Powerful Plant-Based Natural and Non-Toxic First Aid and Skincare Products for Kids, Adults and Pets with Jodi Scott and Pamela Wirth

Powerful Plant-Based Natural and Non-Toxic First Aid and Skincare Products for Kids, Adults and Pets with Jodi Scott and Pamela Wirth

Pamela : Hi, this is Pamela Wirth with the Encourage Your Wellness podcast, and today I'm so excited to have Jodi Scott, a visionary force in the health and wellness space. She holds a master's degree in Health Psychology and has a background in premed with a specialization in the captivating field of psychoneuroimmunology. This is awesome because of the deep dive I previously did on inflammation in the brain, neurology, and all the wonderful things that go along with that.

Jodi has been involved in the transformative power of medicinal plants and is currently the CEO and co-founder of Spry Life, in a remarkable partnership with her sister, a certified herbalist and midwife, and her mother, a graphic designer. And also one of the founders of Green Goo First Aid, Southern Butter Intimates, and the groundbreaking Good Goo CBD line.

Welcome, Jodi, and thank you for being here!

Jodi Scott : Oh my goodness, thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here with you.

Pamela : So, you've done so much. Tell us about what you've learned in your health and wellness journey that's been really impactful, and where you're going now. What is your current focus?

Jodi Scott: It's a great question because you never stop learning about your overall health and wellness. For us, my mom, sister, and I started Green Goo together. At the time, I had a master's in Health Psychology and was training resident physicians on the biopsychosocial model. There was no Integrative Medicine back then, and I was in the first Master's Health Psychology program. Medical schools didn't have an education forum to look at patients holistically. My job was to help them look at the patient and say, "Hey, what else can we be doing to serve the patient?" So when we give them this medication, we also think of other barriers or opportunities to help them be successful in their wellness journey.

At the same time, my sister was studying to be an herbalist and a midwife. We made an interesting observation: we lived a fairly clean, sustainable lifestyle. We were living in the Austin area, the first Whole Foods had opened up, and we worked in health food stores in college. We were always passionate about natural foods. But when we looked at our first aid cabinet, it was the exception to the rule. We had all these chemical-laden, one-time-use products and plastics being thrown into the landfill. We wondered, "Why do we have these products in our house?" We started to look into it further and found that we weren't alone. Natural consumers were willing to abandon their natural ethos because they were told that chemical products like Neosporin, hydrocortisone, and calamine were the only products that could get the job done. Meanwhile, conventional consumers didn't care about the ingredients; twere just frustrated with the efficacy and were looking for higher-performing products.

We recognized that the first aid space only accommodated acute skin conditions, yet most people suffer from chronic skin conditions. These medications say to use for 5 to 7 days, and if symptoms persist, discontinue because it could lead to toxicity and go see a doctor. We thought, "Can we make plant-based solutions that are superior in efficacy, natural, sustainable, and have a little personality?" And so Green Goo was born. The journey has been really exciting. The plant-based renaissance is here today, which is wonderful. When we started, if I told a pharmacy buyer that I had a plant-based Neosporin, they would look at me like, "Yeah, right." But fast forward to today, there's more science, more data, and more support to demonstrate that some of these alternative modalities can actually work. Through this journey, learning about holistic skin care and the relationship our largest organ has with our immune system, nervous system, and endocrine system has been really exciting and very full circle for me, coming from the health psychology and psychoneuroimmunology background.

Pamela: Okay, awesome. So, I want to touch first on first aid and then talk about skincare. With first aid, what are some of your favorite products? What types of plants are really getting the job done? I don't know that many people have really thought about plant-based first aid.

Jodi Scott: Yeah, well, I'll say this too: one of the reasons that Green Goo works the way it does is not just because of the ingredients we choose, but also the process by which we make these products. We're not getting pre-made extracts from other manufacturing facilities and then combining them. We actually bring the plants to our manufacturing facility, yielding the highest amounts of the medicinal properties from the plants, and then put these custom oils into all of our products. So you're getting a high concentration of these plants with plant-based oils that are beautiful transporters that your skin loves to absorb. These custom blends create what I like to call the "Entourage Effect," where how these plants work by themselves and together is really important.

