Speaker 1: I think it always goes back to the personal touch
Speaker 1: that we put into everything we do, and the farm
Speaker 1: really sets up our standards for quality.
Speaker 2: Agatha rilottel Lusco grew up in New Jersey, but these
Speaker 2: days she spends her time between Paris, where she is
Speaker 2: raising four beautiful children, and a farm in Sicily that
Speaker 2: is the foundation of her organic skincare line for Tuna's Skin.
Speaker 2: I met Agatha recently in Paris and had the opportunity
Speaker 2: to try her products. She's here today to talk about
Speaker 2: her commitment to clean beauty and the transformative attributes of
Speaker 2: olive oil. Welcome to my podcast, Agatha.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. It's a thrill
Speaker 1: to be here and to be talking to you and
Speaker 1: your audience today.
Speaker 2: It's very nice to see you here in New York.
Speaker 2: The Olympics were quite fun. We were saying at the
Speaker 2: same hotel at the George sank I was there the
Speaker 2: first week of the Olympics, and did you say much longer?
Speaker 1: No, I only say the first week and then we
Speaker 1: went off to Croatia after that.
Speaker 2: Oh lucky.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But the Olympics were amazing.
Speaker 2: They were I just told Agatha that I thought Paris
Speaker 2: did France proud and the world proud by hosting such
Speaker 2: an amazing, amazing series of sports events that event in
Speaker 2: a most beautiful country. It was great. Well, we want
Speaker 2: to talk about your skincare line. Agatha is a young
Speaker 2: mother of four, as I mentioned, but she was a
Speaker 2: former model. She is now the face of her brand
Speaker 2: and her skin speaks for the brand itself. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much, you're so gorgeous. Thank you. What inspired you
Speaker 2: just start a skincare line?
Speaker 1: So it all started back when my husband was ten
Speaker 1: years old and he made a promise to his grandmother
Speaker 1: that he's going to buy this land back and bring
Speaker 1: it back into the family because she always spoke about
Speaker 1: how amazing it was. Her stepfather sold it. He wasn't
Speaker 1: such a kind guy. It was a Cinderella and reverse
Speaker 1: story where in sicily.
Speaker 2: Right, oh my gosh, the land of the Godfather exactly.
Speaker 1: And so fifteen years ago we went on this journey
Speaker 1: to find this land and we did. We found it.
Speaker 1: It was a half acre large, and then we ended
Speaker 1: up buying eight hundred acres all around her property where
Speaker 1: she was born on and all eight hundred acres is
Speaker 1: certified organic. Eighty percent is part of a biopreserve, one
Speaker 1: of the most important biopreserves of the European community, which
Speaker 1: means what which means we practice regenerative farming and agriculture.
Speaker 1: You have different species of birds. You're committed to being
Speaker 1: part of this community of you know, preserving plants and
Speaker 1: biodiversity of Sicily. We have natural.
Speaker 2: Spring group there on Sicily. Because that's kind of surprising,
Speaker 2: just because it's so insular. I visited Sicily quite a
Speaker 2: few times. I love that island, but I would beautiful.
Speaker 2: I didn't know it was so progressive.
Speaker 1: Yes, we're an hour and a half outside of Carlione
Speaker 1: and there's nothing around our land. It's a truly a
Speaker 1: working farm and we have so much different elevation on
Speaker 1: the farm. It's incredible. You have Mount Castro on one
Speaker 1: side and then Mount Peru on the other end. Beru
Speaker 1: and Arabic means to the sea, so if you climb
Speaker 1: up to the top of this mountain you could see
Speaker 1: all the way to the Mediterranean seats. Phenomenal. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: we've planted over twelve thousand olive trees on the farm.
Speaker 2: We have some very ancient olive trees too.
Speaker 1: We have Yes, we have some ancient olive trees, some
Speaker 1: that are thousands of years old. And then we have
Speaker 1: a cultiv called Biankalila Centinada that was on the brink
Speaker 1: of being extinct and we brought it back from being extinct.
Speaker 1: So they are four thousand of that variety over farm Beyonce.
Speaker 2: Is it a weight olive, yes, light colored all of it. Yes.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so I'd love to see that sometime. When
Speaker 2: do you harvest? You must be getting ready. We're getting
Speaker 2: ready to harvest, yes, And how do you pick in
Speaker 2: a few weeks? How do you pick the olives off
Speaker 2: an olive tree? It's always been a mystery to me.
Speaker 2: I've never seen an olive harvest. I've seen a great harvest,
Speaker 2: but I haven't seen an olive harvest.
Speaker 1: You shake the trees, yeah, so it's either picked by hand,
Speaker 1: and then we've just started incorporating the shaking. Because the
Speaker 1: ground in Sicily are on the farm, it's not very
Speaker 1: even so to have the farmers climb up on ladders
Speaker 1: is not always the safest.
