Kat Schneider decided to create the supplement brand Ritual in 2015 when she was pregnant with her daughter, Tali. “I couldn’t find a prenatal multivitamin that I trusted,” the Ukraine-born, Los Angeles–based entrepreneur tells the Cut. “From high heavy metals and products lacking in key nutrients like Choline, I knew we deserved better,” Schneider adds. But fundraising at four months pregnant certainly wasn’t an easy process. “I was often told I had to choose between building a company and building a family,” she says. “This became fuel for me. I wanted to excel at both being a CEO and a mom. I’m proud that I now have three incredible, smart, and driven girls and a thriving business.”
After graduating from Brown University, she worked at Lehman Brothers right before the financial crash in 2008. “I was fired, rehired and subsequently fired again after one week. Definitely an interesting start to my career,” she says. Later, she worked in the world of start-ups and eventually became the global lead of digital innovation at Universal Music Group, bringing Spotify to the U.S.
When it comes to winding down and putting her self-care first, Schneider loves leaning on practices like drinking matcha, yoga classes, and a hydrating skin-care routine.
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Here, Schneider’s a.m. routine:
6:00 – I drink 2 cups of room temperature water and then I take a secret upcoming Ritual product when I wake up.
7:00 – I make a loaded matcha latte with my own homemade almond milk and Matchaful ceremonial matcha. I’ll also add some soluble fiber like Sunfiber to it.
8:00 – After I take the kids to school, I work out. I’ve learned that the key to building long, lean muscle mass has been to vary my arm and leg days and to actually take a day to reset. I used to work out way too much and I wasn’t seeing the best results. I like Francesca Asumah’s 26 6 yoga class. It’s really the ultimate beauty routine because you sweat out so many toxins and it leaves you feeling renewed.
9:00 – I’ll shower. My favorite products are OSEA’s Undaria Algae Body Oil and OSEA’s Ocean Cleansing Mudd. I’ll also use Living Libitation’s Best Skin Ever SeaBuckthorn. I also love doing a scalp cleanse with apple cider vinegar for my hair.
9:30 – For moisturizer, I use OSEA’s Seabiotic Water Cream. For hydration, I use the OSEA Hyaluronic Sea Serum. I also ingest my hyaluronic acid by taking Ritual’s HyaCera skin hydration supplement.
9:35 – I like to top everything off with Josh Rosebrook’s Advanced Hydration Mask and Illia’s Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 40 Foundation. I also love Kosas Plump Lip Booster.
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Schneider’s p.m. routine:
6:00 – Dinnertime. I eat plant-based foods in part because my skin reacts negatively to dairy and meat, but also because I feel bad emotionally when using animal products.
7:00 – I take most of my supplements at night. My lineup includes the Ritual multivitamin, Essential for Women 18+ and the Ritual Synbiotic+.
8:00 – My nighttime skin care starts with an oil cleanse. I find it really relaxing to massage my face. I’ve been getting buccal massages in the Valley and have learned how to do my own facial massages with OSEA’s Vagus Nerve Oil and Nucifera’s The Mist.
9:00 – The last part of my routine is taking Ritual’s Sleep BioSeries supplement an hour before bed.
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On her approach to beauty:
I’m a Ukrainian refugee and came to the U.S. at the age of 4 with my family. I lived in a welfare hotel in Brooklyn. My approach to beauty definitely comes from my upbringing. I’m what I like to call a “recovering wellness junkie.” I was using a Norman Walker pressed juicer in my teens. I was reading Ayurvedic books in elementary school. And as my mom got breast cancer when I just started college, I followed her into an integrative wellness journey of psychotherapy and blood-type diets at the age of 20. Now, I would say I am on the other side of the rainbow of wellness. I believe in doing the basics really well. Too often, people look for that magic pill . I focus on the basics. Sleep, hydration, exercise, and the things that can support my foundational health every single day. Some people say when you look good, you feel good. When you feel good, you look good.
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On the beauty marketing ploy that makes her cringe:
The beauty ingestible market is filled with products that have very little efficacy and very limited clinical support. You often see the term “clinically studied” on products, but what many people may not realize is that it’s not a regulated term and is often misused. People interpret it to mean that a whole formula has been studied, but that’s a common mistake and can be quite rare. There may be ingredients in the formula that have been clinically studied, but in reality, the doses and forms often differ from the actual studies.
Ingredients should match the form and dosage of the clinical study, and even better, there should be a clinical study on the finished formula. This can be quite rare in the supplement industry, and it’s something we’re hoping to change. We’re committed to having clinical studies on every Ritual product by 2030.
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On the beauty industry as a whole:
There has been a rise in standards: more topical beauty brands becoming EWG Certified, more ingestible beauty brands developing products with actual clinical studies. And because of that, consumers are becoming more aware of what they are putting in and on their bodies, and I hope that continues.
But I do still think this is more work to be done on the transparency front. For years, we’ve been so focused on what our products are made without (clean) that we haven’t focused on what our products are actually made with (clear). I think that shift from clean to clear is what’s going to continue to drive the industry forward.
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On beauty trends:
I can’t stand the trend of “glass skin.” It’s not attainable for every skin type. In many ways, it’s an aspiration that leaves people feeling inadequate and reaching for harsh solutions that actually strip the skin of essential elements.
I don’t love trends in general. But I really love the rise of ingestible skin care. People are actually starting to think about how their body ages from within, not just externally ,and understanding the need to support that. For instance, more than half of your hyaluronic acid is found in your skin and as you age, that decreases. Instead of just using hyaluronic acid topically, you can ingest it as well to help with hydration.
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On ingredients:
I avoid heavy metals. To be clear, they are in everything. They are in the soil, they are in the air, and they are a natural by-product of industrial manufacturing. But when you concentrate them into certain products like protein powders, it elevates the risk. I like to pick products that are transparent with their heavy-metal contents so I can limit my overall exposure across my wellness routine. I gravitate toward products with fewer ingredients. I believe less is more. You hear a lot of talk in the beauty industry about “clean.” But it’s an unregulated term.
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On the beauty services she swears by:
I love buccal facials! I also love microneedling with Vanessa at The Things We Do. I love lymphatic massages.I also swear by not waxing my eyebrows, just trimming them occasionally. And putting oil on them.
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On the routine she must do, even in a rush:
Skin! It makes me feel so good and grounds me.
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On her biggest beauty inspirations:
Pamela Anderson not wearing any makeup on a red carpet is my inspiration. I am so focused on feeling good on the inside, and when that happens, I think it really shows. I mean she was glowing. I love not wearing makeup and deeply focusing on my skin health.
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