Celebrity Life

Francisco Costa has always been a trailblazer. During 13 years as creative director of womenswear at Calvin Klein, the Brazilian designer defined the minimalist aesthetic that swept the fashion world in the early 2000s. And long before sustainability was all the rage, he produced collections from dead-stock yarn and clothing that could transform into flat objects to take up less space for shipping and reduce carbon footprints.

Shortly before leaving Calvin Klein in 2016, the art enthusiast was inspired by Piero Manzoni’s Merde d’Artiste (Artist’s Shit) collection of 90 tin cans with simple labels and – supposedly – each containing 30 grams of faeces to create a beauty-packaging concept. Those initial ideas soon evolved into a concept that would become Costa Brazil, a clean luxury beauty line launched in December 2018 and newly available in Hong Kong.

“I wanted to create something unique with strong Brazilian DNA, focusing on the purest indigenous ingredients found in the Amazon and creating a unique balance between nature, beauty and conservation,” Costa says. “Growing up in Brazil gave me an inherent appreciation of nature and an understanding of the beauty of simplicity. In Brazil we celebrate ease, happiness. We embrace the sensual rather than the sexual. In Rio, there’s a way of greeting people: ‘E ai, belleza?’, which means ‘Is everything beautiful?’

[caption id="attachment_205173" align="alignnone" width="1000"] Francisco Costa[/caption]

“I went back to Brazil while in the early development stages of the brand and took my first – of many – trips into the Amazon. This is where everything clicked; the delicate and perfect harmony of nature and the Earth as the essence of beauty.”

In fact, Costa felt drawn to the Amazon as soon as he left Calvin Klein. In the rainforest he learnt about native ingredients and traditional healing rituals. He met members of the Yawanawá tribe, explored open-air markets in Belem do Pará, and worked with chemists and botanists at a small laboratory in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. All of this led to Costa and his team discovering the “exclusive beauty trinity” that now powers every product in his concise collection.
“I had a very distinct brand concept, which changed as soon as we discovered the three ingredients that make up our Jungle Complex, two of which have never been brought to market for skincare or cosmetic use,” Costa says.

The first ingredient he discovered – which is still his favourite – was breu, an aromatic resin taken from the almacega tree and considered sacred by the Yawanawá tribe. “It’s unlike anything you’ll ever smell or experience,” says Costa, who suggests burning raw chunks of breu to enhance peace of mind, balance the sixth chakra and reinstate harmony to a room.

[caption id="attachment_205174" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Ritual De Purficação is a breathing ritual designed to lift spirits and enhance moods.[/caption]

While breu provides Costa Brazil’s products with their captivating fragrance, kaya and cacay provide a range of potent skincare benefits. Kaya, a powerful antioxidant harvested exclusively for the brand from sapucaia trees, has long been considered a superfood in South America for its blend of essential fatty acids and rich vitamin content. It’s also the key ingredient in Kaya Anti-Aging Face Oil and Kaya Jungle Firming Body Oil, which both work to boost skin hydration, texture, firmness and radiance.

Cacay, meanwhile, is a vitamin-rich oil and natural source of retinol that reduces the appearance of ageing, fine lines and other environmental stressors. It also provides much of the hydration in Costa Brazil’s Body Cream along with murumuru butter and Brazil-nut and tucuma-seed oils.
In keeping with the founder’s philosophy that “the spirit of beauty is inseparable from the health of the Earth”, most ingredients are wild-harvested to ensure no trees are cut down in the process, and packaging is made with sustainable, recycled and biodegradable materials whenever possible. All Costa Brazil products are also vegan and free of parabens, phthalates, PEGs, silicones, sulphates, gluten, glycols, mineral oil and artificial colourants.

The brand is certainly a far cry from where it started, with Costa’s ruminations on Manzoni’s Merde d’Artiste, and it appears this is only the beginning. “It’s incredibly rewarding to see the impact we’re already having – there’s a community in the eastern Amazon that now works full- time to harvest cacay plants for us,” Costa says.

“I seek to create a business with longevity, a feeling of slow luxury. I take my time to consider each element, and if it means delaying a product launch to make sure we can trace the origins and sourcing methods of our ingredients, or find the perfect custom packaging that’s both beautiful, functional and inherently good for the Earth, then I know I’m doing my job. There’s a wealth of natural ingredients that have yet to be tested and unearthed; we’ll see how we can continue to create impactful products that benefit the local communities, while maintaining the Earth’s abundance.”