Our flagship product is our Green Goo First Aid. This was originally designed to be a natural Neosporin antiseptic. In the spirit of simplifying everyone's first aid kit, we recognized that people were looking for various symptom relief, and instead of having 10 different products for 10 different things, we created a first aid kit on the go. You can have it with you everywhere in a small tin or stick. It's for cuts and scrapes, but you can also use it for bug bites, bee stings, poison ivy, blisters, chafing, sunburn, chapped lips. It takes the sting and itch out, slows down the bleeding, and speeds up healing.

This particular product has 11 herbs in it that work together, plus essential oils. Calendula flower is one of our favorites. It has antifungal, antimicrobial properties, is incredibly hydrating, has natural sun protection, and is a plant stem cell with regenerative antioxidant properties. Plantain and yarrow are also great plants in this product. Plantain is nature's band-aid, and yarrow helps with anti-itch and increasing oxygen to the wound site, so they work well together for wound care.

This product is probably the one we're most known for. Military personnel take it on deployments, and nonprofits use it in remote emergency medical care practices. It's tiny, can go everywhere with you, and is incredibly convenient. Most of the time, it's for things that make us uncomfortable because they itch or sting. Kids love this product because they can apply it themselves. My daughter used to call it "goooo for her boo-boo," which was really sweet. You can feel the difference because it takes the sting and itch out.

Most known product I personally love our repair product. I live in Colorado and the air is so dry here, and the repair product was meant to be a burn and scar product, but it's a wonderful anti-aging lotion. So we call it butter up here, or salve up, and you just put this salve on the repair from head to toe, put your bathrobe on, let your skin just absorb it, and it's amazing. What I find is when I would use regular lotions here in Colorado, it's almost like an hour later my skin was dry again. With Green Goo, it probably goes against traditional capitalism because the more you use it, the less you need it because your skin just loves it and soaks it up and then becomes hydrated. When your skin is happy, it doesn't need as much. I'll call out one more product, and this product really is what put us on the map. When we were having a difficult time trying to find a manufacturer who was up for going through this extraction process and scaling this, it took someone whose son had eczema who tried our product, came back to us a week later, and said, "I don't know how we're going to scale this, but your dry skin formula, the world needs this product." John Hopkins has been using that in their dermatology and skin condition department now for over a decade.

Pamela: That's awesome! So, you have the first aid, and then you've got skincare. Is the skincare separated between, you know, like the typical skincare you find in stores for the face and body, or do you find that one type of lotion works for the entire body and it's really just been more of a marketing distinction?

Jodi Scott: You bring such an interesting question because we started in the first aid space and we looked very much at the legacy first aid products, whether it was a Vicks Vapor Rub or a Calamine, and making a plant-based alternative to those products. What we found often times is, to your point, in the beauty care most people with chronic skin conditions were going into the beauty care section looking for things for their eczema or their burns and scars and that sort of stuff. We're finding that Green Goo is finding its way into the beauty category, and since then we've started to expand on that product line. For example, we have the dry skin formula that is designed for eczema. Well now, we have a whole line like plants for your face, eczema oil, acne oil, acne stick, anti-aging that we can put into the beauty care space. I do think that first aid and beauty should be more intertwined because, to your point, they really do work hand in hand. Chronic skin conditions are at an all-time high, and people are looking for topical therapeutics that not only service them for these symptoms but also provide added benefits, whether it is anti-aging or hydration. I’ve found for me personally that I use Green Goo for both my first aid and my everyday beauty care.

Pamela: Yeah, so what are some of your favorite plants? You've mentioned a few. Are there any others that are really your go-to? And even outside of what you're doing from a topical standpoint, what about internally? Are you following a certain diet? Do you prefer certain supplements? Do you find that some supplements you typically take can be applied topically and be absorbed effectively? Anything particular along those lines?

