Actress Olivia Wilde says she’s empowered when she feels good about her skin. So she did what she felt was the best way to show it off: slip into the nude. 

 

In a promotional campaign for clean beauty brand True Botanicals shot at a home in southern California, Wilde goes for a dip in the pool. At one point, she stretches her head backwards to wet her long, golden-brown tresses; the sun’s brilliant reflection sparkles in the rippling water. Wilde’s go-to True Botanical products are lined up on a drenched wooden deck. 

 

“True Botanicals has helped me love my skin,” says Wilde. “So, I wanted to capture how I feel when I use these luxurious products.” 

 

The brand prides itself on making a wide-range of high-quality skin care products. True Botanicals products, which are free of “6,500 toxins,” are certified Made Safe and organic with natural, plant-based ingredients. They’re Leaping Bunny certified and the brand’s allegiance to health doesn’t end there; the products are sustainability packaged to protect the Earth, too.

 

“I think there is this impression that responsibility and sustainability are inherently rational and boring,” explained Wilde. “But True Botanicals products are so sumptuous, decadent and luxurious, they’re proof that clean and safe skin care can be an indulgence. I wanted to capture that and show that sustainability is sexy.”

 

The multifaceted line has products for every skin care concern for users of all ages and skin types. Best-sellers include its Pure Radiance Oil, which targets signs of aging including fine lines and wrinkles, and dullness, and Pure Radiance Sugar Exfoliating Body Scrub, a sweet-smelling scrub which unveils smooth, glowing skin after one wash. It won Allure Magazine’s Best of Beauty Award this past year. The True Botanicals Nourishing Cleanser is a gentle anti-aging facial cleanser that balances oily skin and addresses uneven skin tone and roughness in people with adult acne.

 

The Vitamin C Booster is clinically proven to dramatically increase brightness and reduce the appearance of dark spots with this potent powder. Shaken into a serum, it enforces the serum’s effectiveness by virtually eliminating the appearance of fine lines and winkles, dullness and dark spots. 

 

The Chebula Active Immunity Serum, the star ingredient of which is wildly harvested and one of Wilde’s favorites, fights fine lines and wrinkles, fades dark spots, and combats skin roughness from UV damage. 

 

“Sun damage, environmental stressors generate [cancer-causing] free radicals,” explained True Botanicals Founder Hillary Peterson. “One of the most important elements to fight free radicals is potent antioxidants. Chebula is a cascading antioxidant that doesn’t lose its potency, it works hour after hour. We’re one of the first brands to use it in skin care.” 

 

An Organic Partnership

 

Wilde has been a True Botanicals partner for the past five years and a brand proponent beyond that. Cognizant of celebrity culture’s leverage in building the multi-billionaire-dollar beauty industry, Peterson harnessed the power of Wilde’s love for True Botanicals products to amplify its reach. Brand activists also include actresses Laura Dern and Zazie Beetz.

 

“We made an immediate connection,” recalled Peterson upon her first meeting with Wilde in 2016. “Olivia was already using our products and loved them.”

 

Wilde was also committed to sustainability and the health of people and the planet. She formed Conscious Commerce with creative director Barbara Burchfield. The non-profit designs dynamic campaigns that connect non-profit foundations to sustainable business models.   

 

“She believes in the brand’s ethos and mission,” said Peterson of Wilde. “She’s a very bright and talented woman and an eloquent spokesperson.”

 

Peterson and Wilde were immersed in conversation when the light bulb moment went off for the new campaign, and with it, the idea to dispel the myth that clean beauty and sustainability can’t be luxurious. 

 

According to Petersen, the new campaign refutes the idea that sustainability is boring and is a tradeoff one has to make when it comes to beauty products. 

 

“Instead, we make sustainability exciting and interesting, and an indulgence. Olivia was very invested in bringing this idea to life in the most compelling way possible… to bring more sensuality and more of an edge to clean beauty. We’re so happy with this campaign to continue to redefine luxuriousness in the beauty industry that defies expectations with a really strong message,” she said.

 

The Root of True Botanicals 

The birth of True Botanicals holds personal significance for Peterson. The founder was 32 and a new mother of twin babies when she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. While the rare cancer’s cause is unclear, genetic factors combined with emerging environmental risk factors can play a role in its development. Rightly or wrongly, Peterson attributes the illness to long-term use of certain personal care products that were part of her daily skin care regime in the 1990s.  

 

“What you put on your skin goes into your body,” explained Peterson. “Personal skincare products didn’t meet my expectations of luxurious and efficacious experience. If I am not excited about clean beauty products, why would anyone? We made a skin care line that not only could be irresistible, but can change an industry that needed to change and better the people and the planet.”

 

After restoring her health, Peterson—who had been in marketing and advertising at Levi Strauss and Co.—set out to create a skin care line in which safety and sustainability were paramount. 

 

“We were among the first to do clinical studies on our products,” she said. “We thought it was important to offer clinically-proven results and equally important that every spritz and slather is a delight.”

 

Wilde, now in her 30s and a mother of two herself, says she has never felt more confident in her own skin.

 

“My body has done so much for me and gotten me this far,” said Wilde, “And so, why wouldn’t I spoil myself with this luxurious skin care that’s also good for the planet?”