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Sanatio Skincare’s Humble Beginnings

It is late morning in June of 2011, and a forty-year-old Jen Delaney stands on the lawn by her house to pose for a newspaper article. Her husband, Bill, snaps the picture that includes the newly formulated all-natural tinted lip glosses that her customers have requested. The young company has already released a successful lip balm in five flavors that are well-received. The lip care has been designed with minimalism and high quality in mind. The result is a formula that quickly and effectively heals chapped lips.

The inspiration for Sanatio traces back to when Jen was just a child. Watching her dad make bread from scratch, grinding the wheat berries into flour. Her interest in health continued over the years, and in college, she got a degree in exercise physiology. As part of their lifestyle, she and her husband Bill purchased a vita mixer so that they could make two pureed vegetable drinks daily. After having kids, they decided to move from the bustling suburbs of Chicago to Northern Michigan. There was a much cleaner environment here, and making square-foot gardens, composting, and planting fruit trees quickly became a part of their lifestyle.

Bill began to become more interested in the old “folk” cures that might just work better than the pharmaceuticals pushed on those who weren’t well. He began to study herbs and how they could heal the body. Jen noticed that when she went to buy a skincare product, there was an excessive amount of ingredients she couldn’t pronounce. As she began to research these, she found that many had toxic tendencies that were horrible for the body. She searched for a long time for the product that would pass her scrutiny. The few brands that used sustainably sourced ingredients were not very affordable.

“They say that necessity is the mother of invention, so I decided that if natural skin care products were too expensive to buy, I was going to make them myself.”

With a huge collection of books in her library, she researched what was needed to make a pure lip balm formula that worked without additives. The morning that Jen was photographed with her products was a long time ago: 12 years to be exact. In that time, she and her family have gone on to release their Cocotints™ tinted lip balm, body butter and oils, and a whole new facial skincare line. While the years have brought changes, Jen’s mission has never changed. On Sanatio’s Instagram account, she shares her lifestyle of juicing vegetables regularly and spending time outside healing in nature.

“My passion has been to help people become healthier. Whether it is a tip on a food to eliminate, a food to add, a habit to change, or how to become more efficient in exercise, I’ve tried to encourage people to strive for a healthier lifestyle.”

Family has always been a big part of why Sanatio Skincare exists. As one of the Delaney kids, I have grown up in the business and it was one of the most impactful experiences of my childhood. Every one of my siblings has contributed their ideas of what we could improve upon as a company so that the final product is the best it can be. Along the way, we have sampled countless different skin and lip care formulas that our mom has created. The result is only approved if we think it’s the best. No matter how much time passes, the anatomy of each formula remains much like it began: made with pure and responsibly sourced ingredients that only help heal the skin. Jen doesn’t really care to include ten other ingredients with long names.

“I want them to see a product that radiates essence – it doesn’t have a bunch of additives and is prefab, they are the beautiful oils themselves. It’s like the ingredients before they’ve all been processed, and that’s the same way I believe in whole foods, where you do all the preparing. I do that with the skincare so that when you get it, that’s what I made it from, this is homemade.”