Meet Sarah Villafranco, MD | Founder + CEO, Osmia

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarah Villafranco, MD and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Sarah, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
I took a class making soap at a local ranch, and it flipped a switch in my brain. The blend of chemistry and art was fascinating, and the simplicity of the process made me think about all the ingredients we use on our skin every day. After practicing emergency medicine for a decade, I’d seen countless cases of eczema, dermatitis, and other, unexplained rashes. The more research I did, the more I realized how much certain ingredients might be contributing to our skin and health issues, not to mention the environmental impact of those ingredients. After a couple more years of research and product development, I launched Osmia with the intention to help people use healthier ingredients in their daily lives—with much more joy, and much less impact on the planet.
What should our readers know about your business?
We’re technically a beauty company, but we’re way more than skin deep. After nine years in business, we’ve developed a solid brand reputation for efficacy, transparency, and authenticity. We’re not using fear or targeting people’s insecurities to sell product. Instead, we focus on skin health and joy, helping people feel vibrant and comfortable in their skin at any age. We do our homework on sustainable sourcing and packaging, and are committed to constant evolution in those areas. We make most of our products in-house, and we plant a tree for every order—we’ve planted over 50,000 trees in Colorado so far!
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I miss Denver! We used to go every few months, but the pandemic put a stop to that! We love staying at the Maven, eating at Linger, Osteria Marco, or Vital Root, and visiting our friends at Vert Beauty and Aillea. I also love the margaritas at Lola!
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My husband deserves the biggest shout out ever, for having faith in me since the moment I came home and told him I wanted to leave the ER to start Osmia. He has supported our family as I’ve grown the business, and he loves the products almost as much as I do!
My team deserves the other shout out, because Osmia would be nowhere without them. We have the coolest, smartest, most capable group of people at Osmia, and our team is up to 23 people at the moment. Most importantly, we laugh a LOT as we get the work done, and we’ve really become a family during the last year.
Website: osmiaorganics.com
Instagram: @osmiaorganics
Twitter: @osmiaorganics
Facebook: @osmiaorganics