Jodi Scott: Well, I'll tell you a fun story about our deodorant, and then I can get into the holistic skincare approach. We're always looking at the transdermal absorption of how these products can work systemically. It really took a customer, Jane Doe Number One, who used our pain relief product. She was Jane Doe Number One, pulled from the World Trade Center, and our pain relief product was the only product that would help her through her opioid withdrawal. So, she was asking for it in larger volumes, and we developed this relationship. I was able to better understand how these herbs, because there's such a high concentration, could serve her from a systemic standpoint. Here it was, a topical analgesic, but it could have other purposes for her.

In general, plants, there's so much beauty in how they work together. So looking at the transdermal absorption, your armpit is this very unusual skin. It has a 70% absorption rate. And when you look at it, it's different. Of course, we've only talked about with deodorants what not to have in it. There's a lot more of what you shouldn't have besides the aluminum, the parabens, and the phthalates, and all the other endocrine disruptors. But it's also an opportunity of how you could absorb other nutrients through your skin. So our deodorants have ashwagandha, holy basil, reishi mushroom, ginkgo biloba, vitamin C, and E. Looking at it from adaptogens, immune boosters, ones that help clear your mind depending on what your goal is. Adding essential oils, they can also have a systemic positive reaction in terms of opening up your mind or relaxing you in different capacities.

We have a terminal home, and my daughter's 12, and she is often being inundated with all kinds of beauty care products or food or sugar. We try to simplify this notion of this holistic skincare approach. So we have an acronym called SHAMAN. To answer your question, these are little tips to help us make good decisions throughout the day. 

**S** is for Sleep. Always remind to add to your sleep bank. If you're going to go have your sleepover, remember that you're going to need to make up for that because sleep is just so vital to her overall mental health and physical wellness. 

**H** is for Hydration. She's reminded especially in Colorado to drink more water but also thinking about what you're choosing to hydrate with because there's all these sugary drinks that you need to be thinking about but also your products and your food, your skincare products that have hydration in them, aloe vera another wonderful plant that I love, you know, can be so incredibly hydrating. Foods, you know, vegetables, fruits, they have hydration with them. 

**A** is for Antioxidants. So thinking about antioxidants on what you can take in but then also from your body care products. Your skin is your largest organ again another opportunity for you to be bringing in those different antioxidant properties. 

**M** is for Mindfulness. We are seeing more and more studies now, the Journal of Dermatology partnering with the Journal of Behavioral Medicine and seeing that mindfulness can have a significant impact on eczema flare-ups and improving wound care, so from a skincare perspective but then also for your overall just mindset and peace of mind. Practicing different kinds of mindfulness activities throughout the day even as simple as gratitude. Gratitude is a perfect example of an easy way to practice mindfulness. You don't need to sit and meditate for hours to achieve mindfulness throughout the day.

The next **A** is for Avoiding. Avoiding sugar, parabens, phthalates. I mean, phthalates is the number one produced chemical on the planet and the US produces a billion pounds of it alone and it's an endocrine disruptor and affects our homeostasis. So thinking about packaging, that's why Green Goo is in aluminum tins which was really disruptive and, you know, ten years ago of course now we have aluminum cans for water and we know that it's a renewable resource and it's not leaching some of these other properties that could be dangerous. 

And then **N** is for Nutrition. So always thinking about nutrition again not just from what you're ingesting but from the your food, your food source. 

That little acronym for us works really well to just be making quick decisions throughout the day, to be reminded of how you can contribute and avoid things that may not serve you well in your overall health and wellness.

Pamela : That's super. So when we're taking a look at the back of products, I think most of us know about parabens now and those are pretty easy to spot. What's the other one that you mentioned? I think that's harder, isn't it, phthalates?

