Body Silk. “I’m proud of it because it nurtures the skin on your body in a way that allows you to have the same softness and efficacy that you do when you nurture the skin on your face,” Georgeson says. “The body needs nutrients and all of that goodness, just like your face does. This product is the future of that for our brand.” Hydrabloom Body Silk complements Saint Jane’s first body product, the Luxury Body Serum. Hydrabloom Body Silk is also only the second product in the line not to include CBD, following their Luxury Sun Ritual Pore Smoothing SPF 30 Sunscreen.

Being an entrepreneur is central to Georgeson’s identity—and is actually a family tradition dating back over a century. Her great grandmother was a mail order bride from Italy who came to the US in 1900, had seven children, and saw there was an opportunity in her adopted hometown in Northern California with the vineyards. She secured a loan from a bank for $10,000 that she divided among her sons and son-in-law to start a business, which turned into Franzia Wines. “Ultimately, she was one of our country’s first female entrepreneurs and was very much behind the scenes,” Georgeson says. “She ended up starting two of the largest wine companies in the world. I never knew my great grandmother, but her story of entrepreneurship was always front and center. Being an entrepreneur has been a crazy roller coaster, but it’s really fulfilling and something that hopefully will imprint on future generations. Entrepreneurship can unlock so many things.”

Saint Jane isn’t Georgeson’s first business. She launched Cupcake Vineyards in 2006. “I loved creating brands that were targeted to women,” she says. “Being a feminist has been a part of my DNA forever, even back to college.” Realizing there wasn’t a wine brand that catered to women—in an industry dominated by men—she saw an opportunity. Initially the idea received pushback from men, but she trusted her gut and the company exploded.

“Wine and beauty have been the intersection of my background,” Georgeson says. “I love the wine world. I love the beauty world. I love formulas. I love ingredients from the earth. That is informing the brand and who I am as a founder.” Running Cupcake Wines taught Georgeson the importance of sourcing the best ingredients. “When you have beautiful grapes, usually that makes a beautiful wine. If you don’t have high quality grapes, your wine is not going to taste as good and it’s not going to be as consistent. At the end of the day, the wine business is farmers. With skincare, the majority of your raw materials are also from farmers. That connection back to the earth is really meaningful.”

Georgeson also learned the value of beautiful packaging that stands out in a cluttered aisle. “You’ve got 5,000 options as you walk down looking for one bottle of Chardonnay. You have to tell the story of your brand in the half second blink test. Every bottle tells a story, just like with Saint Jane, especially with our Luxury Beauty Serum.”

Prior to launching Saint Jane, Georgeson learned the beauty ropes at Sephora. Having always been intrigued by the beauty industry, she interned there during business school at Stanford University and landed a job after graduation with Kendo. She ran marketing creative there and help create brands that worked with Sephora, including Marc Jacobs Beauty, Elizabeth and James and KVD Beauty. “This is where I got a PhD in the beauty industry,” she says. “I learned about how to take designers like Marc Jacobs and translate their vision into the beauty space with formulas and textures, and what to challenge the labs on. I learned that product is king and if your formulas don’t work, you will never have a community of people who are passionate about supporting you and into your next launch.”

Saint Jane’s four-year anniversary is now approaching. Over its lifespan, Georgeson has learned to embrace the wins. “Competition is the thief of joy,” she says. “As a brand, you can always be bigger, but being very proud of where you are and your journey in it is essential.”