Speaker 2: So but can you drive it? Can you drive a
Speaker 2: small vehicle to shake the tree?
Speaker 1: Yeah? We have tractors.
Speaker 2: Oh you do? Okay?
Speaker 1: Actually, the funny story is one day, not a few
Speaker 1: years back, when we were on the farm, my husband goes, oh,
Speaker 1: I have a surprise for you. I bought you a Lamborghini.
Speaker 1: And I was like really. I was like, that's that's
Speaker 1: that's a little uh yeah, yeah, a little extravagant. He
Speaker 1: goes check it out and it was a Lamborghini tractor.
Speaker 2: Oh, how great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's all great.
Speaker 2: Probably make more money selling like Lamborghini tractors.
Speaker 1: They do. They're phenomenal, they're tractors.
Speaker 2: Oh how great. Yeah, I'll have to look into that.
Speaker 2: I have I have drawn deers and cabodos, so now
Speaker 2: maybe I can look into a Lamborghini. Kind of sexy,
Speaker 2: that would be fun. So so olive oil, now you started.
Speaker 2: Did you know you were going to start a skin
Speaker 2: caroline before you planted the olive track.
Speaker 1: So we started actually a food line first called Bonafertuna,
Speaker 1: which I brought you some of the goodies from Fortuna.
Speaker 1: We make extroverts and olive oil, few different cultivars of
Speaker 1: them and blends pasta ancient green pastas. We have tomato
Speaker 1: sauce from the colors tomatoes and also some herbs and
Speaker 1: for cooking this is the olive oil from Fortuna skin.
Speaker 1: So this is the six we picked. There's twelve different
Speaker 1: varieties on the farm, and we picked six varieties for
Speaker 1: for tuna's skin. And if we looked at doctor Pasquale,
Speaker 1: who's our chief scientific officer, he's on the farm every day.
Speaker 1: He has a double PhD In botany biology and he's
Speaker 1: an agronomist. And you looked at the six different cultivars
Speaker 1: that would be the best for drinking extra virgin olive oil.
Speaker 1: Because that's how I start my day every single morning,
Speaker 1: is a shot of olive oil and with a squeeze
Speaker 1: of lemon on it. Sometimes it's amazing for your microbiome.
Speaker 1: Digestion helps regulate blood sugar. It's a beautiful way to
Speaker 1: start the day. Anti inflammatory of olive oil tablespoon. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: so just fill it up a spoon.
Speaker 2: I could do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is amazing for your health. The benefits of
Speaker 1: extra virgin olive oil is just off the roofs. I'm
Speaker 1: obsessed with extra virgin olive oil. I'm an olive oil
Speaker 1: samelier as well.
Speaker 2: So how do you get to be an olive oil.
Speaker 1: Some courses a school out of Spain, and then one
Speaker 1: in London as well, and then I'm actually working on
Speaker 1: another one out of Italy as well. But it's great
Speaker 1: being an olive oil sam alier, being able to taste
Speaker 1: the olives, be able to tell the different origins where
Speaker 1: they come from.
Speaker 2: Well, if you're going to put olive oil on your face,
Speaker 2: we'll put the best olive oil on your face. Right,
Speaker 2: that's your theory. How do you actually distill or make
Speaker 2: the olive oil not too oily for your skin?
Speaker 1: So we actually use a process called sound bath extraction.
Speaker 1: On the farm. We have over eight hundred different floras
Speaker 1: and herbs and eighty different medicinal plants on the farm.
Speaker 1: So we also use our plants and our ingredients are
Speaker 1: wildly put in plants I call them for in our products.
Speaker 1: We use a sound bath extraction method to extract the
Speaker 1: nutrients from the plants.
Speaker 2: How does that work?
Speaker 1: So we looked to the science, We looked to the
Speaker 1: sign community of how they extract the nutrients from the plants,
Speaker 1: and we look to the pharmaceutical industry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, pharmaceuticals toeah that don't they Yeah?
Speaker 1: And they incorporated it in about twenty twelve because they
Speaker 1: need precision for all of their products that they make.
Speaker 2: Do perfumers also use that I think they do. Perhaps
Speaker 2: they do get to extract the particular sense from different flowers. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think they probably use that same sea.
Speaker 1: And it's a great way to extract the nutrients. Because
Speaker 1: that Fortuna skin were all about how do we preserve
Speaker 1: that potency of the plants, because the potency of the
Speaker 1: plants is what drives the transformational results on the skin,
Speaker 1: and so we do that every step of the way,
Speaker 1: from having our plants being fed with the natural spring
Speaker 1: water that comes down the mountain from Mount Peru to
Speaker 1: practicing regenerative agriculture and farming and Marthino this best from
Speaker 1: everyone how important soil is for feeding the plants and
Speaker 1: promoting that potency. So we try to figure out how
Speaker 1: do we preserve that potency, and we found the sound
Speaker 1: bath extraction method, which is basically ultrasound. So instead of
Speaker 1: using harsh chemicals to extract the nutrients from the plants,
Speaker 1: we can use our own base of either extra virgin
Speaker 1: olive oil or olive fleaf water, which tested three times
Speaker 1: more potent than any olive flea water on the market.
