LOS ANGELES — Pick up almost any mainstream bath, beauty, or home product, and the ingredient list is an alphabet soup of chemicals. They’re so ubiquitous that most consumers don’t give them a second thought, but Judith Goldstein had a different idea when she opened up Luca – a nontoxic, sustainable alternative to commercial drugstores in Highland Park.
“Now, in 2020, when a lot of companies are thinking about ingredients that are super toxic for your bloodstream,” Goldstein said, “why isn’t there a space for those traditional products where you can be rest assured that none of the ingredients will harm you?”
Goldstein created Luca as a retail response to a lifelong sensitivity to common drugstore products. Growing up with psoriasis and allergies, name-brand shaving creams and deodorants made her itch or prompted her skin to peel. Finding something that worked, “I either had to make it myself or look for it a million different places,” she said of her product search as a kid.
Today, there is almost the opposite problem. Countless companies offer plant-based versions of everything from body wash and shampoo to toothpaste and home cleaning products, and that’s creating a paradox of choice, Goldstein said. “If I want to get natural products, and there’s two billion choices, people freeze.”
Luca is designed to take the guesswork out of the decision with curated products. “It’s more important for me to offer one or two of a category of a product that I can stand behind,” said Goldstein, who has pared down the choices her store offers to things she and her staff or family have personally tested. “It’s almost like a Marie Kondo approach. I’d rather you have one of the greatest products than 12 that are mediocre.”
While nontoxicity and efficacy are Goldstein’s main criteria for sourcing the items she carries, sustainability is also important. Many of Luca’s products are sold in cardboard, rather than plastic, packaging. Other items, like bamboo dental floss, can be refilled and even composted.
To reduce the store’s carbon footprint and support community businesses, Goldstein looked for the best products she could find that are made as near as possible, starting with goods that are manufactured locally in L.A., and if not L.A., in California.
The one toothpaste she carries is Davids natural, based in Temecula. Poppy and Someday, based in Laurel Canyon, provides an organic breast oil. No Tox Life, in Los Angeles, makes the deodorant.
Neatly arranged in traditional categories such as oral hygiene, body care, haircare, skincare, home cleaning, and pets, Luca also has a section for men’s and women’s sexual wellness that includes condoms and lubricants from the company Maude, and Period underwear for women who are menstruating.
The idea, Goldstein said, is to have “a space where people feel comfortable to ask questions and discuss things like this.”
Highland Park, she said, is a natural fit.
“People are really open minded and ready to explore new things,” said Goldstein, who set up shop in Highland Park because of the neighborhood’s walkability and sense of community. “It’s a small town in a big city.”
The area has a number of compatible, forward-thinking businesses, she said, including the zero-waste grocery store Tare, and refill stations like Wild Terra and Sustain LA.
Prior to opening Luca, Goldstein worked a couple blocks away at Cookbook, a small green grocer in the neighborhood with a similar philosophy of selling goods that are responsibly grown. “It was easy to translate what I experienced and learned with food: Your skin absorbs the ingredients the same way as when you digest what you eat," she said.
Goldstein was born in Iran and raised in Los Angeles, but it wasn’t until she moved to Israel at the age of 18 that her passion for plant-based products started to grow.
“There’s local fruit and vegetable grocers on every block,” said Goldstein, who learned how to make nontoxic face toner and deodorants from Moroccan women, who had passed down the recipes over generations.
Goldstein calls Luca a nontoxic sustainable alternative to a commercial drug store because of the store’s emphasis on plant-based, natural ingredients. Whether it’s toothpaste, skincare, baby wipes, or home cleaning products, the idea is that nothing is poisonous.
“One thing I never understood is why we have products in our home that could kill your baby if they accidentally got into the cabinet,” Goldstein said. “We want to promote the idea that plant-based ingredients are as effective if not more effective than chemical products, and they’re not murderers in your house.”