In the Desert with Sanne Vloet
Sanne Vloet, the model turned beauty entrepreneur talks about her wellness journey, the joy and importance of teaching mindfulness to young children, her passion for healthy cooking and her newest project, Izè, a minimalist, all-natural skincare brand.
Sanne was photographed by LVL | Eleven on location in Palm Springs, California.
Interview and Landscape Photography by Alison Engstrom
It’s lovely to meet you! How have you been doing?
I’m doing well. It's honestly been a weird transition. At the beginning of quarantine, I enjoyed being home because I am always on the go and traveling. It pushed me to slow down and I found appreciation in the small things, which I enjoyed. Then it was a whole switch to how can I still work and do things because you are trying to find new ways to connect with people. I feel like I have connected with way more people than I usually do because of platforms like Zoom. It’s such a strange time, there are ups and downs, to be honest.
How have you balanced doing things but also not putting a ton of pressure on yourself?
At the beginning, I noticed how the days blended together. Most of the things I do are already digital and that never sleeps, it goes on for 24-hours—I had to balance that out. What has helped for me is to keep weekdays, workdays and weekends, weekends. At one point, I was watching movies during the day and working late at night and it just completely threw me off. But on weekdays, I try to stay productive and keep my routine by waking up early and working out and then on weekends, we maybe go to the beach or into nature.
You recently moved to la from new york. What inspired you to make the move?
I moved the first week in January, so it was before the virus—it was all about the lifestyle. I lived in New York City for six years and for me, I have so much joy doing outdoor activities; I just felt very trapped in New York. I felt like I was always in an environment where everyone was working and going out and it was just a lot. It was either going back home to Holland or to LA and LA had the sun and more space so we said, LA. One of the main reasons too was I wanted to find a place with a really big kitchen because we wanted to produce cooking content—it was impossible to find in New York. I looked here and I found bigger places with bigger kitchens where we could do production and cooking.
I understand that completely. You’ve had a very successful career working as a model. What has that road been like for you?
I was scouted when I was 14, but I finished school first and then I started modeling at 18. I moved to Paris and I was there for 7 months then I came to NY and did fashion week, it was where my career blew up with all of the shows. For three years straight, I was on an airplane almost every day. After six years of being on set, I felt like I was losing my creativity; you know you show up on set, do your thing but I really wanted to do more. That’s when I branched out to YouTube, cooking and now my skincare line. It gave me a platform and the opportunity to travel and meet a lot of people and find out for myself what I wanted to do.
How did you navigate the modeling industry at such a young age when you were trying to figure out how you were? Modeling can be such a subjective industry.
Honestly, if I think back at it right now I ask myself, how did I do it? And would I do it again? (laughs). I used to do acrobatics before modeling and I was training at a high level and doing competitions. I was training 15-hours a week, which taught me discipline from a very young age. Whenever I did those types of things, I was so motivated. So when I was modeling and traveling, I was also taking care of myself. I think I enjoyed the adventure of modeling so much that I was able to navigate it. There are many ups and downs, some days you are on location on a beautiful beach in the Bahamas and others you are really alone, traveling.
I know wellness is very important to you. How did your journey begin?
I think consciously it was already there because I grew up in the countryside. I didn't know anything other than fresh food from the garden and home-cooked meals, ordering food wasn’t possible there. I think when I became a model, I had to take care of myself for my job but I also wanted to. I think that’s how I came into healthy food, nutrition and different ways of working out and I really enjoyed it. I always enjoyed cooking but then when I started my YouTube channel, I realized that I really enjoyed it and doing it on video. People said they wanted to see more, so it kind of happened organically.
What advice do you have for others who are wanting to begin their wellness journey and focus on nurturing their mind, body and spirit?
I feel there are a lot of girls, even in the modeling industry who would ask, how do you do it, I am not eating and I’m not losing weight. I would say of course you aren’t because you are so stressed and that isn’t healthy for you. A lot of people forget, but stress can really affect us and throw us off in everything. I want to build that out for more people and focus on mental health. When I was in high school we had drama classes and once a week everyone was running around the room and being crazy and having fun. You saw that this was the only classroom where there was no bullying and no one had problems giving presentations in front of the classroom. There was something that really changed and we wanted to give that to younger kids. I noticed too on the channel people would ask, how can I be confident, or how can I get motivated. So that’s why my business partner and friend Jason built this social-emotional learning project called The Growth Mindset—we are reforming it a bit right now. We would go into a low-income areas in Brooklyn, once a month, and we would do these exercises and team-building with the kids. Obviously, the schools are closed now but we are trying to make an afterschool program which will be all online. The goal is to bring that mindfulness to young kids. I think especially now people need it. People are always on their phones and comparing themselves to others. In school, you learn science and math but you don’t actually learn about the real skills you need in life like mindfulness.
