THOMAS SIEBENALER

ANTHONY SHOOK AND THOMAS SIEBENALER.

ThomasSiebenaler Anthony AND Shook

OF FOSTER’S LAB ARE SERIOUS ABOUT SKINCARE

FOSTER’S LAB IS A TEAM FOUNDED BY UNCLE AND NEPHEW, THOMAS SIEBENALER AND ANTHONY SHOOK. THE TWO HAVE ALWAYS BATTLED WITH TROUBLESOME SKIN THEMSELVES. AFTER TRYING MANY PRODUCTS THAT JUST DIDN’T WORK, THEY SET OUT TO MAKE A SKINCARE PRODUCT OF THEIR OWN.

kWRITTEN AND CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM JACKSON, ABA, B.ACY., MBA AND FOUNDER, CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER, AND PUBLISHER OF INFLUENTIAL MAGAZINE, SPANISH INFLUENTIAL, AND TEEN INFLUENTIAL

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF FOSTER’S LAB.

EXCLUSIVE hey soon realized they had created an amazing serum they wanted to share with others. The decision was made to team up T together and revitalize their family’s brand name, and

Foster’s Lab was born. What was once a family-owned chain of stores in the midwest is now an innovative skincare brand that is solving skincare issues for a hyper-connected world.

Foster’s Lab is a family-owned brand to the core. They take a real sense of pride in what their family name represents. They promise to bring honest products that have real value to everyone. That is something that has been instilled in them from their midwest roots. They treat everyone as if they are a part of their family, and they love that their family is growing bigger and bigger every day.

More About Thomas Siebenaler and Anthony Shook

Co-founder & Lead Chemist, Thomas Siebenaler is a highly skilled Quality and Compliance professional with more than 27 years of experience in the pharmaceutical/FDA-regulated industry. During his career, Thomas worked with many prescription and over-the-counter treatments for acne, dermatitis, psoriasis, and skin blemishes, including cleansers, lotions, ointments, gels, creams, shampoos, and pads.

Co-founder, Anthony Shook has many years of entrepreneurial experience under his belt, and decided it was time to make another dream come true. Initially, his uncle and himself brainstormed and created skincare products as a personal solution for themselves. The two decided to create their own remedy to protect against skin damage caused by blue light exposure from modern technology. In developing the products, the duo knew others could benefit from their work, and the Foster’s Lab brand was born.

I had the pleasure of conversing with Anthony to learn more about the determined Foster family, why

he’s proud of his family’s heritage, and why developing a successful skincare line is so important to him and the entire Foster family.

I hope you enjoy the highlights of our lively and inspiring conversation.

William Jackson: What was your inspiration for the Foster’s Lab skincare line? Anthony Shook: When my uncle and I decided to create our own skincare line, we looked back at our family history and the pillars of character instilled in us, honestly, family, and fair business and realized we could think of nothing better than to name our new skincare venture after our family’s heritage.

In 1895 T.G. Foster started a line of general stores in the midwest, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana are called Foster’s. But the Foster family has been risk-takers and fought the status quo long before the first store opened its doors.

In the 1600s the Foster family took a huge risk to move to the colonies here in America from England, facing a whole new world. Subsequently, the Fosters decided to move into what was then the Ohio Territory for more opportunity. Then T.G. Foster opened his own business which he kept running through several major conflicts in world history.

The Foster family’s history mirrors that of the country in determination and ability to make something of one’s self, which my uncle Thomas and I are so happy to write our next Foster’s family chapter in our skincare line.

William: What was the inspiration for your launch product? Anthony: Upon entering middle school, I started to have issues with my skin and acne. I remember getting so frustrated at my skin not knowing why some kids had no skin issues and I’d break out. As I continued through school and into my early adult years,

I continued to battle acne, which led me to many costly and painful treatments including laser and a few rounds of Accutane, a powerful acne drug.

During the process of constant treatment and experimentation, I couldn’t find products actually work for my skin. Retinol was too harsh, but the other products weren’t harsh enough to fix the issues. The inspiration for the skincare line and hero product came from our battle with skin issues and the desire to make a product that would help solve many skin issues while simplifying the skincare routine and is reasonably priced.

Many of my family members have skin issues like me or in addition to acne, like my uncle Thomas, Co-founder, and Lead-chemist of Foster’s Lab, have rosacea and wanted to have a serum that he could use without causing his rosacea to flare up.

William: Foster’s Lab has recently introduced the Anti-Tech Serum. What specific skincare issues does it address? Anthony: When we formulated the Anti-Tech Serum, we really wanted to create a powerhouse serum that not only protected from environmental stressors like blue light damage and pollution but also gave visible results in the form of skin’s appearance and texture. We knew much like sunscreen, blue light protection and anti-pollution are important, but the results are not immediately visible since you’re preventing damage, so we decided to also repair and renew.

The formula is specifically engineered to repair damaged skin in the form of collagen production and reduce fine lines and wrinkles, but we didn’t want to stop there. With Vitamin C the Serum also has an anti-inflammatory property where it helps to calm the skin while brightening and evening its overall appearance. Brightening helps with hyperpigmentation from sunspots and acne scars.

