CANVA REBEL: Meet Jane Bready
We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jane Bready. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jane below.
Jane, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
Risk-taking can be a daunting prospect. There is nothing safe about it, but I think the saying “without risk, there is no reward” is pretty accurate. To this point in my life I have had two distinct and very different careers, each involving risky decisions. To succeed in anything risk-associated, you have to be many things, but mostly resilient, unafraid, and I’d add, surround yourself with people you trust. With a family background in automobiles and aviation, I also LOVED painting. So, how to marry the two? I started attending racing and aviation events, gathering photos and doing a lot of research. Then I started painting, in the very male-dominated field of motorsports and aviation art. This was not without challenges, especially concerns about being taken seriously as a female. It’s a different world now, but in the early 90’s I was even concerned with people knowing I was a woman when I first signed my paintings. (so I used initials). It took a lot of self-trust, and belief from family, as well as gaining a wonderful mentor within the aviation and motorsports art world. Over time I was fortunate enough to be licensed by NASCAR and F1 teams for my artwork, as well as work with the United States Air Force on artwork projects This experience taught me not to be afraid and to approach each obstacle as an opportunity to assert my presence and redefine industry norms.
Growing up in the sunny conditions of Australia, and spending many days in the sun at race tracks definitely impacted my skin. I had two bouts of skin cancer, and I felt I needed to take care of what goes on my body as well as going in my body. When Covid came around, racing was not open to anyone except actual race teams, so what to do then? I started thinking of my need for better skin care, and also the hassle of traveling to different race venues carrying messy lotions and creams. I couldn’t be the only one with these problems. So, why not start an all-natural skin care line? Well, this was certainly going to be a risky endeavor involving time and money if it was going to succeed. Once again, having self-belief, and no fear of the unknown I think was key in this decision. Also surrounding myself with the right team, which in this case, included my now-grown children – I am so thankful for their support in this journey.
Undeterred by skepticism, I devoted myself to extensive research and development, and worked with well-respected professionals to craft a line of skincare products tailored to meet the demands of people looking for all-natural alternatives for skin care and travel-friendly products. Today I am so gratified that we ultimately brought forth a brand synonymous with quality, efficacy, and environmental consciousness.
Yes, taking a risk can be scary, and there will likely be a lot of nay-sayers that will cross your path, but, ultimately who can you really believe in but yourself. To offer up another great quote “ the greatest risk is not taking one.”
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Corsica Scents was born from my personal quest for better skin care and convenience. With a career in motorsports which involved a lot of travel and a lot of time in the sun, I needed skincare products crafted from natural ingredients, yet versatile enough for on-the-go. Then, when access to tracks was impacted due to the onset of Covid, a conversation with an aesthetician friend resulted in—why not create a skincare line? With her guidance, we began our research, sourcing only the highest quality ingredients. My son, who has a background in chemistry, came onboard to refine our final base formula that would work in a convenient stick form, and developed our signature scents for our lotion bars and soaps.
The inspiration for our company name, Corsica Scents, comes from what I would call a “serendipitous encounter “during a trip to Corsica where I happened to visit an essential oil shop. I observed them harvesting wildflowers and learned they supplied the global apothecary market and perfumeries in France. I loved the general essence of the island – I would describe it as “simplified luxury” ,and Corsica itself is also known as “ the scented isle” and the “isle of beauty”. It seemed fitting to pay homage to this place since our products are infused with oils sourced from that same shop on that beautiful island that inspired us.
Our product line began with stick lotion bars, but we have expanded our line to include tinted, multifunctional bars, glitter-mica variations, soaps, and even a sports range. All of our products are all-natural, travel-friendly and mess-free which I love!
My three favorite parts about Corsica Scents are 1. learning from our customers how our products solve diverse issues, whether it’s alleviating “sand in swimsuit” chafing discomfort for little boys, or soothing chronic muscle pain, or removing stretch marks. we love to hear all of that. I’d say that is the best motivator for us. 2.Being able to give back to global groups through partnerships with Treedom and 4Ocean. 3.I am so thankful to have my children involved as part of the Corsica Scents team – with my son leading formulation and my daughter ’s marketing efforts, it makes it even more of a rewarding experience.
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
We received an invitation to attend Miami Swim Week in 2023 to be part of an sales effort with other beauty brands we had collaborated with in the past. I believed our GLOW line and Pixie might do fairly well with beach/swimsuit boutiques, but, what we were not prepared for was designers and models coming up to our booth. Turns out they loved the Pixie and GLOW to give a bit of sparkle and radiance – much like other products they used, but, our stick lotion bar form allowed them to give better placement on the skin without getting on the clothing samples. It was a fortuitous surprise – opened up a completely new market that we had not thought of…..so you always have to be open to those surprise opportunities.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
We do manufacture our own products. But we also have a backup group for large orders that might come in. We definitely had to learn in what order to mix ingredients and where to find raw ingredients that are ethically sourced. Also, where to source containers that are recyclable or made from recycled products. Then, how to use bottom-filled containers for all of our lotion bar products, and all about soap and the additives we use – activated charcoal and clays, etc. It was particularly difficult finding a manufacturer familiar with bottom-filling, and I know we met companies, either through trade shows or online who promised a lot, but could not deliver…..and that was an immense waste of time. I now know more about how many people are “all talk, no action”…and quite honestly, you run into that with people promising social media results, digital marketing results, etc. It’s difficult to sort through all the noise sometimes.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.corsicascents.com
- Instagram: @corsicascents
- Facebook: @corsicascents
- Linkedin: Corsica Scents
- Other: TikTok: @corsicascents
Image Credits
Ash Wittmer for shot of Jane and children ( Ian and Gemma) and for the shot of Ian working on formulas