Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you I’m simply obsessed about moisturizing. I always need to have my heavy duty facial cream within reach, my lip salves and balms are strewn everywhere and I simply love giving (and receiving) any and every type of lotion and potion. My ultimate obsession over the past year and a half however, has been facial oils. It started with “borrowing” my mom’s secret stash of rosehip oil which she has applied everyday for as long as I can remember (she’s 60 but has the neck and cheekbones of someone half her age), which I used to not just moisturize but to cleanse (I add in a little polysorbate-80 & grapefruit oil as I love a squeaky clean feeling), remove my makeup, exfoliate… resulting in baby-smooth skin and a skincare regiment of hardly 3 minutes a day. I’m pretty blemish-free as it is, but this was literally life-changing, I kid you not. And when the whole argan oil and OCM (Oil Cleansing Method) phase exploded onto the cosmetics industry and was lauded on the pages of every fashion magazine you could think of, I become a woman on a mission. A mission to not only create an amazing facial oil blend that not only functioned well, but which looked and smelled just as luxurious.
So fast forward 8 months and my amazing italian formulator, who very cleverly worked with an english aromatherapist (I would LOVE to give out her name here but she works with other shall we say, competing companies, so I’ll keep mum about her for now) came up with a formula of 9 essential oils and the result is BEAUTIFUL, here’s the list :
– Evening Primrose Oil, Argan Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Passionflower Oil, Camellia Oil, Organic Rosehip Oil, Pomegranate Oil, Rose Absolute, Lavender Oil.
So now you know what I’ve been slathering all over my face and body for the past 5 months while waiting for the packaging to be completed. Now, onto the packaging, another incredibly tiring but satisfying mission on its own.
I started with your typical amber drop bottles (picture above), they cost $0.18 at most for a 30ml bottle, really cheap but which didn’t quite do justice to the formulation within. I suppose I wanted something less clinical, a little more luxurious, which you’d be happy to display on your bathroom cabinet or vanity table, and which would also radiate shelf presence.
After a long search through Alibaba.com, Buyingsources.com and lots of Googling, these amazing push-button dropper bottles found me (I like to think it was positively providential!) and a quick 1 week later, 20 samples were ready on my table with caps in every shade of silver and gold (I was specific about having it metallized), matte, reflective, rose-gold, light-gold, heavy-silver, chrome, etc… The button “clicks” with just the right amount of pressure, it draws in the right amount of oils, it’s much more tactile than a rubber dropper and the clear glass bottle, although not double-bottled (which I always prefer), works immensely well with the rich marigold colour of the oils. They are definitely much more expensive (a good 5x more, without any printing) but I’m absolutely in heaven. However, we’re not done yet…I’m now putting these babies through a 3-month compatibility test after which if all goes well, I’d be very happy to report its launch!
Next challenge : A cleansing oil that will leave your skin moisturized, but with that squeaky-clean feeling at the same time, and which smells invigoratingly good.
A behind-the-scenes look into a cosmetics company 