Malibu C® Celebrates 40 Years of Innovation – Wellness

Crystal Gel introduced the beauty industry to the magic of vitamin C.

It was the 1980s. Big hair was permed, teased and sprayed; skin was chemically softened, scalp largely ignored. Yet it was during this unlikely decade that Malibu C® introduced the vitamin C wellness movement into the beauty industry. Salons added day spa services, and brands expanded to include earth-friendly products that also nourished the body. While science and beauty had never been strangers to each other, Malibu C® raised a new conscious awareness for salon professionals who were hungry for knowledge, and the science of hair and skin became a grassroots movement one salon at a time.

The Rise of Vitamin C and Crystal Gel 

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, was respected as an ingestible, proactive guard against the common cold. No one had formulated products to use this important vitamin topically or as an ingredient in beauty products—until Indiana chemist Dr. Keith Ault observed at least 30 different applications for ascorbic acid. His research led to topical applications of vitamin C that could stop oxidation of chemicals and help detox the hair. He found that the vitamin removed chlorine and helped remove iron, copper and other minerals often found in hard water. 

In 1981, Tom Porter, along with his soon-to-be wife Deb, heard Dr. Ault speak on his discoveries of ascorbic acid and the benefits of vitamin C. In 1984, Ault offered Tom the exclusive use of his technologies using vitamin C. Intrigued by the potential of focusing on wellness, Tom and Deb formed their own company in 1985. First incorporated as C Free, Inc., this led to the eventual launch of Malibu C®, a beauty brand devoted to the wellness concept and mission of solving problems for people all over the world. Originally headquartered in Malibu, California, the new company pioneered the use of vitamin C as a simple fix for previously untreated hair damage caused by hard water. The resulting product, Crystal Gel, delivered vitamin C along with other food-grade ingredients in a mixable powder packaged in a little sachet formulated and sold exclusively for salons to use on their clients.

Today, as Malibu C® celebrates 40 years on the forefront of beauty product innovation, Crystal Gel has expanded to include other in-salon treatments and at-home remedies that continue to be favorites of salon pros and clients alike. As always, dried ascorbic acid tops the product’s ingredient roster of nutrients and key botanicals. New clients regularly discover the effectiveness, positioning Malibu C® as uniquely offering a revolutionary, science-based approach that still surprises while also boasting a long history of proven results.

“The foundation we’re teaching and the hero product are the same as when the founders launched the company,” says Brittany Cook, Malibu C®’s Global Education Executive Manager. 

“Malibu C® was the first to use dry ascorbic acid, the most potent form of vitamin C, externally. Rather than masking the harmful effects of oxidizers and hard water minerals on the hair and scalp, our technology uses food-grade ingredients to physically remove them from the hair and scalp.” 

By releasing unwanted minerals and metals, Crystal Gel safely changes the electrical bonding to the hair, giving movement and bounce to dull or dry hair, tackling hair color issues such as brassiness, fading and ashy shades, and preparing the hair for optimum results from all salon services, including gray coverage.

Although a global brand, the company operates as a close-knit team. Among the nuggets of company lore is the true “walnut story” about Dr. Ault’s first step on the path to becoming a vitamin C guru. Around 1980, he and his assistant at Ball State University, scientist Dilip Vyas, who still works at Malibu C® today, were crossing campus when they kicked some walnuts on the ground. They cracked open the shells to find nuts in perfect condition despite exposure to all the elements of a Midwestern winter. Suspecting there was more to protecting the nut than just the hard casing, the pair analyzed the shell and found that it contained vitamin C. If this vitamin could shield one type of nature, they reasoned, perhaps it could protect other natural materials.

The continued research on vitamin C didn’t disappoint, and Crystal Gel was born. Not only is Malibu C® recognized as the first company to introduce any product formulated with vitamin C for topical benefits to the hair, scalp and skin, but it was also the first company to use the word “antioxidant” on any product, teaching the world all about the importance of managing the damaging effects of oxidation.

