Keeping it natural
> #getsmootchin with home-grown skincare brand, SMOOTCH and its approach to natural skincare
HAVING a skincare regime should be an experience in itself; a process of holistic wellbeing you give yourself a precious few hours of the day for a therapeutic beauty indulgence. Perhaps with a long warm shower, while you’re at it, you will exfoliate and remember to moisturise afterwards.
SMOOTCH is your Friday nights alone at home, or that random Tuesday night after a long day at work. SMOOTCH is those nights you decide to pamper yourself as you slather your favourite lotion all over your skin before getting into bed feeling clean, warm and most importantly, content.
SMOOTCH founders Nadeera Anwar and Azreen Kamal still remember the days when they were two broke college kids with limited funds to buy personal care products.
Their search for natural skincare at an af- fordable price range was almost impossible; it became more disappointing when their only options were drugstore products which are loaded with more preservatives than promised active key ingredients.
Out of frustration, they resolved to craft their own products that met their expectations without breaking the bank and ultimately, without exposing themselves to harmful chemicals present in many massproduced products.
SMOOTCH’s plant-based and botanically derived products have gone through several reformulations to get it better since the inception of the brand.
“We wouldn’t say that we are vegan, but we are vegetarian because we do use honey extract in some of our products,” Azreen revealed.
“A lot of people tend to mistake organic for natural, but organic is something where you are absolutely sure of its origin.
“For example, the spinach that you buy from the grocery store has never come in contact with pesticide, and that is organic,” she explained.
There is no pinnacle of beauty or a perfect standard. Hence, Nadeera and Azreen have fought hard to dismantle many insidious beauty standards that continue to plague women worldwide and have no place in today’s society.
Instead, they preach the talk of self-acceptance and self-empowerment – all of which are qualities embodied by these two beauty mavens.
“Beauty is self-belief. You’re beautiful no matter what skin tone you are or how you look, you just have to believe in yourself,” explained Nadeera.
“We have a women empowerment, feminist view on things, even when we first started, because one thing we want women to have is self-confidence; it’s about strength in sisterhood.”
SMOOTCH’s association with female empowerment has long been around, similarly, its leitmotif is parallel and intrinsically linked to the ingredients that they have in naming each product. For instance, the face toner – Witchcraft uses a blend of witch hazel, papaya extract and bergamot essential oil.
“Back then when a woman is seen to be highly confident or too outspoken, immediately the people will think that she is a witch. It’s one of the reasons why it’s called witch hazel because these herbs are commonly used as a remedy,” said Nadeera.
Equivalently, the sacramental ritual of mixing SMOOTCH’s powder form clay mask with a preferred choice of liquid mixer into a paste can be perceived as an act of witchcraft, “while you’re doing it, you feel like a little witch,” she said.
“Using the products itself is an experience – like the sugar polish and the clay mask, it forces you to chill-out and spend time for yourself,” she continued, knowing on some nights, eight-step skincare regime can be daunting.
Thus, SMOOTCH has simplified all that we need in one bottle. Its best-seller nighttime serum – Moonchild packs eight-hours of sleep within a bottle.
In a way, the serum addresses the younger generation of working people, where getting a much-needed eight hours of sleep is hard to come by with most jobs these days.
“We want to create something that people really need, something that is fast without any hassle, like the serum,” explained Azreen.
But in order to achieve good complexion and a healthy skin, she also said: “You first need to drink plenty of water to hydrate yourself. Drink eight glasses a day to improve skin’s appearance.”