Speaker 2: What is that it's basically.
Speaker 1: The distilled olive leaves with using ours ours a spring
Speaker 1: water from our farm, and it is really high in
Speaker 1: anti accidants. I love drinking also making my own olive
Speaker 1: tea or in the summertime and olive iced tea, all
Speaker 1: of leaf iced tya.
Speaker 2: Now are you packaging the leaves for us that we
Speaker 2: can do that.
Speaker 1: Too, it's coming.
Speaker 2: That would be good. Yeah, it would be next thing.
Speaker 2: I would love to buy a big tin of olive
Speaker 2: leaves and make sure. I like tea. I like all
Speaker 2: different kinds of teese. I like herbal teas, peppermint, mint, spearmint,
Speaker 2: so I would love leaf.
Speaker 1: Olive tea has three times antioxidants of green tea. Really
Speaker 1: that is so great health. So I love using the
Speaker 1: whole olive tree. So even in our exfoliator we ground
Speaker 1: up the olive pits as the exfoliation.
Speaker 2: I have been using your exfoliation. I love that. Thank you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's really really great, Yeah, really great. Yea.
Speaker 1: And the way we also formulate is about protecting the
Speaker 1: skin barrier of the skin.
Speaker 2: What is it an olive oil that is so good
Speaker 2: for your skin? What is it exactly? Is it a
Speaker 2: what kind of compound.
Speaker 1: So what's amazing about extra virgin olive oil is that
Speaker 1: it's one of the only oils on the market that
Speaker 1: you could just actually take the fruit and squeeze it
Speaker 1: and you get the juice from the olive. It is
Speaker 1: full of anti accidents and polyphenols. It has an antioxidant
Speaker 1: in it called oliocanthal that mimics mutrin in nature. Oh really, yes,
Speaker 1: So it's super anti inflammatory and helps reduce the inflammation
Speaker 1: in the body. There's so many amazing studies done by
Speaker 1: Harvard and Oxford University a Yelle showing how it helps
Speaker 1: reduce dementia and any anti inflammatory diseases.
Speaker 2: So we should be eating a lot of olives.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and cooking with it. Cooking with it is amazing
Speaker 1: because there's like a nutrient exchange with the vegetables that
Speaker 1: actually enhances the vitamins and food.
Speaker 2: One olive tree. You might know this because I think
Speaker 2: about this all the time. I think about scarcity, and
Speaker 2: I think about productivity, and I think about where is
Speaker 2: all the coffee coming from that is being drunk all
Speaker 2: over the world, Where is all where are all the
Speaker 2: peppercorns that are being ground every single day for seasoning
Speaker 2: our food, And I think about olives too all the time.
Speaker 2: Where are all these olives that produce enough oil for
Speaker 2: the entire world to be cooking with or seasoning with?
Speaker 2: Where are they When we open up a bottle of
Speaker 2: olive oil and it says virgin olive oil on it,
Speaker 2: is it really virgin olive oil?
Speaker 1: It's hard to say.
Speaker 2: It is hard to say. It's hard to say if
Speaker 2: it's extra virgin. So I sometimes think the pepper corns
Speaker 2: when you open a little paper packet of pepper, you know,
Speaker 2: in a deli or someplace, and I think, God, this
Speaker 2: looks like sawdust.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's important on the packaging of the bottle
Speaker 1: to find a single estate grown olive because then you
Speaker 1: know those olives are coming all from that one estate.
Speaker 2: One tree gives how many gallons of olive oil a year?
Speaker 2: That's a good question that depends on the should know
Speaker 2: these kinds of things?
Speaker 1: Just yea. It depends on the tree and the age
Speaker 1: of the tree. Because what's great about olive trees is
Speaker 1: that they keep giving more and more every single year.
Speaker 1: So the older the tree, the more and more olives
Speaker 1: it produces. And olive trees are great because they don't
Speaker 1: need that much attention and care.
Speaker 2: They're there in that rocky soil on a hillside somewhere
Speaker 2: in Sicily, producing beautiful fruit exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean, this farm is truly magical. When you're on
Speaker 1: this farm, you can feel it has a heartbeat.
Speaker 2: And it looks like it. I guess I shared some
Speaker 2: photographs of this amazing, amazing piece of property. And how
Speaker 2: often do you go there?
Speaker 1: We try to go as often as possible, depending on
Speaker 1: the kid's schedule, so at least five times a year,
Speaker 1: if not more.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's just the most magnificent place. I still don't
Speaker 2: know exactly what's in those al is that makes our
Speaker 2: insides so healthy and our skins so beautiful.
