Viva Shop Feature: Yours Essentially
I’m really excited about today’s shop feature on Yours Essentially, an online store from Singapore that offers natural skincare ingredients like carrier oils, essential oils, hydrosols, clays and some body butters.
With more women increasingly interested in DIY beauty, I hope to use this feature to give a glimpse into the behind-the-scene operations of such online stores. And I have Jess and Louis to thank for agreeing to participate in this feature, and at the same time, giving me more insights on how they run their business. They even had a video made, to show us how they prepare their products.
Inspiration for selling natural skincare ingredients
Jess told me that Yours Essentially really started out of an interest to share the benefits of using natural skincare with others. “We do see more people who are interested in natural skin care and looking at simple, basic ingredients for their skin care regime.”
Hence, since their operations in March this year, Yours Essentially has been offering mostly preservative-free natural skin care to their customers. House blends such as creams and lotions are limited though. “It isn’t difficult for us to concoct a cream or lotion by adding preservatives and put it up for sale, but unless we can be completely sure that synthetic preservatives will not cause any ill-effects, we will not even be using paraben-free preservatives in our house blends.”
New website to improve order processing
Customers of Yours Essentially would have already known that they’ve recently launched a new website. Compared to their old blogspot site, the new website is not only aesthetically appealing, but comes with an online shopping cart which improves the processing of all orders. I have ordered products from the company before the new website was up and was already impressed with their speed of delivery plus the effort taken in packaging the bottles.
Thorough follow through with complete delivery information
Because Yours Essentially is a home-based small operation, they try to improve their efficiency by consolidating customer orders and limit packaging to twice a week. The company also makes an effort to notify customers of the registered article number when their orders are sent or in cases of normal mails, an image of their package will be sent to the customer for their reference. I also learnt that Yours Essentially have also hand delivered packages for orders that were too heavy.
Proper adherence to cosmetics regulations
As a customer, I was interested to find out how Yours Essentially go about ensuring the quality and freshness of their products especially since theirs are natural ingredients proned to contamination. I was assured that all the products that the company bring in are notified with the Health Science Authority which regulate the local cosmetic industry. In addition, Yours Essentially does not bring stock in big volumes to ensure freshness, and those products that do not sell as well would be taken off and replaced with new stock once they are near expiry.
Proper evaluation of product soure
The company also ensures a proper system of evaluation prior to bringing in their supplies. On top of testing the product quality themselves, Yours Essentially also ensures that their suppliers are able to provide proper certification if they are offering ingredients of certified organic variety. “As we are also natural product end users, we are particular about the cultivation methods which would provide us a clearer picture whether the product is organically grown, ethically harvested, or if they are pesticide free.” The certificate for certified organic products are also readily available upon customer’s request.
Stringent hygenic standards in handling natural ingredients
I was quite impressed after watching this video which shows how Yours Essentially goes about preparing the products. As you can see from the video, Yours Essentially exercises stringent hygenic standards in handling their natural ingredients. Thorough care is made in terms of cleansing the bottles, pouring the mix and packing the end products. I say I feel a lot at ease knowing that the ingredients I use on my face are properly packed and safe to use.
Expanding product range
Naturally, Yours Essentially started first by bringing in a range of common products as well as products they have used before. While they hope to expand their product line with new products, but it will take them some time as they need to source and evaluate the products before putting them up for sale. “We do get requests to bring in certain products, and if we think that they are good enough for personal use and get enough requests, we would source for them and put them up on the site. We also do our own research to find out which products are good and worth bringing in.”
Strong passion and commitment
Well, I hope customers of Yours Essentially have a better idea of what goes behind the website now. It’s certainly an interesting learning point for me and I applaud Jess and Louis for their passion in natural skincare as well as commitment in bringing in only quality ingredients and making it available to us here in Singapore. I have enjoyed using their products so far and certainly look forward to them expanding their product line to bring us more excellent natural ingredients!
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i have oily tzone and cheeks close to the nose.No matter how I frequent my facial therapist or DIY myself to get the blackheads out,within two days thw blackhead will comes back!I just recently got my pores cleaned by the therapist and within 2days the blackhead comes back again! Please tell me what kinda moiteriser, toner, make up cleanser etc to use to get rid of the blackhead! I take good care of my skin and remove my make up according but the buggers are still there to stay!!
what kinda of make up remover is suitable for oily t zone skin like me? Cleasing oil or Cleansing milk? I have difference resource that tell me different things and now Im so confused!
troubledGal: I know what you mean. I have an oily T-zone too. I find the trick to keeping blackheads are bay is to keep the area free from oil as far as possible. Recently, I started to do a few things which I noticed has helped:
– tone the T-zone using witch hazel which is an astringent (drying but not as harsh as alcohol)
– use of facial clays and mask at least once a week (pick those that help to absorb oil)
– scrub with baking powder
– use tomotoes pulp on the nose area a few times a week or even everyday.
Check out my post about this DIY method here. The blackheads are still around but at least, a lot lesser.
As for your question, cleansing milk or cream cleansers are good for those with dryer skin. Cleansing oil is suitable for all skin type, but you need to know which is suitable for you. I started using Jojoba and find it great for my skin. And if you try the oil cleansing method, which is to massage with oil and then cleanse with a steaming warm wash cloth, your pores are a lot cleaner. If you just use the oil to remove makeup, I doubt it makes a lot of difference though.
thank you for your tips. I have read about your article about OCM and I will give it a try. Im thinking of getting the Jojoba Oil, Grapeseed Oil and Castor Oil for a start from YOurs essentially. But should I buy castor oil from the carrier oil category and buy the jojoba and grapeseed oil from essential oil category? As I noticed there are both grapeseed oil and grapeseed essential oil.
Thanks alot for yout tips!
troubledGal: Use the carrier oils for OCM. You can add a one drop of the essential oil for aroma but DON’T use the essential oil directly on your skin. You must mix with your carrier oil. Actually if you’re trying out for the first time, I suggest you use the carrier oils first and if you like it, then experiment with the essential oil. If you’re ordering from YE, ask Jess for her suggestions based on your skin type. You can send her an email first before ordering.
Hi,
I am new to your blog and find it very useful. I am wondering if you have any experience with rosehip oil? Mind sharing your thoughts?
Also, what do you mean by OCM?
Thanks
Yes, I’ve tried rose hip oil. It’s wonderful for dry and mature skin and to some extent, healing scars. However, don’t use it around the eyes as it caused milia seeds for me although technically, it’s not supposed to if the oil is fine.
OCM is oil cleansing method. You can read my post about it here https://www.vivawoman.net/2008/11/18/benefits-of-the-oil-cleansing-method/.
Thanks for pointing it out.. i actually was thinking using it instead of an eye cream/gel cos i cannot find a decent one. I am wondering what kind of eye skincare do you use then? If you dun mind sharing. Or maybe you can make a post on it#k8SjZc9Dxk0#k8SjZc9Dxk
Currently I use Active eye gel from True Bio Skincare. I may move on to using one that I just bought from Organic Apoteke very soon. But I found that applying grapeseed oil directly helped to reduce my fine lines. But it doesn’t do much for the bag, dark circle and puffiness. It’s quite hard to find a good eye gel/cream that is great. I heard La Mer has a good one but it’s quite costly.
Cool, keep us updated with how ur Organic Apoteke one goes?
#k8SjZc9Dxk0#k8SjZc9Dxk
Yes, sure! ? But I may not start using them until next month though…
Hi! I found this page when searching for places that supply materials for DIY cosmetics. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find Yours Essentially anywhere. Has the shop closed? Are there other places to find materials like beeswax?
Try iHerb.