Amber Deery
Tania Aranki + Bella Rowe: A Mother-Daughter Duo Creating Wellness for Face and Body
It’s not often you hear the CEO of a company describe herself as a mad scientist. But when it comes to concocting the perfect ingredient list for wellness, face care, bath and body products for both women and men, Tania Aranki has cornered the market on inventing. Over the years, she’s cooked up the company Isa Mia, and her daughter, Bella Rowe, is stirring things up right beside her. The Spring Hill, Kansas, duo has created a super formula for a successful business offering powerful products, packed with lots of goodness. They work together employing solid problem-solving skills, creative and scientific, yet they don’t overthink their solid mother-daughter relationship.
“I’m the mad scientist and sometimes things get out of hand. I love creating. I can wake up in the morning and have an idea. Or I’ll go to bed at night and think, ‘How do I fix this issue with a formula?’ and in the morning I will have figured it out. It can be a little crazy with all of those ideas but that’s the beautiful part of the duo that we have,” said Tania. “Bella is very artistic and can take my scientific craziness and make it into the thing that I had the idea for but was not able to get there on my own.”
“We complement one another so well. We fill the voids where the other person can’t do it. Anything that I can’t do, Mom can do it,” noted the 22-year-old Benedictine College graduate. “It is like puzzle pieces; we’re both making a big picture, but we’re able to fill the areas that are missing.”
Putting A Theory into Action
According to the Isa Mia website, “Our company is where art meets science. We love being creative just as much as we love getting our hands dirty.” Tania says it’s the driving force behind Isa Mia, which is rooted in one of Bella’s many nicknames. Products are clean and formulated with superior ingredients at a reasonable price. Primarily known for skin care with The Serum and Face Potion, the product line extends between the sexes, from teens to mature skin. Rather than clogging countertops with bottles and pumps, Isa Mia focuses on a few basic products to complete an entire skincare regimen.
Bella notes that Isa Mia’s mission is to make life simple again by offering clean and quality products to the skincare market. Through Tania’s successful experimentation, harmful and unnecessary ingredients are eliminated to make room for “powerhouse ingredients” such as apple stem cells, babassu oil, vitamin C, vitamin E, silk extract, bamboo extract, apricot kernel oil, rose absolute and hyaluronic acid, to name a few.
The creation of Isa Mia has been a long and fruitful one that began out of necessity. When Bella and her sister Nadia were children, they were plagued by food allergies. Tania, who had little formal training in developing scientific formulas, began her deep-dive research and created nourishment that was safe for them to consume. Then it was discovered that Bella also suffered from sensitivities to topical products. Building on her foundation of concocting safe dishes for her children to consume, Tania began creating skin products for her entire family. She cut the useless fillers, parabens, dyes, phthalates and harsh preservatives, and she replaced them with those powerhouse ingredients.
“It started in the kitchen and it grew enough that I took over the basement in our old house,” said Tania. “But it didn’t go to the next level until Bella came on board and then the business took off. My formulas didn’t change, but Bella was able to match the quality of the product with the labeling, containers and website. Within one year of working with an IT company, she rebuilt the website from the ground up.”
Taking A Different Career Path
While she was cooking up these different formulas for her family, Tania served as a community interpreter. Eventually, she left that role but she needed something else to keep her busy. With the support of her husband, John, and her daughters, she decided to devote her work energy to Isa Mia.
“I really dig making these products and I wanted to take this to the next level. I wanted to create things that are clean for us and it blossomed from a hobby to a hobby business,” commented Tania. “Then Bella came on a couple of years ago and it really took off. The real goal was to share products that met my standards with others.”
“I remember going to boutique shows and seeing the whole thing start without my understanding that I would someday be a part of it. I remember Mom creating her own lab space in the basement of our home in Lenexa versus this awesome lab space that we have in our farmhouse in Spring Hill, Kansas,” said Bella. “I remember her cooking away when I was little and making new products and me getting to be the test monkey each time she had a new product.”
As the formula creator, Tania’s first product was her Yoga Mat Spray that was used to sanitize equipment. Friends began asking for it and Tania sensed the potential she could realize with many of the products she had already created for her family. A Face Potion came next, and then in 2014, Tania formed a limited liability corporation. Bella was already helping out at shows, and she eagerly picked up marketing the products and consolidating the brand of the Isa Mia line. In 2020, mother and daughter made it official and went into partnership. While many consultants might advise not to go into business with family, this team has made the magic happen.
“People say not to go into business with family, but our whole family is extremely close with each other, especially with my mom. We’re very similar but we’ve found that in working together we fill each other’s voids and complement each other with our strengths. Mom is the mad scientist but I’m able to match the creativity and make sure we stay in the same lane before we branch off into another direction,” noted Bella. “And before you go into business with anybody, especially your family, you need to talk about why you’re going into business and hold true to that and build each other up when one is lacking.”
“I’d love to tell you that we sat down and mapped it out but it was very organic. Bella and I are both very similar, very creative and both very high energy. Our superpowers would be that we get things done very quickly. We see it, do it and get it done,” shared Tania. “Bella is creative and structured, and she has the strengths that I lack. We’re very open about our weaknesses and flaws. I see her as a very valuable resource, and I trust her. We don’t micromanage.”
What’s Cooking in the Science Beaker for Isa Mia
The future looks exceptionally bright for this mad scientist and her daughter to drive Isa Mia to incredible new heights. Now, they have several years of experience under their lab coats and offer the following advice for other entrepreneurs.
“You have to keep the rock rolling. If you stop the momentum at any time, it will be so much harder to get back into it. To get your business to grow, you have to keep it going. So even during the dry spells, a slow burn is better rather than hopping on a trend because you lose sight of why you’re doing this business in the first place,” shared Bella.
“Trust that the other person has it covered. There’s no room for micromanaging because if you do that, then you should just do it yourself,” commented Tania. “There are some weeks when I’m overwhelmed and I’ll reach out for help. Maybe one week it’s a 60/40 split, and the next, it’s 80/20. It all works out. But understand that’s the way it is because it’s never 50/50.”
Of course, purchasing products from Isa Mia is a key takeaway that Bella and Tania want to leave with readers. But they also offer these insights for not only business success but life success. “First, I care what I put in my body and care equally about what I put on my body. Also, please shop local. Maybe you’re getting a great deal at a big box store, but you don’t have the value of having access to your formula maker as you do with Isa Mia. I guarantee that those companies don’t put as much effort and as many powerhouse ingredients into their products as we do,” stated Tania. “We’re our number one customer so we make sure we’re happy. Also, expect more from yourself and set high standards. As for you and your business partner, do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do.”
“If you’re in business for the right reasons, people will see that,” promised Bella. “We’re in this business for the right reasons, and we’re doing it ethically and we’re doing it for ourselves as well as for all of the people around us, and that shows in our products.”