Speaker 1: All those amazing antioxidants in the polyphenos.
Speaker 2: Now, where are the best olives in the world grown
Speaker 2: on Sicily?
Speaker 1: I would say at our farm. I mean, the attention
Speaker 1: of the detail that we put on everything we do
Speaker 1: is just incredible, and from the start to the finish.
Speaker 1: So we have our own olive mill on the farm.
Speaker 1: It's a seventeen thousand square foot olive mill that we
Speaker 1: everything is, you know, starting from the water which is
Speaker 1: natural spring water, till the end product it's bottled right
Speaker 1: there on the farm, so we're in control over the
Speaker 1: whole entire process.
Speaker 2: So how do how do you grind your olives for oil?
Speaker 1: We use a milling process, so doctor Pasquale is there
Speaker 1: and just running.
Speaker 2: Stone on stone or what do you use to actually
Speaker 2: grind the olives is like a centrifuge.
Speaker 1: Centrifuge exactly, refuge.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I bought a centrifuge for myself just to see
Speaker 2: because Nathan marveled. Have you have you had Nathan at
Speaker 2: your farm?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Not at our Yes, I think he did come
Speaker 1: and visit our farm. And he's a good friend as well.
Speaker 2: Oh he's fantastic. I'm just going he's sattle to visit
Speaker 2: with him.
Speaker 1: Nathan and Rosemary good friends.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, Well, Nathan taught me about centrifuge's and how
Speaker 2: you can extract oil from carrots. Yeah, and they almost
Speaker 2: all vegetables have some sort of natural oil in them,
Speaker 2: so I assume that olives of course have one of
Speaker 2: the highest concentrates of oil in them. Yeah, since that's
Speaker 2: what they're used.
Speaker 1: But from all the oils on the market, it's the
Speaker 1: only one that you can just take the fruit and
Speaker 1: you're not using any chemical process and so like a
Speaker 1: seed oil to make the oil.
Speaker 2: So when you when you squeeze the when you squeeze
Speaker 2: that olive or centrifugeon, that's that's pure olive oil.
Speaker 1: Pure olive oil, pure olive juice.
Speaker 2: I have to come juice to see you.
Speaker 1: You need to come. It's amazing. I mean I do
Speaker 1: everything with extraversion olive oil. I bake with it. I
Speaker 1: make an amazing olive oil cake.
Speaker 2: Oh I bet.
Speaker 1: And I actually fry with it and do everything with
Speaker 1: extra virgin no butter. Sometimes France has amazing butter they do.
Speaker 2: Oh and Agatha lives in Paris with her family during
Speaker 2: this during the school year.
Speaker 1: Yes, and we get spoiled with amazing produce in France
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, so beautiful. The food was so good during
Speaker 2: the Olympics. So the Sicilian terrain is perfect for what
Speaker 2: you're doing.
Speaker 1: Oh, this soil is so full of minerals in volcanic ash,
Speaker 1: so it really adds to all the nutrients to the
Speaker 1: plants in.
Speaker 2: Addition to what's there naturally. Do you have to feed
Speaker 2: these trees? Do you do you use any other kinds
Speaker 2: of supplements for the trees?
Speaker 1: Just all organic supplements if needed. But we really practice
Speaker 1: the regenerative farming, which is hard. It's hard on farmers
Speaker 1: as you know, to be able to you never know
Speaker 1: what weather conditions are going to to come.
Speaker 2: Have you had a drought there, for there is a drought.
Speaker 1: Right now, but this land is it hasn't hasn't rained,
Speaker 1: and I feel like in a few years in so
Speaker 1: and this rain, we're actually bringing buckets of water to
Speaker 1: our neighbors to help them out because we have all
Speaker 1: the natural springs and we have so much you know,
Speaker 1: natural spring water on the farm.
Speaker 2: Do you have to irrigate the orchards, the all of orchards, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1: And then we also wild forage plants on our farm.
Speaker 1: So doctor Pasquale I call him the plant whisper because
Speaker 1: he can look at a plant and he can tell
Speaker 1: when it's at its full potency. We were just sighted
Speaker 1: recently in the journal called Anti Accident for our plant
Speaker 1: called Nagella demicina that's found on our farm. It's grown
Speaker 1: in the wild.
Speaker 2: Nigela. I know Nigela, and it is a beautiful flower.
Speaker 1: Yes, there's there's a Nagella sativa and Nagella demicina. And
Speaker 1: what they did was they showed that our Nagella demicina
Speaker 1: on the farm, grown in the wild is more potent
Speaker 1: than being cultivated.
Speaker 2: And he uses those little black seeds from the flower, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: And we also use petals and different We use different
Speaker 1: parts of the plants at different times of the years.
