Celebrity Life

We speak to Jeremy Muijs from Grown Alchemist about the brand's uphill start, its DNA, and the sobering realities of the clean beauty scene.

Cast your eye on Grown Alchemist’s sleek, luxurious packaging and you’d never picture the struggles that went on behind the scenes.

Jeremy Muijs, co-founder and one half of the brand, likens the brand’s uphill start to a scene in the 1997 American dystopian film, Gattaca. The plot centres on a future society where potential children are conceived through genetic selection to ensure they possess their parents’ best hereditary traits.

Vincent Freeman, a character played by Ethan Hawke, is conceived outside of this eugenics programme but pretends otherwise to fulfil his dream of space travel. Vincent and his genetically engineered brother Anton grow up playing a game of ‘chicken’ in which they swim out to sea as far as they can; the first to return is the loser. A concluding scene of the movie sees the two competing once more. Anton is unable to keep up and almost drowns until his brother rescues him. Shocked, Anton asks, “How are you doing this, Vincent?”

“I never saved anything for the swim back,” replied Vincent in a now iconic line that resonates with Muijs.

“For Vincent, there was no safety net so he might as well keep swimming because he’s long past the point of being able to return. In business, you get to a point where you’re just so invested. We’d sold our homes and all our savings had gone into the business. We were sleeping in our office. Everything was down to zero. We were all in,” said Muijs.

Muijs and his brother Keston launched Grown Alchemist in 2002, after years of running Hatch, a creative product development company. He fills us in on his brand’s troubled beginnings, its DNA, and the realities of the clean beauty scene.

[caption id="attachment_211578" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Jeremy Muijs of Grown Alchemist.[/caption]

The post Jeremy Muijs of Grown Alchemist Gets Candid on its Rough Start and the Realities of Clean Beauty appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

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