Why us
Our story
Olivier et Véronique de Faÿ both share a South-of-France upbringing: French Riviera for him, Provence for her. Whilst he, as years went by, ran into a never abated interest in aromatology, she found herself weary of misleading marketing literature. As the urge towards a genuine career switch (from the Insurance world for him, from Architecture for her) came up, they opted for setting up a line of their own of high-end organic care, inspired by the strength of the olive-world they had grown-up with and pairing two visions and logics hardly matched together in the beauty industry: the LUXURY one and the ORGANIC one.
The OLIVARIUM difference
The core reason to manufacturing organic cosmetics of our own all stemmed from an obvious, simple fact: most cosmetics customarily retailed in beauty stores claim having active ingredients, whose proportion vs. the total of ingredients actually proves markedly low, and highlight lengthy, obscure formulations, despite the ingredient list featured on the packaging.
We thus went for conceiving cosmetics with lean, straightforward formulations, yet all the more efficient for being water-free and highly concentrated. This is what sets us apart and differentiates our organic cosmetic lines from other cosmetic products.
We offer your skin “Nature in High Concentration”.
Why highly concentrated?
... because what matters in a cosmetic is not an endless list of ingredients, but a discerning selection of active components in higher proportion.
Our principle: fewer ingredients, but an exceptionally high concentration of natural active substances of top quality.
We use the best food-grade organic virgin oils, organic shea butter, organic hydrosols (in lieu of standard water) and targeted essential oils blended for optimum synergy and curative effect. We never compromise the quality and the quantity of individual ingredients.
This is the reason why our ingredient lists are considerably shorter than most. Our labels state which percentage of ingredients is organic and which is natural. But what really matters for your skin is the ACTUAL PERCENTAGE of NATURAL ACTIVE ingredients: our labels highlight this too.
Why water-free?
… because water in a cosmetic always comes at the expense of the proportion of active ingredients.
In conventional cosmetic formulae, the main ingredient in uppermost proportion is plain water, which may make up to 90% of the total formulation (!), thus allowing cosmetic manufacturers to easily allege a 100% natural product. Yet standard water, in cosmetics, is not a hydrating active component, but a mere inactive filler.
As opposed to this, we conceive skin care lines with organic neroli (orange blossom) hydrosol in lieu of water, a genuine naturel active ingredient precious for its hydrating and soothing qualities.
Why organic?
Being in harmony with Nature—accepting its bounty and treating it as a long-term asset—led us to conceive OLIVARIUM as a way of sharing the olive-based lifestyle of Southern France, the region where we have our roots, and that unique respect for nature which Austria, the country where we settled down many years ago, taught us.
As nature goes hand in hand with environment, calling on not just natural, but organic ingredients was an inevitable step towards sustainability: since we rely on nature for our ingredients, we respect nature and the environment all the more. Through their organic certification, all OLIVARIUM lines show that they also are 100% environmentally friendly. Organic means safety and reliability, both for your skin and for the environment: we neither use, nor produce ingredients, nor employ production processes that are harmful to the environment.
Every single OLIVARIUM skin care, hair care, massage or healthcare product is free from chemical and harmful preservatives, mineral oils, hydrogenated oils, synthetic chemicals and ionic surfactants. Even our shampoos demonstrate no aquatic toxicity and contain only mild biodegradable surfactants in compliance with OECD Directive Nr. 301 A-F.
Why the olive tree?
At the heart of our concept is one of Nature's most enduring and vital assets: the olive polyphenols.
The antioxidant substances - polyphenols, omega acids 6 & 9 and vitamins A, E & F - naturally present in elevated proportions in organic virgin olive oil, and even more so in olive leaves, provide the main drive and active ingredients for all our OLIVARIUM lines.