Speaker 1: So mimoonos want to exactly pick what.
Speaker 2: Part of that's going also into your skincare line? Yes, okay,
Speaker 2: how many people are working on the farm. What's the staff?
Speaker 1: So we employ about at different times of the years,
Speaker 1: depending on when we're foraging or harvesting, up to forty people.
Speaker 1: We're the largest employeer in our area. We give back
Speaker 1: to the community. My husband and I we always say,
Speaker 1: if we're going to be doing anything, how are we
Speaker 1: going to leave this world a better place than we
Speaker 1: found it? And for us, it's important to give back
Speaker 1: to the community. So we've built a house for people
Speaker 1: of need. We give to the schools, donate computer and
Speaker 1: technology and give back to the community and provide jobs.
Speaker 2: And what kind of maintenance do all of oil trees need?
Speaker 2: Do they get pruned or do they just get left?
Speaker 1: They get left every few years. They need to be
Speaker 1: brewn back They're amazing because there they're a symbol of
Speaker 1: strength and heritage and longevity exactly. And we know that
Speaker 1: dating back to the time of Cleopatra used to use
Speaker 1: extra virgin olive oil for skincare.
Speaker 2: How do we know it is extra version between virgin
Speaker 2: olive oil extra virgin olive oil. What's the distinction?
Speaker 1: The distinction is how it's being pressed and taken care of,
Speaker 1: and then if there is any defects in the extra
Speaker 1: virgin olive oil. So as an olive oil solier, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna judge on some of the competitions. I will be
Speaker 1: one next week in Paris, Oh, Yes, with Pire Garnier actually,
Speaker 1: and we can taste for defects. And sometimes these defects
Speaker 1: happened when the olives are being picked, or if they
Speaker 1: were frozen, they could The defects can also happen in
Speaker 1: transportations when olives are picked, sometimes they're transported to a
Speaker 1: different mill for a few hours and they could become
Speaker 1: fusty or musty, or even after during the bottling process,
Speaker 1: if they're not bottled properly or a bit of contamination,
Speaker 1: they can become a defect.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm anxious to see how you chaste all of oil.
Speaker 2: Somebody taught me how to taste it once, and I'm
Speaker 2: anxious to see if you do. It's the same way.
Speaker 2: So the harvest is coming. Do you go for the harvest?
Speaker 2: Every year?
Speaker 1: I try to go to the harvest.
Speaker 2: I would think that's an exciting time.
Speaker 1: It is so exciting to be at the farm for
Speaker 1: the harvest.
Speaker 2: And to see all those millions of olive us being harvested.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think's one of the reasons we moved to
Speaker 1: Paris was once to internationalize our children a little bit
Speaker 1: and also to be closer to the farm. Our kids,
Speaker 1: I feel, speak a few languages. My family originated from Croatia,
Speaker 1: and so they speak a bit of Croatian, and they're
Speaker 1: fluent in French, They're learning Italian, and I just want
Speaker 1: them to be able to travel around the world, being
Speaker 1: able to communicate and connect with people lovely.
Speaker 2: It's so important, so important. What about span Spain because
Speaker 2: the Spanish.
Speaker 1: Yes, one son is learning Spanish.
Speaker 2: Oh, because you can easily now expand your business to Spain.
Speaker 2: Is the olive oil good enough?
Speaker 1: Yeah? The olaves are great in Spain.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And Croatia has some of the best olive oil, olives
Speaker 1: and olive oil as well.
Speaker 2: We're in a little box here. See how many people
Speaker 2: to I know? This is great.
Speaker 1: I love the studio.
Speaker 2: It's so great. How did you particularly develop your formulations?
Speaker 2: Did you work with cosmeticians or with scientists?
Speaker 1: And my co founder, she's a master formulist and also
Speaker 1: very passionate about plants and formulation, and she was working
Speaker 1: in the clean beauty sphere.
Speaker 2: Oh she was, Oh yeah, and so what are your
Speaker 2: particular rituals for looking so beautiful?
Speaker 1: Oh? Thank you?
Speaker 2: Besides drinking your tablespoon of olive oil every morning.
Speaker 1: Drinking extra virgin olive oil every morning, I only use
Speaker 1: fatuna skin on my skin because I do want people
Speaker 1: to see the transformative results of our products, and they
Speaker 1: do work and eating healthy, drinking lots of water, being dancing.
Speaker 1: I love to dance. One of my passions is ballroom
Speaker 1: and Latin dancing.
Speaker 2: Oh really? Oh oh great?
Speaker 1: Yeah great?
