Renee Edwards
USA
For the past 10 years, Renee has been dedicated to finding the answer to one question: how can people maximize their health and wellbeing, naturally? Her search has brought her across three countries in Africa, to Costa Rica, through her roots in Jamaica, her hometown in Brooklyn, and now to Boulder, Colorado. She is developing an all natural, sustainable lipstick and beauty care product line that is in harmony with nature and human health.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
- Marianne Williamson
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She was transformed by the deep connection and the inescapable love she felt for and from her community, the land, and herself. In 2014, Renee combined her love of wellness, sustainability, connection, and beauty to develop a non-toxic personal care line called NUS: Never Underestimate Simple.
At 12 years old, after seeing a close family friend pass away from cancer, Renee became obsessed with understanding wellbeing. Through her research, she began to view dis-ease as a disruption to the natural flow of energy in the mind, body, and spirit. Renee realized that by becoming aware of how she felt, she could shift her focus to intentional thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, ultimately changing her state of being. Renee began making her own personal care products—hair washes, body butters, deodorants, toothpastes, and most recently lipsticks—at 18 years old to avoid putting harmful chemicals into her body through its largest organ—the skin. During a semester abroad in Ghana with the School for International Training, she studied traditional medicine with healers from Ghana’s Northern Region. She then went to Costa Rica to live on an organic permaculture farm, VerdEnergia, where she worked on projects from sustainable construction and passive irrigation to gardening and composting.
The NUS line consists of organic vegan products, free of petrochemicals and other harmful ingredients. Renee affirms that people can accentuate beauty without sacrificing wellbeing by using simple ingredients with dynamic results. NUS is more than just an organic personal care line, it is a platform for sharing love, connection, and sustainability through simplicity. Renee graduated Magna cum laude from Babson College with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and a concentration in Environmental Sustainability. She is a Posse Foundation alumnus and a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma International Business Honors Society.
