TravelDailyNews: Why did you choose Crete as a source area for raw materials for your products and how much does it help, in publicity that they come from Crete?
Aris Tsinias: The truth is that Crete is one of our most popular islands and has a good reputation for its overseas products. Our history as Living Pure Natural starts in 2013 from Crete. We were there quite accidentally on vacation shortly before 2013 and we ended up in a village where grandmothers made their own cosmetics with their own raw materials. Despite their age, their skin truly looked amazing.
What we have wanted to do is to take, for example Kiralifi, a traditional, herbal cosmetic product and to modernise it, to bring it to the present day, while preserving all its value and tradition. We also used dittany and mastic and we "married" them with top quality extra virgin olive oil. Everything of course, is controlled in duplication in both Greece and the UK.
Living pure Natural selects its raw materials each year from small farms and although we do not advertise that our products are organic, we try to be as much as possible, improving daily our resource raw material program from small producing farming units. Our aim is not only to promote Greek products abroad, but also the Greek culture and philosophy through these products. Thus, our motto is: "Where tradition meets science".
TDN: When did you create amenities for hotels and how much % represents this portion of your total sales?
AT: This new activity started in 2016, something we are trying to develop now, the Greek character and image of our hotel products is very important to us. There is already a plan for their development abroad. Currently there are also Greek hotels (Crete) and European hotels. The ideal thing for us is that hotel products reach 30% of the total over the next three years.
TDN: In which countries do you have presence and where else do you plan to expand in the future?
We currently have a presence in Australia (through Natia Skin Care), USA, Germany, UK and Greece (working with Beauty Point). We are also debating entering in the markets of Bulgaria and Italy and we have developed an expansion plan for the next three years. Especially for the US and Asia market, we can say that we have had great help from the Hellenes and its mass media.
TDN: What are your next steps in developing your products and what did receiving two awards from TheBeautyShortlist for your skincare brand mean to you?
AT: We are in the process of designing and creating a new body/face series (and soap) based on seaweed from Greek seas. Surely the award for our two products "Living Pure Natural Diamond Elite Extra Enriched Hand Cream" and "Living Pure Natural Nea Intense Hydration Face Cream", for a new company like us, is amazing. A distinction from this body and being selected out of 600 other brands that participated in 2018 in the list of TheBeautyShortlist.com (which is a recognized as an international institution in the field of cosmetics) is particularly honorary and shows us that we are on the right track.