Speaker 2: And New Jersey. It's so unusual to talk to someone
Speaker 2: I grew up in New Jersey. I'm from Nutley, New Jersey,
Speaker 2: and my insul sphere has kept me within a two
Speaker 2: hundred mile radius. And here you are off in Sicily
Speaker 2: and Paris and so exciting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was exciting. I was born in New York
Speaker 1: City at Savanson's Hospital, which used to be down in
Speaker 1: the West Village. Now it's a condo building. And I
Speaker 1: grew up in Chatham, New Jersey, and then I started
Speaker 1: modeling when I was sixteen and graduated high school here
Speaker 1: the city at the Professional children and School.
Speaker 2: Oh, I see, but the Jersey is a great state.
Speaker 2: And so how did modeling influence you in terms of
Speaker 2: entrepreneurial behavior?
Speaker 1: You know, I mean we were both in the same
Speaker 1: industry and modeling traveling around the world.
Speaker 2: Doesn't it help you? Doesn't help you with like self confidence?
Speaker 1: Self confidence? Yes, meeting people. You're always on a photoshoot,
Speaker 1: meeting new people. And I worked with some of the
Speaker 1: best makeup artists in the world that inspired me for
Speaker 1: my rituals with makeup and skincare. But it was great
Speaker 1: working with Carlagerfeld and if Saint Laurent and and Terry Moglaire.
Speaker 2: Oh, I know, and where are they? Where is poor
Speaker 2: Carl Lagerfeld. Isn't it sad? Yeah? Yeah? I interviewed him
Speaker 2: in Paris for during one of his collections. It was
Speaker 2: so interesting to talk to him. He was very interesting
Speaker 2: and so talented, so talented. So you have big fans
Speaker 2: all over the place. Women's Where Daily Julianne Moore, the
Speaker 2: actress Courtney Kardashian is very much a fan of your skincare.
Speaker 2: So what appeals to them about your products? Do you think?
Speaker 1: I think it always goes back to the the personal
Speaker 1: touch that we put into everything we do at for
Speaker 1: Tuna Skin and the farm really sets up our standards
Speaker 1: for quality.
Speaker 2: Have you taken a tour people on a tour of
Speaker 2: your farm?
Speaker 1: You know, we've only started recently to that would be.
Speaker 2: Kind of a book for magazine editors, influencers whatever to
Speaker 2: go and see, uh see the operation because Sicily, first
Speaker 2: of all, is such a wonderful destination. And then to
Speaker 2: to see something uh so uh so devoted to purity
Speaker 2: as your as your wonderful farm, it's hard to call that.
Speaker 1: Ah. Yeah, I mean we're planning a press trip hopefully
Speaker 1: next May.
Speaker 2: That would be great.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I'd love to have you come. It'd be
Speaker 1: amazing to have you come and see the farm.
Speaker 2: I love Cecily, and I especially love the food. I
Speaker 2: don't know, I just love love the food.
Speaker 1: Isn't it, Because everything is about the quality and the
Speaker 1: simplicity of just the ingredient itself and the produce.
Speaker 2: So I don't know how large your business is, but
Speaker 2: what is your vision for the future of for tuna
Speaker 2: skin to.
Speaker 1: You know, we have a five year product pipeline. I
Speaker 1: have endless amount of ideas and I'm just excited about
Speaker 1: sharing this piece of magical this farm with the world
Speaker 1: and all these amazing ingredients. Being able to to give
Speaker 1: our customers these products is incredible. I'm a big believer
Speaker 1: in transparency. So even if you look at the packaging,
Speaker 1: the bottles are clear, and the reason they're clear is
Speaker 1: because I want to be able to communicate that transparency
Speaker 1: and show the people how beautiful our products are.
Speaker 2: I want to do this test. I want to see
Speaker 2: what you brought here.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, let's do this test.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I'd love for you to have you tried our olive oil.
Speaker 2: I have I have. I have an olive oil cabinet
Speaker 2: in my kitchen and I'm always looking for the best
Speaker 2: of the best. Just no, can I show you how
Speaker 2: I was taught how to do it? Oh? Yes, Oh
Speaker 2: it's so weird. No, I don't even use a glass.
Speaker 1: Oh you don't know.
Speaker 2: I was taught that what is this one? Oh? This
Speaker 2: is your extra special lx R. So I was taught
Speaker 2: to do this and then just oh, and to lick
Speaker 2: it from the hand. It's like a pure olive. It
Speaker 2: tastes like I just ate an olive, which is what
Speaker 2: you're looking for, right, Yes, Then after you do all
Speaker 2: the tasting, then this, I guess it was a soli
Speaker 2: of olive oil. Told me to just rub it in
Speaker 2: my hands and then put it all over my face.
Speaker 2: It was funny.
Speaker 1: In competitions, usually it's in a callboalt glass. Not to
Speaker 1: see the color of the extroverts and olive oil, so
Speaker 1: like that you're not influence by the color. And so
Speaker 1: you cover the top and you warm up the put
Speaker 1: your hand on the underneath to warm up the extraverts
Speaker 1: and olive oil to awake all the aromas. Okay, And
Speaker 1: then after you do this for a few seconds, doing.