Porter recalls that the first ad ever placed to promote the use of vitamin C for water issues appeared in MODERN SALON in the late 1980s! This made MODERNSALON the first media outlet to announce the arrival of Malibu C® to the salon industry. Fast-track four decades, and this reliable, multifunctional, hardworking vitamin has earned a special accolade—every April 4 since 2019 has been designated as Vitamin C Day. Vitamin C is now widely recognized as a powerful antioxidant that stops oxidation and combats free radicals both inside and outside the body. In the salon, the vitamin C in Crystal Gel and other Malibu C® remedies can provide customized benefits to every single client’s hair, scalp and skin.

Results are Immediate

“Through our initial education with Missy Peterson, Malibu C®’s Senior National Educator, we learned that anyone who uses water needs Crystal Gel,” says Malibu C® National Educator Erica Billingsley. In recent years, Peterson spearheaded Malibu C®’s introduction of the brand’s Head Lab digital scope to demonstrate the striking before-and-after difference.

“Seeing is believing,” explains National Educator Aubrie Parth. “The digital scope provides a view to everything on the scalp.”

Visible results show up in two more significant ways. “What everyone loves about Crystal Gel and all the products that are derived from that first formula is that they work!” Billingsley says. “The products do what they say they will do—detox the outer part of the hair and scalp and then penetrate each hair strand, using heat to gently and safely remove oxidized heavy metals and hard minerals that otherwise create problems for the salon professional.”

Parth reports that it takes just one Malibu C® treatment for stylists to become fans. “The next time they encounter the problem with a client, they know exactly what it is,” she says. “In classes, when we ask whether the stylists have ever experienced a puffing foil or a leaking foil, or if they’ve noticed teal hair on someone coming out of a pool or orange from the iron in well water, they respond with that ‘wow’ look of recognition. They are so happy to finally have a safe and effective solution for conditions they see over and over.”

Clients become enlightened as well. Parth notes that her own clients know when it’s time for a Crystal Gel boost. 

“They learn what good, clean hair feels like,” Parth says. “Mineral buildup has many indicators—hair with excessive tangling, a coarse or fried look, overly ashy or warm tones, a sticky or greasy nape or scalp flaking.”

After applying Crystal Gel to hair, the stylist literally pulls the oxidized minerals and metals out of the hair, providing the third “seeing is believing” chance. The “hair pulls” that come out are a greenish blue when the pull is full of copper and brownish orange when the main culprit is iron. 

 

“Showing the hair pulls gives me an opportunity to educate stylists on why it’s so important to do these detoxes,” Cook says. “We teach salon professionals to ‘reveal what is real.’ We’re revealing what’s really in the hair and taking out the impurities. Clients come into the salon with badly damaged hair and say, ‘Just cut it off.’ But they don’t have to cut it off. With Crystal Gel and other Malibu C® services, stylists can give clients a ‘Malibu Makeover’ and replace what they thought was damage with amazing results after one in-salon service.”

Another “aha moment” with stylists happens when the educators remind them that the Statue of Liberty is made of copper and, when new, looked just as you would expect—shiny reddish brown. The statue’s now familiar matte green is the outcome of years of exposure to oxidation in the air and water. That’s why Crystal Gel’s antioxidant properties are key and why founder Tom Porter’s words resonate: “You’re not aging, you’re just oxidizing.” Removing oxidized complex compounds keeps the hair and scalp healthier and more youthful looking.

Easy to Use

To activate the vitamin C and other food-grade ingredients in Crystal Gel and other Malibu C® wellness remedies, the user simply mixes the dry ingredients with water. This is a marked departure from worrying about the shelf life of bottled active ingredients, with concern about whether the vitamin C and other ingredients are still active.

“Vitamin C loses potency over time,” Billingsley explains. “It’s 100 percent potent only when freshly activated. That’s why we have the stylist activate it in the dry, most potent form.”

