• Celebrating Sustainability and Innovation: Encouragement for Action Awards 2023

    Written by Natalia Muntean

    “Brands are more willing and excited to share their achievements and that is a sign that our initiative is needed,” says Helena Waker, CEO of Stockholm Fashion District, about the Encouragement for Action initiative. Last Thursday, the Nobis Hotel in Stockholm played host to its sixth annual awards ceremony, with the 2023 edition gathering prominent names from the fashion industry to celebrate sustainability efforts and innovation within Swedish fashion.

    The central theme of this year’s event was “Action for Future Change’’ in the fashion industry, setting the stage for a thought-provoking discussion that kicked off with a dynamic panel. The panel featured important figures of the Swedish fashion scene, including Jennie Rosén, CEO of the Swedish Fashion Council, Behnaz Aram, Chief Designer Womens at BLK DNM, and was moderated by Philip Warkander, Chairman of the Ethics Council and Assistant Professor at the Swedish School of Textiles.

    The members of the panel touched upon the changes needing to happen within the fashion industry. Philip Warkander emphasised the profound societal changes taking place at the moment, citing the long-term repercussions of the pandemic, global inflation, the war in Ukraine, and advancements in AI technology as examples of reshaping our world. “These will have a strong impact on the fashion industry. What role will fashion play in tomorrow’s society? How can the industry work towards a more sustainable and holistic fashion system?” 

    Jennie Rosen stressed the need for greater inclusivity in the fashion sector, noting that efforts are underway at the Swedish Fashion Council, including a large-scale survey aimed at identifying the industry’s pain points and weaknesses and how it could welcome more diversity. “Clothes are about people. They should last a long time and also tell their stories and show different perspectives and voices,” said Behnaz Aram, Chief Designer Womens at BLK DNM. 

    Among the winners of this year’s awards were STICA, founded by the Sustainable Fashion Academy, which was recognized for its efforts in the “Closing the Loop” category, ensuring the limits on emissions in the textile and fashion industries are met in accordance with the Paris Agreement. Grandpa earned acclaim in the “Fashion Retail Talks Sustainability” category for their commitment to sustainable retail practices. Over the years, Grandpa has become a community, more than a store that offers timeless wardrobe pieces of high quality, functionality, and a sustainable shopping experience. Brixtol Textiles was honored for their dedication to fostering a “Sustainable Identity” within the fashion industry, as they repeatedly demonstrate that production can take place under ethical conditions, materials can be environmentally friendly, and fashion standards can remain high with a combination of hard work and confidence in their consumers and abilities. Imogo stood out as the recipient of the “Fashion Innovation of the Year” award, highlighting their pioneering contributions to fashion innovation. The Fashion Innovation winner provides methods for effectively addressing the issue of water usage and purification in dyeing, applicable to both small and large operations.. 

    Stockholm Fashion District established the Encouragement for Action initiative in 2018, with the aim of promoting sustainable development within the fashion industry. “We started this award as a way of encouraging more brands and the people behind them to be vocal about the good things they were doing in sustainability,” mentioned Helena Waker, adding that in the last couple of years things have taken a turn for the better with more brands becoming more responsible and aware of their sustainability impact. “For the future, we hope to get more partners and organisations involved, so we could extend the initiative beyond Sweden.”

  • THE ESSENTIALS FOR A HYDRATING SEPTEMBER

    Written by Yasmine M

    Beauty Monday, means new inspiring products. Here are the heroes of September a set of restarting product for our hair, body and mind. 

    Maria Nila, Coils & Curls Co-Wash
    This Co-Wash is my September savior. With one use, your hair detangles smoothly while in the shower, while gently cleansing and moisturize the hair. The conditioning wash has lowered its pH and gentle ingredients for anyone with curly hair – waves, curls or coils so there is no need to finish with conditioner. Use it as a shampoo and thoroughly massage the entire scalp in circular motions to get the scalp and hair clean while adding water. Use fingertips in combination with Co-Wash to dissolve dirt and product build-up. For extra moisture, follow up with the Finishing Treatment. Find it here.

    R.E.M beauty eyeshadow palette 
    This spaceship looking palette, is not only really minimalistic and cute. But has a great mix of colors for you to create your own vivid illusions with this mix of six mattes and shimmers that you can wear from daylight to midnight. It’s inspired by Ariana Grandes own signature eye looks. And gives a creamy, smooth application that delivers optimal wear. Our beauty editor Elva also describes it as a perfect palette with cold matte shades with shimmery options. Find it at Sephora.

