READ: Founder Feature With Drew Stevens From Margin

FOUNDER FEATURE: DREW

Q+A WITH MARGIN FOUNDER

We're excited to catch up with Drew Stevens after Margin's newest product launch, the Core Cleanse Body Wash. This body trio builds on Margin's highly sought-after two-step skincare routine — a fave duo in the HH community.

Margin is a Toronto-based brand just down the street from Health Hut's College Street shop on Dundas West. We often have the opportunity to visit with Drew when he's dropping off an order, and we wanted to let the HH community in on the conversation. In this interview, we chat with Drew about his commitment to form, function, and, most importantly, fun.

SHOP MARGIN

HH:
Margin’s newest product, the Core Cleanse, is described as the “skincare solution to body wash.” The Core Cleanse is available in three options, one Unscented and two incredible scents that we can’t stop talking about — Warm Water and Veridian.

Which scent are you most drawn to right now, and what is it about this scent/product that has you so captivated?

DREW:
With Core Cleanse, we set out to create an overachieving body cleanser that was as formulaically advanced as our face cleanser, and it resulted in a kind of unconventional development process – we developed the unscented formula and the fine fragrance in parallel, but they did not “meet” until we felt we’d perfected each component individually.

So much went into the formula and fragrance separately that when they came together, the result was greater than the sum of their parts, it felt like magic.

I use each scent once a day, Veridian in the AM and Warm Water in the PM, so it’s hard to choose one, but I think the complexity of Veridian is something you’ve got to experience.

SHOP CORE CLEANSE BODY WASH

HH:
A recent comment on Margin's Instagram reads, "tried it out cause of the branding, now a loyal user of the product, a well done one-two."

Margin’s packaging is very considered and stands out on the shelf with a carton-as-a-canvas approach — each box is printed with an artist-editioned print. It’s such a lovely experience to bring home something so special.

Art theorist John Berger discussed how seeing art in context can change how it’s perceived. How do you imagine the context of art on skincare packing speaking to Margin’s larger values? What about your personal values?

DREW:
This might sound abstract, but the art speaks to our belief that we should honour and celebrate anyone taking an interest in their skin, whether they’re a Margin buyer or not.

Amidst a sea of logoed boxes on shelves, we thought offering a compelling visual, in our case a small print of fine art from an emerging artist, might be a modest honorarium we could offer anyone willing to “spend” even a fraction of their time thinking about their skin and exploring Margin or the environments we live in.

On a personal level, I’ve always been drawn to visual arts, so this has been a great opportunity for me to explore playing the role of selector and editor and promote the work of artists we admire.

SHOP ESSENTIAL CLEANSER

HH:
For those lucky enough to have already experienced Margin’s skincare, what makes Margin’s Essential Cleanser and Active Moisturizer so unique in the industry?

DREW:
Margin's uniqueness has come from a specific focus on creating "compound products that compound." It’s a purposely obtuse saying that acts as a checklist for us in creating each product.

(1) We simplify a traditional multi-step routine by concentrating actives into a single hybrid-product “compound”, and (2) we only work with actives at concentrations shown in clinical results to have long term compounding benefits for the skin with continued use. The result is a unique set of multi-purpose products that condense your routine and offer long term benefits.

In short – we deliver more benefit with less, and are backed by a set of clean biotech partners, research scientists and world-renowned chemists who’ve made it possible.

"A common thread of people I admire seems to be that they have fun with what they do and don’t take themselves too seriously."

HH:
As a Founder, we imagine your days are taken up by all sorts of disparate tasks. What or who has helped you in keeping perspective? Any inspiration or resources to pass along to others?

DREW:
I feel very lucky — I have a tight knit group of friends who accept and support each other unconditionally, and I’ve learned to lean on them. It felt hard and foreign at first, but we’ve grown to share each other’s wins and shoulder our burdens as a collective, and it keeps us all grounded in a really positive way. I also make a concerted effort on the best and worst days to look back 12 months to the same day and compare where I was vs. where I’ve come. All too often I realize that today’s setbacks have arrived because of achievements over the past year, and that kind of mental reframing helps motivate me and fuels problem solving.

Finally – and this sounds silly – I actively remind myself to have fun, and think of how fun this is. I try and read biographies as often as I can and a common thread of people I admire seems to be that they have fun with what they do and don’t take themselves too seriously.

HH:
Looking forward, what does the future look like to you and how is Margin contributing to this vision?

DREW:
I see a world celebrating proactivity, not reactivity.

To me, that means a future where people embrace the power of compounding over the long run, of making small positive choices each day, and of celebrating the process, rather than chasing the short lived high of a reactive outcome. Our goal at Margin is to contribute to that on a skin level, and you’ll see us deepen our commitment to products with life-long benefits over the coming months and years.