By Paula Grunseit
As many Australians passionately embrace the move towards a healthier and more organic lifestyle, they can now take comfort in a new addition; Australia now boasts its first fully-certified organic, anti-ageing skin care range – La Mav Organic Skin Science. The range was launched nationally in Crows Nest, Sydney on the 5th August at MuMu Sustainable Tapas Bar and Grill. Paula Grunseit was there.
I confess – you’re more likely to see me at a book launch than at a cosmetics launch, so I wasn’t sure what I was in for. I was having visions of encountering a room full of uppity fashionistas guzzling champers and swinging their Prada bags around in scenes akin to The Devil Wears Prada meets The Hills. Well, the champers was on tap, but I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised about the rest of it.
I entered a room of what you might call ‘real’ women; friendly, honest women of all shapes and sizes, across a range of ages; women with great skin, women with problem skin, women with just your average kind of skin.
This, and the La Mav product banners which portray a diverse group of women, seem to aptly reflect La Mav’s philosophy of wanting to provide women with a range of premium, natural, certified-organic skin care products, suitable for all skin types including mature, dry, normal, sensitive, oily and acne-prone.
Before official proceedings kicked off, I chatted to one of La Mav’s brand ambassadors, Robyn Zampa-Howe, aged 30. Having used the range for about three months, she says she has already noticed fewer skin breakouts. ‘I’m a big believer in beauty from the inside out’, she said.
Initially attracted to the range because it was organic, she has also changed her diet by cutting out all processed foods and eating lots of fruit, veggies and grains. Howe believes investing in good skin care is worthwhile. ‘Good health costs either way. You either pay now or you pay later’, she said. Food for thought.
Which leads me to the subject of affordability. Considering consumers probably equate ‘organic’ with ‘expensive’, in comparison with some cosmetic lines, I’d have to say La Mav’s range is quite reasonable with its cleanser and toner both priced at $39.95, exfoliator and hydrating mask priced at $64.95, and a skin brightening complex priced at $94.95.
The ‘formal’ part of the launch featured a mix of informative presentations from leading women in the field about the organics industry, and some of the La Mav brand ambassadors sharing their personal stories with the audience.
First up was Marg Will, General Manager of the Organic Food Chain (OFC), one of Australia’s largest and leading certification organisations for organic and biodynamic produce and products. In September 2008 La Mav Organic Skin Science became the first Australian-made anti-ageing skin care range to become certified by the OFC. OFC-certified products ensure compliance with national and international production standards and a guarantee that product ingredients can be traced back to their origin.
‘To me, organics is all about choice’, Will said. ‘We have a basic human right in that we should able to consume – and that means to be able to eat or put on our skin – whatever we choose. Certified-organics gives people the power to choose’.
Will went on to explain that Australia is lagging far behind in the area of product labeling, and this extends to the area of organics. For example, consumers may be shocked to learn that there is no requirement in Australia to label content containing Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) so we can never know if a product is truly GMO free.
‘It’s unique to this country that we can’t pick up something, read the label and make an informed choice’, Will says. ‘We have a culture in this country of believing that we’re green and clean but we need to lobby our governments for truth in our labeling. In effect, anyone can go out there and put an organic label on products because everything about labeling in Australia is voluntary’.
Will hopes that one day the Australian government will take organic standards seriously, and urges consumers to look for authentic organic certification logos on products.
Next up was Joanne Costello, founder of Ebar Organics, a certified organic retail store situated in an area of Brisbane that has the highest number of green voters in the entire city. Joanne, who also founded Australia’s first accredited, certified-organic day spa in 2007 and hosts her own radio program, thanked the area’s traditional, indigenous owners and spoke about the growing ‘Organic Epidemic’.
Joanne said that most consumers are struggling with two conflicting core beliefs:
‘Surely no one would want to poison us with toxic chemicals’ and paradoxically, ‘don’t trust corporates because they’ll do anything for profit – even poison you’.
These conflicting beliefs have led consumers to exercise more choice through ‘buying power’, but Joanne emphasised that despite this freedom to choose, it is still extremely difficult to buy 100% sustainable goods including clothing, food and skincare.
‘We have no protection blanket for what we buy’, she said. We move to certified-organics when we become conscious consumers’. To illustrate this, she then referred to her top seven clients and their motivations for buying this way. They were:
- A cancer sufferer
- A pregnant woman
- A person suffering from chemical intolerance (skin rashes, eczema etc.)
- A person wanting the very best in all areas of life and being able to afford it
- A person who was environmentally aware
- ‘Hippies’
- People interested in preventive care
So what was Joanne’s advice? Referring back to the certified organic status of La Mav products, she told us: ‘This legislation is your transparency. Buy locally – support the Australian, certified-organic brand and realise you can make a change by taking individual responsibility for your health and wellbeing’.
Above: Joanne Costello of Ebar Organics, Marg Will General Manager of Organic Food Chain and Tarj Mavi Founder and Director La Mav
We heard next about the technical side of things from La Mav founder and Director Tarj Mavi, who has twenty years experience in research and development in scientific environments behind her. Before officially launching the range, she spoke in detail about its ingredients explaining their origins and how they work.
Inspired to create the range after the birth of her first son, when she was looking for an anti-ageing product and solution for her hormonal pigmentation, it took four years of research, a lot of tenacity and plenty of hurdles to reach her goal.
Believing that ‘no Australian woman should have to sacrifice health for beauty’, she set out to create fully certified-organic beauty products, which would be safe, effective, Australian-made, and cruelty free.
Mavi wanted the range to be free of potentially harmful chemicals and unnecessary preservatives, and to carry a guarantee of ‘quality, purity and integrity’. It also had to be deliverable within a socially responsible business model. Quite a tall order!
La Mav brand ambassador and cancer survivor Sarah Walsh, aged 34, wrapped up the speeches with her personal story. In November 2007, after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, she used the help of a nutritionist and decided to totally change her lifestyle. She remains a true advocate of organics. Walsh explains:
‘I switched everything I consumed, put on my body, and purchased for the household, to organic and toxin-free and completely embraced the changes that lay ahead’. After four months of intensive chemotherapy, Walsh went into remission and has been cancer free for fifteen months. ‘I didn’t need radiotherapy and I continue to become stronger and healthier every day’, she says.
Walsh began using the La Mav range about five months ago and was so impressed with it and the company philosophy that she is now one of their Senior Sales Consultants. ‘I’m surrounded by strong, intelligent women all with such a purpose and I’m proud to support a product I truly believe in’, she said.
The truth of the pudding is in the eating, as they say, so you will have to make up your own minds, but I left the launch having shed a little of my skepticism and I don’t think I saw one of those so-called uppity fashionistas all afternoon.
To find out more about the La Mav Organic Skin Science philosophy and range, visit http://www.lamav.com.au
