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A little while back Rachel and I sat down with our friend Katie Wells—Wellness Mama—for what was supposed to be a conversation about sunscreen. And it was. But like most good conversations, it kept wandering back to something bigger and older than any one product: do you actually know what you’re putting on your skin?
That question is the whole reason Annmarie Skin Care exists.
Fifteen years of reading the studies
Before there was a company, there was a habit. I’ve spent more than twenty years reading ingredient research—the actual studies, not the marketing summaries—and questioning claims that don’t hold up. When Annmarie and I started this brand back in 2009, it wasn’t because the world needed another skincare line. It was because we couldn’t find products we trusted enough to use ourselves. So we made them.
What Katie, Rachel and I got into on the podcast—the gap between what a label says and what’s actually in the bottle—is the exact gap we built this company to close. The skepticism people are finally applying to sunscreen? We’ve been applying it to moisturizers, serums, and cleansers the whole time.
“Clean” only means something if you can prove it
“Clean beauty” has become a marketing sticker. Anyone can print it. So we stopped asking people to take our word for it and had it verified by people whose entire job is to check:
- MADE SAFE certified. We were one of the first skincare brands in the country to earn the MADE SAFE seal—an independent program that screens a product against a list of thousands of questionable ingredients. We didn’t reformulate to pass it; we passed because of how we already formulate.
- Leaping Bunny certified. Cruelty-free, verified by the gold-standard program—not a self-declared bunny on the box.
- Botanical, wildcrafted, and organic ingredients chosen to feed the skin, not just sit on it. The goal was never to strip and mask—it was to give skin the raw material it actually uses.
Those aren’t badges we bought. They’re the receipts for a way of making things.
The throughline
Here’s what struck me recording with Katie: the sunscreen conversation and the skincare conversation are the same conversation. Both come down to one honest question—what’s in this, and what is it doing to me?—and a refusal to accept “trust us” as the answer.
Annmarie put it best years ago, and it still holds: we’re not activists with signs on a street corner. We do it through what we make and what we’re willing to put our name on.
Listen to both episodes
The conversation ran long enough that it became two episodes. Press play right here, or open them on Wellness Mama.
Part 1—Sunscreen: Myths, Misconceptions and What Studies Actually Say
Open Part 1 on Wellness Mama →
Part 2—The Environmental Cost of Conventional Sunscreens (And Better Alternatives)
Open Part 2 on Wellness Mama →
Want the full written breakdown of the sunscreen science—chemical vs. mineral filters, what the studies actually say, and the ocean impact almost nobody talks about? That lives over on our sister brand, salt+blue: read the recap here.
Frequently asked questions
Is Annmarie Skin Care actually clean and non-toxic?
It’s independently verified—MADE SAFE certified (one of the first skincare brands to earn the seal) and Leaping Bunny cruelty-free certified. Those are third-party programs, not self-applied labels.
What makes Annmarie different from other “clean beauty” brands?
The formulation came first and the certifications second. The products were built on botanical, wildcrafted, and organic ingredients from day one in 2009, then verified by MADE SAFE and Leaping Bunny—rather than reformulated after the fact to pass a standard.
Who founded Annmarie Skin Care?
Annmarie Gianni and Kevin Gianni founded the company in 2009.
Where can I hear the full Wellness Mama sunscreen conversation?
On our sister brand salt+blue’s blog, which recaps both episodes with the audio embedded. Read it here.
Where to start with us
If reading this made you want to look a little harder at what’s on your shelf, start with the products that made our name—the ones formulated on exactly the principles above.
And if you want to see what “MADE SAFE” actually means and why we bothered, here’s the full story.
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