Inspired: Jeremy Muijs
A Brand is a promise to do something. When it’s mediocre, it’s disappointing,” says Grown founder Jeremy Muijs who over the past few decades has been working for numerous companies doing product creation. He’d deliver a finished brand and then walk away meaning he never had to do the dirty work of manufacturing etc. But that was also dissatisfactory, “it was fun but the products you let go of came out totally different by the time it had gone through the many hands – like chalk and cheese.”
A turning point came when he undertook a project for a client looking at the connection between health and wellness and what creates beauty – how health is beauty. He said they identified five zones that are the manageable side of wellness with a dramatic effect on beauty.
1. Food 2. Topical Treatments 3. Environmental Influencers 4. Emotional State and 5. Digestive System.
The final of the five was something he had first hand experience with – he ended up paralized and very sick with carbon monoxide poisoning from an old pipe in his offices but was diagnosed with aggressive MS and prescribed steriods. He decided to try a more holistic approach to making himself healthy. He took elemental magnesium, fish oil, apple cider vinegar and large quantities of probiotic powder (which he still takes). He said he immediately felt better but it took him a full three weeks to physically improve. He said for sometime he was “annoyingly anal about what he ate”. His brother (co-founder of Grown, Keston) and he would follow a strict, almost raw diet, “we should all let food be like medicine – we underestimate the ability of nature to heal,” he says. “Control the things you can control, choose to buy good food and cook it as least as possible. Use healthy ingredients that achieve a real outcome.” Nowadays he says he’s a lot more relaxed (you can invite him over for dinner) but is still pretty healthy and mindful.
This attention to detail, intense questioning of the environment and what we put on our skin lead the boys to create Grown, an organic skincare line using botanicals. It’s a really pleasant range to use and has old fashioned apothecary type bottles and jars. It looks cool, does the job and has been carefully considered – all the right elements for a good brand.
The latest product is a Body Serum rich in antioxidants and essential fatty acids omega 6 and 9. It uses ylang ylang, sandalwood and bergamot essential oils to give a fresh scent and has rosehip and tamanu oil to nourish. The most surprising thing about this body oil is that it is not sticky or greasy. I was reluctant to try it for fear it would end up all over my clothes like the pure vitamin E capsules that I used to slather across my pregnant belly. But somehow those clever Muijs boys have got the balance right. It is incredibly soothing to parched skin but not at all greasy or heavy. Jeremy said this was important and took them a long time to get right – they wanted the elements of a traditional oil, using organic ingredients, without a tacky film left on the skin. They’ve got it right.
I’ve kept my precious jar in the shower and I apply it to my skin after I dry myself. Grown Body Serum with Ylang Ylang, Tamanu and Omega 7, $49.95 – in store from September 20th, 2011.
- tamsin xoxo
