5 ethical and sustainable reasons to buy from Kosmea
As consumers, we’re making more conscious choices about where we’re spending our dollar compared to only twelve months ago. We’re choosing sustainable products, recycling more items and looking after our things so they last longer.
A Deloitte study* consumer attitudes to sustainability shows some interesting statistics that have been trending over the last twelve months.
- 69% of people have reduced their food waste
- 64% of people have limited their consumption of single use plastic
- 53% have repaired an item rather than replaced it
- 40% have chosen brands that have environmentally sustainable practise and values
At Kosmea, we’re proud to say that we have always had an environmentally aware approach to creating natural skincare since our beginnings in 1993. In fact, the word ‘Kosmea’ comes from the Ancient Greek meaning ‘to harmonise and bring into balance’.
We pay attention to each step required to bring our customers the purest Rosehip Oil, from where the plant is grown, how it is picked, to extraction, manufacturing and bottling.
1. Supporting families and communities
Our philosophy is to live in balance with the world around us, taking only what we need to live with health and wellbeing. We are committed to ethically sourcing wild and 100% certified organic rosehips. These are hand-picked by families in Lesotho in Southern Africa, which provides a sustainable income for themselves and their communities.
2. No wastage – we use the entire fruit
Many rosehip oils are manufactured using only the seed, but we use the entire fruit. The flesh, the seed and especially the skin of the rosehip, deliver up to ten times more vitamin A. Extracting the oil from the skin is harder and more expensive which is why most manufacturers don’t do it. It costs us more to manufacture this way, but we know we are delivering the highest grade Rosehip Oil in the market to our customers.
Marie Kapetanakis, founder of Kosmea
Marie discussing the values behind the business and how being environmentally aware and focussed on natural skincare back in 1993 was more the odd one out, not the norm.
“I am dedicated to changing the way people treat their skin. Kosmea was one of the first skin care companies to challenge conventional skin care manufacturing by avoiding the use of harmful synthetic ingredients, and I will never compromise on that principle. Our skin is a living organ and we should nourish it with ingredients that we recognise and would be prepared to eat!”
3. Maintaining integrity of oil
The rosehips we collect grow up high in the mountains of Lesotho and there is great care taken from handpicking the rosehips to manufacturing the oil. There are three different methods of extraction. Rosehip Oil is either solvent, cold-pressed or supercritically extracted. Supercritical extraction is known as the superior form of extracting, as no heat enters the product. Despite its name, cold-pressed rosehip oil is often exposed to heat.
“Rosehip seeds are very hard, almost as hard as a little pebble. If you cold-press rosehip seeds, they generate quite a lot of friction, which generates heat. As we know for a vegetable oil or fruit oil, heat destroys some of the valuable components of the antioxidants.” Marie Kapetanakis.
4. Raw, unrefined, as natural as possible
Many rosehip oils go through a process of being refined, which means they go rancid faster than they should. When you refine something, you’re actually adding more heat to it, and heat destroys many of the valuable antioxidants which are keeping the oil from going off.
Kosmea’s Rosehip Oil has the longest shelf life and can last up to three years unopened. We keep our Rosehip Oil in a dark glass because light, heat and air causes degradation.
Marie explains, “Most rosehip oils are light with a yellow to a clear colour. This means the product has been refined. We don’t refine our oils and you can see the difference in the colour (Kosmea’s Rosehip Oil has a deep amber tinge). You can see the difference, smell the difference, and most importantly, when you put it on the skin, you can feel the difference because it absorbs into the skin and leaves a silky smooth finish.”
When you buy from Kosmea, you are supporting an ethical and sustainable product development cycle, from plant to bottle, and a company committed to bringing you the purest Rosehip Oil on the market.
5. Skincare as nature intended – no yukkies
Each of our products has been scientifically formulated using all natural ingredients, sourcing the most powerful botanicals we can find to create a product that provides the most benefits for your skin.
It is skincare as nature intended and we’re proud to say that our skincare has none of the following:
- NO mineral oils
- NO artificial colours
- NO petrochemicals
- NO artificial fragrances
- NO SLS/SLES
- NO animal ingredients
- NO microbeads
