Most people would never dream of purposefully spraying perfume on their face. But Newfoundland-based skincare company Indigena launched what they call a “breakthrough” product on Sunday, and it’s shaking up how people traditionally use beauty products.
“A” Pure Aroma Perfume is a multi-functional product that is both perfume and skin treatment.
“I know it sounds really crazy to people,” said Indigena CEO Lisa Walsh. “Because when they think of perfume, they think of something that causes people to not be able to breath, and there’s all kinds of toxic perfumes on the market made from chemicals.”
“A”, however, can be worn on pulse points as a perfume, on the face as a serum, and even over make-up to give skin a luminous appearance.
“I think the days of people going out and just buying bottles of perfume and spraying it on their clothes and things like that, that’s pretty much over,” said Walsh. “We try to be multi-purpose.”
“A” has been eight years in the making.
“We started out just doing some research on which botanicals would have the best effect on the skin for sensitivity, especially where Newfoundlanders are very sensitive in general to scent, fragrance, and topical products.”
Walsh says creating a natural product that was able to be so multi-purpose required a lot of study.
“To see which extracts worked well together, that’s what took the time, and the balance of how much of each goes in a formula, and then what oils do you put it with?”
In the end, Walsh and her team created a product using a plant native to Newfoundland—the shining rose – which they picked by hand, as well as partridgeberry and raspberry extracts which are made at Indigena’s headquarters in C.B.S.
“I’ve always really had an obsession with roses,” gushes Walsh, who reminisced about picking rose petals with her aunt as a young child. “I was really close to her and she had a big effect on me, so actually the pictures that we have in the PowerPoint (at the launch) today are the rose petals that her and I picked in 2016 and made rosewater from.”
Most importantly, Walsh says the shining rose was used for its calming properties.
“Rose oil, rose water, (and) rose extract is really great for calming sensitivity, and it’s also really good for mature skin.”
The product name, “A”, is inspired by a woman who Walsh met a few years ago, a Newfoundland and Labrador-based blogger named Amanda Greeley. The two met and bonded over their shared passion for protecting animals.
“The fact that we’re both big on cruelty-free and protection of animals was probably the single most reason why I chose her to represent the beauty inspiration behind the perfume, and that’s why we called it ‘A’.”
Shortly before the official product launch at Indigena’s headquarters in Conception Bay South (which also doubles as Walsh’s home), the product went up for sale on Indigena’s website. The first order was placed by a woman in Ontario.
“A” will also be available next week at Whink in downtown St. John’s.
