Be the first to know.
Zosia Wiśniewska
On creating natural skincare in Bali, learning to work with what nature offers, and why sometimes the hardest part is just showing up for your own project.
Mom, this is my project. This is what I'm doing.
Who is our guest?
Zosia is a 17-year-old 12th-grader at Green School Bali, originally from Poland, who's creating natural skincare products as her Green Stone Project. After two pages of ideas that didn't quite feel right, she found her passion making body scrub in her kitchen back home.
Why are we interviewing our guest?
Zosia is figuring out how to build something meaningful while managing school, perfectionism, and the reality that passion projects still require discipline - even when you love them. Plus, she climbed a coconut tree for research.
What to expect
Expect honest talk about kitchen experiments that led to sales at Green School's Spirit Friday market, the magic of Bali's plants, procrastination struggles, sourcing from a farmer in North Bali, and why understanding your skin starts with simplicity - not ingredient lists you can't pronounce.
The interviewer
Oliver Wegner
After 25+ years in tech, I'm dedicating my time to something that truly matters: water, our planet's most vital and overlooked resource. 💧 I'm driven by curiosity to meet changemakers whose insights and stories might inspire us all to reconnect with water.
What made you connect skin care with your Green Stone Project - why did this topic click for you?
Throughout the summer before 11th grade, I was trying to come up with an idea for my Greenstone, but everything felt forced. I had like two pages of ideas, but I never fully connected with them.
Then suddenly, one day, I was making a body scrub for myself, and I just had so much fun doing it, and I loved it so much. I just looked to my mom in the kitchen, and I said, "Mom, this is my project. This is what I'm doing."
It really came out of my passion for creating and for nature as well. And I wanted to make it so that it's positively impactful towards the community, sustainability, and personal development. It was a really nice moment to find something I enjoy doing and create the possibility of a meaningful project for myself and the communities around Bali.
Bali has incredible natural ingredients - what surprised you most when you started researching skin care and local plants?
I think it was the accessibility and the amount of benefits these plants carry, honestly. Bali has a lot of unique plants that I didn't have back in Europe, that I didn't even know existed. For my products, I try to keep it to a smaller amount - maybe like five or six ingredients. Simplicity is really important.
I explored how you can use pine ginger as shampoo, turn coconuts into sugar, oil, even food, and much more. It's quite magical, and always fascinated me how nature truly has the answers to everything.
At the same time, it's harder, because certain things just grow in certain areas. And since my skincare is also vegan, I can't use things such as beeswax. I need to look for alternatives.
Walk us through your Green Stone Project - what are you actually doing and how does it fit alongside your studies?
My Green Stone's core idea is creating natural skincare products. Natural, to the point where you can eat it. My title is literally "Would you eat your skincare?" I believe it's essential to reduce the amount of chemicals we put on our bodies and regain the balance nature offers.
I've gone through the whole process of extracting oil from coconuts - I even climbed a coconut tree recently. It was like five meters high - can you imagine? You need like five to ten coconuts for half a liter of oil. It takes one day. You have to climb the tree, cut out the flesh, make coconut milk, then boil it for a long time until the oil separates. It made me appreciate the ingredients I use and see the amount of work that has to be put in.
I also took a Syracuse University undergraduate research course focused on natural preservatives in cosmetics. I'm sourcing most ingredients from a local farmer in North Bali who grows everything himself.
My studies are a big obstacle. I often feel really tired after school, so I work on it during Green Stone classes and weekends.
Have you seen any changes yet? Even small ones?
A lot of the changes are more on the personal side - my knowledge, my time management, communication skills, learning to be ambitious but realistic. I love the fact that now I can just go to my kitchen, take out some oil and sugar and make a scrub for myself in three minutes. "It's a life changer, living in Bali. Coming home from driving the bike and just wanting to scrub all the dirt off.
For the external side, it's still happening. There's a workshop coming up right before spring break in March for our Green School community. The money left from it, I'll put towards hosting a workshop for a local community in Bali - so it's accessible for everyone. I really want to give back to the community that invited me so nicely when I first arrived here. I'm also planning donations to the same community, either product or money. Those external changes are yet to come.
Interview break
Get to know our guest
Learn small facts about our interviewee.
Favourite place
Favourite Book
Favourite song
One piece of advice
Biggest challenge
Favourite movie/series
What's the hardest part that nobody warned you about?
I think the hardest part would be that there was a point where I realized that even though it's my passion, it's still something I need to put effort into doing. And the passion itself isn't always enough to drive me to work.
No one else does it for you. And I still have to force myself to work on it a lot of times. There are moments where all I want to do is quit it and pretend it doesn't exist. I hit sort of a block with my project - it was a mixed feeling of fear and pressure but then also the genuine love for my project.
It all becomes worth it when little achievements happen - a recipe works out, I find a solution, or even just receive an email from someone I contacted. I really hope I can overcome my procrastination and make this project as amazing as I had envisioned it to be.
How has working on this project changed you?
These past 2.5 years in Bali had a huge effect on me, my understanding of the world, and my life. This project is also a big part of these changes. This is my first project I'm making fully by myself on a bigger scale, but I'm still in my Green School bubble. Even if I make a mistake, it's not so serious yet.
It's all about managing it and fully being responsible for the way it goes. It's not like someone goes up to me and gives me deadlines. It's something I have to set for myself and balance with my school life, with my social life, with my family life. Building that self confidence in myself as well.
It really reinforced my values - that it's authentic and honest. I really don't want to twist the truth to make it seem better. I want it to truly be good and natural and real and raw.
It taught me to be kind to myself, because even though I mostly use simple, natural products on my skin, there are other factors - weather, Bali climate and polluted air, menstrual cycle, what I eat. I'm so grateful because it prepares me for the practical sides of life.
If Gen Z in Europe or North America wants to understand skin hydration better - where should they start?
I just want to really bring the awareness that it's possible to be self sufficient in a lot of ways that we don't even realize. You're really capable of making most of the things you use yourself.
The main advice I would give is to keep it simple. Sometimes less is actually more. You don't have to buy every product that people on social media claim does wonders with ingredient lists mentioning words you can't even pronounce. Even if something feels hydrating at first or moisturizing, over time it often creates even more damage. Moisturizers that clog your pores, shampoos that dry out your skin. Learn what it is you actually put on your skin.
Find out what your skin type is, what it needs, depending on the climate you live in. Understand the basics of how a skin barrier works and how to nourish it. That's a big lesson for me.
Key Takeaways & Quotes
What stayed with us from this conversation.
Zosia's Green Stone Project taught her that self-sufficiency is possible in unexpected ways, that authenticity beats perfection, and that simplicity matters more than products with unpronounceable ingredients. Her workshops aim to show how easily anyone can create cosmetics at home. She's giving back to Bali's communities while building confidence one small achievement at a time.
Social media of our guest
Discover more interviews like this
An interview with
Finnian Mollet
