Aura

Avalon Lukacs was in her mid-20s when she started suffering from cystic acne.

Over the course of four years, Lukacs went through a cocktail of medications and topical creams before she turned to supplementing her diet.

“My gut flora was disrupted, and at the time I had no connection between the two. Healing my gut is actually what healed my skin,” says Lukacs.

“It just really blew me away that there was this need to supplement our diet. Whether it be from stress or missing nutrients, these all disrupt our gut flora. That led me on this journey to want to create my own wellness brand.”

Lukacs launched Aura Inner Beauty from her Airdrie home in 2019 with her Inner Beauty Restorative Powder. It was created from ingredients she used to treat her own gut.

PHOTO SHEENA ZILINSKI A SPOONFUL

OF WELLNESS STORY BY JOSIE RANDALL

“There is so much good in getting the right nutrients to your body. You just need to start with what you want to heal.”

PHOTO DAVID PIKE

PHOTO DAVID PIKE

Now, the wellness brand has multiple elixirs, bundles and utensils to nourish beauty from within.

All while using bioavailable nutrients, and not synthetic vitamins, sugar or other additives.

IT’S ALL IN A TEASPOON Lukacs doesn’t want Aura Inner Beauty to be just another health and wellness brand selling products. Instead, she wants to educate people on the benefits of supplementing their diet to help with issues.

And it might take less than you think.

According to Lukacs, one teaspoon of Restorative Powder is the equivalent of taking five to 10 supplements.

“The cost per serving of one of our supplements is less than $3 per serving. As a society we haven’t really normalized this idea of wellness. But we have totally normalized a $6 coffee from Starbucks that is all caffeine and sugar,” she says.

“It’s my hope that my brand can kick start normalizing more conversations around quality and wellness.”

For Lukacs, finding your inner beauty is as simple as tuning into how you are feeling and just supporting what you need. For example, are you lacking energy? Are you feeling a lot of mental stress or fatigue? Are you breaking out?

“There is so much good in getting the right nutrients to your body. You just need to start with what you want to heal,” she says.

HARD WORK AND PERSISTENCE Lukacs continues to run her business right out of her Airdrie home, with a warehouse in Calgary.

The majority of her products are made in Canada, manufactured in Vancouver.

Her products have been featured in the Jilly Box – a quarterly subscription box compiled by Canadian television personality Jillian Harris. They’ve also been featured in wellness and lifestyle brand Goop, founded by Gwyneth Paltrow.

Aura Inner Beauty can also be found in many high-end retailers like Holt Renfrew in Canada, and Bergdorf Goodman in the U.S.

In 2021, Lukacs won the RevolutionHer Momentum Small Business Award which recognizes entrepreneurs focusing on innovation and leadership through their business. She was chosen out of more than 1,600 nominees in North America and awarded a prize package to help further expand Aura Inner Beauty.

Lukacs attributes her success to hard work and persistence. She has a dream of seeing her products on the shelves of highend retailers, and the ambition to get there.

“When I first started wanting to develop the company, I actually was in the middle of my MBA and I used an entrepreneurship class as a kind of ground to build what would be Aura Inner Beauty,” says Lukacs.

“My greatest accomplishment is having this vision and really following through on the products I wanted to create and being able to launch in the places that I have always envisioned launching in. It’s really an affirmation that we are on the right path and my dream is coming true.” life

financiallife

Common misconceptions of owning a business

WITH KATE NORRIS

Myth #1: I should run all of my insurance policies through the business as a tax-deductible expense. Fact: Some insurances are better to be run through your corporation, and others are better to be owned personally. For example, life insurance that is meant for a buy-sell arrangement with your partner, or to buy out your shares if something happened to you, may be best owned by the corporation. If the insurance is meant to protect your family, it may be beneficial to run outside of the business as not to be subject to taxes, will and probate. You also must exercise caution with ownership of your disability or health benefits through the corporation, as this could be subject to taxation upon usage of those benefits. Talk to your financial advisor and accountant when setting these plans up.

Myth #2: I will miss out on pension plans available to me as a self-employed person. Fact: Individual Pension Plans (IPPs) are an example of a great way to have a pension plan in retirement. An IPP is a registered, defined-benefit pension that you can set up as a self-employed person. It allows you to build up retirement income under a taxsheltering umbrella and you can get the maximum pension that Canadian tax law allows. This is available to someone who earns “T4 income,” similar to how you create RRSP room. There are also other ways to grow your retirement income in a tax-deferred manner so that you don’t have to miss out on income strategies as a business owner including life insurance, corporate class mutual funds, among others. Your accountant and financial advisor will help you to decide whether to pay in to CPP, or invest in an RRSP account, an IPP or other tax-preferred vehicles. life Thanks to our great community for your ongoing support!

We continue to offer pain management injections, biopsies, fine needle aspirations, x-ray, ultrasound, and pediatric imaging all out of our Airdrie location. Why drive into the city if you don’t have to? A friendly reminder that we accept all other diagnostic imaging forms and all of our services are fully covered by Alberta Health Care. Call and book your appointment today!

Proud Sponsor of: Amazing Airdrie Women 2022 Awesome Kids 2022 Airdrie Health Foundation

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