INSPIRED BY MARIE JENKINS FROM KOSMEA.

I’ve been wanting to bring you skincare for a while now but wanted to work with a product that fitted my ethos…ummm, hello KOSMEA!

I use minimal skincare, a rosehip oil and coconut oil…pretty much it. I’ve used lots of rosehip oils over the years but always gravitate back to KOSMEA, so figured I’d contact the company and see if I could get to know them better. Can you imagine how tickled pink I was when the founder Marie Jenkins called me to set up a meeting? Yeah, very excited.

Now I went to my interview with Marie armed with a list of Q & A style questions but to be honest as soon as I sat down the conversation just naturally flowed and we had a good ole chat about ‘all sorts’. I’ve got so much to share so this blogpost is all about the company and the awesome woman behind it because I think that you all might just be as inspired as I was by Marie, I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to chat about the product range in further posts.

KOSMEA has been in business for 22 years and is South Australian, yup made in my neck of the woods…in fact South Australia produces a number of great skincare companies. KOSMEA is Aussie and sold globally in countries such as Hong Kong, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Korea and America but it started in the kitchen of a suburban housewife, a woman with a love of using product from the garden for her skincare.

In fact Marie had been making beauty concoctions from food since she was a girl inspired by her mum who had a deep respect for the herbal Kingdom. Her childhood was spent drinking lemon and honey at the first sign of a sore throat and making nourishing face masks from avocado, chamomile and yoghurt…we probably all tried something similar but Marie and her family really ‘lived’ that lifestyle.

Marie found herself at 30 married with 3 kids in her kitchen concocting another recipe that required rose hip so off she headed to ‘Ross Roses’ to get her ingredient. While there a conversation about Rose Hip Oil ensued and intrigued and excited Marie headed home determined to find out more information…a fire in her belly had been sparked.

Now remember this was in a time before mobile phones and the Internet and the supplier was in Chile but that didn’t stop Marie. Determined she purchased a fax machine ($1000 back in the day), bought a Spanish language book and headed into the city to find the Chilean yellow pages and looked up the name of the supplier…far out hey…determined!

Eventually Marie had imported her first barrel of Rose Hip Oil and 4000 bottles, she had to convince her husband to sell the family car to fund this dream but she sold every bottle and today she is a successful woman in business. Did I tell you that Marie was the first person to introduce Rose Hip Oil to Australia…so gutsy and forward thinking. Just a year after importing that first barrel KOSMEA was exporting!

Here’s the first bottle of Rose Hip Oil labelling with a current bottle…

Can you imagine being a housewife with a hubby who held the purse strings and deciding to import a product based on pure passion and drive? Faith, is what Marie had…in spades!

Marie designed labels and a basic counter box and carted that product to pharmacies and health food stores all over the state, her passion and belief rubbed off, she gave each supplier a free bottle to try, and they were hooked.

This pure product was something never seen before and the benefits spoke for themselves. That and Marie dropping Rose Hip Oil into her mouth…yes she did that for me as it’s pure enough to be ingested.

Within a year National Pharmacies wanted her Rose Hip Oil, and to this day they still stock KOSMEA.

As with any dream that we turn into a business there were many moments of doubt and when business got tough Marie did whatever it took to ensure her product and dream stayed alive. Marie sold property, sacrificed, restructured and learned to outsource the jobs that she didn’t have the skills for.

She soldiered on and talked herself out of the ‘negative Nancy’ moments. From our conversation I get the feeling Marie had moments in business that were possibly taking her off her path and maybe had other people leading her…then she had a turning point.

Marie and I chatted about our love of yoga, uhuh, you guys know I love it and not just for the exercise component but for the clarity, strength and freedom it brings. Well Marie started yoga five years ago and for it was a game changer…in life and in business.

Her yoga teacher (a guy…a younger guy!) inspires and mentors her in a way that serves her everyday. Isn’t that fantastic? I just love that Marie had her ‘AHA’ moment and these days runs her business in a way that feels as good as it looks. Donating to charities like The Salvation Army providing welcome packs for women’s shelters and also working with the Butterfly Foundation with ‘make up free me’ helps provide balance and is a wonderful way for KOSMEA to give back.

Life can’t all be about work though and in her downtime Marie loves nothing more than cooking up a storm in her kitchen and enjoys eating out with close friends and family, a total foodie! Watching movies at home or at the cinema is also an escape she relishes.

These days Marie enjoys the whole package, meeting and helping others in the community, creating new items to add to her range, relishing in business and  family. Marie was also recently nominated for the Instyle magazine Audi Women Of Style Awards for ‘Beauty’, believe me she’s tickled pink with her nomination and looking forward to the gala night later in the year. What an honour to be nominated and yes we chatted about what she might wear to the gala event.

While others had their doubts Marie always followed her passion, something not lost on me. When I left her office I was buzzing with inspiration…that kind of energy just rubs off and Marie has inspired me to follow my passion and dreams. If a suburban housewife mama can start a skincare revolution then this suburban housewife can live her dreams too!

I’ll leave you with this,  Marie’s favourite saying to live by…

For every action, there is a reaction.  It’s really our choices that determine the reaction hey.

I can’t believe I left the office without getting a photo with Marie (slaps forehead!)…here’s a beauty from The KOSMEA site…

I hope you’ve all been as inspired by Marie’s story as I was and I promise there will be skincare reviews to come because Marie generously gave me ‘one of everything’ from the range which the family and I are currently using.

Til next time,

Jen x

KOSMEA head office is located at 71 Glen Osmond Road Eastwood SA.

You can take a look at the product online HERE