This article is a translation from an original piece published by Maroela Media in Afrikaans. Read the original here.
Two cousins, one a qualified herbalist and the other a marketing guru, wanted to prove that just four skincare products and 21 active ingredients are enough to keep your skin healthy and supple.
Gabby Knox and Nicole Carvalho, originally from Limpopo, are the founders of Sómeu, a luxury local skincare range that recently launched in South Africa.
The new skincare range currently consists of just a facial soap, skin spray, moisturizer, and skin oils. Three versions of each product, excluding the oils, are also available: one for drier skin, one for combination skin, and the other for oilier skin.
According to the creators of Sómeu, the product aims to simplify skincare and anti-aging without sacrificing effectiveness.
"I've always said that women lead busy lives, and we don't have time to apply eight different products to our faces morning and night. I wanted to see how you can achieve a lot with a few products, and that's exactly what we want to achieve with Sómeu," says Knox, a qualified herbalist.
"I realized there were big challenges with single-ingredient products that are currently on store shelves. They are sold with the aim of tackling just one skin problem at a time, which leads to you having to buy hordes of products.
Why not just develop a product that has all the good stuff in one product?" she says.
Carvalho, who handles marketing for Sómeu, jokes that the cousins "don't want to blow our own horn," but that at the same time, they see the range as "groundbreaking in skincare.".
The skin spray. (Photo: Provided)
"Where other single-ingredient products, like many face serums, only give you 3% of a single active ingredient like retinol or niacinamide, ours is made up of 21 active ingredients," she explains.
According to Knox, tangible improvements were also extremely important to her as the formulator of the range.
"We use innovative, amino acid-rich, complex formulations with natural fats and oils. For example, where many popular American and Asian skincare products only contain one or two amino acids, ours contains about six.
In addition to that, there are also nine different oils."
She says that a woman who previously tested the products on her skin during their development phases had previously received regular Botox injections.
"Unbeknownst to her that she was testing our products, her doctor noticed that there were changes in her skin that could not have been caused by the Botox. I think the results speak for themselves."
Hence the reason for Sómeu's higher cost, something the creators say is "inevitable" when a product is manufactured locally and contains so many active ingredients.
"We are bringing truly luxury skincare products to the local market for the first time, and unfortunately it is going to come at a price," adds Knox.
Carvalho, who currently lives in Portugal, says they are also already looking at ways to introduce the product to the European market.
"We basically tried to put everything that is good for your skin into one product and want to show South Africans, but also the international skincare markets, that we are capable of creating world-class skincare products.
"In Portuguese, so meu means 'just mine,' a phrase that we think beautifully captures the essence of our range—that everyone's skin is uniquely their own," explains Carvalho about Sómeu's unique name.
"It's an ode to the individuality of each person's skin and a reminder that your skincare should be as unique as you are."
What does Maroela say?
Jhua-Nine Wyrley-Birch, an entertainment and lifestyle journalist, and Hannelie du Preez, a graphic designer, put Sómeu's facial soap, skin spray, and moisturizer for dry skin to the test.
"My skin is extremely sensitive, dry on the cheeks and sometimes a little oily on the T-zone (forehead, nose, and chin), so it can be difficult to tackle all these problems in one product range," says Jhua-Nine (31).
"I also don't necessarily have terrible wrinkles or pimples, but I do have fine spots here and there and have always wanted my skin to feel as smooth as possible—something that Sómeu managed to do to my surprise."
She says that she could also immediately feel a difference in her skin's moisture and texture and could see a difference within a month.
"I really only applied a drop of the moisturizer in the morning and at night and could see how beautiful my makeup stayed on my cheeks throughout the day, how strong this product is. My makeup used to start to flake off on my cheeks by the middle of the day. No moisturizer or base layer (primer) could do that.
"Several people have also told me lately that my skin is 'glowing,' which tells me that others have noticed the difference too."
For Hannelie (34), who also has dry and sensitive skin, the moisturizer was a particular winner.
"My cheeks tend to turn red easily, so I need something that doesn't contain too much perfume or strip my skin of moisture," she explains.
"The face cream is definitely my favorite. It keeps my face moisturized all day, and the jar will last a very long time because you need so little. If the moisturizer also contained sun protection, that would also be a plus."
According to Jhua-Nine, the spray-and-moisturizer combination is also effective in making the products last longer.
"The moisturizer is quite thick, so the facial spray helped the cream to spread easily and evenly, and you didn't have to apply a lot of it."
However, for Hannelie, the facial spray was a bit too harsh on her skin.
"The spray made my skin burn slightly, which I understand can be normal for new products, but I didn't want to take any chances with it.
The cream was still effective enough on its own."
According to Jhua-Nine, the products' natural colors and scents were initially "something to get used to."
"Unlike the products most of us are used to, Sómeu doesn't contain perfume or dyes, so the clean, almost earthy scents of the range were strange to me at first, but then they turned out so nice."
Hannelie agrees, describing the scent as "organic."
"You can smell that there are no chemicals or perfumes added. The packaging is also very minimalistic to me, and I like the green shades," she adds.
Both Jhua-Nine and Hannelie also liked the facial soap but felt that it was difficult to use when traveling.
"It would be nice if it came in a container, but you can of course buy one yourself if you want," says Hannelie.
"The soap is really effective at removing makeup.
"I agree that it's difficult to travel with because even in a bakkie it can get a bit soggy and messy," adds Jhua-Nine.
Both emphasize that the range has made a tangible difference to their skin and joke that they would definitely buy the range, which together cost R4 940, again for themselves if their wallets allowed it.
"I'm pregnant, so many other things are happening to my skin, but I can honestly say my skin has never been so soft," says Hannelie.
"I would go so far as to say that Sómeu is truly one of the best and most effective skincare ranges I have ever tested. The fact that it is also manufactured in South Africa makes me proud."
This article is a translation from an original piece published by Maroela Media in Afrikaans. Read the original here.