    ZO SKIN HEALTH Exfoliating Polish A good exfoliation is key. However, there are more exfoliators that sugar scrubs and scrubbing your face with harsh products. The ZO Skin Health is instead using magnesium crystals to provide exfoliation benefits that don’t harsh your skin. With the magnesium crystals it’s used to smoother the texture and give a cellular renewal. With Vitamin C, A, and E to deliver antioxidant protection for glowing skin. After cleansing, wet your face with lukewarm water and use a small amount of the product onto your fingertips. Gently massage the polish into your skin, using circular motions to help loosen and remove any dead skin cells and rinse. Find it here.

    NOBE Nordic Beauty Cooling Care De-Puffing Eye Patches
    The new nordic brand NOBE, have created a hydrating eye patch to use whenever you feel a bit dry, puffy or just want to calm down. We love that it’s 30 pairs, so you can really use the product any other day without feeling that you are running out. The Eye patches are soaked with product, almost dripping as you take them out of the package. As a part of the COOLING CARE line's the eye patches includes a refreshing FAZER XYLITOL® moisturizes and strengthens the skin's protective barrier. Not to mention, Soothing Cooler® which is a blend of extracts from aloe vera, kelp, yam, elm root and violet. All good things for September, when the weather is starting to get a bit cooler for us in Scandinavia. Leave on for 10-15 minutes. Gently massage the remaining serum into the skin. Find it here.

    MILK Makeup, KUSH Waterproof Mascara
    A vegan waterproof mascara for volume lashes from root to tip, great if it just starts raining this September and you don't want to look like a panda. The mascara is infused with conditioning hemp seed oil for softer, healthier-looking lashes. And as always with MILK the product is vegan, clean, cruelty-free and paraben-free. Buy the full size, or why not start with the mini-mascara - to see for yourself. A tip is to layer to your desired intensity. The conditioning formula help to to dry or stiff, so you can easily add more throughout the day. Find it at here.


    BIOpH Footcare Bath Give some love to your feeth by a footbath with a medical technology foot bath that exfoliates & deep cleanses. Mix the granules with water and you have a medicinal foot bath for you with your dry feet. Also suitable for those who want to maintain good foot health over time. Highly significant results i clinical studies already after one week of treatment. Combine it with the brands Inflatable foot bath and your are all set for fall. Find it here.

    Odalisque Magazine Issue

  • Skin Generics

    Written by Alicia

    The korean 12 step skincare routine is trending all over the world, but we can all agree that it's very time consuming and takes a lot of storage. Skin generics came up with the brilliant idea to downsize it to only needing 3 products in your bathroom cabinet but still get all of the skincare benefits as a 12 step routine.

    What inspired the creation of Skin Generics, and what specific skincare concerns or gaps in the market were you aiming to address with your products? 
    SKG was created to offer the consumer a very high ingredient based, high performing skin care range that is cosmeceutical but at an affordable price. We don’t believe the consumer should have to pay huge levels of money for amazing results driven skin care. We wanted to keep things simple and give the consumer only what they needed without having to buy so many products. This is the Korean inspiration of offering a number of steps in one product. We also wanted to make sure we cover all skin needs with cleansing, brightening, anti-age & Moisturising.

    Can you describe the core philosophy or mission behind Skin Generics and how it reflects in the formulations and ingredients you choose for your skincare line? 
    We are a high percentage cosmeceutical brand offering the highest % of ingredients. Our formulations are the foundation of the products which are Korean inspired which in turn leads to offering a very unique texture to all our serums and creams. The texture is created to ensure the ingredient works and delivers the results.

    Skincare trends are ever-evolving. How does Skin Generics stay innovative and adapt to meet the changing needs and preferences of consumers? 
    We are leading in the category, not following. We work closely with all our Labs to ensure we are at the forefront of what the consumers need. Be it new ingredients or new textures. This can be seen in many of our recent launches such as SPF50 mixing drops and Gel to Ice Snow Mushroom Moisturiser.


    Sustainability is a growing concern in the beauty industry. Could you share some of the eco-friendly practices and initiatives that Skin Generics has implemented in its product development and packaging? 
    As a brand we are keen to ensure we factor in sustainability. All our packaging must be recyclable through the materials of Glass & Card. As a business we source all our ingredients from within Spain, we are fully made in Spain and only some of our packaging comes from Italy. We keep it all in Barcelona to make sure we reduce the carbon footprint. Our warehouse has also been awarded ISO 14001:2015 which is the highest standard for Environmental Management Systems.