That’s incredible! I was just listening to something with Eckhart Tolle and he was saying how mindfulness should be taught in school. Can you imagine the world we would live in if everyone had that as a base, it would be like a bunch of super heroes we’d be raising! What other tools have really helped you?
I think listening to your body and what you need is important. For me, I have noticed that my routine is important. I am very much a morning person so going to bed early has helped and then getting up early. I think the first 30 minutes are really important—no phone—just waking up and stretching. Stretching has really helped change my body and my mind over the last few months. I would work out but even doing that gives a sort of stress to your body that we don’t notice. I would do an hour stretch and notice that it calms down my mind so much without stressing out my body. Even during this time, I am still trying to plan my on-days and off-days. I want to get into meditation. Something nice that me, my boyfriend and a friend who is staying with us have been doing is every night before dinner, we hold hands and take three big deep breaths—that breathing is something I want to work on. Sometimes after a full day, I realized I literally forgot to breathe (laughs).
What inspired you to start your skincare brand, Izé?
It wasn’t like I always wanted to start a skincare brand. It kind of came about because of modeling I was constantly on set and they would put so much makeup on me. At one point, I got so many beauty PR packages with all of these products, I would try them out, and it would say to use this ten-step routine. At one point my skin was breaking out so much. I had very dry, dehydrated skin and I’d ask myself, how is this possible? I used 20 products every night and every morning! I take care of my skin, what’s going on? At one point I realized that I was just overusing it. I’d look at the backs of products and I didn’t even know what was in it. I found it hard to find clean products so this was the idea. My partner Benny had the same problem. We were like, why is there not a product that we know about that can solve everything in one? I realized that I had many resources and knew a lot of people in beauty and fashion and I didn’t even know what to use, so how would other people at home know what to put on their skin? We wanted to create a product that was sustainable and doesn’t arrive in a ton of plastic boxes. We only work with green vendors and the packaging is in paper, there is no fast shipping either, it’s a normal shipping time. These are things we keep in mind and it's not because we are hopping on some trend, it’s what we really believe in. My apartment has been full many times with boxes and plastic and I think it’s bizarre how companies send this one little package in this huge package.
I agree with that sentiment. It’s great that you are thinking of the environment from the get-go. It’s crazy to me that people launch new brands and don’t consider it. I love the name, Izé! What is the significance behind it?
Benny actually found the name, it’s a very small town in France and we always joke that the brand is French chic and Californian cool. Izé sounded like ‘easy’ and we want to make your skincare routine easy.
Can you share more about the debut collection?
We have three face oils—brightening, hydrating and calming. We want to keep it very small. What we are saying is that we don’t want to sell a 20-step skincare routine because we don't think you need it. You need a couple of really good products but we would love to maybe branch out into a good cleanser, a good toner and hopefully a sunscreen. We would like to build an Izé lifestyle brand around it as well. We really think that skincare is also about what you put into your body, the way you live and mindfulness.
What is a lesson you have learned since you started the brand?
What I have noticed that a personal brand versus a brand brand are two completely different kinds of roads. We had a very hard start because we were going to launch in March and we had this whole event planned in New York—it would have been an amazing place where people could have made their own oils but a week before we had to cancel it. We decided to postpone the launch but then at one point we thought, we don’t know how long this is going to go on. It was definitely a challenge to bring awareness and have people engaged in it. There are so many things going on in the world, we do believe and I have noticed that even though there are all of these circumstances, people still want to take care of themselves and feel good. I have also been learning a lot about the business side from Benny because she comes from beauty PR and she learns from me about marketing and content. It’s been a fun journey on how we have been working together because in other businesses I have been doing things alone.
Now let’s talk about cooking and food! What or where do you look to get inspired in the kitchen?
Mostly from my travels. I would say that’s why I love traveling the most because I always try local dishes. I also take pictures of the food and the menus and then I look them up on Pinterest or in a cookbook and I recreate. Sometimes even when something is an unhealthy dish, I ask myself how can I make this in a healthier version, since I try to use mostly whole foods.
What’s your approach to food? Are you plant-based?
Not completely, I tried a lot of different approaches. I want to eat mostly plant-based because I think for the environment that is the best thing but I think it’s more like paleo. I believe you should do things in moderation and I love food way too much to be restricted (laughs). But mostly everything is home-cooked and wholesome meals.
One final question I love to ask is how do you cultivate gratitude in your life?
I find happiness and gratitude in small, simple moments and that’s mostly in nature like sunsets and sunrises—it’s where I let everything go. We do that often here in the evening. That’s where I reflect on the day and reflect on life and it’s always really helped me.