Marquita Robinson Garcia likes to refer to herself as a mad scientist.
After more than a decade in the chemical industry — where she worked as a formulator of commercial beauty products as well as in sales for companies including Dow Corning and BASF — she left behind the corporate world to pursue her own natural skincare line. The result is Dviniti Skin Care, which she launched in 2019. Now established and growing, she’s looking to grow her brand into a global educational platform.
Unlike the often negative connotation of the mad scientist, Garcia considers herself on the opposite end of the spectrum having “turned over a new leaf, literally.” After years working in the beauty industry, she became frustrated and wanted to focus on natural, plant-derived ingredients rather than chemicals. She also wanted to change the narrative around the industry, which she said often focuses on imperfections rather than lifting up consumers.
Now that her brand is established, Garcia’s goal is to reach far beyond her native Philadelphia and become a global resource for “consumers and families to learn what products they need for their skin, what products are safe for them and come up with a plan, a way to consistently maintain healthy, nourished, beautiful skin,” she said.
Garcia is well equipped to do so, having more than a decade of industry experience. After earning her undergraduate degree in biology from Millersville University, she found her way into chemistry, working on formulation for some of the biggest names in the industry, including L’Oreal, Revlon and Johnson & Johnson.
From that work, Garcia saw first-hand how many commercial products contain synthetic ingredients and chemicals intended to preserve shelf life, viscosity, and other aspects that aren’t actually a benefit to the body.
“They don't contribute to beautifying a person and the chemistry of a lot of these products is really not even compatible with our skin, with living tissue,” Garcia said.
In time, that led Garcia to discontinue using certain personal products in her own life and as she did so, she began to see a widening chasm in her personal beliefs and her work. Ideas for her own brand began percolating while she was pregnant with her first child about eight years ago, but were ultimately shelved.
The idea resurfaced more than five years later when her daughter saw Garcia, who traveled frequently for work, leaving again. The moment “lit a fire” under Garcia. She dusted off her dreams of entrepreneurship — and being with her family more — and started putting them into action.
In 2018, she formally established Dviniti and debuted her Philadelphia storefront at 1500 Locust St. in 2019. Her first product was a clarifying facial oil, which proved an immediate hit. Soon thereafter, she introduced a toner and cleanser and the line naturally continued to expand. Today, Dviniti has about 25 different products which range from cleansers to lip and body care to haircare.
Her product formulation remains similar to when she launched – she listens to customer demand for many products, while adding in things she thinks fit in seasonally, like a bug spray or after-sun care.
The goal with each product is to use as few ingredients as possible with a focus on the naturally derived. Early on, that meant focusing on ingredients that were already familiar to consumers, like grapeseed, aloe vera, Vitamin E, olive oil, sunflower seed oil, almond oil and avocado oil.
“It was really about designing products that folks could relate to. They understood exactly what the product was,” she said.
The idea to focus on ingredients readily found in the kitchen went hand in hand with getting the point across “that you need to feed and nourish your skin the same way you feed and nourish your body,” Garcia added.
Unlike in her previous roles, Garcia wanted to listen to customers to learn about what they actually wanted. That set her on a path toward skincare personalization. Presently, about 25% of her customers opt for personalized skincare, while 75% use Dviniti products as is. All of its products are made and packaged by hand in Philadelphia.
Dviniti also works with a select few local salons and spas on a product consulting basis and has white labeled some of its products for their use.
Now established and with the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic ebbing, Garcia is positioning her brand for growth. Sales are up 100% over the past three years and the business is self-sustaining, Garcia said.
She has self-funded the business and last May was the recipient of a $2,500 Small Business Spotlight grant from the Philadelphia 76ers and Firstrust Bank.
Later this summer, Garcia is self-publishing a book and afterwards hopes to launch a suite of seminars, workshops and master classes as part of her mission to become a global education resource in addition to a skincare brand.
Tell us about your forthcoming book.
It's launching this summer. It's titled “The Sustainable Beauty.” It's a self-care and product guide for consumers. And what it essentially does is it gives them the insight, it gives them the know how to discern what products will be best for them based on their skin. I start with kind of the history of beauty care and chemicals and how those two somehow created this convoluted beauty care industry that we know today.
Why introduce haircare products?
The scalp is still an extension of the skin. Oftentimes, we don't think of our skin this way, from head to toe, literally the bottom of the soles to the top of the head. … Different ingredients might help to promote haircare and hair growth, but ultimately, if you're using products that would be incompatible with your skin in your hair and then they creep down to your skin or your forehead, you might end up getting breakouts. So the idea was to just use clean ingredients head to toe to prevent any exposure to chemicals that you can.