    Personalization is becoming increasingly important in skincare. How does Skin Generics offer a personalized approach to skincare, catering to different skin types, ages, and concerns? 
    Are ranges are all catered for all skin needs. We categorize them into the 5 categories so consumers can easily pick their products. Such as deep moisturizing, they can choose a moisturizer from the “Moisturising Range”, but can also add ant-age with a serum from the “Anti-aging” range. Cleansing can be used by all skin types. But again we are making sure it is affordable.

    Can you provide an overview of the key ingredients and formulations used in your skincare products and explain how they benefit different skin types and concerns? 
    All our products are formulated with an Active Complex, which is a carefully studied mix of different active ingredients, in order to satisfy more than one need at a time with a single product. With our products we do not treat different types of skin, we focus on different needs that the skin may have throughout life, and that change due to multiple external factors such as climate, stress, age,… There are hero ingredients that cannot be missing in most of our products, especially those that provide extra hydration to our skin, because we know that the basis of healthy skin is proper hydration, without which we cannot treat all the others. problems with our skin such as wrinkles, spots, blemishes… So low molecular weight Hyaluronic Acid, which provides hydration by penetrating the deepest layers of our skin and hiding expression lines, Pentavitin, a super moisturizing ingredient, Lipochroman, a very effective antioxidant, are some of our key ingredients. that we use in many of our formulations.

    Skincare routines can be overwhelming. Could you share some personalized skin care tips or product recommendations for individuals with specific skin concerns, such as acne-prone, sensitive, or mature skin? 
    In every routine there must be some moisturizing product, which as we mentioned is the basis of healthy skin. Then we can go to deal with the specific problem. For oily or acne-prone skin, proper cleansing of the skin is essential, so an oil-based cleanser or a water-based cleanser cannot be missing from your routine. Glycolic acid or salicylic acid are other perfect allies to help combat imperfections and show off skin with a more uniform tone. In an effective anti-aging routine, retinol and peptides cannot be missing, which are invincible to help combat wrinkles, spots and loss of firmness in the skin. Delicate skin needs less aggressive products, but they still don't have to give up the benefits of the ingredients we mentioned above. They can use retinol if it is encapsulated and anti-wrinkle formulations with wakame and aloe vera, which in addition to helping combat wrinkles, calm the skin and hydrate it. Chamomile is another star ingredient for this type of skin.

    Can you explain the research and development process behind selecting and formulating the active ingredients in Skin Generics products to ensure they address various skin concerns? 
    At SKG we work with different laboratories in Barcelona, ​​specialized in facial care, which allows us to develop very innovative products and stay ahead of market trends. It is a joint process and a team effort, since the development input usually comes from the head office but then the proposal and mix of all the ingredients that make up the active complex usually comes from the R&D technicians. We are constantly looking for innovation in ingredients, textures, formats at fairs, seminars, and other markets and never stop looking at the Korean market, which is a constant source of inspiration for our products. I think that among all professionals we add a sixth sense that allows us to be right with the selection of ingredients to ensure effectiveness and results for different skin problems.

    Achieving the right balance of active ingredients in skincare products is crucial. How does Skin Generics ensure that its products are both potent and safe for consumers to use, particularly for those with sensitive skin? 
    It's right. Achieving the right balance of active ingredients in skincare products is crucial and it's the goal that every brand has to achieve. In our case, when we start to develop a new product, we always try to find the right balance between natural ingredients and “conventional” ones. Being transparent and clear, if we talk about effectiveness, once you have found the product that meets the needs of your skin, in terms of results there should be no difference between natural and conventional cosmetics. The promise of a product, as expressed on its packaging, must be fulfilled by law. If this does not happen, something is wrong. At SKG we agree that the choice of a cosmetic should be made based on its results and effectiveness, without giving up the enjoyment of the application and the sensory experience. And to achieve this purpose we cannot do without many conventional ingredients tested and created in the laboratories with which we work and that allow us to be certain that our products are effective, in addition to the fact that most of them are respectful of the most sensitive skin.

    In the skincare industry, there's a growing demand for clean and transparent labeling. How does Skin Generics communicate the percentage of active ingredients in each product, and how do you ensure accurate and honest labeling for your customers? 
    Regulations are very tight in the industry and we maintain the highest of standards making sure we meet all these requirements for all countries across the globe. We are very transparent in how we share details with our consumer by listing our Active Complex breakdown of percentages on the side of every box. We don’t expect our customer to try and read the small print or discover ingredients on a tiny leaflet.

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