I (Petra, founder of the cosmetic brand Anakena in Chile and Germany) am often asked if I made the formulas of our cosmetics myself. I can answer this question with a clear NO. I am not a specialist, as they say. BUT: I have taught myself to make natural cosmetics with the help of numerous books over many years: Soaps, creams, shower gels, lip glosses, massage oils, etc. For the ingredients I have - where possible - from my tropical eco-garden on Easter Island serves: flowers fruits, herbs, roots, ... and seaweed from sea.
A good two years ago I was back in Tahiti, on the island of Moorea to be precise, to learn some of his recipes from a Maori (local) using ingredients from his garden. In the photo you can see some of the ingredients for a hair "miracle" extract recipe from Sams' grandmother: gardenia taitensis, turmeric, ginger, wild basil (ocimum gratissimum).
When it came to making Anakena Germany - which is of course a slightly different "caliber" and scale - I did decide which Polynesian ingredients I wanted in our Anakena body lotion, face cream and shower gel (yes, we bring them from Tahiti!), but of course I left the final composition of the formulas to the years of expertise and professionalism of my contract manufacturer (that's the name of the company where you have your cosmetic products made if you don't have your own production as a brand) in Germany. A long process of "fine-tuning" followed, and now I am very happy with the result of our first products.