There’s something so electrifying about this time of the year: good cheer, well wishes, and a general sense that life is good and the best is yet to come. For me, the end of this year is perhaps a bit even more special. I’m celebrating the first birthday of my blog and the journey it has been. It started out from pure passion and a desire to share my obsession with all things beauty, but somewhere along the way, it’s become a journey of self-discovery, growth and a new found identity. There are more chapters to this story and I do hope you’ll stick around a little longer.
So rather than lighting a candle and celebrating the year that’s rapidly winding down, I decided to reflect on the wonderful experiences that impacted me the most and share with you some of the people that were most influential to me this year.
Meet Maja and Helena, two beautiful and inspiring women, creators and founders of Rosalena Bio-Active Skincare and two of my most favorite people of 2016. I met them through Instagram about a year ago, around the same time I began my blogging journey and started my Instagram account ( @DailyCatL ). I was immediately drawn to their brand ethos: Pause, Breathe, Be, or in other words searching for a mindful moment in our busy day to day lives. Maja and Helena believe that ultimately we are the products we use: what we apply on top of our skin is absorbed into our bodies and can impact the quality of our lives, physically and mentally, in a positive way or in a negative way. Together Maja and Helena created Rosalena, a bio-active skincare brand headquartered in the ever so posh city of London.
Rosalena products are 100% natural, formulated purely from plant ingredients, purely plant goodness and purely food for the skin. NO added preservatives or artificial ingredients or chemicals. NO hidden ingredients or ingredients with names we can’t pronounce. Their products are naturally scented and combine the ancient wisdom of plant oils with contemporary botanical actives for maximum skin benefit. I have reviewed in detail their Rock & Rose Face Oil here and their Frank & Sense Face Oil here.
But I feel that in order to truly appreciate their products to the extent deserved, you have to meet Maja and Helena. I had the utmost pleasure and tremendous honor to interview these beautiful ladies and ask them the questions I thought would help give you a glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes and into creating a successful brand and product. Without further ado, here’s what Maja and Helena had to say…
1. Describe yourself in one sentence.
Helena: Energetic, loud & passionate about family, life and having fun, with a slight shoe obsession a more than slight addiction to tea, a penchant for champagne and a famously dirty laugh.
Maja: A straight talking-softie, annoyingly organized, constantly curious with a need and love of travel (even if it’s only to try a new London restaurant) and feet that were made for dancing (all night long!).
2. What inspired you to create your own skincare line?
Our vision was to develop a skincare range that delivered healthy, glowing skin without the use of chemicals and where the experience of using it is was to be as beautiful as the results. We couldn’t find a product that ticked all these boxes. We wanted a range of natural face oils that smelled beautiful and that could be used every day and not just as a treat, so we made it ourselves and the rest is history!
3. Oils have recently taken over the beauty world and I for one am a big believer in their magic. Can you tell us more about the benefits of using oils? How do your oils stand out in a sea of oils?
We love and can talk for days on the virtues of face oils! In a nutshell: oils penetrate at a far deeper molecular level, moisturize better for longer than creams can and also carry with them all the goodness of pure plant ingredients, right to where they are needed. What’s not to love?
What makes us stand out? Delivering shine free hydration -we love smashing the myth that oils can make you greasy. We designed our products to please most oil-phobic customers! Customers say we stand out because of our quirky product names , their unique smell and function, the way in which they’re used, the fact that they’re completely natural and the results, ie the famous Rosalena Glow which speaks for itself.
4. How do you source your ingredients and how do you decide which ones make the cut?
Ingredient integrity is at the heart of Rosalena. It took 2 years to research & develop the range of face oils before we launched. This was because every ingredient needed to provide maximum skin benefit as well as forming the character and personality of each product. We didn’t want obvious oils that are already commonly available. Our combination of oils have stories to tell, for example the Buriti oil in our Frank & Sense Face Oil is such a powerful skin cell rejuvenator that the Amazonian women use it to heal and treat wounds. We use this secondary plant metabolism in our face oil to super boost skin cell renewal and therefore healthy skin. But we digress! To make the cut, every ingredient must be 100% natural, organic where appropriate (organic doesn’t always mean it’s best) and most importantly have the biggest impact on skin condition and health. Function is everything. We wanted our skincare to work, with noticeable results.
