"There is no beauty without health..."
Natasha S Zahorodni entered the beauty space in 2010 when she created her boutique skincare line, Folium Botanica.
Natasha’s core values, purpose, mission, and vision as a skincare specialist and professional formulator of skincare are inspired by and grounded in “lifestyle” medicine. With everything and in every aspect, Natasha–seeing beauty and health as inextricably linked–considers overall health, as she holds it to be the key to enhancing and optimizing natural beauty.
In her Indie Beauty Profile, Natasha Samardzic, founder of Folium Botanica (Folium Medica LLC), shares insight into the market niche she`s found where wellness and beauty intersect and on how carefully her company sources phytomedicinal ingredients.
Anti-aging is losing its cache in the beauty business as wellness takes a greater prominence. With this comes an influx of age-prevention and damage-prevention skin care, like complexion products with SPF, anti-pollution products, and any number of hydrating aqua-bomb type products. Coming to the skin care industry with something of an outsider approach, having been trained in aromatherapy and holistic treatments, Samardzic is an innovator in what could be a niche within this niche: therapeutic beauty.
– Deanna Utroske, Former Editor of Cosmetics Design (dated April 30, 2017)
Natasha`s Current Essentials
"Beauty and vitality are inextricably connected to health, and I wholeheartedly believe that medicine of the future will include some type of skin therapy as integral part in treatment of any health concern".
Natasha S Zahorodni, Founder & CEO
Natasha S Zahorodni is a skin aficionado. She is the founder and CEO of Folium Medica LLC; Folium Botanica; and Studio Portal–a one-of-a-kind holistic skincare studio and consultancy in Chicago, Illinois. At the heart of everything she does is her utmost dedication to health and well-being.
Natasha has received several notable professional certifications in the US. Notwithstanding, she continually works toward expanding her training on an ongoing basis, learning about new and adapted products, methodologies, and treatments from renowned skin experts from all across the world. Her research also involves the impact of nutrition and the skin and gut microbiome and microbiota as key influencers on skin health.
Her battle with various skin issues led Natasha on a quest, early on, to find a solution. That is when she began her research on skin. It was in this yearslong study that it grew more and more apparent to her that the problem with mainstream skincare (which she found ineffective in her journey) is its solely topical approach. What is missing, and direly needed, is a comprehensive approach–one of considering and treating skin as an integral part of the whole, greater system, affected by both internal and external environments.
Two methodologies that are at the core of Natasha’s treatment philosophy are the Epidermology Method developed by French biochemist Joëlle Ciocco and Corneotherapy developed by American dermatologist Albert Kligman, M.D., Ph.D. Comprehensive skin methodologies, such as these, make use of extensive and full skin analyses that consider the entire body and its systems, history, as well as lifestyle habits and, as aforementioned, internal and external environments to evaluate individual skin health requirements, nutritional and otherwise.
Natasha’s choice of treatments, topical and otherwise, including at-home-care recommendations are informed by her deep engagement with and knowledge of skin’s physiology and cosmetic chemistry and the effects of specific ingredients on various conditions and skin types.
In her practice, Natasha, guided by her knowledge and expertise, cultivates the integral connection between the inside and the outside of the body, nourishing and nurturing all of the body. Healthy, youthful, radiant, supple, and glowy skin appearance and health are in tandem with a healthy body, and Natasha’s practice corresponds to and reflects this.
Natasha is passionate about educating and providing support to her clients in the treatment room and beyond; as such, she regularly organizes and hosts intimate events that cover a wide range of topics related to skin and body wellness.
Certifications and Programs
-
Licensed Esthetician (LE)
-
Functional Nutrition Consultant – Functional Nutrition Alliance
-
Chinese Medicine Dramatology – Mazin Al-Khafaji, Avicenna Centre for Chinese Medicine
-
Dien Chan Zone certification in Facial Reflexology
-
Corneotherapy – International Association of Applied Corneotherapy
Natasha S Zahorodni is a member of: Associated Skin Care Professionals; the Society of Dermatology Skin Care Specialists; the International Academy of Italian Facial Reflexology; and the International Association of Applied Corneotherapy.