It all started when founder Jasmi Bonnén, at the time working as a Marketing Manager at L’Oréal, noticed that most skincare products are formulated to last at least 30 months (2.5 years), or even longer. This fact sparked her intrigue and she decided to find out more about the effect of time on cosmetics:
“At the time, we were implementing the new EU rules regarding the labeling of cosmetics. One of the new requirements was that all cosmetic products should have a visible expiry date. But there was an exception to this rule that stated that, if a product had a minimum durability of more than 2.5 years, it did not have to have an expiry date, but only needed to show the small ‘open jar’ symbol, which tells the consumer how long a product will stay safe after it has been opened.
I was surprised to find numerous studies documenting that commonly used active ingredients, such as vitamins, start losing their beneficial properties in just a matter of a few months due to oxidization. Another downside of long shelf-lives is having to use synthetic preservatives and other additives, which are required to preserve and stabilize the formulas over time.”
With this knowledge, the idea for NUORI (the term being a combination of the Danish word for ‘now’ and the Finnish words for ‘young and fresh’) was born: “We wish to bring consumers a fresh skincare option that’s been absent from the market thus far,” Jasmi explains, to which she adds: “I quickly realized that by making product freshness our mission, we can offer consumers two distinct benefits: higher efficacy of ingredients and purer formulas. In other words, fresh skincare makes sense to me the same way fresh food does – it’s more nourishing and has less additives.”
What makes NUORI stand out even more is that it is, in fact, 100% natural.“There are many brands that call themselves natural, but when one looks closely at their ingredients lists, it’s clear that they are, for example, only 95% natural,” says Jasmi. “It’s these last few percents of synthetic ingredients that are really difficult to avoid, and thus require a lot of research and testing.
And NUORI aims to do exactly that — “The way we choose our ingredients is quite simple: first we define which desired benefit we wish to have and then identify ingredients that have been tested and proven to have this desired effect. The next step is to make sure that the variant we use is natural as opposed to synthetically manufactured. It is often much more difficult, and expensive, to find these natural variants of ingredients, but it’s worth it.
For example, we use a very newly developed natural variant of pentylene glycol in our creams. This ingredient has fantastic hydrating properties, creates a lovely texture and as an added bonus that naturally preserves our creams against bacteria and mold. The old synthetic variant of pentylene glycol was found to be toxic in old animal studies in the 70s. More recently, some studies have shown the synthetic variant to even become a skin irritant and thus a potential cause of contact dermatitis. The new, natural pentyelene glycol we use is extracted from corn and sugar cane, as opposed to petrochemicals, and is both ECOCERT and COSMOS approved.”
“As far as ingredients go, one of my personal favorites is grape seed oil, which is a remarkable source of nourishment and moisture. With its lightweight properties, the oil absorbs swiftly, does not clog pores, and leaves the skin super soft. And since it has naturally high concentration of the essential fatty acid omega-6 and vitamin E, it really is superfood for the skin.”
But starting a completely natural beauty line didn’t just happen like that.“One of our biggest hurdles has been to figure out how we can professionally blend such small batches of our products. Most production facilities today are geared towards large-scale production, where thousands of products are made in one go and then delivered to a warehouse for storage. We, on the other hand, need to blend a new batch every 12 weeks and deliver directly to our stores. And we still wish to do this is in modern, state of the art laboratory and production facilities. Luckily we have found a way to do this now, but it’s been a pretty long, uphill battle.”
After launching back in 2015, Jasmi’s days were (and continue to be) filled to the max. Next to all the organizational things, PR, business trips to meet clients and taking care of sales, Jasmi still likes to get her hands dirty: “Although we work with a professional product development team consisting of chemical engineers and lab technicians, I am very involved in our product development. I evaluate and refine formulas, approve all ingredients, and test all laboratory samples on myself (and my family members) before they are sent to independent testing.”
Running a company and having a family can be challenging, to say the least.“I think the key is to accept that life will not always be perfectly balanced. Some weeks I feel like I am pretty decent business woman and colleague, but not such a great mom or wife, and other weeks I might be an awesome mom, but then having to say no to some things at work. If there is one thing that keeps me in balance, it’s my husband. He also has his own company, and he is so good at reminding me to prioritize, focus on the most important things in life, and not to sweat the small stuff. And he’s a fantastic dad, so I do not feel so bad about staying late at the office, or being out of town, when I know the kids are having a blast with him.”
For anyone wanting to transition from conventional cosmetics to natural products, Jasmi also has a few tips: “My best advice is to be attentive to what you hear and read about the beauty industry, and to keep doing your own research. Knowing why it is important to avoid particular ingredients or why you stay away from synthetics is the only way to have true conviction that natural skin care products are right for you. In addition, understanding that skin generally goes through an adjustment period of about two weeks when switching to a natural line is also important. This can take a bit of patience, but it is worth it in the long run.”
When it comes to her own beauty routine, Jasmi likes to keep things simple.“In the evening, I wash my face with the Vital Foaming Cleanser that also removes eye makeup. Then I massage a few drops of the Perfecting Facial Oil to moisturize the skin and apply an eye cream. Just before going to bed, I apply a really generous amount of NUORI Lip Treat, and then massage the rest onto my cuticles for conditioned nails by the morning.
In the mornings I only splash cold water onto my face, and then apply the NUORI Vital Facial Cream and a bit of the Vital Eye Cream. My boys start school at 8am so my makeup needs to be fast: some concealer, a bit of mineral powder, blush and black mascara and I am out the door. Once every two months I like to use an intensive treatment to give the skin an added boost. For example, NUORI’s Supreme-C Serum Treatment (which is freshly mixed at home) is great for treating and preventing hyperpigmentation, to even out skin texture and give a boost to collagen production.”
Tags: Behind the Brand, Skin Care
Csilla is a huge book nerd, and would talk your ear off about her favourite author for hours if you let her. Even though she works with online media, she secretly longs for the days when people spent time reading real books and real magazines printed on real paper instead of staring at various screens all day. But technological development stops for no one, so instead of fighting it, she decided to embrace the whole thing: she's now a published author on multiple websites, owns a Kindle named Jinx (after her favorite drag queen), and can frequently be seen bumping into trashcans, people and traffic lights around Berlin, reading and walking at the same time.
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