Rosalena Q&A

Rosalena’s vision is to create a serious skincare range that delivers glowing, radiant and visibly healthier skin, naturally. They are proudly 100% natural, eco-friendly, female-founded, inclusive, UK based and have wellness at the heart of everything they do. We were delighted to have a chat with the 2 powerhouses behind the brand, Helen and Helena!

How did you two meet?

Helen bought a bottle of Rock & Rose Face Oil as a gift and rapidly became a loyal Rosalena customer. It was a hand-delivery before one Christmas that led to a (long!) doorstep conversation which, a few weeks and meetings later, culminated in Helen joining Team Rosalena.

What made you start the brand? And how did you do it?

Rosalena was born simply because we were unable to buy what we wanted to put on our skin, that being a natural, non-toxic face product that smelt beautiful, that worked, that didn’t require a 12-step beauty regime to achieve the desired effect and that didn’t cost the earth (financially and ecologically speaking). It didn’t exist, so we made it ourselves!

Using Helena’s fascination with the science of natural skincare, she happily spent years researching the very best oil-based ingredients you can put on your skin, aiming to find more unusual ones with superior skin benefits that could be blended with modern, cutting edge bioactives to boost efficacy. It was the bridging between age-old ingredients and next-gen new ones that we wanted to be the point of difference. Ingredients had to be clean. Our skin is our body’s biggest organ, so it’s only right that we consider what we put on it. Provenance also matters to us. Our ingredients are consciously and responsibly sourced, each chosen for their unique properties and individual role within a blend.

We created, tested, tweaked and developed the face oil formulas and then we began slowly, organically, selling to family and friends. The feedback was so positive that we had the confidence to create a website and begin to build the brand, broaden the skincare range and the rest is history!

How did you come up with the name ‘Rosalena’ for the brand?

We wanted the brand name to represent the duality of our product ingredients, in terms of old and new, the antiquity of ancient plant oils combined with cutting-edge bioactives. Similarly, the name “Rosalena” is timeless and could be a name both your grandmother and daughter could have.

What is the best part of starting a beauty business?

The best part is when we hear from real women whose own skin has been transformed by our products.

Our skin is a window into our world, showing how we are and where we’re at. Being kind to it is a simple act of self-care; and we love to hear our products make people feel great, inside and out.

Also, starting a beauty business meant we had unlimited supplies of skincare products!

What do you think makes Rosalena different from other beauty brands?

Rosalena’s skincare philosophy is a simplified, efficient and effective approach to skincare – stripping out the unnecessary and focusing on what skin needs – less is more. By producing multi-functional, timesaving, skin-transforming products, busy people can achieve naturally glowing and visibly healthier skin. Efficacy is paramount but feeling good is important too. By upgrading your skincare routine to a moment of self-care, we promote the reciprocal relationship between looking good and feeling good.

What is your current favourite Rosalena product and why?

Helena: That is like asking me to choose a favourite from my kids! I’m most proud of our Cleanse & Be Nourishing Cleansing Balm because it was a real labour of love to develop. It has won the most awards and has an over 90% repeat purchase rate. It took us two years to formulate and create the perfect consistency. We were adamant we would not bring to market anything below our utmost dreams for this melt-on-the-skin balm. We get the most luxurious and velvety-soft skin every time we use it, reminding us that believing and persisting in a product until it is perfect pays off.

What is your current daily skincare routine?

Helen: I start and end the day using our award-winning Cleanse & Be Nourishing Cleansing Balm. I take a moment to massage it into my skin before removing it with a warm cloth. I then (spoiler alert) use one of our soon-to-be-launched new toners to hydrate or exfoliate my skin before applying one of our four face oils. I enjoy using Beauty & the Beast Face Oil in the morning as its lightweight texture energises and conditions my combination skin and leaves a matte finish, perfect for under make-up. I love using our Frank & Sense Face Oil at night as it repairs and renews my skin whilst I sleep, especially after sun exposure. I cannot live without a pot of Lip Conditioning Balm on my desk, in my bag and by my bed! Importantly, I always add an SPF during the day. Although we don’t produce one ourselves, as good SPFs are such specialist products, it is a crucial part of a good skincare routine.

Helena: I couldn’t live without our Magic Mushroom Facial Stones to de-puff eyes in the morning and iron out forehead lines. I always have a bottle of Goodness & Tonic Face Mist on my desk to boost my skin’s hydration and protect from environmental aggressors and blue light from screens.

Are there any exciting upcoming launches you want to tell us about?

Well, we have two new toners in the pipeline. Toners perfectly prep skin for our nourishing face oils and are the missing piece of the jigsaw to our complete skincare offering.

Where do you see the brand five years from now?

We plan to broaden our distribution platform to spread the reach of the Rosalena Story and bring the benefits of our product range to a wider audience. We are excited to be refreshing our brand identity to better reflect our mission around wellbeing and clean, slow skincare and to do this, we need more like-minded people on board, which is exciting. So, in 5 years from now, there will be more of us!

Would you consider expanding the brand? Let’s say… make up products?

Rosalena is defined by a simplified, paired-back product range so will always have a compact, capsule range in line with our “less-is-more” philosophy. However, we do intend to expand our wellbeing offerings, be that through our FaceFit facials in spas or through to wellbeing products like a sleep mist to aid a good night’s rest…watch this space!!

Why is clean beauty important to you?

Clean to us means so much more than a list of what is not in our products. We passionately believe in editing out the unnecessary, spring-cleaning the toxic, not just in skincare but in our wider lives too. Removing the negative, the unsupportive social media, the unwanted ideals, the perceived pressure for perfection. Out mantra “reveal don’t conceal” drives us to develop skincare that celebrates and brings a glow to all skin types regardless of age, tone, or type.

Rosalena delivers healthy skin to be proud of, in a focussed and mindful manner, and because all of our products are made with the purity of nature’s finest, it’s a great way to reduce your toxic load and support sustainability whilst doing so. That’s why clean beauty is so important to us- because it covers all these important, progressive ideals which we champion in everything we do, create and promote.

What is the one beauty product you can’t live without?

Laughter!!

SHOP ROSALENA PRODUCTS HERE