Beauty Bosses: Agatha Relota and Kim Walls of Furtuna Skin
Agatha Relota Luczo and Kim Walls, Co-Founders of Furtuna Skin.
This week’s Beauty Bosses are Agatha Relota Luczo and Kim Walls, Co-Founders of Furtuna Skin. When Luczo and Walls met, they discovered that they both wanted to create a skincare line that provided clean, natural beauty and high performance. The natural abundance of Luczo’s 864-acre organic estate in Sicily helped bring their dreams to life and inspired the creation of Furtuna.
Furtuna Skin’s ingredients are made with strictly sourced organic ingredients that are hand-picked and foraged from La Fortuna Estate in an eco-sustainable way. They are free from harsh chemicals, parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrances, and certified cruelty-free. The unique Soundbath Extraction method is used to maximize the potency of the ingredients.
We chatted with Luzco and Walls to learn more about their journey in the industry, as well as their skincare tips and more.
Can you share a little about your background and journey in the industry?
Agatha: I’ve been an international model since I was 16, so from a very young age I was immersed in the beauty industry and surrounded by the best of the best. While prepping for shoots with Vogue, Marie Claire and W, I would meet celebrity makeup artists and skin specialists who shared their trade secrets and holy grail products with me. Even from a young age, I always gravitated towards healthy, organic living, but when I became pregnant with my first child it really hit me just how important organic life is. I’m now a mother of four and eating clean is a huge part of my life, as is clean beauty.
Kim: I was born into beauty and am thrilled to be carrying on my family legacy of luxury skin care and bring it to a new generation. As an aesthetician and skincare educator, I regularly advise dermatologists, plastic surgeons and estheticians on what clients need. Skin is a reflection of your health, which is why I advocate for safe beauty and have spent my career as a clean beauty pioneer. I am always striving to bring unprecedented advancements to the clean beauty space whether that be through natural product formulations, new ingredient discoveries or extraction methods.
What inspired you to launch Furtuna Skin?
Agatha & Kim: Bottom line, we wanted more. We wanted clean beauty products that were cleaner and higher performance than anything we had seen on the market. Because of the potency and potential of the ingredients on La Furtuna Estate in Sicily, we knew that we had an opportunity to push the boundaries of clean beauty and we have a blast doing it! The ingredients on our certified organic farm are so pure—starting from the water source. The natural potency of our products creates transformational results on skin and we plan on traveling the world to find the most potent ingredients possible.
Is there a hero product that you are known for?
Agatha & Kim: Our Porte Per La Vitalità Face & Eye Serum is our hero because it is multi-purpose, ideal for any skin type, provides an instantly visible difference, and blends in perfectly with any other skincare products to create a full routine. Ideally, it replaces a chemical vitamin C serum in anyone’s routine since it has all the antioxidant power of vitamin C, plus so much more because of the organic whole plant nutrition.
Do you have a favorite product?
Kim: Our Face & Eye Serum is our favorite because it is great for all skin types and for any age. This product showcases our unique features like the exclusive ingredient Anchusa Azurea and our pioneering Soundbath™ Extraction Method. With Soundbath™ Extraction, the full potency of bioactives in our organic, wild foraged plants is extracted. The process is more reliable, faster and better than any other method we’ve seen before.
Agatha: I use the Face & Eye Serum day and night in my skincare ritual. I also am a big fan of oils and will use a Gua Sha tool to do face massage to relieve muscles in the face and boost circulation. We have new products launching later this year that I’ve started to layer into my routine, and since I’m a mom of four, I always have Bambini Furtuna products in my purse! Specifically, the Boo Boo Be Gone.
Where are your products sold?
Furtuna Skin can be found at FurtunaSkin.com and ShaniDarden.com.
What are your must-do skincare tips and are there any beauty secrets you can share?
Agatha: Being a model gave me access to masters from around the world who shared their beauty secrets with me—some I’ve adopted into my daily ritual. My biggest beauty secret is what you put on your skin is just as important as what you eat. That’s why a good skincare routine with high-quality products is important, as is consistency with those products and keeping your skin well hydrated. In my nightly ritual, I wash my face every night but don’t over wash in the morning. Instead of washing my face in the morning, I cleanse my skin with a micellar water to refresh my skin, which I also use to remove makeup in the evening. Olive oil has always been my go-to ingredient in skincare and I love using it in my cooking.
Kim: I wash my face every single night and rinse it every morning. The key is to not skip a night of cleansing—Not ever, not for anything! Other than that, I moisturize plentifully using the purest, cleanest and most potent formulas like our Porte Per La Vitalità Face & Eye Serum, which is over 92% organic and made with wild foraged botanicals from Agatha’s private 800-acre organic certified farm in Sicily.
Who inspires you?
Agatha: Sophia Loren! I admire her elegance, femininity, and sexy Italian mind set. She has such a love for life—and love of olive oil baths! Just like I do.
Kim: Estee Lauder is a daily inspiration. Her drive, curiosity and persistence are unrivaled. Josephine Mentzer earned her legacy the old-fashioned way with honor and respect, one customer at a time. She came from a challenging past but didn’t allow that to define her future. Estee imagined her own version of her greatest self and then walked in those shoes. Pretty darn cool.
Secret to success?
Agatha: Go with your gut, trust your intuition, be confident in your decisions, stay true to yourself, and most importantly, be kind.
Kim: Say what you mean and mean what you say.
Wellness tips?
Agatha: Coming up with a ritual and being consistent with your routine. When you begin to practice a daily ritual and view it as self care, it feels less like a chore and more like a treat. Embracing my daily rituals and getting into a routine was a lifestyle change that really helps with my overall wellness. It’s okay to have cheat days and stray from your routine occasionally, but on the daily try and stay consistent. It’s not a strict bootcamp, you can and should be flexible. It’s more about how you want to live your life and creating a ritual the reflects that lifestyle.
Kim: Sleep. Eat lightly and avoid alcohol within three hours of bedtime. For optimal beauty sleep, wear a mask for pure darkness and reduce the temperature in the room to 68 degrees. Maintain a steady sleep schedule. The body is a marvelous system that can heal from almost any insult, but that’s mainly while it sleeps.
Best advice?
Agatha: Never go to sleep angry—always happy! As a bonus, it helps with your glow in the morning!
Kim: Thank your heart every night for beating and thank your lungs every morning for taking in the air. The rest will follow.
Favorite ways to relax?
Agatha: Ballroom and Latin dancing!
Kim: Walking up and down the hills in my neighborhood and traveling.
Where can people find you on social media?
Agatha: @AgathaRelotaLuczo
Kim: @KImWallsLA
For more information, visit furtunaskin.com and follow @furtunaskin on Instagram.
Lizzy Sherman is an award-winning digital content writer/editor. She has been a featured guest speaker at Cal State University Northridge, Digital LA and The National Association of Audience Marketing Professionals. When she's not writing, Lizzy enjoys yoga and playing guitar. Follow her on Instagram: @zillizy