Two of Hollywood’s most recognizable faces have quietly become two of wellness’s most ambitious founders. When Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed came onto The Bossticks, they opened up about their journey from Hollywood into entrepreneurship, sustainability, and building The Absorption Company.
The conversation digs into why they created the company, what they believe the supplement industry is getting wrong, and their mission to create wellness products that are more intentional from the start. It’s equal parts business story, wellness deep dive, and an inside look at what it actually takes to build a brand with purpose.
Below, we’re breaking down what The Absorption Company is, who’s behind it, and what they’re trying to change. You can watch the full Ian Somerhalder & Nikki Reed conversation on The Bossticks below. But for now, we’re hitting the highlights:
What Is The Absorption Company?
The Absorption Company is a supplement brand built around one pointed idea: most supplements aren’t designed to be absorbed, so the founders set out to change that. It was co-founded by actors turned entrepreneurs Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed, alongside partners Zeke Bronfman and Nate Medow. According to Ian, it was roughly ten years in the making.
Ian and Nikki created it out of genuine frustration. As Ian told Lauryn and Michael, people are spending billions on supplements that don’t work, and some of them are toxic, which he called unfair. So they built a company focused on supplement innovation, sustainability, and rethinking wellness products entirely.
Their whole philosophy fits in one line. You’re meant to feel your supplements, Nikki said on the show, and you can’t feel what you don’t absorb. That, she explained, is literally why they named it The Absorption Company.
Who Owns The Absorption Company?
The Absorption Company is co-founded and co-owned by Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed. And, as we learned from their episode, the way they split their roles is part of what makes it work.
Ian, best known for The Vampire Diaries and Lost, has become the more front-facing of the two. He goes out, gets in front of the camera, and talks about the company; everything Nikki admits to Lauryn and Michael she intentionally doesn’t do. Conversely, Nikki, the Twilight actress who co-wrote the film Thirteen, describes herself as the creative force behind the camera.
What really shaped the brand, though, is their overlapping backgrounds. Both came from entertainment, both moved into building companies, and both have spent years in environmental advocacy. Ian owns a regenerative whiskey company, Nikki founded the sustainable jewelry brand BaYou with Love, and together, the duo are executive producers on the regenerative agriculture documentaries Kiss the Ground and Common Ground. That mix of storytelling, business, and sustainability is the DNA of The Absorption Company.
Are you interested in learning more about both trailblazers’ backgrounds? Check out our articles, “Who Is Ian Somerhalder?” and “Who Is Nikki Reed?”
The Story Behind The Absorption Company
The company didn’t appear overnight. It grew out of a decade of experiences, real frustration, and a genuine health scare. Here’s how it came together:
From Hollywood to Entrepreneurship
Both founders stepped back from the Hollywood spotlight to build things they actually own. Nikki started first.
While pregnant, she launched her first business, BaYou with Love, out of a desire to move culture forward through consciousness and sustainability. That mission eventually led BaYou with Love to become a fully circular jewelry line made with recycled tech gold pulled from old computer motherboards. This resulted in Nikki winning an audience award, launching the new mission at a major tech convention.
Ian took a similar leap with Brother’s Bond Bourbon, a whiskey brand co-founded with Vampire Diaries co-star Paul Wesley. The company centers its mission around regenerative agriculture, donating sales to promote soil health and source local and regenerative grains.
OnThe Bossticks, Ian describes himself and Nikki as deeply impact-driven in everything they do. Ian frames the shift from acting plainly: building something that can improve people’s health feels like a higher calling and a better use of his time than being on a film set.
Building a Sustainable Supplement Brand
The real spark for The Absorption Company came from Ian’s own health. Wanting to be healthy before having kids, he did a deep dive into his bloodwork, and the results were alarming. More specifically, he discussed how his heavy metal toxicity levels were far above normal. And when he looked at the piles of supplements he’d been taking, he realized he had no idea whether any of them were actually working.
So Ian and Nikki went back to nature and back to basics to detox, and that experience became the foundation of the company. Coming from humble, working-class beginnings, the idea of families spending their hard-earned money on products that don’t work didn’t sit right with them. That frustration is what they built the brand to solve.
The Science That Made It Different
What turns the mission into a product is the technology. Ian explained that they work with a company called Capsoil and use proprietary technology, patented in lipids, that converts hard-to-absorb material into water-soluble, nanometric particles. In practical terms, Nikki noted, it means something like glutathione that normally comes as a stinky goo can instead be stirred into water and actually taste good.
The founders claim this makes their formulas dramatically more usable, with Ian citing a figure of 500% more absorbable, or bioavailable. Those are the company’s own claims, and they’re the whole reason the brand exists.
How The Absorption Company Is Changing the Supplement Industry
Ian and Nikki are blunt about what they see as broken. The supplement category is massive and, in their view, highly unregulated. The problem in this specific scenario? Products simply aren’t built for nutrient absorption. According to the company’s own research, roughly 84% of what’s in a typical supplement is not absorbed and passes right through you.
Those are the poor absorption rates the founders say plague the entire category. And, in this case, it’s exactly what they wanted to change. Their approach centers on absorption first, using their nanometric technology so the nutrients actually make it into the body. Improving nutrient absorption, in other words, is the entire point of the product rather than an afterthought.
They also point to a transparency problem, noting that fewer than 4% of companies third-party test their products. The Absorption Company third-party tests and publishes the data, which Ian frames as an expensive but non-negotiable investment in trust. As he puts it, the goal is to build a brand people can actually feel, in an industry where most products leave you guessing.
A quick note in the spirit of honesty: Lauryn and Michael are not doctors, and neither is the team here. The figures above are the founders’ own claims about their own brand, shared here because that’s what came up in the conversation. This post is informational, not medical advice, so talk to your own doctor before starting or stopping any supplement, especially if it touches medications.
The Absorption Company’s Mission Around Sustainability
For Ian and Nikki, the supplement company is one piece of a much bigger environmental mission. Everything they build ties back to the same through line: impact and driving real change through business rather than just selling products.
That mission runs deepest in their work on regenerative agriculture. As executive producers on the documentary Common Ground and the earlier Kiss the Ground, they champion farming methods that pull carbon out of the air and store it back in the soil. Ian connects it directly to human health, drawing a line between the health of the soil, the food system, and the toxicity so many people are carrying in their own bodies. (Which, again, is the very problem that started The Absorption Company.)
It all traces back to where they came from. Both founders grew up with humble, working-class roots, and Ian describes himself as coming from multigenerational farmers who want to eventually return to the land. That history is why the brand isn’t just about supplements. It’s about a cleaner, more intentional relationship with what we put into our bodies and the planet.
Above all, as Nikki said: the company is mission-driven around education. So even if someone never buys a thing, getting people curious about absorption counts as a win.
Watch the full Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed conversation on The Bossticks.
Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed are proof that a second act can be even more purposeful than the first. From Hollywood to farming to fixing the supplement aisle, the couple is building with real intention, and their story about absorption reframes how you might look at your own cabinet full of supplements..
To hear the whole thing in their own words, watch the full episode above. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the The Bossticks YouTube channel for more conversations with people worth learning from.