I have been raving for years about the COOLA all natural suncare brand and, as of late, about organic skincare creators The Divine Company. Both were introduced to me by Herne Bay resident Olivia Savidan, the woman behind Beauty Care, a company founded by her mother, Frances Jeffery, back in 1988.
She says that consumers everywhere are more conscious and more educated, and the plethora of brands on offer for them is growing by the day. Beauty Care is gradually morphing into an industry leader in the area of green beauty, supplying clinics and consumers with vital information about the industry, what is authentic and what isn’t. “We want to help people understand the difference between certified organic and brands that add ‘organic’ to their product names just because they have a single, tiny organic ingredient in there,” she says, with the latter practice rife in the industry. I for one am horrified by the 'green washing' that goes on, taking advantage of consumers who just want to do the best for themselves, their families and the planet.
Olivia cites The Divine Company as an example of a truly certified organic, premium beauty, skin and body care collection, with total traceability of every ingredient in its product line up. “They are audited every six months, and follow every ingredient from the picking of each seed to the makeup of their packaging,” she says. “Our experience as a supplier of the brand to the local market is one of absolute authenticity.”
The world has watched as 'organic' has taken on a life of its own, and The Divine Company’s mission is to recreate and re-establish the potency of what it truly means to be Certified Organic. “When we work with nature, not against it, we fall into a rhythmic cycle of ease and abundance,” the founders say on its website, adding “organic is beautiful in its innate intelligence and its simplicity.” I have been using several of the products in the line over the last month or so and have been incredibly impressed by their performance and this simplicity - not having a hundred serums to cocktail every morning and evening is a revelation, and their Divine Woman Miracle Oil is one of the best facial oils I have ever used (and I’ve used a few!).
New to the Beauty Care stable is Hunter Lab, a men's premium natural skincare company that says it is “fuelled by nature’s most powerful and effective anti-ageing ingredients.” The Hunter Lab line up was created out of “a frustration with the current uninspired, chemical-intensive, repackaged-feminine products that pervade today’s male skincare market,” and Olivia says that the reaction from her clients in New Zealand thus far has been huge.
The reaction when they launched the aforementioned COOLA suncare brand onto the local market five years ago was unprecedented in its enthusiasm, and word of the brand continues to spread like wildfire. It’s still the number one suncare brand I recommend to anyone who asks, and Olivia and her team are about to take it into the Australian marketplace as well. “People just love it,” she says with a smile, “from its light texture and great smells, to the fact that it offers sprays, lotions and everything in between. The packaging also just jumps off the shelf, and the products perform incredibly well.”
She admits that it was the arrival of COOLA at Beauty Care that was an early catalyst for their shift to a green beauty focus, “because we just couldn’t ignore what people loved about the brand. They were hungry for natural, for organic, but also something that worked incredibly well and made them feel good about buying it.” Next on the Beauty Care list is a skincare brand with a focus on botanical oils and an organic make up line, details TBC.
As it is the 30-year anniversary of the Beauty Care company next year, Olivia has been working on organising a series of talks and educational events to help spread the certified natural and organic message. These will hopefully include talks from some of the founders of her brands, as well as nutritionists and meditation teachers.
“Consumers all over the world at the moment are changing,” says Olivia, “we are increasingly concerned about plastic bags, about what we put on our children’s skin, what we are eating.
“We want to be the beauty company that says if you want natural or organic, we can help you find the best example of that for your skin.” (HELENE RAVLICH)