If you are looking for niche skin care products and love to support small companies founded and operated by women with high integrity standards-for both: the planet and their products- you should consider taking a look at Flow Cosmetics.
Flow Cosmetics stands for: Natural ingredients soured mainly in Finland, highly effective, cruelty free and vegan.
Especially their Arctic Oil combines the botanical secrets of Finland to offer fantastic antioxidants your skin will love. I asked Riitta Jänkälä, the founder and CEO of Flow Cosmetics a couple of questions.
She started Flow Cosmetics in 2004 with natural and aromatherapeutic soaps.
ZOE WARNCKE: What is the biggest challenge to start your own skincare line?
RiIITA JÄNKÄLÄ: For us it has definitely been the manufacturing and scaling the manufacturing from home kitchen to a small factory. Finding all the right kind of equipment for a small business. There has been trial and error.
ZOE WARNCKE: Is it more important to stay competitive or true to your values? How to find the balance when facing all these big cosmetic companies?
RiIITA JÄNKÄLÄ: Both are important but staying true to our values has always been more important to us. We have not made some products because the ingredients have not met our criterial for naturalness. Even though many of our competitors use these ingredients.
In our opinion big cosmetic companies are not directly competing with us. But there is a growing amount of indie brands coming to the market which means more competition.
ZOE WARNCKE: What makes FLOW different?
RiIITA JÄNKÄLÄ: We are very strict with the ingredients we choose for our products and we don’t make compromises. Also we have all the manufacturing in our own hands, and we use nearby produced ingredients as much as possible. Our products are also aromatherapeutic and treat the mind as well as the body. Transparency is one of our core values.
ZOE WARNCKE: What would you do, if you would not create skincare?
RiIITA JÄNKÄLÄ: I would probably be a homeopath ☺ I have been really interested in homeopathy for twenty years now and it has become my hobby during the past few years. I could imagine doing it professionally.
ZOE WARNCKE: What product would you like to create, but haven’t had a chance to do so yet?
RiIITA JÄNKÄLÄ: At the moment I don’t have special product in mind. One of my dream was to create products that would have a holistic approach. I had been interested in balancing the mind and body through the chakra system and incorporating this system to our skin care products was something I was really excited to create.
Now we have our chakra line which has soaps, butter bars, perfumes and essential oil blends.
ZOE WARNCKE: Tell us more about the values that FLOW is living up to.
RiIITA JÄNKÄLÄ: Everything must be as natural as possible, and always organic when available. Environment protection is important to us and now we are in the process of getting our company and product certified as carbon neutral. We always choose quality over quantity, making products that are high in actives and that are long lasting.
Also one of our values is to support our local partners.
ZOE WARNCKE: What product would you gift your best friend from FLOW and why?
RiIITA JÄNKÄLÄ: I would give the Tourmaline body polish, because everyone deserves a little spa moment in their daily life. Tourmaline body polish as essential oils that relieve stress and balance the mind. It is a feminine product that makes you feel good and happy.