Launching for pre-orders on Dec 1 on her site, the No.1 Nourishing Face Serum is concocted from 11 organic oils of the highest grade that are synergistically blended to deliver multi-correctional benefits, targeting pigmentation, skin sensitivity and reversing the signs of ageing. To create the perfect blend, Thorpe spent months reading up on active ingredients and finding the best suppliers from across the globe that can deliver what she needed.
Her desire to create this product came after a successful attempt at creating a bespoke oil serum for her friend. “She had asked me to create an oil that could prevent her from developing a scar after having a sunspot removed from her face. So, I researched all the oils that are best for anti-scarring and I decided to add in some special anti-aging and nourishing oils as well.”
It came down to a set of eight essential oils and she began blending them, eventually coming to a scent that she liked. For Thorpe, the scent determines the product, and it was important to her that it smelled luxurious and rich - much like the scent she was used to growing up with, as her mother would always smell of either Chanel or Jo Malone. Excited about her discovery, she bottled the concoction and presented it to her friend.
The serum worked and it was then that she decided to make a batch for herself.
“I started using this oil and it is all I am using on my skin since. I started giving it out to people - my friends and family - and I kept getting repeat requests for more. So, I decided that this could work as a business venture.”
But her research on organic products (and interest in all things natural) began a few years ago when she was pregnant with her first son. Overnight, the self-professed lover of Creme de La Mer and Estee Lauder became not only sensitive to scents but her skin started to react negatively to the creams she was using.
“Everyone says that when you have a baby, your skin changes and I never paid any heed to those,” she recalls. "I’ve got my products and they’ve been working just fine. Then suddenly, I applied my Advanced Night Repair cream at night and my skin turned bright red the next day.”
With a whole repertoire of beauty products at hand, thanks to her job editing vanderohe.com, Thorpe started delving into the more natural, pure and organic products she was sent and started seeing the difference in her skin. Realising the benefits of using natural products, she then decided to turn vanderohe.com totally green and organic-focussed.
A couple of years later, and pregnant with her second child, Thorpe joined a friend for a skincare-making workshop where she made a basic oil serum using jojoba and lavender. She says, “The only scent that I could stomach during my pregnancy was lavender. Everything else had me wanting to throw up. And despite it being a really basic serum, it was nice and gentle on my skin.”
A great interest in essential oils soon began to blossom. In a bid to further educate herself, Thorpe went for a few more classes and started ordering every book she could find on aromatherapy essential oils and blending. One of the most important books she bought, she reveals, was on the art of synergistic blending. She explains, “Anyone can just stick lavender and rose oil in a base oil but if you get specific oil that synergistically work and binds well with another essential oil, that’s a really unique thing. That’s why essential oils have been used in medicine in ancient times.”
It was a good call on her part. After all, the green beauty segment of the multi-billion dollar beauty industry is growing from strength to strength with more independent all-natural and organic beauty and skincare labels rapidly entering the market.
Last year, the UK's leading food and farming charity and organic certification body, Soil Association, released its annual Organic Market Report to reveal that sales of its certified organic beauty products have jumped 20 percent in 2014, to reach just over £44m (or about SG$77 million). The number of applicants it received also grew to 51 percent. Earlier this month, a Harris Poll survey in the United States found that 59 percent of American women over the age of 35 believe buying green beauty is important to them, while 73 percent of millennial women in the United States are seeking out cleaner, all-natural products.
And while there are no official numbers on organic skincare and cosmetics in Singapore, one can just walk into any beauty departments or personal care stores to see the burgeoning number of new brands and labels hawking all-natural and organic products.
Indeed, Thorpe’s decision to jump on the bandwagon came at the most opportune moment.
But creating the best possible product was not an easy task. Having tested different essential oils and knowing that even the same herbs and oils could give out varying scents, Thorpe recognised early on that her concoction must be made from the absolute finest quality ingredients.