For Christina Siau, creating and seeking out satisfying, beautiful scents is something that’s in her genes. Coming from a family with three generations of herbalists and natural medicine practitioners, it’s easy to see how Siau came to create her lovely natural perfume line, Christy Organics. Using locally-sourced, organic and naturally-derived ingredients for her perfumes, Christina handcrafts these proprietary formulated scents using her creativity and extensive knowledge as a perfumer. If you haven’t already heard, I’m in love with Christy Organics perfumes! (Full review here). Read on to hear more about Christina, her inspiring business story, and her current green beauty obsessions:
Tell us a bit about yourself. What inspired you to create Christy Organics?
I was born and raised in Malaysia before settling in Melbourne, Australia twenty-eight years ago. My immediate and extended families are all advocates of natural health and healing; we have been using natural and herbal remedies in our daily lives for generations. Although I have always been an enthusiast of natural remedies and aromatherapy, I wasn’t aware of the harmful synthetic chemicals contained in beauty products and fragrances until I developed allergic reactions to the perfumes that I had used for years, many of which were from popular and leading brands. Over the years, my allergies escalated into a series of health ailments that required long-term and costly treatments.
The experience prompted me to change all my personal care products to natural/organic alternatives and stop using synthetic perfumes all together. At the same time, I undertook a journey to learn more about the synthetic chemicals used in personal care products and their adverse effects on our wellbeing and health. The learning journey was followed by years of extensive research and studies in the use of natural and organic ingredients.
When I was on the journey of healing myself from my allergies and ailments, I started creating my own natural perfumes, as I could no longer wear the conventional synthetic perfumes and I couldn’t find any natural perfume that I like. However, I did not set out for this interest of mine to be a business.
It was only after going through a chain of drastic events and personal challenges over the last few years…..and then one day, in the middle of a conversation with my husband (Michael), it just appeared in my mind that I could combine my passion, ability of creating natural perfumes and all my business knowledge (I worked in business for many years) to developing a product and that eventually led to the creation of Christy Organics. Yes, I know it sounds like a cliché but it’s true.
What is the process like for creating your products?
The process is long and extensive as it requires a lot of attention to details but it is also very enjoyable and exciting. I only create when I feel inspired, therefore I select the ingredients according to my inspirations and intuitions. After I have selected the key ingredients, I will then work through the composition and testing processes to complete the formulation. The composition and testing processes can take up to six months.
What is your favorite part of creating your products and why?
My favorite part of creating a new formula/scent is where I use my inspirations and intuitions to explore different combinations of top, middle and base notes, marrying the natural essences together and transforming them to a whole new scent.
How do you find inspiration for your fragrances? What were the inspirations for the current scents?
My inspirations usually come from my personal experience, loved ones and environment. My first creation is Abundance, a fresh and uplifting scent with an overtone of sweet citrus. I created Abundance to help lift my energy and enliven my spirit as I was suffering from fatigue and anxiety. Abundance’s featured notes are Frankincense, Rose Geranium and Pink Grapefruit.
Urbane, a green and floral scent with a woody undertone was inspired by my daughter, Helena who loves Lavender and my best pal, Karen who told me about Helichrysum (a costly and rare ingredient with amazing properties). Urbane’s featured notes are French Lavender, Helichrysum and Sandalwood.
Satisfaction, a sweet balmy scent with a spicy top note, was inspired by my love of Vanilla, Tonka Bean and my parents’ love of Nutmeg. One of my childhood memories was having preserved Nutmegs as snacks. Satisfaction’s featured notes are Nutmeg, Tonka Bean and Vanilla.
All our perfumes ingredients are 100% natural and are at least 70% organic.
Do you have any favorite natural or organic skincare and/or beauty necessities? What is your daily skincare or beauty routine like?
My natural/organic beauty necessities are way too many to list down ….
My favorite skincare brands are Tata Harper and Neal’s Yard Remedies (NYR). I use food grade coconut oil (Certified organic, extra virgin, unrefined and cold pressed) as makeup remover and double cleanse with Acure Organics facial cleansing gel. I moisturize with NYR’s Frankincense toner and cream. I also love Tata Harper’s rejuvenating serum. I pretty much use the same skincare products day and night.
For makeup, RMS Beauty is my favorite brand and I use most of their products and colors – Uncover Up #22 & #33, cream eye shadows, lip2cheeks, luminizer, powder and mascaras. I also love Vapour Organic Beauty’s foundation, Estelle & Thild’s raspberry lip balms, Intelligent Nutrients and NYR’s lip-glosses and Hurraw lip balms. As you can see I’m a lip product ‘junkie’ 🙂
What are your goals for Christy Organics? What do you hope your products will show consumers?
I would like to raise awareness of the differences between natural/organic perfumes and synthetic perfumes, especially their ingredients. I hope that Christy Organics will influence more people to choose natural and organic perfumes over synthetic perfumes over time. Meanwhile, I plan to offer more quality natural perfumery products and scents to our customers in the near future.
I hope people will realize that there are natural perfumes in the market that are captivating, lasting and free of synthetic chemicals. I also hope that consumers will find our products an attractive natural alternative and good value for money.
Mademoiselle nature (@MlleNature)
Nice to discover this brand! x
Kasey
Yes, it’s truly a great brand! The perfumes are amazing and Christina is so talented and inspiring 🙂