Jodi Scott: And phthalates aren't going to be on your ingredients, so that's something you have to learn in terms of packaging because that's where you're going to see most phthalates coming from. Obviously, there's fragrances, formaldehyde, parabens, to your point. We don't need parabens. They were great when the Industrial Revolution started and we had these big bottles of lotion that we needed to keep stable. But now we have Amazon and great transportation and good technology that can get products to people's doors. We don't need these preservatives. There are great natural alternatives like rosemary, lavender—lavender isn't just an aromatic herb; it's a wonderful product stabilizer in terms of keeping it from growing any kind of bacteria. It's a wonderful antiseptic. Vitamin E oil, too, there are alternatives that we can use instead of having parabens. Obviously, the same with fragrances—having pure essential oils versus fragrances. Now there are more call-outs, but there are some great apps out there as well. My daughter's got a good one where you can just put it up to a label and it'll give you insight if it's from zero to a hundred from a cleanliness standpoint. That's why it was important for us too, with Green Goo, we registered with the FDA. We have our active ingredients, our inactive ingredients outlined. You've got to keep in mind a lot of inactive ingredients are not required to be on the label. That's something that we really would like to see change over time, and that's just going to be consumers really coming to the table and saying we want more disclosures. Yeah.

Pamela: So are there any ingredients in particular that you want to shout out to people to watch out for when they're taking a look at the back of something?

Jodi Scott:  Oh my goodness, where would you even begin? From a sunscreen standpoint, oxybenzone, that is one that is pretty serious. I remember being in my organic chemistry class in my undergrad, and we were dissecting the sunscreen, and I raised my hand to the professor and I said, "This is a known carcinogen," and he goes, "Yep." And I'm like, "Why are we putting this on our skin?" Well, it's the only thing we have to date that people are using and marketing consumer packaged good products that appear to have the efficacy of deflecting the sunrays. I'm like, "But what's the tradeoff?" So our sunscreen only has seven ingredients, and all of these plants have natural sun protection in them along with the zinc oxide. But the challenge that I found in product developing a sunscreen is to reset the expectation that you think you can put something on your skin once and be in the sun for 12 hours. It's really not what we were meant to do. So it's great to buy you some time and protect you for a few hours, but I really like, use your sunscreen, cover up, and take some sun breaks. And that's really what's best for your skin.

Pamela: Yeah, I'm a big fan of those waterproof sunscreen type t-shirts. 

Jodi Scott: Yes, truly, truly all day.

Pamela: Gosh, you know, I think a lot of us kind of get roped into skincare and wrinkles, and you know, there's so many that say it's doctor formulated or it's patent pending or I mean, and you can process patent, but you can't necessarily formula patent things with plants in them. And so how do we get to a point where we're actually helping people with some of these products? I mean, what's the best way that you have found to, I mean, obviously, you're sharing your messaging here with us today, but have you really found that some places are better to kind of help educate than others? I mean, there's so much that is dangerous for us, and I think we've kind of gotten caught up in some of these approval processes, if you will, over the years and, you know, what's safe and what isn't, and what's kind of safe. I think it's really important for all of us to understand where and how we can take care of ourselves better.

Jodi Scott :  And that's why I love that you have this podcast and you're sharing these messages out because truly, this is the best platform in terms of getting the education out there. Consumers are so inundated with so many different ingredients and pretty products and flashy products. I mean, and greenwashing—there's so many times my daughter will pull a product up that she, you know, put her app on and she's like, 'Mom, this product looks like it's a natural product,' and this got 2% clean ingredients. So, I think it really just takes time for the consumer to get to know it and make it equitable. I mean, that was important for us at Green Goo as well. You know, when natural really first started to become available, it really was for the 1%ers. And, you know, there was a study that came out that said 90% to 97% of consumers, if natural or organic was available and affordable, they would buy it. And that is overwhelming. So, I think it's really important to normalize pricing to make it attainable for people. But I think it's—it takes time, and it takes time on our own behalf because how many times you just want to grab something on the shelf and just keep going? You know, who has time to read everything that's in front of us? But as you start down this holistic journey and you start feeling the effects because you will feel the difference when you go down this journey, that then you become more like there's just more ownership in really wanting to filter out some of the junk.

Pamela: Absolutely. So over to mindfulness. What are some of your favorite ways to get centered and realigned? How do you teach a 12-year-old daughter how to do some of these things? Teenagers, I think, are difficult. They're open, but they're difficult. Any suggestions on that?

