‘Skin Chef’ Graydon Moffat Puts Her Own Spin on Sustainable Skincare 

Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Established: 2016
Hero Product: Moon Boost Brightening Multivitamin Serum

One of the keys to longevity is beauty inside-out. For vegan chef turned skincare guru Graydon Moffat, this means topical application of the same vitamins and minerals. Both are vital for optimal bodily functioning. 

“I experienced how the power of superfoods like foods that have extra nutrients can really support the body,” Moffat told Happi. “I was doing it in a culinary way. Then I started to make some products that seem suitable for consumption and topical use. I like to find that intersection between something that’s wholesome, but also efficacious.”

Superfoods is the main draw behind pro-aging skincare brand Graydon Skincare. The name reflects the longtime vegan chef and yoga instructor’s ethos of rethinking sustainability’s true meaning and living that truth as a brand. The brand debuted in 2016 with a green beauty approach. Moffat, a past marketing manager at Nestlé and Nabisco, aimed to identify what that really means. She teamed with C16 Biosciences. The company specializes in high-performance, bio-designed ingredients for the personal care, homecare and food industries.

Bio-Designed Ingredients 

Moffat’s namesake line of products is gender neutral, though many aim to support women’s skin health tied to hormonal changes. The line includes sensitive-skin-friendly options from an aloe milk cleanser to a matcha mint shampoo, body lotion and intimacy oil. Graydon uses a bevy of plant-based actives including a hyaluronic acid alternative, bio retinols, vegan probiotics and vegan collagen alternatives such as sustainability harvested African Mahogony bark.

The brand is also reportedly the first in Canada to use torula oil in its products as an alternative to palm oil. 

C16 Biosciences harnesses microbiology to produce a sustainable alternative to palm oil. The company’s founding stemmed from Founder Shara Ticku’s visit to Singapore. While on a business trip, she witnessed the negative consequences of palm oil. She said Indonesia burns its forests to make way for new palm oil trees, and the billows of smoke emanating from these forest fires had a hazardous effect on human health. This resulted in school cancellations and flights; pregnant women were barred from going outside. Inspired to find a solution, she and her cofounders concluded that microorganisms were the factories of the future, with palm oil the perfect target. 

“If palm oil was a Pontiac, torula oil would be a high-end electric car,” noted Moffat. 

One of Graydon’s bestsellers containing Palmless Torula Oil is Super Moon Brightening Multivitamin Serum. Rich in carotenoids and sterols that combine fermentation and biotechnology, Moon Boost’s secret sauce is a “buffet serving” of six actives to brighten uneven pigmentation including vitamins C and E and raspberry seed oil to protect against oxidative damage.