NaturaBissé: I want to say thank you!

Before I came to Dubai, I had never really heard of the luxury skincare brand NaturaBissé. I think it was very natural, as I back then didn’t frequent five star SPA-establishments and this brand is not to be found on any normal department store beauty floor. Yes, I must have seen it in Harrods but not paid attention to it, as I didn’t know what it was.

Then upon moving here, I quickly became familiar with the range as I saw it in my local The Address Hotel SPA. I started paying attention!

When the Four Seasons Jumeriah opened with a SPA facility so luxurious one can actually faint, there it was again: NaturaBissé all over the place!

SOLD.

This article, however, will not be a typical product review. There will be more of those to follow. Trust me!

I started using the brand and picked up what I could afford. It is luxurious and very expensive; but the cost seem modest when you put it next to the visual results. It works. 

One of the best things with the products: the full INCI-list is disclosed. Nothing but real science and proud honesty.

For me, to really connect with a brand, there has to be a history available to the customer. Something that is interesting and believable. I hold a Masters Degree in Human Sciences and History so I can’t help myself but loving it. By living it. Sure, art history or world history excites me a lot; but micro history; the small person who live his or her life as the world goes by is what interests me the most.

If a brand or establishment has something to tell, it is usually about figures and success. For those parameters it is easy just to google. Then, sometimes you come across the rest. The best.

On April 21st, NaturaBissé invited customers and friends to celebrate Beauty Lovers Day. This event, which took place all over the world wherever the brand is represented: NYC, Barcelona, Dubai, HongKong, Mexico… is a tribute to late founder Ricardo Fisas and wife Gloria Vergés and a tradition from their home town of Barcelona,  where you on April 23rd each year celebrate Saint George’s Day. A little like Valentine’s this celebration is all about love and family, friends and devotion. All women gets roses and all men some books to read. I won’t add a longer, personal opinion about that, lol, but remember this tradition is over 500 years old.

Anyway, I happened to, via a dear friend of mine, get hold of the Beauty Lovers Day celebration invite at RitzCarlton JBR Dubai and I was extremley happy to attend. I then anticipated writing an article about the event, the products and Beauty Lovers Day.

Oh boy, was I wrong!

As a part of the celebration the star product of the range Diamond Extreme Cream got a limited edition exclusive red packaging. We came, we saw it. Fine.

Then, in the beautiful goodie bag we all got a copy of Ricardo Fisas’ autobiography Brushstrokes of a lifetime, published back in October 2010 when the founder was still alive. This anonymous white book reveals nothing on the cover of what there is to expect. It is not ghost written, sometimes even a bit messy and slow, but as a whole it is Ricardo himself telling us and his family how he remembers it. How it was, what happened and why it become NaturaBissé at all.

Some brands just know their marketing better than others (Ricardo was a Marketing genius even before Marketing was a thing you could study at University!) and this is a point well made by the brand.

I went home. A couple days later I opened the book. Sat down and read it cover by cover until 3.00am in the morning. Mesmerised.

Yes, I am quite an emotional person. Peoples lives and dreams touches me. But the history behind NaturaBisseé came to me so unexpected and the journey to what is now sitting on my beauty shelves is nothing but exquisite. What fascinated me the most?

First of all, the love. This is not a story told from a perspective of figures and triumphs, but more about constant defeat. Ricardo was already turning 50 the year he founded the company! And it came as a result of being unemployed, yet again, from yet another high executive role. It is about his life, his words and perspective, but reading between the lines it is a whole book about his wife Gloria, their love and struggles, what they have built and lost. It’s about gender equality, about raising children, high education, about the effects of civil war and great disappointment.

When you look at the pictures in the book, you can see the transformation from an academical and anonymous couple to being dressed for success and shaking hands with royalties. Although, a woman who loses two of her children in young age and still keep on going and making history!  It really makes me think what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?

How do you even create something that will reach the absolute top of an industry, without knowing anything about beauty? Well, first of all: you know business and marketing and as President of the Spain division of Wrigley’s in 1967, Ricardo took his family and moved to Chicago without knowing English! As he writes, he “learned from osmosis: watching, listening and assimilating” everything he needed to learn.

Then, upon a coincidence, you learn the science and you are very lucky to, via studies, find some ingredients that is new to the market and will be revolutionary if used in a cream! Ricard found that natural free form of collagen, elastin or keratin amino acids had different and highly potent effects on our skin. The first, very exclusive range only held five different face creams. 

Today, the range is extensive with everything a full skincare routine is supposed to include!

The Diamond Range is now the star of the collection and the cream stands for 25% of the companies sales. It is fun to know that Ricardo almost didn’t want to produce this cream as it was so highly priced and costly to produce, compared to other competitors on the market. To release a cream at 40% price point over the market must have been a bold (crazy?) move!

There are so much more I want to tell you from the book. Things that moved me and chocked me. Pictures in my head from Ricardo’s experience with war and his journey to become a Priest. That pretty much failed as he ended up a married man and a father of four children.

To read the story of how this brand went from renting two apartments for office and warehouse to twenty years later have the fund and means to build their own  huge state-of-the-art Plant and in-house Laboratory. To see how the children have been a part of the company from birth and are now running the show.

When Ricardo and Gloria retired, they founded the Ricardo Fisas NaturaBissé Foundation, a non-profit organisation that works with social engagement and the most vulnerable groups in our society. 0,7% of NaturaBissé’s revenue goes directly to the fund and its prominent work. Gloria is still heading the Foundation with grace.

The book is incredible, warm and loving, it holds glamour and exciting moments as well as tragedies and I really urge you all to read it! You can get it from the fundacionricardofisas.org and all sales goes to the foundation’s charity work.

After reading this autobiography, I feel so very close to the brand, almost as if I were an extended family member haha and it makes me want to use the products even more and promote them even higher. Some clever marketing move made by NaturaBissé (who, by the way have no idea that I’m writing this little piece).

But if they do read: I just want to say Thank you! This book was so much more than I had ever imagine when attending the event and I’m very grateful to have it in my collection. That, and all my NaturaBissé products, of course ♥

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4 Comments
  1. Thank you so much for the amazing feedback, I was with Ricardo and Gloria from the beginning, and you cannot imagine what kind of people they where, so encouraging, intelligent and hard workers, in addition to extremely talented. Gloria still is with us, and now she is in charge of the Foundation. I feel touched by your sensitivity and I want to thank you for the article. My name is Elena Serra I am Natura Bissé Shareholder and currently I manage the Corporate Communications PR for Natura Bissé. Thank you very much.

    1. Dear Miss Elena, I’m beyond speechless with all the kind and positive feedback you have all granted me, from various departments within the NaturaBissé brand. I feel very touched and happy. Thank you. It seems like a dream to me, to like you, have been granted the possibility to work with the Founders from the beginning. I’m very impressed with Mrs Gloria and the way that she and her husband made this journey possible. Please give the family my best and do stay in touch! Love, Maria

  2. M, what an incredible reading about NaturaBissé. I’ve never paid attention to this brand even knowing it’s Spanish. But you have opened my eyes and now, I want to know and read more about them and of course, test some of the Diamond Range.

    Thank you very much for this kind and warm reading with incredible shots.

    Warm readings,
    Mar Preisler

    1. My lovely Friend! I will be posting may more articles about wonderful and highly luxurious Natura Bissé, just bare with me!!! It is fantastic to see that I’ve made you discovered the brand and that it is, in fact, one of your “own” local brands! I can’t begin to tell you how much a enjoy the products and I wish I could afford it all :). Have a wonderful week darling, kisses! M

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