With 2020, we all aspire to go organic by making use of natural products. This week You! talks to Noor Mandviwalla, the brainchild behind the recently launched hair, beauty and personal well-being organic brand in Pakistan...
beauty
The idea of beauty is not cliché anymore; it means anything or everything. Similarly, when it comes to hair, there are a million ways to work on. However, they both also come with personal well-being and that too in the right manner. With 2020, we all aspire to transform our hair and beauty regimen and the idea of it; we aspire to go organic by making use of natural products. In Pakistan, a very few hair and beauty brands are there which offer natural beauty products. Keeping this in mind, Saeeda Mandviwalla of TONI&GUY, after decades of experience in hair and beauty, decided to collaborate with her daughter Noor Mandviwalla for a special venture! This week You! talks to Noor to find out what it is...
Having completed her studies, Noor Mandviwalla decided to take on what her mother had started years ago. Having watched Saeeda from the sidelines, Noor took the centre stage with Saeeda’s ‘Future Foundation’, a show which they took to different cities of Pakistan. After the success of the show, the duo got down to launching their latest venture - ‘Spa Ceylon’ which is a Sri Lankan brand producing organic products for hair, beauty and personal well-being. Luckily, the brand is making its way to Pakistan by the efforts of the mother-daughter duo; to give women a new hair and beauty experience for their personal well-being.
Regarding the inception of their newly launched brand, Noor divulges, “It just so happened that my mother Saeeda wanted to start a new business, and I was around to help her. That ‘volunteering’ eventually turned out to become a full-time job because it was so exciting for me!”
Noor recounts how this beauty brand was launched in Sri Lanka. “It was started by two brothers, Shalin Balasuriya and Shiwantha Dias in May 2009; they both had a deep rooted background in the field of natural health and beauty products because of their mother’s company Janet Lanka (one of the pioneers of the beauty-care retail industry in Sri Lanka). This brand takes the concept of traditional Ayurveda, a 5000-year-old healing science, and presents it in the form of Luxury Ayurveda. Shalin and Shiwantha, during the conceptualisation of the brand, went back into the old library archives and researched ancient Sanskrit texts which laid out various herbal healing remedies. In redefining the idea of traditional Ayurveda, and utilising Sri Lanka’s rich natural resources, the brand has had great success within Sri Lanka as well as overseas.”
The brand is unique as it is not too far removed from the beauty techniques and regimes used in ancient rituals practiced in the grand palaces of Ceylon. The importance of this cannot be overstated because with all the pollution around us, and all the impurities in the food we consume in modern life, it is extremely crucial to maintain internal and external well-being. The home-made Ayurvedic remedies aim to improve overall well-being and emphasises the expunging of toxins from the body. With this, benefits abound and healing is truly all encompassing, restoring balance, providing inner peace and calming the mind, body and soul.
“Formulated with only the purest natural ingredients, the high-performance products are enriched with powerful Ayurveda herbs, certified organic essential oils, precious natural minerals, extra-virgin coconut oil, rich ocean salts and the finest spices from Ceylon. I always tell customers who walk into the store ‘you give me a concern, and I’ll give you a product!’, because we have extremely diverse product ranges. We have about 30 ranges, from products dealing with anti-aging to rubs for muscle pains as well as a home aroma range,” informs Noor.
The entrepreneur reveals that the brand’s precise production and quality assurance procedures incorporate traditional herbal prescriptive with modern dermatological science, to protect and deliver the God-given herbal benefits of our all-natural ingredients in the high performance formulae. Besides promoting glowing beautiful skin and hair, the products also help people with sleep issues. “Our best-selling ranges are Sleep and De-stress. The sleep range consists of intense pacifying and purifying blends of powerful Ayurveda herbs, and potent essential oils to promote dreamy restful sleep. The key ingredient here is Lavender, which helps to soothe the senses to promote tranquil, calm and restful sleep. The De-stress range consists of a very key ingredient known as Frankincense (Lobaan in Urdu), which is extremely effective in calming one’s nerves,” details Noor.
Having become excessively conscious about the benefits of Ayuverdic products, the brand’s fair maidens have been making a Beeline to get their hands on this wonder product. “Because there isn’t quite anything like this in Pakistan at the moment, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I truly feel that the product, once used, speaks for itself because not only does it smell and feel amazing on your body but you can noticeably see changes in your skin /hair/face over time as you keep using Ayurvedic products,” she adds.
Spa Ceylon stands for what the modern day consumer is looking for. Now the world is moving away from chemical-based dermatology; and we are going back to the Earth’s resources for our beauty rituals because at the end of the day that is what is most effective. Additionally, with the current climate crisis unfolding, brands like this stand out from others as being a brand that cares about the preservation of the Earth’s resources as the brand philosophy is built upon taking natural remedies from the Earth!