Jodi Scott : I always tell her, "Hear me now, believe me later." Gratitude is just a great one that we can all wrap our hands and hearts around. Oftentimes, going to school, I'll say, "What are you grateful for? What intention do you want to set for the day?" and getting into, "How can you impact someone else's life today?" Whether it's just being very conscious, like giving them eye contact, smiling, and wishing them a good day. That's consciousness, that's present.

You KnowI personally love to watch the sun come up and the sun go down. There's a lot of science behind how that impacts your metabolic activity, your circadian rhythm, but also your serotonin and your dopamine. Being very intentional, I probably say it too much, like, "Look at the sunrise. Let's just have a minute here. Let's look at  the horizon." But intentional moments can be very much just like looking at a plant for 10 seconds or greeting someone. It's just those little things that make it easy to unpack throughout the day versus having a 10-minute meditation practice.

I do find it very healthy throughout the day to take a minute where you just do some nice intentional breathing. You will be so surprised, especially us moms, like we just get into this go mode and you find yourself on overdrive. When you stop for a minute, put your feet on the ground, stop moving, and take a handful of deep breaths, it will really serve you well. You can take it in micro-moments throughout the day, and you'll feel the difference.

Pamela: Super. How about with teenagers? Any particular words of advice on how to center them?

Jodi Scott: Yeah, I think gratitude and the 5 to 10 seconds of a visual or deep breathing. I find that my daughter, you know, all of a sudden I'll look over because maybe she's doing her homework and she's being challenged by something, and she's closing her eyes and taking a couple deep breaths. She's finding her center, only because I just kind of annoy her by doing that on a consistent basis. But, you know, we are very adaptable as humans. If it works and it serves you, you're going to do it again, and so will your adolescent. They might not want to do it in front of their friends because it's totally embarrassing, but…

Pamela: Or in front of their parents because then their parents might say, "Well, you were right."

Jodi Scott: If only we taught emotional intelligence in grade school and junior high. That would be my dream, that we didn't have to wait until we were middle-aged to develop emotional intelligence. It would be a beautiful gift to give to our generations to come so that they can enjoy their lives even more fully and more intentionally. I can only imagine what innovation would come from that.

Pamela: Yeah, I always like to tell my son he'll come in, and I can tell he wants something. I'll just say, "Read the room. Do you think you'll get what you want right now?" They say no, and I say, "Okay, so pause and come back to me later."

Jodi Scott: There you go. Awareness, yep. It can be a superpower.

Pamela: So you also were involved in CBD. Do you have CBD in all of your products, or just some of your products?

Jodi Scott: We do not. We have a different brand called Good Goo, which has our hemp-infused, lipid-infused hemp in that product. It's really cool to see how hemp calms the endocannabinoid system and then really elevates the productivity of the other herbs. I will tell you there's naturally occurring CBD in plants like echinacea and even black pepper, but it doesn't get the credit that the hemp plant does. The cannabinoid profile is phenomenal, along with having the terpene and chlorophyll that have other added benefits for skin and systemic balance.

Pamela: Yeah, that's super. Now, when you feel like you're getting sick, do you have a go-to?

Jodi Scott :  do I have a go to?

Pamela : go-to well viruses allergies 

Jodi Scott: My Free to Breathe product is my favorite in the Green Goo world for colds. It's a Vicks Vapor alternative but also has antiviral and sleep properties. I put that under my feet every night before I go to bed. Another good one for me is mullein  Ingesting it, you know, I tend to be very sensitive to outdoor allergies and colds, and mullein, especially with the colds we've had over the last couple of years, is fantastic for opening up your airways. Holy basil is incredibly calming, and sometimes that adaptogen, although you wouldn't think during cold and flu season, serves well by calming everything so your body can do the work it needs to heal itself.

Pamela: That's super. So how do people find out more about you? Anything else I left out?

Jodi Scott: GreenGoo.com. You can learn about our family, explore the products, and email anytime. I'm happy to help create a customized holistic skincare approach.

Pamela: That's awesome. Thank you so much for your time today.

Jodi Scott: Thank you, it was a pleasure.



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