Brands of Style
Food2Smile
Netherlands-based Food2Smile boasts a ‘Snacking with a Smile’ tagline. Brand Founder, Director, and Nutritionist, Miriam Bouwens developed Food2Smile after failing to find confectionery products that were both tasty and healthy. Food2Smile snacks are sugar-free and vegan. Its products only use natural colours and flavourings, contain little to no fat and are mostly gluten, lactose and gelatin free. The product line-up includes 90g Gimme Gummy Mix, Very Berry and Cola-La Bottles. Liquoricious is the brand’s version of the popular Dutch liquorice in a resealable pack, along with fruit-based, cheese snacks and chocolate bars. ‘Guilt free’ chips are a source of protein and contain up to -60% less fat than fried chips.
KURO-Bō
KURO-Bō, which means black stick in Japanese, is a zero-waste charcoal water purification brand developed in South Africa. It uses activated charcoal to filter water through a simple, natural water filtration system used for centuries in Japan. According to KURO-Bō, the activated charcoal not only purifies water but also adds minerals, improves taste and removes bacteria. The brand highlights a zero waste cycle as the charcoal pieces, which are reusable for up to six months, are “made by nature, packaged in nature and recyclable back to nature”. KURO-Bō shouts a firm ‘no’ to single use plastic through its range of glass water bottles and hand-blown carafes. In addition, everything from its filter to its plant-based wood cellulose, paper bag and recyclable cardboard box, can be recycled or composted.
Londontown
Londontown is a women-owned, family-run business based in the USA. Its name pays homage to the founders’ origins. The brand is a celebration of clean beauty, which, according to the team, “goes way beyond a ‘free-of’ list”. Londontown’s #floriuminfusedbeauty philosophy means that every product across its nail, hand, feet and body care ranges was inspired by an elixir of floral extracts and restorative oils. Its botanical-based products are PETA-certified and cruelty-free and Londontown aims to have all its products vegan by 2022. The Londowntown nail range includes cult-favourite Illuminating Nail Concealer, Cuticle Oil, Kur Rose Gold Hand Peel and a Berry Burst Lakur Collection of berry-coloured polishes. Londowntown also features reusable Theraputic Socks whose gel-lined interiors blend grapeseed and olive with lavender, lemon, lavender and rose oils. A Bodykur range, committed to skin wellness and self-care is new to the line-up.
Sandell
Sandell watches are the brainchild of Swedish designer Stefan Sandberg and Johann Rosell who specialise in classic, minimalistic timepieces. The watches feature rounded textured glass dials and patterned crowns. Eco-friendly straps are made from recycled materials and animal-free fabric. A strap made from recycled pineapple leaf fibre is new to the line-up and highlights the brand’s approach to sustainability. Sandell’s Day range, which features white watch dials, echoes the long day light and midnight sun of the Swedish summers. Meanwhile Night, with its darker dials, reflects the Scandinavian wintertime.
The Skin Kitchen
The Skin Kitchen uses natural plant-based ingredients in a range that is suitable for all skin types. Established in 2015 and handcrafted in New Zealand, The Skin Kitchen's vegan-friendly and organic skincare products include a body scrub, bath salts, body oils, facial oils, lip scrubs and watermelon skincare. The Skin Kitchen team stresses the fact that this is not a mass-produced beauty brand. The brand started from making every product by hand and selling them in a local market, and is now available in stores across New Zealand.
The brand’s focus, however, remains on quality. All ingredients are native to New Zealand and, as the brand notes “a lot of love and care goes into each product”.
Storyteller
Storyteller, the brand with a ‘travel more, do good’ tagline, was born by chance when a group of travellers met up in a Malaysian hostel. They queried why souvenirs were rarely made to last and why their purchases were not supporting local communities. Designed in the UK, the faux leather Storyteller Flagmate keyring lets travellers capture experiences and adventures through a range of Storyteller and Changemaker Flags. The keyring has a clip to make it easily attachable to bags while the hand-painted flags can be engraved to ensure travellers remember the places and life-changing events from their adventures. 10% of each Flagmate purchase goes to a Storyteller Fund to support sustainable educational programmes in less privileged areas of the world. The brand supports the Barefoot College, Room to Read and Next Generation organisations whose mission it is to transform the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children. Click below to follow Storyteller’s journey.
Wellexir
Wellexir is a Danish company which specialises in natural, vitamin and mineral-packed effervescent tablets for consumers with active lifestyles and travellers on the go.
With a ‘Live it, love it’ motto, the brand offers a range of flavours in 12-piece tubes that targets the heightened demand for wellness and wellbeing amongst travellers. The latest addition to its product line-up is ‘On the go Collagen’, available in a series of sachets which could be served as part of, or as an alternative to, inflight meals. Wellexir Premium Collagen 5000mg dissolves instantly in water, coffee, tea or smoothies. It is flavourless and features high-quality Peptan biological collagen.
Two coconut-based unsweetened Wellexir Collagen Creams are available; one flavourless and the second with a vanilla taste. Both can be used as an alternative to dairy milk in coffee or other beverages, giving users a 2,500mg collagen boost.
Zero Bar
Zero Bar aims to clean, enrich, moisturise, condition, shine, strengthen, nourish, soothe and repair hair. The shampoo bar is plastic and cruelty-free and made using no water. When water is added, Zero Bar offers a creamy lather that rinses out quickly and easily. With a big focus on sustainability, a Zero Bar will last between 55 and 70 hair washes. Four Zero bars – Argan, Jojoba, Desert Melon and Moringa – contain an Oil Complex which includes argan, avocado, macadamia, linseed, grapeseed, coconut and sunflower oils. The 3-in-1 Hair & Body Bar targets sportsmen while an XL version is suitable for family use. The Zero range also offers an Aluminum Bar Saver. According to Zero Bar, its ingredients have moisturising and wound-healing properties. They stimulate collagen synthesis through essential fatty acids which are also effective anti-ageing agents. Zero Bar also helps prevent hair loss and play a purifying role on the skin.
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