5. What is the most challenging part of formulating your products?
The formulation of Rosalena products isn’t really ever seen as a challenge (although the bureaucracy of the European Cosmetic Product Regulations can certainly be!). We are never happier than when we are concocting new products and creating products that we pour our heart and souls into, it’s this passion to formulate amazing skincare that drives everything. We are at the mercy of mother nature’s unpredictability though, which can be challenging. As we only use natural ingredients the oils can never consistently be identical, no two harvests are the same! But we reframe this as a positive because it’s the natural, non-formulaic magic makes our products so special.
6. How should one incorporate your products into their routine?
Our mission is to show people that our face oils can replace their creams. We designed Rosalena not to be used sparingly as a treat or occasionally as a treatment, but daily as a moisturizer as part of their daily skincare routine. If you can add a moment of peace and appreciation when applying even better, Pause, Breathe Be, a mindful moment benefits skin AND mind. Our face oils are purposefully not difficult to use; one oil for all your needs, around your eyes, morning, noon and night. We were busy mums who didn’t have time for specialist face, neck, eye, morning, night products.
Similarily our Goodness & Tonic Face Mist (G&T) is fun to use – skincare can in our opinion sometimes be fun to use too. G&T is a portable refreshing toning spritz to be used under or over your face oil and we love hearing about how our customers use theirs! In the gym, on the plane, after cleansing, during yoga, as midday pick-me-up at work, as a morning hang over cure and our current favorite: from a mum of a newborn who says it’s the only thing that sees her though the night feeds! For us- – it’s always time for a G&T!
7. Can we expect any new launches this upcoming year in 2017?
Absolutely – Watch this space!! As it’s you, we can divulge that very soon we will be launching the Rosalena daily cleansing balm!
8. What does a typical day in your life look like?
Luckily we only live around the corner from each other, in London, which is just as well because we have 5 kids between us making Rosalena and family life a team challenge! Many a Rosalena day is interspersed with school sports matches, nativity plays, ill children, forgotten packed lunches etc and we hold the fort for each other and enable Rosalena to work around this. It’s a perfect balance, one helped by a great friendship, supportive families plus wine and much laughter! Our mantra has always been to enjoy the journey. Pause Breathe Be!
9. What are some of your skincare secret weapons and top-3 must haves?
Helena: Water, Yoga and Love & Laughter
Maja: Rosalena, Rosalena and more Rosalena!
10. Can you each share 5 unique things about yourself?
Maja:
Born in Cape Town but met a Scotsman whilst travelling in London and stayed!
2 boys (with good Scottish names), Fraser aged 8 and Charlie 11 along with the most inquisitive 14 year old beagle called Baxter.
Shopping in Anthropologie on Regents Street has to be the best shopping experience for me – the scent & clothing combination never fails to excite and inspire me.
Loves a sneaky brunch at The Ivy in Chelsea when nobody’s looking.
Started taking ballet classes – a great excuse to wear ballet shoes and a tutu.
Helena:
Married my childhood sweetheart who I’ve been with over half my life and have 3 amazing children: Bella 13, Ollie 10 and Alex 7 – plus 2 cats, Steve and Toni, a tortoise Bob and a lots of fish, all with names.
Am a sunshine girl at heart, love London but crave the sun, favorite place on earth is Miami.
Afternoon Tea is my quintessentially English favourite thing to do.
Bucket list top 3: Christmas in Hawaii, Swimming with sharks, see the aurora borealis lights in Iceland.
Am a brown belt karate ninja – don’t mess with the Rosalena girls!
Rosalena have very kindly offered my readers a chance to try ANY of their products for 20% off. Use coupon code DailyCatLoves at checkout. Note: I don’t get anything from people using the coupon code, it’s just something Rosalena kindly offered my readers.
SO here you have my FAVORITE POST OF 2016 along with my favorite people/brand of the year.
I am signing off now but before I go, I wanted to quickly say THANK YOU to all of you for your uplifting and motivational comments you leave here and on my Instagram ( @DailyCatL ). I am beyond blessed to have met so many kind and inspirational people. I have such a sense of pride every time I log on and am able to connect with so many of you. I want you to know how much I truly and deeply appreciate you visiting my blog, following me on Instagram and supporting not only me, but each other!
Happy Holidays and a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Images & Article by catsdailyliving.com