AACE INTERVIEW: Mike Eidlin of WALALA
Mike Eidlin of Walala
"BUT NEVER BRING IT TO JAPAN IT WILL END YOUR LIFE AND WE WILL BE VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU AND YOU WILL GO TO JAIL FOR 20 YEARS"…this brand is the first step in my mission to solve the above contradiction. - Mike Eldin
I am so excited by today’s interview with Mike Eidlin co-founder of WALALA! Mike’s CBD beauty brand is based in Tokyo Japan, where hemp derived products started to surface in interest after the US’s Farm Bill allowed hemp farming. Mike is born in Japan and moved as a child to California, so he takes his style and entrepreneurship skills to create a CBD brand in Asia with an eye on the US next. Walala is blazing the education path for CBD and for those who are next to create CBD brands in Asia. - Ophelia Chong
Your product is out to challenge the public’s belief about Cannabis and Hemp, and as a beauty product you have the challenge to convince people to use this as skincare when our society values outward “looks” over what resides in our hearts. What was the biggest challenge in the outreach and marketing of your product in Asia?
This is a difficult one. I grew up in California, raised in Berkeley/Oakland, and so when this opportunity came up to start another startup - but this time to create CBD products in Japan and be an early participant in the market, I wanted to use the highest quality organic hemp. Warning, huge wall of text below.
Unfortunately, Japan's regulation isn't updated to reflect the nature of CBD products. Japan only allows for CBD products that have been extracted from the stalk and seeds of the Cannabis plant. When I was doing my due diligence in starting the company, I reached out to many top-quality CBD ingredient producers / hemp farms in the US. 10/10 told me they usually throw away their stalk or seeds because there's no CBD in the stalk/seeds. As many people know and understand, CBD is created in the trichomes of the plant, which mostly exist in the flower and partially the leaves. That said, people were still importing CBD into Japan.. I kept wondering to myself how this was possible. I soon realized that (to put it lightly) most importers into Japan are fudging their paperwork, claiming their CBD is derived from the stalk and seed of the Cannabis plant. There are many theories as to why this is allowed, but to this day, the Japanese regulators have left this huge loophole open. This leads to a problem where the initial participants of the market are dishonest (harsh wording, my apologies) and leads to bad precedence and hygiene for the entire market. THAT SAID, these participants are educating the Japanese public about the benefits of Cannabis / Hemp / CBD / Cannabinoids, and so I do have to be appreciative there. As a result, we use synthesized CBD in our products to be fully compliant with Japanese regulation - which may not be popular in the US - because there's no legal need for non-cannabis, non-hemp products. As a result, we also need to do education on synthesized CBD, and explain how the majority of multi-vitamins we take, the cosmetic products we use, contain ingredients which are synthesized. For example, the Vitamin-C supplements we take are not extracted from the lemon plant. It is synthesized. This actually makes some of our customers more at ease, because they understand what Vitamin-C is, and the parallel there, but are still a little unsure about hemp/Cannabis. It can sometimes be a very difficult position to be in - especially as I am a Californian! I of course would rather be using the plant which absorbs sunshine, water, and soil. We can discuss this topic more in-depth, but itis totally weird. That said, it is helpful that there are now many companies pursuing bio-synthetic cannabinoids.
Yin Yang is the basis of Chinese culture and it is about balance, your mission statement is “Because true beauty comes from a balanced mind and body”, how do you explain to your clients the ways your products help with balance?
Yes, this is a lesson that I've learned from my personal experience growing up in California. I always strive to take a moderate stance in any opinions, decisions, lifestyle choices, etc. that I take. This is reflected in our company name, and in our brand.
For example, we like to tell our users and customer that you need to take care of yourself, not be so harsh on yourself, and carve out time in your day for your own rituals and to rest. This is especially the case in Tokyo, where everyone is go-go-go. Take WALALA's supplements for better sleep and relaxation. Take 5 minutes after you get home to massage WALALA's point cream on your ankles / neck / calves after a long day at work. WALALA is mainly a skincare brand, but the hero ingredient also happens to have incredible effects on our mental well being. So we do have a challenge to properly communicate to our customers and explain why a CBD cream is good for your soul, as it is for your joints, and/or skin.
According to Statista, have been growing by over 700 percent during the last decade, while the volume of those exports grew by around 870 percent in the same period. How will Walala use this surge of Korean beauty products to its advantage in marketing?
