Homemade Skin Food
This month, we have the perfect antidote to dry and dull skin suffering from the effects of the city’s pollution. Scrub and moisturise your way to healthy looking skin with Lalu’s handmade, natural, chemical-free skin food.
The first thing we noticed about Adja Sy, when we met with her whilst seeking a cure for our skin complaints, was her glowing complexion, the perfect advertisement for her brand. We were suffering from breakouts, dull looking skin and oily patches as a result of the extreme weather and pollution over the last few months.
As many entrepreneurship stories begin, necessity was the mother of invention for this Shanghai expat. When Sy first came to the city, she found that it was almost impossible for her skin to stay looking healthy in the harsh climate, and many of the moisturising creams she found on the shelves of local stores included whitening ingredients. For obvious reasons, these products were not suitable, so instead she learnt how to make her own lotions from an aromatherapist friend.
Sy only recently began to sell her cosmetic products after hearing friends complain about the poor state of their skin from living in Shanghai. Noticing that there was a niche in the market, she decided to share her secret ingredients with others in the form of her Lalu range.
Sy believes that it is possible to take care of your skin without the unnecessary chemicals found in traditional lotions. She urges others to look carefully at the labels and find alternative ways of giving their skin the nourishment it needs. She combines natural ingredients such as Shea Butter, cocoa, coconut oil, sugar and essential oils to create her chemical-free product line, and she is also able to create customised products to meet the needs of individual customers’ skin types. Sy has an intimate approach when it comes to customer service, “It is a personal touch that I think customers appreciate, and I love to give it. If they are happy, I am happy. And at the end, that is all that matters”.
We got our hands on Lalu Cocoa Body Butter (from RMB 120). It had a rich chocolaty smell, which was so good that we wanted to eat it immediately after unscrewing the lid. The thick butter began to melt on our hands as our body temperature warmed it. The butter glided on easily to our skin, leaving it feeling soft and smooth, but not greasy as some rich body butters do. We also tried a Lalu Apple and Berries Sugar Scrub (RMB 88). The scrub’s scent is not as strong as the bodybutter, but the thick sugar crystals work wonders to remove dead particles from your skin, whilst also leaving a thin film of protective oil. For people with less sensitive skin, you can also try it on your face. The Lalu Citrus Flower Oil Massage (RMB 140) had a wonderfully fresh aroma that left us wanting to slather more on as soon as it sank into our skin. Less greasy that other massage oils, we now want to use it as a moisturiser!
Looking to the future, Sy is hoping to expand her product offering and increase her consumer base. She is already trialling spring concoctions such as Pina Colada and Margarita scrubs; you may find it tricky to get out of the shower. She is also hoping to make her products available in a yoga studio and shop next month, so watch this space.
Right now, Sy is offering three of her products for RMB 300. The package includes one large body butter, one scrub and one massage oil.
For more information, Tel: 13621929535. WeChat: AdjaLalu. Web: www.facebook.com/Lalufood4skin.