Speaker 2: This in a small like it looks like a little
Speaker 2: brandy snifcher. But it's tiny, like a little shot glass. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but it's round, not sharp.
Speaker 1: So after we warm it up, we smell it to
Speaker 1: smell the aromas, and we should smell fresh cut grass,
Speaker 1: maybe some artichokes, tomatoes, and it usually smells green. And
Speaker 1: then when we go to taste it, we slurp it
Speaker 1: and then we do as it's called strapaggio to awaken.
Speaker 2: All the very smooth.
Speaker 1: This is very peppery.
Speaker 2: It tastes absolutely fresh.
Speaker 1: So the peppery taste in the back of the throat
Speaker 1: is the oleocantol. So the stronger the pepper flavor, the
Speaker 1: more oleo cantal there is in the extra virgin olive oil.
Speaker 2: And is that the Is that the antioxidants, that's the antiaxid. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then you have the bona fortuna. This is the
Speaker 2: extra virgin olive oil can blend.
Speaker 1: And when you're tasting the olive oil, it should have
Speaker 1: harmony and balance, and you taste the bitterness on the
Speaker 1: tongue and the pungency in the back of the throat milder.
Speaker 1: It's milder. This because it's a blend. To have a
Speaker 1: few different trees.
Speaker 2: For tuna is milder olive oil.
Speaker 1: But we not all of them. We have a forte,
Speaker 1: we have the pure blend of Biancolia sentinada, and we
Speaker 1: have many different ones at bonafertuna. So one is better
Speaker 1: for stronger flavor, which is better for meat. And then
Speaker 1: the lighter one, this one I love using for cooking
Speaker 1: with fish or finishing it with fish.
Speaker 2: I like drizzling olive it. I just picked the most
Speaker 2: beautiful arugula for my garden yesterday and just the lightest
Speaker 2: olive oil, but fresh, fresh, fresh olive oil.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that is a bit milder, but you can
Speaker 1: still feel the peppery.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's also very tasty, very tasty. And you
Speaker 2: know because sometimes when you open an olive oil and
Speaker 2: you taste it like that, it will taste really acrid.
Speaker 2: I have my grandchildren are expert olive oil tasters. You
Speaker 2: should meat them sometimes. Oy. No, they love tasting things
Speaker 2: for perfection. And which one is this?
Speaker 1: This is just a generic one for market.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is one that you see in the supermarket.
Speaker 2: Almost every supermarket has this brand of olive oil. Let's
Speaker 2: see what that tastes like. It doesn't even taste like olives.
Speaker 2: After tasting yours, it does not. It can taste the
Speaker 2: it's vegetable oil, yeah it does. Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So this on a competition, we'd say it has
Speaker 1: a defense.
Speaker 2: It does well, it's a major defect. It does not
Speaker 2: taste anything like the real thing. And it's still expensive. Yeah,
Speaker 2: all olive oil is expensive, and the more single estate
Speaker 2: olive oils are very expensive. Now A leader of the
Speaker 2: best olive oil in my in my local grocery store
Speaker 2: is something like sixty nine dollars. Yeah, that's a lot
Speaker 2: of money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, extords and olive oil is expensive, but there's so
Speaker 1: much attention that goes into making extra virginal olive oil.
Speaker 2: And back to the thing about where are all the
Speaker 2: olives coming from? Is there going to be a shortage
Speaker 2: of olive oil? Do you think has anybody worried about that?
Speaker 2: We don't see there being I worry I worry about.
Speaker 2: Isn't it any plant the rest of those acres? Yeah,
Speaker 2: Algatha has how many more acres to plant? You, oh,
Speaker 2: thousands of more acress. You have a lot of room
Speaker 2: in cil places, but that would be it would be.
Speaker 1: We just have our mill there built and we have
Speaker 1: this small little house that we found the the foundation
Speaker 1: of where my husband's grandmother was born in and we
Speaker 1: rebuilt that house as one bedroom. So it's great. When
Speaker 1: we go to the farm. The six of us stay
Speaker 1: in this one bedroom. All the kids are on the couch.
Speaker 1: It's like good glamping. There's no TV. The kids are
Speaker 1: running around, driving the tractors, hiking around and it's so
Speaker 1: wonderful place, maybe one with nature.
Speaker 2: So what are you give me these two recipes for
Speaker 2: our listeners that which uses your best olive oil? What's
Speaker 2: what's the one that you would that you would suggest,
Speaker 2: like right now if I wanted to go home with
Speaker 2: this bottle of extra virgin olive oil, the Bono Fortuna
Speaker 2: or where do you sell this in these in the
Speaker 2: States anywhere?
Speaker 1: Yes, so we're sold at Whole Foods and now we
Speaker 1: just got in yes, oh great, yes, just recently this year.
