BARE MINIMUM
Rising New Zealand brand Sans [ceuticals] lives up to its name by filling the demand for clean, natural, ingredient-conscious beauty products.
The rising New Zealand brand Sans [Ceuticals] lives up to its name.
Multifunctional New Zealand skin and haircare brand Sans [ceuticals] – a favourite of house-proud aesthetes everywhere – offers ingredient-conscious and sustainable solutions intended to simplify our daily beauty rituals.
Aucklander Lucy Vincent established Sans [ceuticals] 14 years ago. Since then, while her approach hasn’t changed, consumers’ general understanding around considered, clean and natural beauty products has.
The number of people seeking multifunctional, naturally derived, high-performance products free from ingredients with a questionable health or environmental reputation has risen significantly. Many more people are now reading from Vincent’s page: the same page she has always read from.
As a result, the brand, initially a small, locally loved boutique offering, has leapt in prominence, with an exceptional new skin-renewing masque and increased accessibility as one of only two New Zealand brands available at mega Australasian beauty emporium, Mecca. Vincent, a mother of two, says consumers are ready for personal products that offer a more meaningful connection.
How did you come up with the idea for Sans [ceuticals]?
I started developing in 2007 out of frustration at not being able to find pure, natural, resultsdriven products that were also thoughtfully designed and sustainable. I wanted products that would have a noticeable effect on skin conditions such as eczema and dermatitis, so I started working closely with a couple of dermatologists and got to understand skin at a fundamental level. Because of my background as a hairstylist, I also wanted to create high-performance haircare that had the ability to repair damaged hair. Doing this naturally has been something of a challenge with haircare, but we have achieved it.
How has that approach changed since and what sets Sans apart from other products?
The fundamentals are still the same. We are still very results-focused, using high-dose actives, in clean and natural bases. This allows our products to be used top-to-toe, avoiding the wastage of multiple products expiring in the bathroom cupboard. A way we are still different is that almost all brands perpetuate the false separation of skin of the body and face, and also the hair on your head and body!
How does being from, and living in, New Zealand inform what you do?
I grew up in the South Island and have always been a big lover of nature. Being connected to this helps me think and rejuvenate. For us, science and environmental solutions are part of our core focus and restriction or challenge is something that makes us innovate. Our geography has played a part in our development. For instance, the decision to create Sans came from the difficulty of importing the kind of products I was looking for at the time. New Zealand’s isolation has always been a partial driver of innovation.
‘Slow beauty’ – a move away from mass consumption and ‘quick-fix’ products to thoughtful selection of products considerately created and kind to skin and environment – has become a trend. What do you think people are wanting from their ‘beauty’ products right now?
I think people want meaning from their personal products. ‘Slow beauty’ is another way of saying ‘mindful beauty’: choosing products and applying them thoughtfully, with consideration of how they’re made and why we use them. You can choose a body cream based on price or branding without thinking about what’s in it and use it to achieve an external effect, but these choices don’t have meaning because they are focused only on the surface. Meaningful choices include a deeper perspective, like choosing products without toxic ingredients or that cost more because they’re ethically made. And then applying them slowly in a way that feels nourishing and improves health at an internal rather than cosmetic level. That’s why we create Sans rituals around our products – because using them thoughtfully contributes meaning to our everyday experience.
What are some of the things you were determined to formulate without?
We use food-grade preservatives and avoid all the usual suspects, however I think the notion of avoiding nasties is now commonplace. For us, what is put in is as important as what is left out. There are some exciting technologies becoming available that make baseline ingredients like binding agents and emulsifiers highly beneficial to skin on top of the primary function they perform to keep the formulation stable. So our intent in regard to formulation is to leave out anything harmful, but also to ensure that everything that does go in serves a beneficial as well as practical purpose.
Similarly, what are some ingredients you’re excited by?
The tried and true. Niacinamide is incredible, along with vitamins A and C, and lactic acid. There are some interesting natural ingredients on the horizon in the realm of probiotics, but we always take a cautious,
BEAUTY MULTIFUNCTIONAL