The Alchemy of Time: April Gargiulo of Vintner's Daughter on Building Beauty That Endures
*Vintner's Daughter
*Vintner's Daughter
A conversation with the founder of Vintner's Daughter on lineage, patience, and the art of listening to skin
There's a particular quality to conversations that happen across time zones, a suspension of the ordinary that makes space for something deeper to emerge. When I connected with April Gargiulo afterwork, me in Paris as evening settled in, her in California where the light was still golden, I knew within minutes that this would be one of those exchanges. What was meant to be a brief introduction stretched into nearly two hours, punctuated by long pauses where we both seemed to be processing not just what was being said, but what it meant.
April speaks about beauty the way vintners speak about wine, with reverence for time, terroir, and the alchemy that happens when you refuse to rush perfection. It's perhaps no coincidence that she was raised among the rolling hills of Napa Valley, where her family's vineyard taught her that the most extraordinary things emerge not from force, but from patience. This understanding would later become the philosophical foundation of Vintner's Daughter, a skincare brand that has spent over a decade proving that fewer can indeed be better.
In an industry obsessed with the next breakthrough, the next launch, the next moment of viral fame, April chose a different path entirely. 3 products in ten years. A 21-day infusion process when others complete theirs in hours. Whole plant extracts when synthetics would be faster and cheaper. It's not just contrarian thinking, it's a return to something more fundamental, a belief that our skin, like the soil that nourishes the vine, deserves to be understood rather than simply treated.
But to frame April Gargiulo's work only through the lens of process would be to miss its deeper resonance. When she speaks about creating products "that the skin recognizes," she's articulating something profound about the relationship between our bodies and the natural world, a conversation that extends far beyond skincare into questions of how we live, how we consume, and what we choose to value in an accelerated world.
What emerges from our dialogue is a portrait of someone who has found her way back to an ancient understanding: that true luxury lies not in abundance but in intentionality, not in transformation but in recognition, not in fighting against time but in honoring its wisdom. In a beauty landscape increasingly dominated by fear-based messaging and quick fixes, April offers something revolutionary in its simplicity, the radical act of loving your skin exactly as it is, while giving it exactly what it needs to flourish.
If you had to distill Vintner’s Daughter into a single sentence, a single line that captures not just what you make, but why you make it, what would it be?
We exist to have a profoundly positive impact on our community’s skin, life and our shared world. That is word for word our mission statement and what guides in everything we do. It is our north star.
April, you grew up surrounded by the rhythms of the vineyard, terroir, harvests, seasons, patience. How did that environment shape your understanding of beauty?
The short answer is that it informs everything. My idea of beauty is one that is in harmony with the universe. I think so much of what we are taught about beauty is how to change, augment or struggle with your skin. My upbringing has allowed me to see the beauty in a true expression versus a false, manipulated one. We think of it more in reference to creating wines that capture a specific place and time, like a beautiful time capsule. But, the same can be said of physical beauty. What could be more of a pure and truthful expression of beauty than our incredible faces?
In winemaking, we talk about soil as memory, the way land holds stories, energy, and nutrients. Do you see skin the same way?
This is a beautiful provocation and yes, skin holds so much. It's incredibly intimate and we wear it on the outside for all to see. There is a journey spent in your skin and your relationship to it. It's emotional and often can reflect what is happening in your life. My hope through our products is that we create a throughline of gratitude, confidence and joy in our community’s skin. We think about this through our nutritional formulas and how deeply they connect and feed the skin. We also think about this through our commitment to steering away from the fear mongering and insecurity inducing parts of the beauty world through very intentional and positive words and images. It's not something we speak about often, but I believe it is something that creates an energy of fullness and appreciation for our beautiful skin.
Your formulations are renowned for their whole-plant complexity, their 21-day Phyto Radiance Infusion, their refusal to cut corners. Can you walk us through the process of crafting this formula?