Clients can be taught to do the same. Malibu C® offers customized at-home kits, providing salons with a retail opportunity to supplement the already lucrative add-on service income. Billingsley advises stylists to do a full-service treatment with every change of season and then send the client home with a wellness kit. Each kit typically features a shampoo, conditioner and customized Wellness Remedy. Carrying names like Malibu Blondes, Hydrate Color Wellness and Swimmers Wellness, the kits help stylists and their clients to intuitively choose the appropriate remedy for weekly maintenance.

Scalp Health

For clients with scalp flakiness, itchiness or irritation, the right choice is a more recent addition to the Malibu C® brand—Crystal Gel XL, launched in 2022. 

“This product again uses ascorbic acid to revitalize the scalp and create the optimum environment for healthy hair growth,” Cook says. The antioxidant-rich formula offers all of Crystal Gel’s ingredients plus the benefits of zinc and bentonite clay.

“Zinc helps to hydrate, soothe and regulate the oil on the scalp,” says Billingsley, a certified trichologist. “The bentonite clay draws out the excess oil and exfoliates the scalp.” Crystal Gel XL is among the first scalp-centric products to support the upcoming head spa and scalp wellness trends

“We were the trailblazers for chelation, which now is bigger in the industry than it’s ever been,” reports Cook, a former cosmetology school instructor. Crystal Gel XL and the accompanying line of scalp products, including Head Lab Scalp Scrub, are good examples of Malibu C®’s solution-based philosophy.

“Every product Malibu C® develops is an answer to a problem we hear from salons,” Billingsley says. As another example, Malibu C®’s DDL XL and De-Ox work together to address stylists’ challenges in removing color. This tradition has built trust in loyal users, which gave Crystal Gel XL an early boost.

“The reception to Crystal Gel XL has been amazing,” Aubrie Parth reports. “It exploded! It was the right product at the right time. The focus on wellness is huge now, which includes maintaining the scalp health.”

Both Crystal Gel and Crystal Gel XL work to prepare the hair and scalp before the application of any color line and all other professional hair services. “Another one of Missy Peterson’s teachings was to let salon pros know that Malibu C® plays nice with everyone,” Billingsley says. 

 

Commitment to Earth, Education and Community

The founders believed that true wellness could exist only within a framework of sustainability. Malibu C®’s manufacturing process minimizes the use of water, energy and other natural resources necessary in creating the 100 percent vegan, gluten-free products, which are packaged in post-consumer resin (PCR) bottles.

“Standards that are trending today were part of our foundation 40 years ago,” Cook notes. 

Recently, the brand began packing products in EcoBlu® bottles. Made from 98 percent recyclable materials, these bottles biodegrade as much as 60 percent in a little more than a year in community landfills, according to independent ASTM D5511 testing. Malibu C® is the first U.S. hair care brand to apply Eco-One® technology, which breaks down plastic, with REPREVE® ocean-bound plastics and REPREVE® post-consumer recycled plastics, raising the bar for environmental responsibility in the beauty industry. 

Grounded in education, Malibu C® recently opened the Malibu Metaversity virtual educational hub to take both salon pros and consumers on a deep dive into education, including the science behind the company’s products. Community service also has long been a cornerstone of Malibu C®’s mission. Efforts range from national projects within the industry, including participation in Beauty Gives Back, to local issues, such as donating to local communities during emergency water pollution crises.

Throughout its first 40 years, the brand has prioritized science in product formulation, a commitment to the sustainability of our planet, and solving problems for people all over the world. To hear more about the history of Malibu C®, you can head to the company’s 40^th Anniversary blog or listen to a series of five podcasts hosted by Edwin Veguilla, educator, barber and salon owner. In that series, Edwin asks Tom, “What is the best thing Malibu has done?” Tom is quick to reply: “The best is still to come!”

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