Costa Brazil is available in Hong Kong via Net-a-Porter.com.

The post Costa Brazil is the Super Natural Skincare from the Amazon Rainforest appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Thann’s founder Tony Suppattranont talks self-care versus selfies, and why taking a break from social media can help you find inner-peace.

The post The rise of natural skincare appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

Thann’s founder Tony Suppattranont talks self-care versus selfies, and why taking a break from social media can help you find inner-peace.

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Tata Harper loves a good face mask. Some might even say she introduced the world to -- or at least gladly spread the gospel of -- the concept of multi-masking, or treating different areas of the face with different masks. But once her stepfather was diagnosed with cancer, the skincare enthusiast, who credits her love of beauty to her grandmother and other cosmetics-obsessed relatives she grew up with in Colombia, wanted a mask -- and, of course, a cleanser and an essence and a moisturiser -- that not only provided amazing results but also eliminated the need for harsh, toxic chemicals. So, what did she do?

“I was like, how am I going to replace my super-high-tech Swiss skincare line that I’ve been using forever?“ Harper tells me when we meet at Joyce Beauty in early May. “I started Googling what these products are actually made of, beyond those two or three ingredients the salesperson talked to me about. Because they’re made from so much more than just the active ingredients. You need preservatives, you need emulsifiers, you need stabilisers, you need pH balancers, you need thickeners. That’s where all the shortcuts are made. Companies typically spend their resources on the one hero ingredient but then after that, it’s just a lot of cheap industrial chemicals.”

[caption id="attachment_149807" align="alignnone" width="4344"] Tata Harper on her farm in Vermont[/caption]

Harper started looking at options in the “natural” skincare market. “They show you all these things that have algaes, roses, honey and then you turn the box around and you’re like, wait, this is the same thing again. The parabens, the PEGs, the SLS’s, the glycols, all those antifreeze derivatives, all the petroleum...”

Eventually, Harper took matters into her own hands. “I had no idea if I could do better, honestly,” she says. “But I was like, I’m going to try. It took five years working with a lot of scientists, a lot of chemists, in different fields helping me and teaching me.”

In 2010, Tata Harper the brand launched from its namesake’s farm in the northeastern US state of Vermont and immediately captured the attention of consumers looking for non-toxic skincare that provided the same results they had come to expect from mainstream luxury brands.

“That’s what we stand for, really: it’s cutting-edge technology but without a single drop of synthetic chemicals or any shortcuts along the way, including the level of active ingredients,” Harper says. “Natural skincare was not a place where people were making high-tech formulations. But the most high-tech stuff right now is in naturals; they’re not mutually exclusive. It’s more about: do you want that technology to come from artificial chemicals, or do you want it to come from natural chemicals that grow in the earth?”

Tata Harper products, which include a full range of cleansers, masks, serums and more targeted treatments, are made from around 800 raw materials sourced from 68 countries -- including five herbs grown on Harper’s Vermont farm. And given the nature -- pun intended -- of the ingredients, everything is crafted with utmost care at the company’s dedicated facility.

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“Brands almost never make their own products. That was the biggest surprise, honestly. Especially with luxury skincare, where it’s almost an expectation because part of what makes a product luxury is the craftsmanship and the know-how that you bring to the equation,” Harper says. “So we were like, OK, we’re not really participating in that. We want to make our products. And that has also ended up guaranteeing to our customers freshness because then you don’t end up with eight months’ worth of inventory that in some cases doesn’t get to the client for up to a year.”

Harper and her team still manage the entire manufacturing process, ensuring that the time between when a product is made and when it’s sold is about two months. And while the signature green-and-gold Tata Harper packaging remains the same, the company is constantly tweaking formulas and incorporating new technologies.

The beauty entrepreneur’s eyes practically light up as she describes the breakthroughs happening in the natural skincare space. “They’re extremely powerful and they represent today the latest in science and skin, whether it’s algae technology or stem-cell technology or the neuropeptide technology we bring in from Israel, all the redensifying technology that’s coming out of Germany. Plus all the functionals, all the natural preservatives, emulsifiers, everything,” Harper says. “It’s a really exciting time to be doing what we’re doing.”

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