Simply Natural
 

Holistic cosmetic and grooming products are targeting a health-conscious consumer. Latinos are leading the way in their development.
 

By Linda Pliagas

Hair and makeup artist Peter Lamas was profoundly affected by the death of client Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis due to non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. A week later, he ran into her daughter, Caroline, in New York who told him that the doctor attributed the disease to being triggered by the hair dye she used for so many years.

Lamas was personally devastated by the news that Onassis’ death (she was his regular client from 1969 to 1986) was due to a beauty product.

“It was a wake-up call to me,” he says, adding, “What’s in our cosmetics, shampoos and body products today can be extremely hazardous.”

Since then, he has dedicated much of his career to developing a line of beauty and grooming products free of harmful chemicals. After extensively studying holistic ideologies, including those of China, and consulting with numerous chemists, Cuban-born Lamas launched Lamas Beauty International (www.lamasbeauty.com), which includes Lamas Botanicals, Night Radiance and Lamas Cosmeceuticals.

“A number of hair stylists today are realizing that the damage done to hair has become so prevalent to us—as professionals —that we are now demanding more.” His products include: a wheat grass shampoo, a soy hydrating shampoo, a rice protein shampoo, a Chinese herbal shampoo, and a soy conditioner.

Besides developing hair products, Lamas has a variety of skin treatments. One of his best-selling is Night Radiance, which is “a treatment serum” with added color. The one-shade-fits-all lotion treats the skin while camouflaging imperfections and dries to a powdery finish. The product contains copper to stimulate collagen and elastin production, Vitamin A retinol to ease and prevent fine lines, salicylic acid to exfoliate dull dead skin cells, and Vitamin E acetate to fight free radical damage.

“Consumers are becoming a lot more savvy about skin care,” says Barbara Schumann-Ortega, vice president of Wilma Schumann, a European skin care line with a namesake clinic in Florida (www.wilmaschumann.com). Her cleansers contain such natural products as aloe vera gel, chamomile, safflower oil, green tea extracts, and St. John’s wort oil.

In addition to the array of cleansing, toning, and moisturizing products, the Wilma Schumann line has specialty products for extra pampering. One of their most interesting is MultiFresh: Instant Lifting Ampoules. These four small vials contain a liquid gold that proclaim to boost stressed, fatigued, and dehydrated skin. The product consists of three simple ingredients: cucumber, tea leaves, and menthyl lactate.

While the clients of Schumann-Ortega and Lamas are predominantly women, Sixto Sicilia is riding on the au naturel wave by targeting health-conscious males.
“People do not realize that many of the preservatives in the skin care products designed to maintain your skin may actually work against it,” says Sicilia, adding that his new Guy Gear line is 100 percent free of preservatives, synthetics, and petro-chemicals.

“We’ve gotten rid of controversial ingredients and added more natural elements,” he says. Some ingredients Sicilia swears by include: cranberry oil, soya, botanical oils and extracts, marine extracts, and vitamins.

One of his favorites is an eye cream made with grape seed oil. Another, The Restore Vital Oils Serum, contains Rosa Canina, which helps reduce fine lines and sun damage.
“The ozone layer is depleting and cancer is going crazy,” Sicilia says. For this reason, Sicilia, a Southern California native, was adamant about creating a moisturizer with a sun block. Yet he had a dilemma: “Men are not going to buy more than one cream, they’re not going to buy one for daytime, one for nighttime. They are going to buy one, and if it doesn’t have SPF, it’s a problem.”

Guy Gear, developed by Sixto’s parent company, Issimo International (www.issimointernational.com), created a spray-on SPF that can be applied to the moisturizer and convenient enough to be taken on outdoor expeditions.
“As the weather starts getting colder, people forget to take precautions. People come out of the summer and they have a false sense of security,” Schumann-Ortega says. She insists that many people still don’t take damaging sun rays seriously enough.

While women can choose a foundation with an added-in SPF, the majority of men are walking around during peak sunlight hours with a bare face. To that Sicilia warns: “Quit all the macho stuff because cancer doesn’t care. Every three hours you need to put [sunscreen] on. And pay attention to your head, especially if you’re balding, and your ears.”

Sicilia’s desire to create an organic grooming line was nudged by both his knack in the beauty business and his upbringing.

“Growing up, we were treated holistically. This [Guy Gear line] is a combination of Old World, which is all that I was taught by grandmother and mom, and New World, which is all of the scientific advantages.”

While Sicilia credits TV shows like Queer Eye For The Straight Guy with increasing demand for male grooming products in general, he says Latino men have always been extra attentive in their appearance. Being Latin we are taught about grooming since we are little, Sicilia says, then he laughingly mimics the words of wisdom his mom used to recite: “ ‘Take a shower, get dressed, wash your face, comb your hair. You don’t go out looking like that!’ ”