Injecting Olive Oil With a Dose of Cool
MILAN — “We want to make oil sexy and cool. Wine already is, now it’s oil’s turn,” said Claudio Castiglioni at the end of a lively conversation about Italy, the state of the beauty and fashion industries and Beauty Thinkers, the emerging skin care label he launched at the end of last year with the help of Jeffrey T. Matsumoto.
Both fashion veterans — Castiglioni was the global general manager at Tod’s Group and president of Tod’s USA and Matsumoto has experience at brands including Prada, Tod’s and Burberry — the cofounders have brought their professional expertise and personal experiences in the beauty arena to deliver a sleek brand rooted in 100-year-old olive trees grown in the bucolic heaven of the Monte Vibiano castle on Italy’s Umbrian hills. Starting from these, they developed scientific formulations based on hydroxytyrosol, an antioxidant derived from the byproducts of olive oil production.
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“Over 10 years ago, the father of Lorenzo [Fasola Bologna, chairman of the Monte Vibiano company] already wondered how to use these byproducts cosmetically and tried to find a way to make this work in a time when it wasn’t convenient to be responsible as it is today,” said Matsumoto.
A partnership with the University of Ferrara’s spin-off company Ambrosialab and seven years of scientific research later, the company fine-tuned the extraction technology that enabled it to get the hydroxytyrosol from the upcycled pressing water of olive trees and led to the debut of its first two products: Antioxidant Boost face oil and the Antioxidant Cream moisturizer, offered in refillable packaging at 58 euros and 88 euros, respectively.
Courtesy of Beauty Thinkers
Now the company is ready to step up the game, launching two hydrators and SPF products. Hydrator 1 has nourishing properties while Hydrator 2 Dry Touch is an ultra-light moisturizing lotion. Both contain hydroxytyrosol but also EVOO Enzimatico, an extra virgin olive oil treated with specific enzymes to convert its triglycerides into skin compatible free fatty acids, resulting into a nongreasy and absorbing texture. Available online, hydrators are priced between 48 euros and 53 euros with refills retailing between 27 euros and 32 euros.
In particular, Matsumoto poured his personal experience into products’ formulations, which are free of fragrance — “because I can’t stand scents” — and silicons — “because my skin breaks.”
“It’s really all about gentleness,” said the cofounder. “I messed up my skin barrier four years ago by overusing products, so I had to relearn and reeducate myself,” he added, underscoring that the brand’s mission is to blur the boundaries between health and beauty, proving that “you can be cool if you are safe.”
“The idea was to merge all of our values with a cool product, which I couldn’t find elsewhere,” he continued. One such value is sustainability, so the range comes in elegant, ungendered, refillable glass bottles that ensure higher hygiene standards and an extended life cycle.
“Recyclability doesn’t necessarily mean that a product is recycled, so to prolong a life cycle is more important to us,” noted Matsumoto. Secondary packaging includes a transparent, repurposable pouch and carton boxes with no tape that can be reused or reshipped.
Distribution-wise, products are currently available on the brand’s e-commerce and Castiglioni is exploring partnerships with e-tailers and eyeing collaborations with spas.
Meanwhile, the company’s online store is registering encouraging performances, with shoppers mainly hailing from Europe and the U.S., in particular from New York, California and Arizona. “The audience is varied, but it’s interesting to see how young people already know that prevention is the most important thing and far better than repair,” said Castiglioni.
“How do you measure a success of a brand? This is a start-up, so for us is seeing people reordering and sending us notes. They’re engaged,” he said.
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