William: What do you believe customers will love most about the Serum?

Anthony: I know I love the results I see by constantly using the Serum, my skin is radiant, and I know used properly customers will see real results. In addition, the number of ingredients and benefits of this product really make it a tremendous value at its price point. We want to make sure everyone had the ability to get a powerful serum, like ours, without the exorbitant price tag.

William: How important were ingredient choices when formulating your line? Anthony: Ingredients are everything to us. My uncle is obsessed with knowing how ingredients work together and we can get just the right combination to have maximum results without irritation. Since I’ve sensitive skin from using Accutane and he has rosacea, results without irritation are important to us at Foster’s Lab.

William: What are the three benefits consumers realize from using the Serum? Anthony: a. Reduction in fine lines and wrinkles b. Brightening and evening of skin tone c. Overall softer skin

William: What is the hero ingredient if you had to select one? Anthony: Choose one? That’s hard since we’ve so many hero ingredients, but I think Vitamin C is a customer favorite for the anti-inflammatory with the brightening and evening of the skin tone aspects.

William: Of what are you most proud about your product/brand launch? Anthony: To be able to work with my favorite uncle (don’t tell my other uncles), and reinvigorate our family brand with such high-quality products I’m really proud to put our name on.

I’m immensely proud an idea my uncle and I had, came to fruition to create a product which allows users to have better skin while protecting them from modern-day damage and blue light. We wouldn’t have thought this possible a few years ago.

William: When developing the formula – did you identify the problems you wanted to solve first or the ingredients you wanted to use? Anthony: We knew we wanted to be different from other skincare brands in the market but were unsure initially how to do that. As we conducted more research on blue light and pollution damage, we realized we were onto something. We believe blue light protection will be like SPF in the coming years, where it’s common to know protection is necessary. However, we also know there’s nothing enthralling about sunscreen so we wanted to offer a product that did more than just protect but would help repair damage already done and visibly better everyone’s skin who uses the product.

William: Describe the power of the ingredients. I understand there’s a high concentration of ingredients delivering extreme value? Anthony: We calculated the level of our active ingredients as we have more than one serum in one product. We worked to make them as potent as possible without interfering with each other or causing irritation to those with sensitive skin. For example, Bakuchiol, it allows us to provide a similar result to retinol but without the irritation and dry skin so many retinol users experience. We carefully turned each nob, if you will, to the edge where results would be powerful, but not irritate.

William: Describe how you wanted to have your new brand revive your past family business name. Anthony: When we were thinking about what to name our new family endeavor it didn’t take us long to realize we had the perfect brand name, our own, and the heritage gave us so much inspiration for the brand. While the design process initially was very apothecary, we wanted to give the rebrand a modern fun esthetic and we added lab since my uncle is a chemist and we find the formulation of our products to be the most

important thing to us. Our formulation efforts are really the bedrock of our brand, building quality from the ground up.

William: Why was it important to keep this in the family? Anthony: To be honest, for me, I’ve always turned to my family for support and when I thought of a skincare line before I even took another action, I called my uncle to ask him for his help. His experience and dedication to chemistry, not to mention him being a perfectionist, I knew were beyond essential for the brand. We wanted to carry on the tradition of high-quality services and products as well as honest business the Foster’s started back in the 1800s, and I believe we have done that today with Foster’s lab for the skincare industry.

William: When it comes to blue light exposure, do you have additional tips on how people can help eliminate/reduce damage to the skin? Anthony: Once you have applied our Anti-Tech Serum there are other ways to help offset blue light exposure. Just like sun exposure, it can’t be completely avoided in today’s electronic world, but many devices have an option to switch into “night mode” where they alter the predominant colors of the screen from blue to yellow. There are blue light blocking glasses to help with eye strain, my favorite brand is Barner Brand, a Spanish eyewear designer. Some companies also make screens go over your computer screen or tablet.

William: What inspired you to have the charity angle with the Tree-Nation? Anthony: Giving back has always been near and dear to my heart. During undergrad, I volunteered at both the Phoenix Children’s Hospital and as a pilot to fly search and rescue and disaster relief missions. We came across Tree-Nation and the idea of planting a tree for every Serum we sell, and it was a perfect match. We can offset any carbon footprint we create as a company and allow our customers to improve

the beauty of their skin as well as the beauty of our earth by planting a tree. We feel so fortunate to have found a great partner like Tree-Nation to help us to make this a reality. We look forward to many more philanthropic initiatives as we continue to grow as a company and brand.

William: I know the product is vegan – is it also organic? Are you Leaping Bunny or vegan certified? Anthony: I don’t believe we can claim organic since some of the chemicals are synthetic like most skincare brands, but we’ve confirmation from each supplier our products are all vegan and cruelty free. We have submitted the paperwork necessary and are waiting on the certifying agencies to finish processing our submissions.

Stay up-to-date with everything Foster’s Lab by connecting personally with Anthony on Instagram at @Anthony.r.Shook, Foster’s Lab at @Fosters.Lab, and www.FostersLab.com. l

“I’m immensely proud an idea my uncle and I had, came to fruition to create a product which allows users to have better skin while protecting them from modern-day damage and blue light. ”