Recipe for Success

For those who’ve kept tabs on Horst Rechelbacher, there was never a thought that he would jet off to an island and meditate after selling Aveda—the company he founded and ultimately sold to Estée Lauder. “Reinventing myself is something that I need to do and I will do by becoming an ongoing student,” says Rechelbacher. The man who transformed the beauty industry with Aveda is once again poised to get our attention and lead us down an enlightened path with his forward-thinking, earth-friendly personal care and beauty products. Two months ago, his current brainchild, Intelligent Nutrients nutriceutical foods and supplements, hit the shelves at 800 Regis salon locations nationwide. But this summer, the line will get a major boost when Rechelbacher unveils organic products for hair, antiaging, hand and foot, maternity and baby, and even pets.

Why Regis? “Only professional people can put hands-on experience with the products with the person,” he says, citing Regis’s standing and influence (Regis also owns Vidal Sassoon and John Louis David concepts). He says he sees Regis as a “conceptually aligned” investor, distributing IN and educating consumers about IN’s philosophies and food-grade organic beauty products beyond what the standalone Minneapolis boutique could do. (A New York City flagship store is set to open early next year.) 
    
Partnering with a large corporation also means more money, but IN is a nonprofit—Rechelbacher is planning more research and charitable giving for environmental, social, and animal rights. (His efforts have been acknowledged worldwide, including in Vanity Fair.)
    
“We’re finally studying why the thread of the spider is a thousand times stronger than steel. It’s made by nature so nature can reproduce it. I think that’s the human lesson. We are here to be enlightened. Having a lighter heart, you are enlightened. If you have a heavy heart, you are depressed. Products and foods can help that,” he says. 
    
He also pushes for organic—true organic, not just packaging hype. Consumer products cannot be certified organic—it’s not currently a priority for the FDA or USDA—so “people make their own certifications. I look at the list of ingredients, and it says ‘sodium laureth sulfate.’ We want to help dispel the myths . . . Seriously, most of the cosmetic world does not want you to know the truth. There are two washes, brainwashing and ‘greenwashing.’ By now, I know the game.” 
    
His knowledge of ‘the game’ might be why he retains his sense of optimism, founding an organic research group, speaking at beauty industry summits, and finding ways to beautify without polluting, including at his own organic farm in Wisconsin. (“That it costs more to farm [organically] is bullshit,” he says.)
    
“Why invest in something that isn’t proven to be right? People believe in this magic to sustain and help what exists, instead of redesigning the system. I’ve found 80 percent of people always resist new ideas. But more than ever, organic is important. You have to set standards. You have to fight for authenticity. It’s an art and a science.”