Speaker 1: And we're also at Erawan oh go, oh you are.
Speaker 1: And then the best is always to buy direct from
Speaker 1: Bonafertuna's website.
Speaker 2: Okay, we can go do DCC, DTC.
Speaker 1: And then for the Alexar, we are sold at for
Speaker 1: Tuna Skin's website.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, oh good.
Speaker 1: And what's great about the Alexor I forgot to mention
Speaker 1: is that after we pick it, it's pressed within six hours,
Speaker 1: oh six to eight hours after picking, okay, which is great.
Speaker 1: And then we also go through all of the olives,
Speaker 1: take out the bruised ones for this one, and we
Speaker 1: wait for twenty five minutes after the pressing to start
Speaker 1: bottling it.
Speaker 2: And then after bottling or not, does it have to
Speaker 2: be pasteurized or just put in the bottle.
Speaker 1: It's put into the sealed and sealed.
Speaker 2: So if you're if you're going home tonight, what would
Speaker 2: you make for your family with your olive oil?
Speaker 1: Something a beautiful fresh salad, drizzle of the extravergin olive oil,
Speaker 1: perhaps a nice little piece of soul fish and some veggies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: with drizzling it and then finishing it off with an
Speaker 1: amazing olive oil cake.
Speaker 2: How do you make that? Where's that recipe from?
Speaker 1: It's had been inspired from a few different restaurants around
Speaker 1: New York City.
Speaker 2: The best olive oil cake I ever had was at
Speaker 2: Valentino's house. He invited me for dinner one night to
Speaker 2: design your Valentino and his chef made the best olive
Speaker 2: oil cake. I tried and tried to get the recipe
Speaker 2: out of him, and even and no, I didn't get
Speaker 2: it out. And then now he did come out with
Speaker 2: a cookbook, a beautifully illustrated cookbook, and you know I
Speaker 2: forgot to. I have not yet looked to see if
Speaker 2: that olive oil cake is in there. I'm going to try.
Speaker 2: But if not, I would like you to share it.
Speaker 1: I will share it. I will share.
Speaker 2: I won't publish my recipe.
Speaker 1: You can publish it.
Speaker 2: Okay, I want you. I want to try it because
Speaker 2: I really love olive oil cake.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it is so moist and delicious. And there's
Speaker 1: a restaurant here in the city called our TUSI. Oh, yes,
Speaker 1: they make a delix.
Speaker 2: They do. Oh that's good to astro.
Speaker 1: Version all of oil cake. And they're also sold on
Speaker 1: gold belly. So sometimes when we were living in California
Speaker 1: or it or went over because it's just a beautiful cake.
Speaker 2: Oh great. Tell us your line of products for the
Speaker 2: for the skincare.
Speaker 1: So we have a complete line of products. We have
Speaker 1: our cleansing oil Bomb. It's a beautiful ten percent of
Speaker 1: it has the olive fleaf water in it. It takes
Speaker 1: off all of the makeup and residue from your day.
Speaker 1: We have our Missler Water, which I call the Frenchwoman's secret.
Speaker 1: And what's so special about our Missler water is made
Speaker 1: with our olive leaf water and also an olive extract
Speaker 1: instead of a coconut extra. And then we have our
Speaker 1: award winning hero product, the Biphase oil. It just made
Speaker 1: the list of wwd's one of the one hundred greatest
Speaker 1: skincare products ever made.
Speaker 2: How great?
Speaker 1: So exciting, and it really represents all of the olive
Speaker 1: tree because it has the olive oil in it, olive
Speaker 1: leaf water and sew of different botanicals from the farm
Speaker 1: and also stabilized vitamin C. And then we have our exfoliator.
Speaker 1: We have our Face and Eye Serum, which is a
Speaker 1: vitamin bath or a botox and a bottle. It's incredible
Speaker 1: for the face and the declote the before and afters
Speaker 1: from the Face and Eye Serum is just incredible. And
Speaker 1: we're launching a new product this weekend, lip Bomb Olive
Speaker 1: butter lip bumb and exfoliator for the loves.
Speaker 2: How great. Yeah, Well, so everyone look on online at
Speaker 2: the for Tuna Skincare line for Tuna Skin dot com
Speaker 2: and you can order there. You can also find it
Speaker 2: of course. And are you and Sephora No, not yet.
Speaker 2: Brad Brundoff, Goodman, goop up the mercury. It's been so
Speaker 2: interesting to speak with you and thank you so much
Speaker 2: for having me on this original and very very interesting venture.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I just have to say, Martha,
Speaker 1: you're such an inspiration to me and everything that you
Speaker 1: have done. You're so kind and lovely and so warm.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much as much for meeting you, and
Speaker 2: I love you. I love talking to people who get
Speaker 2: it done, and you're getting it done in a very
Speaker 2: interesting way. Thank you, really and truly thank you. Eight