Creating Phyto Radiance Infusion came from a deep study of traditional luxury beauty and realizing how low quality, cheap and oftentimes harmful it can be. I wanted to create the exact opposite, skincare built on the same philosophical foundation as the world of winemaking I came from. And as I pulled back the layers of cost cutting, and shorts cuts in traditional skincare, even the most expensive of products, I realized that if I was going to achieve the kinds of results I wanted, I would have to begin with the world’s most nutrient rich whole plants. There is simply no other way to connect with the skin at the deepest, most results-driven level.
You often describe your work as creating products that the skin recognizes. What does that recognition mean to you ?
Our skin is made from the same nutritional building block as the plants we begin with. I often say that we speak truth to skin and that is because the skin recognizes our formulas as its own. It is incredibly sophisticated and complex and the products we care for it with should be as well. Single noted, simple formulas composed of 2-3 synthetic “hero” ingredients do not respect the skin as the incredible system it is.
Credit: Sophie Berard
You’ve chosen to create only 3 products in over a decade, a deliberate act of restraint in an industry driven by novelty. How do you know when a product is necessary, and when it’s enough to simply let what exists be?
In today’s beauty world of new, more and next, our fewer with better philosophy is more like an act of resistance. And we are incredibly disciplined about this because we are skin driven, not revenue driven. Introducing new products at an incredibly fast pace is not done because your skin needs these products, it is because the bottom line needs the revenue. To be a Vintner’s Daughter product, it must live up to incredibly high standards of performance, quality and craftsmanship. We think about our world in everything we make as well and are proudly B Corp certified.
Our women ancestors, mothers, midwives, healers, knew how to listen to plants, to extract their medicine with patience, to heal not just the body but the spirit. Do you feel connected to this lineage in your work?
Absolutely, we are carrying on a long legacy of extraordinary women healers and medicine. Without them, both past and present, I would not be making the formulations we do. These women are renegades, iconoclasts and visionaries who choose to connect to a universal healing spirit that exists in nature. My friend and mentor, the godmother of US herbalism, Rosemary Gladstar, says “plants have enough spirit to transform our limited vision.” Transforming our limited vision is what bad ass, powerful, connected women have been doing for centuries. I am following in their powerful footsteps.
In an era of instant gratification, you’ve chosen to make time an essential ingredient in your products, three weeks for an infusion, 4 years for a formula. How do you experience time as a material in your work? Is it an act of devotion, an act of rebellion?
I'm almost never an either or girl. I am always looking for both, not as an act of compromise, but quite the opposite. I want to express the full potential and power of our formulas and that takes both devotion and rebellion. It requires a devout respect for our natural world and eschewing the industrial beauty complex who wants to create a pro-synthetic narrative because it is cheaper and faster, but far from better. Every bottle of Vintner’s Daughter takes between 3 and 5 weeks to produce from the time our raw botanicals arrive at our labs. This is 66x slower than industry average. I have been told more times than I can count that I should cut corners with cheap synthetic alternatives to my beautiful whole plants, but again I am devoted to the power of plants and happy to rebel against a system that is revenue-driven versus skin-driven. We are firmly skin, spirit and earth-driven.
There’s a kind of alchemy that happens when we let things unfold in their own time. Do you think this slow process changes the energy of a formula, makes it more potent, more alive?
We have a saying at Vintner’s Daughter. We moved at the speed of quality. To make the best you must honor the process. For us, that is creating our Phyto Radiance Infusion. It takes 3 full weeks, 21 days. And the process is incredibly precise. If we sped that up to save money or time, it would not result in the same level of efficacy, potency and ultimately the deep connection to the skin that we insist upon.
How do you select the plants you work with, do you listen for something beyond the biochemical profile? Is there an element of intuition, of resonance in what you choose?
We study and research our botanicals deeply. They have been part of medicinal and nutritional protocols for centuries across cultures and continents. And there is a reason for this, because they provide a complete range of nutrition. When we source these plants, we look for the places in the world where they have been part of the local culture.