I haven't looked too in-depth regarding k-beauty and the trends / popular brands / themes / ingredients there, but I think it's a good thing overall and as you mention, we can figure out ways to use this to our advantage. By the way - Japan has also been on an upward trend of exporting cosmetics - but I think the "popularity surge" hasn't really been around for J-beauty recently because either there's some feeling of saturation with the bigger company brands (Shiseido, SK-II, POLA, etc.): https://www.jcia.org/en/statistics/trade
In terms of ideas on how we can use this to our advantage, I think it's about elevating the entire concept of "asian culture" and education and exposure to modern Asia. Instead of J-beauty vs K-beauty, maybe its a new concept of JK-beauty. As a result, I think it will be very interesting to incorporate CBD into Japanese and/or Korean formulations.
What was the moment that created that epiphany to create Walala?
The epiphany/timeline to start WALALA is interesting. It really starts in my childhood when I was born in Tokyo, but our family moved to California when I was in pre-school. I was exposed to Cannabis a bit early as a high schooler. Luckily with the environment that I grew up in - my parents were understanding. The general idea was "we request you don't do it too much, but if you are going to, do it in a safe place, such as our backyard." That said, the interesting plot twist here is, "BUT NEVER BRING IT TO JAPAN IT WILL END YOUR LIFE AND WE WILL BE VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU AND YOU WILL GO TO JAIL FOR 20 YEARS" (I hope you get the nuance there with my caps lock). This was the first time where I thought to myself, "that’s weird." "why is this a thing?" "Why can't Cannabis be just as 'chill' in Japan as it is in California?"
And so to a certain degree, this brand is the first step in my mission to solve the above contradiction. I was living in LA winding down a mobile app startup when one of my mentors in Japan asked me if CBD was legal in Japan because he was currently in Hawaii where it was super popular. I did some research, ran into the stems and seeds issue I elaborated on above, and found a synthesized CBD provider in Europe, and started doing my due diligence. That said, at that point, the concept for WALALA was not solidified at all. I had to think - what kind of brand, what kind of products, what kind of category, messaging, target market, etc. would be best for a very early and nascent market? That's where I thought that if I could win the trust of people like my mother with our products, aka women 30-60, that would be a better way to introduce CBD into the Japanese society/culture. As a result, instead of creating CBD vapes, gummies, etc., we decided to start with a prestige skincare CBD brand. That way, later down the road, CBD won't be vilified, but rather celebrated by an important part of the Japanese demographic, which then leads to a healthier path to Cannabis legalization in the near or far future.
What does Walala mean?
WALALA = 1. The Japanese concept of "WA / 和" - harmony. The fact that I moved from LA to Japan, and that LA is a mecca of wellness culture. And finally, the phrase you say when you're feeling happy and all is good, "lalala". I'm year of the monkey, so that's me on the back of the tiger. The tiger is there to protect your wellness.
How has CBD helped you personally?
Before starting WALALA, I would use a CBD balm on my shoulders / neck after surfing. Since starting WALALA, I use our products for my daily skincare routine ( I didn't necessarily have one before WALALA!) and take our supplements before sleeping. We categorize CBD as having "inner care", "skincare", "bodycare" effects depending on the product. As such, personally I appreciate the body-care - aka using a CBD cosmetic product on my joints after a tough workout.
What form factors do you want to add to the Walala line?
I'm really happy with our current line up - we started with a face cream that can be used on various points of your body as well (which is why we call it a point cream), an oil beauty serum, sheet masks, supplements, and most recently a Japanese toner / lotion. (The toner is my favorite these days because it absorbs so quickly into the skin. In the future, I'm looking forward to our body cream, perhaps some bath oriented products. We are currently selling our products in 100 beauty parlors/esthetic parlors in Japan, so I'm looking forward to creating a WALALA massage oil where people can *really* feel the effects of anti-inflammation on the joints / muscles when getting a massage.
Asia is a bigger obstacle to the use of cannabinoids, however how will you stand out in the US in a very crowded CBD beauty marketplace?
I almost see it as a "cheat code" - but I think what will make us stand out in the US will be the "Made in Japan" aspect. I see it as 1. customers will try us for the "made in japan" factor, and 2. customers will repeat when they understand the quality of our products. I think our packaging / branding is fairly unique - we do want to really emphasize the "WALALA green" that is on our product packaging. I think that's a good color for people to remember, just how people recognize Hermes orange, Tiffany Blue, etc. WALALA Green is next :)
Let’s relax now, and talk about how you chill out in Japan!
In Japan I do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu! It's a really good way to get a workout in, but also there's a big learning/skill acquisition element, so you really do use your brain a lot. I think Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu will be a hobby for the rest of my life! Also I occasionally injure myself with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu so it's a great opportunity for me to use my products.
Links:
Tokyo Weekender: Walala CBD Cream
