Vancouver Loves Natural Beauty is a blog miniseries running during the month of September, and highlighting the great organic and natural beauty and skincare labels founded right here in our fair city.
Daniela Belmondo of Belmondo Skincare believes in being kind to the earth as well as your skin. (After all, "Belmondo" is a play on the Italian words for "beautiful world.") Her line of organic olive oil-based skincare products is infused with calendula, chamomile, lavender, and rosehip to gently cleanse, protect, and nourish skin. Carefully considered details like eco-friendly glass packaging, distinctive white-on-black labels, and fair trade ingredients make Belmondo a winner. I got a chance to talk to Daniela about Belmondo, whether she'll ever do organic makeup, and her desert island essentials.
What inspired you to create Belmondo?
A true desire to share the natural benefits of olive oil for your skin. I grew up in Italy with my grandmother who used olive oil for everything so it was natural to create this line to share with everyone.
Many of Belmondo's products are made using organic olive oil. What are the benefits of using olive oil on your skin?
The wonderful benefits of using olive oil on your skin are plentiful and have been know for centuries. Olives, being a fruit that grows on trees, are rich in vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids, three components your skin needs for optimum health, beauty, and well-being. I've written a great article on this and you can learn more of the benefits here.
Your products are sold through Anthropologie (congrats, that's huge!). How did that partnership come about?
We had a dream to be in Anthropologie and just went after it. We put together a lovely package of our collection and sent it to them. They loved the line and and our vision and they accepted us as a vendor. It was a pretty exciting day!
Have you ever thought about branching out from organic skincare into makeup?
It's been thought about and so have hair products and sunscreen...these are all requests from our loyal and current customer and we're only willing to develop what our customers ask for. Otherwise we can create new products all the time and this is great, but it takes away from what we do best and our obsession with customer service. For the time being there are many amazing makeup lines and sunscreens I gladly recommend to everyone.
What are the Belmondo products you use on a daily basis?
I love After the Rain Face Toner, it's so much more than a toner and I love this product. I also use The Cloud Face Cream and weekly I exfoliate my skin with The Dunes Face Exfoliator and use The Rain Face Cleanser, especially when my skin tends to feel congested.
What's next for you, personally and professionally?
Professionally, I'm continuing to build my brand by growing and getting exposure in more cities in Canada and the US. Personally, I have a dream to live in NYC with my man, and it will happen when the timing is right. In the meantime Im looking forward to moving to a new area in the city (currently in Vancouver) and exploring new hidden gems.
If you were stuck on a desert island, which 5 essentials would you take with you?
My boyfriend, olive oil, food, laptop, tea.
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