Carina Chaz grew up in Los Angeles, California, amid the glitz and glam of Hollywood. As an adult, Carina has made a name for herself in the beauty industry via the promotion of her brand called “Ded Cool.” Carina grew up in a family that promoted “green” (eco-friendly) makeup, and by age nine she had already created her first product, the now iconic LaNatura lip balms that is available in twenty-five different flavors and is sold in stores globally.
Growing up in a “playground” of a makeup lab, Carina loved to experiment with aromas and colors and textures.
Her experimentation with blends paid off, and she is currently one of the leaders in the industry in the arena of body and/or skincare products. By the time she was thirteen, she had enraged her debt fragrance called “CC n. 13” and in 2010 she branded the scent as part of the LaNatura brand. Under the umbrella of the company, the line expanded to feature four unique roll-on aromas that were inspired by different moods. Carina had also created scents for young men via a collaboration with Twilight fragrances.
In order to fully distinguish her brand, Carina created “DedCool” which is essentially a company that enables her to promote all her creations. Established in 2016, the company is dedicated to producing products that are eco-friendly, cruelty-free, vegan, non-toxic, and sometimes even unisex.
Carina recently discussed her life as a beauty entrepreneur and her hopes for the future of DedCool via an exclusive interview.
Beauty industry, perfume, and scents
Meagan Meehan (MM): You grew up in the beauty industry, so why did you gravitate towards scents so much?
Carina Chaz (CC): Being an only child and growing up in an entrepreneurial home, I was always geared to take over the family business, LaNatura.
As much as I loved being a case study for my parent’s company, skin care and body care never captivated me. Makes sense as children typically have no skin concerns. I was intrigued by the actual product scents and convinced my parents to expand on their famous lip balms. While there were only three SKUs: Vanilla, Mango and unscented, I introduced the idea of adding fruity flavors such as watermelon, berry and more.
They expanded the line to twenty-five skus and continued to be one of the bestselling products in their collection. With that, I became obsessed with the smell, and at a young age, I became fascinated with actual over the counter fragrances and cultivated quite the collection of mini samples that my mom would bring home from the department stores.
MM: How did you initially figure out which materials to blend to get the best results?
CC: As my collection grew, I began understanding the composition of notes and essential oils. I refined my pallet of scent with a lot of research and development. At thirteen, I started concocting my own signature scents for personal use.
MM: What are some of the unique products or scents that you’ve created and how have you gotten them marketed and promoted?
CC: My first distributed scent was the “Carina Chaz N. 13” fragrance. The fragrance was a customized scent for all the party goers at my bat mitzvah. The perfume was a hit among guests. There, I became confident in my craft and decided creating and developing fragrances would be my future career path.
MM: How much control do you have over packaging and might you one day create artistic perfume bottles? That’s become very trendy.
CC: I am in complete control of all packaging, visuals, and scent composition for the DedCool brand. I visualized how I wanted the brand to look and created mock bottles to generate the initial Instagram page. Once I saw an astonishing response on the platform, I was inspired to keep creating products from that concept.
The idea of DedCool is being 100 percent transparent from the unique attributes of being Uni-sex +Vegan + Non-toxic- the packaging had a lot to play in that area as I wanted to create something that looked almost stock and having the fragrance speak for itself. The artistic perfume bottles are something we haven’t really thought a lot about, but as the brand is growing quite rapidly, we will continue producing minimal and genderless designs.
Opportunities, inventions, and 'going green'
MM: What opportunities has “DedCool” offered you and why did you select that name and spelling?
CC: DedCool has offered me a voice in an emerging space. With my product, I’m able to disrupt an industry that has been at a standstill for centuries.
As a consumer, I wanted to buy fragrance exactly how I wanted it. DedCool is creating an opportunity for people to share scents with their partners along with being consciously aware of ingredients and how they come into play with health and sustainability. The name DedCool was something I had not intended for; it sparked on me when I described the concept in conversation. I removed the “A” in hopes to disassociate the fragrance name and idea with the word “dead.”
MM: You invented a line of lip balms but now focus on fragrances, might you one day expand to eye shadows, nail polishes, etc.? Essentially, how do you envision DedCool evolving?
CC: As we pride on DedCool being a Uni-Sex company, we are staying away from color lines and makeup.
We do have a few launches on the way that will be totally unexpected. DedCool is also about breaking boundaries while educating consumers about wellness. For now, we are solely focusing on fragrances and our Chazsticks. The lip balms were created as a fun play for chapstick. Our Chazsticks are 100% all natural and vegan + look rad. We hope people use our lip balms and never go back to those cheapy sticks with cheapy ingredients.
MM: Why is being a “green” company so important to you?
CC: Having a green company is extremely important for me as a person and my brand. I have grown up in a holistic household and valued those beliefs throughout my life and hope to inspire people about wellbeing. Living in Los Angeles, I understand there is a bit of a green bubble around us, but with DedCool, I hope to engage in larger audiences and encourage to a change in their health and beauty routines into a more natural and plant-based approach.
MM: What are your grandest goals for your future in the beauty industry overall?
CC: My biggest goal is to make a change (for the better) in this industry. People have become jaded to the world of beauty as it is growing as well as saturating the market. DedCool is all about sustainability and creating a new category of fragrance. I can only hope my message and scents resonate with my amazing customer base and grow from there.
MM: What do you wish more people knew about DedCool and is there anything else that you would like to add?
CC: I want people to understand that green beauty is a cool beauty. Just because something is natural and nontoxic, doesn’t mean it smells like a hippie. DedCool prides on creating unique blends that everyone and anyone can associate with.
