The mother-daughter duo embracing ancient botanical ingredients in skin care

"If I were starving or very thirsty, I could actually eat or drink our products -- hopefully I'll never be that hungry, but they're that clean," Bella Skin Beauty co-founder Diana Shneider said, tongue in cheek.

Shneider, along with her daughter, Alexandra Bella, launched the all-natural beauty company about two years ago, after spending most of their lives dealing with skin issues and health problems.

Their mission, they said, is to try to help improve other women's skin with the most "natural and luxurious" ingredients discovered by our ancestors thousands of years ago.

For 17 years, Shneider, who was born in Russia, said she suffered from various chronic illnesses, in fact, what she remembers most about her childhood is spending time in Russian hospitals.

"That continued into my teenage years and 20s, so in my early 30s I was kind of at the point where I thought, 'You can't live like that, you can't be that sick,'" she said. Eventually, she changed her diet and skincare routine to include mostly natural products. "It completely changed my life," she said.

Shneider stopped drinking alcohol, quit smoking cigarettes after 16 years and even stopped drinking coffee, which she loved. "I do miss it, and that's why we have the new Manuka Coffee Face Scrub, so I can at least smell it," she said. "That's the real story behind that one."

"I'm 47 now and I started this healing 15 years ago," she said. "For the last 15 years I've literally felt better than I felt for the first 32 years of my life. Even when I think of myself as a child, I literally feel now, as a 47-year-old, better than when I was a 5-year-old."

Clean beauty has played a big part in that, she said.

Shneider said she believes her past health conditions were caused by inflammation, which is why she's tried to include ingredients with suggested anti-inflammatory properties in her beauty products.

"When we have any issues with the skin like eczema or redness ... it's all inflammation. So the same way I healed inflammation inside my body, that's how I formulate the product, by using anti-inflammatory ingredients that have been used all over the world by women for thousands and thousands of years."

These days, some big beauty brands advertise $800 face creams meant to have the wrinkle-preventing effects of Botox, trying to persuade people that that's what they need, but Shneider and Bella said the basic botanical ingredients that were used by women before there was even the concept of "skin care" are what have really worked for them.

"I don't think thousands of years ago women used to wake up in the morning and say, 'Oh, today my skin is dry' or 'Today my skin is oily.' They just used this turmeric, they used this jojoba oil, they used the rose products -- whatever was available to them in the region they lived in. And that's what works and that's why we use these botanicals," Shneider said.

As their base in most products, Shneider said she uses jojoba oil. She also uses rose petals, rose water, rose hydra salts, rose oil and turmeric, among other ingredients.

After a few weeks of using her own products, Shneider said, "People started asking me if I'd had something done to my face."

"They also smell and feel amazing," she said of her products, adding that it was extremely important for her and Bella to create a line of products that would make women's morning and night routines "joyful."

"As women, we have these couple minutes in the morning and we have these couple minutes at night, and that's our time for self-care and that's our time to enjoy," she said.

The founders create their products -- based on what they believe the market is missing -- in a small test kitchen in Los Angeles, and Shneider inspects every single batch to make sure it is all of the highest quality. They then send them out to women and men to try out and provide feedback.

The two, who also have a wellness-themed YouTube channel, said they hope to someday get their products picked up by stores like Credo, The Detox Market, Follain and even Neiman Marcus and Barneys, as they both have clean beauty sections, but they want customers to know their skincare products are not like those being produced by big brands.

Shneider said she's always found it frustrating when upon walking into places like Sephora, the salesperson asks you questions about your skin that you may not know how to answer: Is it oily? Is it dry? Do you have acne?

She said skin changes week by week and day by day, depending on each person's lifestyle, which is why she chooses to use natural ingredients. "Nature is so much smarter than us," she said.

Because of Shneider's history of health issues, the female founders donate 1% of all their online sales to St. Jude Children's Hospital.

"It's most parents' dream to have a company with their child," Shneider said when asked how running a company with Bella has changed their lives. "I realized very early on that two things are very important: I cannot pull the age card and I cannot pull the mom card. So, as soon as I start treating her like any other partner, it becomes really enjoyable."

"We have different strengths and we really work together," Bella agreed. "We're always brainstorming, and I know this is corny, but she's the ying to my yang."