Meet Kasia Maslowski | Entrepreneur & Chemical Engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kasia Maslowski and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kasia, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
In my experience, work life balance is essential to living a healthy lifestyle. I’ve always had a very strong work ethic, almost too strong, and when I came up with personal or business goals, I did whatever I needed to do in order to reach those goals in a timely manner. Don’t get me wrong, reaching said goals was definitely exhilarating and building up the “life resume” was what motivated me the most, however I eventually realized that reaching goals more quickly meant I was compromising my emotional and physical wellbeing. Just an example, there have been several times in my life when I was working three jobs at once. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to reach my end goals more quickly.

Now that I am a little older (and hopefully a little wiser), I realize that the most important things I have (that I can control to some degree) are my time and energy. It’s hard or impossible to recover the loss of these. So, when I think about how to build my business and still maintain a healthy lifestyle, I try to work smarter not harder. I try to conserve my energy and time for the big leaps and not get too hung up and saying yes to every single opportunity that comes my way. I’ve found that this approach leads to the most peace.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My brand is called KASIA, which happens to be my name.

To me, a business is like an expression of yourself. I am the daughter of Polish parents; I am so proud of my Polish heritage. I am a chemical engineer by trade; I love chemistry and I love formulating. I appreciate natural beauty and was always taught the importance of taking care of yourself and presenting yourself in a very cultured, well-kept manner. My personality is extremely bubbly. I love bright colors; they really make me happy. All of these attributes are infused into my skincare brand so that even when you look at the packaging, you really get a sense of who I am.

I first got the idea to start the business as a young twenty-something working for Johnson & Johnson. I had met a couple of powerhouse women engineers who previously worked for Neutrogena (owned by Johnson & Johnson) and they sparked my interest of working as a chemical engineer in skincare. I couldn’t manage to land a job with Neutrogena at that time because they were on a hiring freeze, so out of eagerness and impatience, I decided to go out and conduct my own R&D skincare research and thus, KASIA was born.

My proudest accomplishment is an all-natural alternative to the medicated cold sore cream, Abreva. I grew up getting a lot of cold sores and they always made me feel a little self-conscious. I thought, why not create a nice, colorful product that works to help eliminate cold sores and reduce the stigma of getting them altogether? I trialed a formula on myself for 8 months and didn’t get a cold sore; I knew I had something special. I then started selling my cold sore lip balms and have now helped several people stop getting cold sores.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First off, I would recommend my best friend come visit me in the fall since Tulsa can get quite hot and muggy in the summertime and fairly chilly in the wintertime. I would suggest she come during our annual long-weekend Oktoberfest, which is the second biggest Oktoberfest in the country. There is a lot of great beer, German food and awesome authentic German dances which happen every our on the hour. During the following week, I would take her on a biking tour of Tulsa. We would bike from my house in midtown along the Midland Valley Trial to the multi-million dollar park, The Gathering Place. We would ride along the Arkansas river and stop off for coffee and maybe lunch in the Brookside area. We would also make time to go see some live music at least one day during the week, probably at the famous Cain’s Ballroom! Then we would probably spend most nights drinking champagne and hanging out in my hot tub spilling all the tea!

Tulsa is a foodie city so you don’t have as many food chains. There are so many great local shops and restaurants and tons of artisan markets which is where I usually sell my products and market my business! The city is very relaxed, similar to Austin, TX back in the day, and great for entrepreneurs. Not to mention, it’s extremely affordable to live here!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to thank my parents first and foremost for their support and encouragement in following my dreams. I know I wasn’t an easy kid to deal with. I was always dreaming up the wildest dreams, dreams that would have concerned many other parents. However, it was my parents who always let me chase them (within reason.) They allowed me to be myself, knowing that in the journey, I would continue to learn and grow and become a better person. I know it’s because of so many dreams they let me chase as a teenager that I had the confidence and audacity to start my current business.

Website: www.kasialipbalms.com

Instagram: @kasialipbalms

Linkedin: Kasia Maslowski

Image Credits
Soona Co.