In the age of beauty bloggers, vloggers, Instagram make-up artists and DIY moguls – a voice like Sue Y Nabi’s is rarely heard – but should be. As the woman at the helm of L’Oreal, Nabi used her engineering degree and innate understanding of marketing to diversify the company and drive their profits to exceed €2.3 billion.
Double-digit growth aside, it was how Nabi reinvented the brand’s identity that elevated the brand to unprecedented levels. Men’s skincare? She did that. Removal of a-typical blonde-haired European models in favour of brunettes, North African and Central African ambassadors? She did that. Bringing in Penelope Cruz and Jane Fonda? You get the picture.
But what does one do when they’ve achieved staggering career success? Nabi decided to quit. She instinctively felt that it was the right time to branch out for herself and create something different. Something not attached to a huge conglomerate, something inspired by her own life and journey. Along came Orveda – the first ultra-luxe gender-neutral, vegan skincare range.
Co-founded by Nabi and friend/co-founder Nicola Vu, Orveda applies the wisdom of ancient traditional medicines with a healthy dose of science to blend bacteria, enzymes and yeast to work with, not against, skin and its natural microflora. Think marine enzymes and Kombucha bio-fermented black tea to improve luminosity, tone and texture of the skin. And concentrated high-active healing formulations to re-activate skin glow to a point that it near on rivals make-up.
MILLE caught up with the industry stalwart to learn five ways that we can improve our skin tone.
Always layer your products, starting with the most watery textures building to the most oily. Oils should always come at the end as a topcoat.
Do not use hot water to cleanse your face as it destroys the good bacteria living on your skin. Lukewarm water is perfect.
Always use textures that require self-massage and ideally with a tool. All Orveda products are tool augmented to promote self-massage which increases skin’s ability to detox and helps with firmness.
Drink a lot of water or tea as skin hydration comes from within. Creams and serums only help prevent moisture loss; support the skin’s barrier by using lipid-restoring and bacteria-friendly prebiotics in your skincare.
Don’t use anything stripping like sulfates or soaps in your cleansers. Orveda cleansers are sulfate- and soap-free and are made of botanical oils rather than suffocating mineral oils.
