I met the lovely ladies behind naturschatz a couple of years ago now and have loved seeing how they’ve grown! I really love how much thought they’ve put into every element of their products. From sourcing ingredients within Europe to save of transportation emissions through to being able to say their products are carbon neutral through their work with atmosfair. I feel like they add a whole new level to the term “green beauty”!
I’ve been using CEDRUS in the mornings for a while now and have really been loving it! It absorbs quickly and my boyfriend has really been enjoying it as well. He doesn’t really like to use oils since he feels as though they make his skin even oilier (it’s difficult to get him to use anything at the best of times haha!), but he will actually go out of his way to apply this in the mornings without me having to chase him around with it!
Ok, enough rambling from me… Enjoy!
Have natural skincare and organic ingredients always been a part of your life?
Actually not, it all started in 2015. Before we already started to take a closer look at what we eat and where the food is coming from. All of a sudden, we started to question the things in our bath rooms. After scanning every product by the use of the app Codecheck, we where shocked and new that from now on our cosmetic consumption will dramatically change.
What made you decide to start your own range of natural skincare?
We made the first experiences with natural cosmetics and parallelly started to produce cosmetics on our own. Driven by the spirit that we exactly would like to know what is in our cosmetic products we started experimenting in the kitchen and read books about the effects of certain plants can have on our skin. By gaining more knowledge, we got pickier with the natural cosmetics offers and started to like our own recipes more and more. And we mixed cremes, lip balm, deodorant and so own for family and friends. They were excited about the hand made gifts they received for Christmas or birthdays and wanted to buy them after theirs were empty. This was the moment when we first thought that it might be worth to check the market potential for a new skincare brand.
What was the inspiration behind the name of your brand?
We desperately were looking for a suitable name for our brand and came up with hundreds of ideas but never were really excited. Sometimes one of us really liked a name but the other didn’t at all. Then one evening Sigrid enthusiastically told a friend about our new project saying “… So it is like a combination of the most treasurable natural ingrediencies we have in our region.” And by saying that the penny dropped and the name “naturschatz” was born. Luckily this time when Sigrid told Ellen about the new idea Ellen instantly felt in love with the name as well.
Do you have a favourite ingredient? Either to formulate with or because of its benefits… (Feel free to choose more than one!)
Of course, all of them a great. In every facial crème we use a combination of five different plant oils and one plant extract. All of them a specifically chosen to support the certain skin type and to complement each other. But if we would have to pick, for Ellen it would be thistle oil in CEDRUS because it has a mattening effect on oily skin. Sigrids favourit oil is raspberry seed oil in MARINU because it is anti-aging present form nature and additionally also as a natural SPF factor. Both of us like our special emulsifier on the base of olive oil which has a skin similar structure and helps the skin to absorb the crème very well.
I love your dedication to sustainability including your transparency, sourcing ingredients as locally as possible, and becoming a climate neutral company. Why was this so important to you?
In terms of food and clothing all of us are well or at least more aware that it’s not the best to eat strawberries in December. However when it comes to cosmetics the awareness is not yet that big. But here it is completely the same. We should question what our cosmetic products are made of and where it comes from.
First for the reason to reduce transportation and therefore emissions as much as possible and second for the reason that we have such great oils so close and don’t need to go abroad. We really believe in the recollection of the obvious and we could not stand the thought that our product in any kind of way would harm the nature.
Has formulating your own products changed the way you see skincare products and maybe even the green beauty movement?
Certainly! As soon as you start gaining knowledge about a topic you can not prevent that something changes. We don’t get influenced by advertising slogans and nice packaging any more but totally focus on the INCI list. This helps a lot to evaluate how “good” a product really is. For example, some facial cremes claim that they e.g. use almond oil in their product which makes the skin soft. When looking at the INCI list almond oils is almost on the last position which means that it is definitely not one of the main ingrediencies in the product. For sure, it can still be a great product but the real influence of almond oil can certainly be questioned.
What’s next on the horizon for Naturschatz? Any hints you can share?
We are busy expanding our retailer network and getting naturschatz better known. Interviews like this help a lot! If you would like to stay informed, feel free to follow us on Instagram and subscribe for our newsletter. We share valuable content with our followers e.g. each month we have a 28 day challenge on a certain topic that directly or indirectly helps you to increase your natural glow. Pretty soon we also will launch a free document in which we share our beauty tips. So stay in touch to not miss out.
Do you have a favourite tip for naturally healthy skin? (other than using Naturschatz products of course!)
Be aware that your skin is the interface between you inside and our outside. So, it is logically that both have an effect on your skin. From the outside of course it is cosmetics and we highly recommend to only use natural ones. But it is also the material of your clothes that touches your skin, how much you skin is exposed to sun and the humidity in the air around you. From the inside your skin is influenced by what you eat and drink, how you sleep, your hormones and your overall stress level. As all these factors influence the look of your skin, you can not expect that just a change in your cosmetics would solve all your skin problem. This is why we decided to help our community developing new beauty routines that touch the different aspects. The already mentioned 28 day challenges help you to develop new routines for a better skin. We do the challenges together with you and share our experiences. Become part of the naturschatz community.
Instagram: @naturschatzkosmetik
Website (non-affiliate): naturschatz-kosmetik.com
*The website is only in German at the moment, but if you’re on your computer just use Google Chrome and right-click > Translate!
They have also created a discount code for my followers!
TGE10
This is not an affiliate code, just so you guys can save a little 🙂