April Gargiulo Doesn’t Believe in Shortcuts
written by Stacey Lindsay
“It’s about what you feel and how you feel.”
April Gargiulo isn't on board with the jargon slapped on skincare products.
"Any time you read, 'This is going to correct XYZ' or 'This is going to transform XYZ,' what's implicit in those words is the idea that you are somehow broken," says April. "Transform sounds like you're in dire need of an overhaul. It may be one little word, but accumulated over a lifetime, you end up with this ocean of fear, insecurity, and shame."
Talking to me by phone, April, the founder of Vintner's Daughter, a performance-driven, nutritional skincare collection made from whole plants, exudes a passionate and determined energy. She and I are talking about beauty and the fear-based language that's still readily used to market elixirs and creams today—particularly to those of us north of 40. Instead of coming from a place of less-than, we deserve to feel whole and joyful in our skin, she tells me, and we all deserve to have "this deep connection to ourselves, both physically and energetically."
It's been more than 10 years since April brought Vintner's Daughter into the world—and for the collection's droves of devotees, its launch marked a notable shift in what it means to care for one's skin. It started with the collection's premiere product, the Active Botanical Serum, a nutritive oil comprising 22 active botanicals gently infused for several weeks. Using the serum is almost like an act of transmutation in and of itself. A few drops of the golden oil pressed into the complexion and décolleté renders the most lackluster spirit (and skin) replenished. (I still remember closing my eyes to inhale the botanicals when I opened my first bottle.)
"This is a big foundational part of it that I don't talk about a lot," says April. "It's about what you feel and how you feel."
Before launching her collection, April had never worked in the skincare industry. But she knew her skin—or rather, she knew what never worked for her skin (which was prone to acne and hyperpigmentation), and that included the countless products touted by experts that lined mass-market shelves. Her roots are in winemaking. Growing up in a vintner family in Northern California (hence the name), everything created around her was founded on honoring the earth and weaving a critical ingredient too often overlooked today: time. There was, as she says, no space for cutting corners.
"I joke that I remember begging my dad to buy Chef Boyardee because my friends were always eating pasta out of a can," she recalls. "My dad was like, 'No way. Let's go make pasta.' And he had the eggs and the flour and the crank. That's the household I grew up in. It was instilled in me that if you want to make the best of something, you literally can't take shortcuts."
And she doesn't. Each of Vintner Daughter's three products takes three to five weeks to make. The collection is small, an anomaly in an industry fueled by newness and variety. April knows the pressure around her but doesn't let that mandate her business or co-opt her values. Free of investors, she focuses on staying aligned to what she refers to as speaking "truth to skin," helping foster and strengthen a person's connection to themselves and their surroundings. When we feel good in our skin, we can step into the world and move through our day—with all the things pulling and tugging at us—with more confidence.
"Because the reality is," says April, "an entire shelf full of products can't come close to what a walk in nature or a swim in the ocean or a moment of quiet reflection can do."
4 Things with April Gargiulo
Creating Slow Products Made the Earth
"Most skincare is made with really low-quality powders and synthetics that aren't great for your skin, and they're awful for our ecosystem, but they're touted with all these gaslighting words—correct, fix, anti-aging. At Vintner's Daughter, we're making products in the same way you would think about the health of your body. We would never think that our healthiest bodies will come from processed food. So why would we think that the health of our largest organ would? It is like when you go to a doctor and are prescribed medication instead that has side effects when the answer is a better diet, movement and exercise, and some kind of spiritual practice. We start with whole plants. We spend between three and five weeks making every bottle. There's a level of attention to detail and craftsmanship that I know from winemaking. It's the only way I know how to make anything."
The Beauty of Terroir
"Terroir is this mystical thing. There are places in the world where things grow better, and they grow better because of geography and weather but also because of humanity and the knowledge collected in that part of the world around that agricultural product over millennia. To that end, we source ingredients from places where we know they grow the best and that the terroir is the absolute best for those ingredients."
Honoring Her Values in Business
"I'm clear about my North Star. I'm clear about what impact I want to have in the world and our community. We want to have this incredibly positive impact on our community's skin, life, and world. The impact on her skin is through the actual formulas. The impact on her life is through the idea of positive beauty in creating joy, confidence, and gratitude in her skin versus fear and insecurity. The last piece is about having a positive impact on our world, and that's through sustainability and giving back. None of those are hollow. Those have existed since day one, and they are why I created this company. And we pursue those with an incredible amount of hustle and an incredible amount of heart."
Staying Grounded in the Chaos
"I know how to create the conditions to feel that connection to self and truth. And I know when that connection is not strong and how I can get back to it. For me, that is meditation. And I recently discovered a cold ocean plunge, which has been a centering connection for me."
“We would never think that our healthiest bodies will come from processed food. So why would we think that the health of our largest organ would?”
April Gargiulo is the founder of Vintner’s Daughter. Learn more at vintnersdaughter.com.
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