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www.southafricamag.com
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sse Organic Skincare has been selling its products to South African spas and salons since 2000. The company prides itself on its ethics and its products are all certified organic, cruelty free and fair trade. As well as selling to the domestic market, the firm has also made inroads in the US, Netherlands and, most recently, Japan. It makes its own products, which are then sold to spas and salons for use in treatments and for their customers to purchase. Company founder Trevor Steyn established Esse after working as a research chemist at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, where he was studying the properties of indigenous
African plants, “we had been working with some traditional healers, who pointed us in the direction of plants with medicinal properties,” he says, “the research we then carried out backed up what the they had said and I realised that there were some species that had an application in cosmetics and beauty. I started looking at how I could use the expertise I had gained while doing research to set up a business.” Over the years, the company’s ethics base has grown to incorporate new concerns and developments. Trevor had decided right from the outset that the company would provide organic cosmetics but at that time, while there was official certification for organic food, there was nothing outside of that. Over time, however, there have been big leaps forward in this area, “at first we weren’t certified because there were no internationally accepted standards. However, in 2003 Ecocert entered into South Africa and we became certified by them,” says Mr Steyn, “since then, we have been accredited by Beauty Without Cruelty, meaning neither we nor any of our suppliers use animal testing, we are an accredited good partner with PhytoTrade Africa (a Fair Trade organisation) and we are endorsed by the Vegan Society, as we use no animal products.” What makes Esse unique is not just that it is a manufacturer of organic cosmetics, it is the only organic www.southafricamag.com
packaging from the customer and processing the bottles and tubs ourselves. We found that this would have multiple benefits, reducing both carbon emissions and cost. We are able to pass these savings back to our customers, providing free products as an incentive to return the packaging to us.” As a supplier of luxury product, Mr Steyn was prepared for the company to take a hit during the recession and for sales to fall. The result was not as expected, “our turnover actually doubled,” laughs Mr Steyn, “Looking back we feel that there were two reasons for this: Firstly - when consumers were put under financial pressure they looked more carefully at their purchases and shifted towards brands offering value for money and secondly it was easier to “downgrade” to an organic brand than to an conventional brand”. Looking forward, the company is already developing new markets and new products. Recently, it signed a deal with a distribution company in Japan, which it expects to grow into its largest market within the next few years, “Japan is well ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to its appreciation of organic and natural beauty products,” says Mr Steyn, “at the retail end, whole floors of department stores are sometimes dedicated to these products. It is what you might call a ‘pre-educated’ market, because the general population are already aware of the benefits of these products so they don’t need the same kind of explicative promotion as they do here in South Africa.” Over the next five years the
company is hoping to increase its presence in other receptive markets. Esse also has high hopes for new products that aim to rebalance the skin’s natural fauna in order to solve problems, and plans to increase the outsourcing work done by its research and development department. A long, but unsurprising list for a company that is constantly evolving and exploring new ways to benefit its customers while maintaining its ethical roots. With people becoming increasingly interested in natural and environmentally friendly ways of life Esse Organic Skin Care will be top of the list for people looking to ensure that the appeal of their beauty products is more than skin deep.
While there are many other brands that sell beauty products to the spa and salon industries we are the only ones that offer a complete range of certified organic professional products
www.southafricamag.com
deep
www.southafricamag.com
E
sse Organic Skincare has been selling its products to South African spas and salons since 2000. The company prides itself on its ethics and its products are all certified organic, cruelty free and fair trade. As well as selling to the domestic market, the firm has also made inroads in the US, Netherlands and, most recently, Japan. It makes its own products, which are then sold to spas and salons for use in treatments and for their customers to purchase. Company founder Trevor Steyn established Esse after working as a research chemist at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, where he was studying the properties of indigenous
African plants, “we had been working with some traditional healers, who pointed us in the direction of plants with medicinal properties,” he says, “the research we then carried out backed up what the they had said and I realised that there were some species that had an application in cosmetics and beauty. I started looking at how I could use the expertise I had gained while doing research to set up a business.” Over the years, the company’s ethics base has grown to incorporate new concerns and developments. Trevor had decided right from the outset that the company would provide organic cosmetics but at that time, while there was official certification for organic food, there was nothing outside of that. Over time, however, there have been big leaps forward in this area, “at first we weren’t certified because there were no internationally accepted standards. However, in 2003 Ecocert entered into South Africa and we became certified by them,” says Mr Steyn, “since then, we have been accredited by Beauty Without Cruelty, meaning neither we nor any of our suppliers use animal testing, we are an accredited good partner with PhytoTrade Africa (a Fair Trade organisation) and we are endorsed by the Vegan Society, as we use no animal products.” What makes Esse unique is not just that it is a manufacturer of organic cosmetics, it is the only organic www.southafricamag.com
packaging from the customer and processing the bottles and tubs ourselves. We found that this would have multiple benefits, reducing both carbon emissions and cost. We are able to pass these savings back to our customers, providing free products as an incentive to return the packaging to us.” As a supplier of luxury product, Mr Steyn was prepared for the company to take a hit during the recession and for sales to fall. The result was not as expected, “our turnover actually doubled,” laughs Mr Steyn, “Looking back we feel that there were two reasons for this: Firstly - when consumers were put under financial pressure they looked more carefully at their purchases and shifted towards brands offering value for money and secondly it was easier to “downgrade” to an organic brand than to an conventional brand”. Looking forward, the company is already developing new markets and new products. Recently, it signed a deal with a distribution company in Japan, which it expects to grow into its largest market within the next few years, “Japan is well ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to its appreciation of organic and natural beauty products,” says Mr Steyn, “at the retail end, whole floors of department stores are sometimes dedicated to these products. It is what you might call a ‘pre-educated’ market, because the general population are already aware of the benefits of these products so they don’t need the same kind of explicative promotion as they do here in South Africa.” Over the next five years the
company is hoping to increase its presence in other receptive markets. Esse also has high hopes for new products that aim to rebalance the skin’s natural fauna in order to solve problems, and plans to increase the outsourcing work done by its research and development department. A long, but unsurprising list for a company that is constantly evolving and exploring new ways to benefit its customers while maintaining its ethical roots. With people becoming increasingly interested in natural and environmentally friendly ways of life Esse Organic Skin Care will be top of the list for people looking to ensure that the appeal of their beauty products is more than skin deep.
While there are many other brands that sell beauty products to the spa and salon industries we are the only ones that offer a complete range of certified organic professional products
www.southafricamag.com