How do you hope people feel when they apply your formulas—beyond results, what kind of emotional or energetic shift do you hope to spark in them?
We often hear from our community that Vintner’s Daughter “changed my relationship to my skin.” Nothing makes us happier because our formulas connect as much with the skin as they do the spirit. Its hard to put into words and anyone reading this probably thinks I’m crazy, but once you experience our whole plant botanicals formulations, both you and your skin experience a shift from one of struggling with skin to a place of joyful contentment in your skin. It sounds woo woo, I know, but its real.
How do you define true luxury in today’s world?
For me, true luxury is an expression of the highest level of intentionality, quality and craftsmanship. It is not rushed. It has worth, appreciation and utility that can last for generations. The earth’s resources are not depleted in pursuit of true luxury. Her people are not harmed. So much of what we consider luxury today is fast fashion or fast beauty. It may have a high price tag, but lacks any inherent value other than being new.
What role does community play in Vintner’s Daughter’s growth? Do you think the future of beauty will be built more by consumer advocacy and shared values than by traditional marketing?
Community is everything!! And when I began, it wasn't really on my radar if I'm being honest. All I could think of was product and performance. But, as we have grown I have come to realize that community is the most fulfilling, powerful and joyful part of what we do. It is how we have grown every step of the way. We even have a term for it G to G, girlfriend to girlfriend. Through word of mouth from trusted voices, our community has discovered us. We are so grateful that she shares us with her friends and family. We have even heard stories of a Vintner’s Daughter woman being stopped on the street to ask what she is using on her skin. Because of our shared values and of course results, she feels proud to share her discovery and we think about her in every choice we make. We must live up to her standards. Our mission is to have the most positive impact on her skin, spirit and world. I would also include the beauty world as well. Women like you, I would have never met otherwise. Both our community and the beauty world are filled with so many extraordinary women. Its incredibly inspiring and fun.
The beauty industry often treats skin like a problem to fix, rather than an ecosystem to care for. How do we shift that narrative, and what role does Vintner’s Daughter play in that shift?
I think about this a lot and have been studying it for over a decade. The marketing tactics used in the beauty industry are destructive and designed to create insecurity to sell an endless array of products. I'm thinking about the words used in particular although I could talk about the images for days as well. Words like correcting, fixing, improving, transforming. These are all words that tell the reader that they are not fine the way they are. They need to be “fixed” “improved” “transformed” and “corrected”. None of these words on their own are explosive in the way some hateful words can be. They aren't bombs set off in your bathroom. But rather they are slow drips that each morning and night you see and feel the judgment. A drip that if felt once or twice does very little, but over the lifetime can fill an ocean. An ocean of fear, self-hatred and insecurity. Making you feel that you aren't good enough and that this cream, lotion or pill will somehow magically transform you. Mind you, its the marketing of the lotion, pill and spritz that made you feel this way in the first place. It's an endless loop of self sabotage that I refuse to participate in. Famously and courageously Linda Wells banned the word anti-aging from the pages of Allure in 2017 and challenged the rest of the beauty industry to adopt a similar stance. Guess what, it didn't and has become even worse since then. Linda is now a friend and someone I have incredible respect for. We carry her torch and do not use gaslighting words to instill fear. Instead, we consciously choose words to inspire gratitude, joy and confidence in our community’s beautiful skin. She and our skin deserves this level of respect.
Is there a particular ritual that anchors you in your own daily life?
I have tea every morning using cups and teapots I have collected over the years. It's a connection moment for me with myself and the beautiful tea leaves and their wisdom and history. I purchase them from Song Tea in San Francisco which sources single origin teas from Taiwan mainly. They are rare and oftentimes have been grown by the same family for generations. There are a lot of parallels between winemaking and tea. I love the ability to have a singular expression of a place in time and the people, geography and weather that shaped both.
