Legendary Jersey Shore restaurateur Marilyn Schlossbach jumps into beauty world

ASBURY PARK – Growing up in Belmar, Marilyn Schlossbach loved everything related to nature, the outdoors and the ocean. So it came as no surprise when the well-known Shore-area restaurateur expanded into the beauty arena by launching Oshin Oil, a lightweight, hydrating and nutrient-rich moringa oil for the face, hair and body that she introduced in 2023.

“As a kid, I was so happy in the water and was always in the ocean swimming and surfing,” recalled Schlossbach, 60, an Asbury Park resident. As she prepared to graduate high school and study marine biology at the University of Miami, however, tragedy struck her family when her mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed two years later and her father died of a heart attack shortly after that.

“My parents passed away within 10 months of each other when I was 20 years old and I felt like I was just thrown into the fire,” Schlossbach said of that difficult and pivotal time in her life. “I think that the experience made me very introverted and driven, as I suddenly had to take care of myself financially.”

By chance, Schlossbach found her purpose and a new career in the restaurant industry.

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“In 1983, my older brother Richard was opening the sushi restaurant Oshin in Avon-by-the-Sea and I went to work for him as a server,” she said. “But one July 4th when the chef didn’t show up, I had to step into the kitchen to help and I loved it.”

Coming from a family of high achievers across a wide range of professions, “I always worried that I’d never find my creative outlet,” she said, “but it turned out that I loved learning about different foods and cultures and working with local ingredients. When my mom got cancer, my brother put her on a macrobiotic diet that helped her live for a couple more years and I saw first-hand the mind-body connection between food, nature, life and physical and mental health.”

Over the next several decades, Schlossbach made a name for herself as the owner of such popular Shore-area restaurants as Rosalie’s Kitchen in Bay Head, Labrador Lounge in Belmar and Normandy Beach, Café La Playa in Mantoloking, Pop’s Garage in Normandy Beach and Asbury Park, Langosta Lounge and Dauphin Grille in Asbury Park, and Russell & Bette’s in Rumson, and her most current endeavors include ownership of event space and restaurant Whitechapel Projects and nonprofit food truck Food For Thought by the Sea in Long Branch.

Schlossbach is also part of an effort to convert an old Spring Lake bank into a restaurant scheduled to open next year.

But her lifelong passion for travel and indigenous ingredients recently led her down an exciting new path.

Jersey Shore-based restaurateur Marilyn Schlossbach with her new product that she launched in 2023: Oshin Oil, a lightweight, hydrating and nutrient-rich moringa oil for face, hair and body. Schlossbach is seen at Spring Lake’s Sun & Waves Kitchen and Coastal Market, which carries it.

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Medicinal marvel

“Following the earthquakes in Haiti in 2010, I was doing some relief work there and I got introduced to the moringa plant, which helps flush chemicals, metals and other toxins out of the body,” said Schlossbach, who was so impressed with the medicinal plant that she ended up sourcing quality moringa from a farmer friend in Nicaragua, where she surfed every winter.

“Moringa is used to combat diabetes in many Third-World countries and is often called ‘the miracle tree’ by locals because it contains more vitamins and minerals than any other plant.”

A situation closer to home soon cemented her interest in moringa.

“Eight years ago, when my daughter Ruby was 4, she had bad eczema and the coconut oil I was unwittingly applying to her skin was only making things worse,” Schlossbach said. “I reached out to a woman I knew in Asbury Park who had a background in molecular chemistry to ask her about the moringa I’d sampled in Nicaragua, and she confirmed that it was an amazing supplement and treatment for all sorts of skin issues.”

After Schlossbach’s application of moringa did indeed improve her daughter’s skin, “I had my chemist friend help me formulate a quantity of liquid moringa with a fresh, tropical northeast scent and I began making it in my kitchen and bottling it,” Schlossbach said. “I gave a bottle to all of my 200 employees one Christmas and I got such amazing feedback — people loved it on their skin, face and hair and I was like, ‘Wow!’”

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A contact whose company represents big beauty brands ultimately took Schlossbach on as a client to help her commercialize the product, and in 2023, Schlossbach officially launched her moringa-based offering, Oshin Oil, as the first product by her new company, Oshin Love.

“I named the product Oshin Oil because I wanted to play on the word ocean, and the restaurant Oshin is where I got my start in everything in my life,” Schlossbach explained. “Japanese culture is all about simplicity and the purity of things, and this oil embodies those ideals because it can literally be used on the hair, face and body — not a lot of other products are that all-purpose.”

Offering 2-ounce, travel friendly-sized bottles for $38, “Oshin Oil is a hair defrizzer and softener that doesn’t add heavy weight,” Schlossbach said of her product, a bottle of which lasts about a month if used head-to-toe or two to three months if used just on the face or hair. “You don’t need a lot of it, and the results are amazing,” she said. “It’s filled with nutrients, doesn’t clog your pores and immediately soaks in and starts healing.”

“Oshin Oil is available on our website, on Amazon, and at a number of retail outlets, including Five o Six Surf Boutique on Long Beach Island, Dune + Salt locations in Spring Lake, Bay Head, and Fair Haven, Weston Gallery in Manasquan, Faherty-brand stores such as Sun & Waves in Spring Lake, and other retailers in New York City and Southampton,” Schlossbach said.

Though Oshin Oil represents a completely different business model than what she’s used to, Schlossbach is excited by the strength and expertise she’s built around her.

“We secured a great formulation company in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a quality bottler on Long Island, and all of the people on my team are strong, capable women,” she said. “Though it can be hard to get the public to trust and latch onto a new product like this, especially one this simple, Oshin Oil truly promotes natural beauty and a healthy and sustainable coastal lifestyle.”

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‘Disrupter in the beauty world’

As she continues to stage pop-up events at Shore-based retail outlets to showcase Oshin Oil and works to expand the brand’s product offerings, Schlossbach is excited to grow her new business.

“My mother always told me that beauty was from the inside, and my hope is that Oshin Oil will be a disrupter in the beauty world,” she said. “Health, wellness and beauty are more about living an active lifestyle, eating well and about what you put on as well as in your body.”

She also hopes to inspire others and help people see that they can do anything at any age.

“It’s not the norm to go out of your wheelhouse and start something new at 60,” she said. “I’m not a flashy, extroverted person and I’m not necessarily the person you’d expect to see selling beauty products, but I love this product and the opportunity to work with so many powerful women in my company, all of whom love, believe in and are committed to Oshin Love and Oshin Oil.”

Among her favorite parts of her new venture, “I love meeting so many new and interesting people that I’d never come in contact with before and it’s so rewarding when someone experiences the power of this product and feels the way we do about it,” Schlossbach said. “It’s exciting to have created something so wonderful and I just want to help others know about and benefit from it.”

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