Even for an expert, a new experience can be a game changer.
When longtime aromatherapist Dafna Shaham visited India in 2000, she started to connect the dots between her practice and Ayurveda, the traditional system of medicine that takes into account the mind, body and spirit. The connection shaped her brand Dafna’s Personal Skincare, which incorporates restorative essential oils with external and internal benefits, and well-known advanced skincare difference makers such as hyaluronic acid and peptides.
The Madrid-based brand’s assortment boasts in excess of 40 natural active ingredients in its formulas and 11 to 25 per item. It spans nine products priced from 38 to 83 euros or roughly $42 to $90 at the current exchange rate. Dafna’s Personal Skincare calls its line DR2 Wellbeing, and details that it’s designed to detox, repair, de-stress and recharge. While the brand’s cruelty-free products certified natural by Biocert are packed with plenty of valuable compounds, they steer clear of parabens, mineral oils, paraffin, petrolatum, silicones and synthetic fragrances.
One of the brand’s popular products is the cream Moisture. It includes low molecular weight hyaluronic acid, wheat protein, neroli and rosemary essential oils, and plantago, bamboo and mimosa extracts. Dafna’s Personal Skincare cleansers are popular, too. The lotion-to-gel product Purify Cleanser features pomegranate extract, germanium and sweet orange essential oils, and oils from olives, eremanthus erythropappus branches and leaves, camellia japonica seeds, pelargonium graveolens flowers, pomegranate extract. The milk cleanser Recovery has moringa, olive and bamboo oils, calendula and sage extracts, and lavender, orange and rosemary essential oils.
Dafna’s Personal Skincare’s debut product was its serum Eye Care, and it’s how most of its customers have become familiar with the brand. Shaham says, “It’s usually the first product people try or find interesting because it’s light wear, but still hydrating.” Eye Care contains hyaluronic acid, rosehip oil and calendula extract. To go along with Dafna’s Personal Skincare’s products, Shaham has established an application protocol trademarked My Moment involving inhaling the scents of the formulas, tapping the formulas on the face in gentle movements, massaging them into the face, and breathing deeply for a moment of self-reflection. Dafna’s Personal Skincare’s also offers product customization via its website with the completion of a short form.
“I wanted the emotional part of it and not just the physical. It goes beyond skin deep.”
The central role of smell in people’s lives is critical to the brand. Shaham explains vanilla links people to memories of their childhood and make them feel secure. Orange, lime, and lemon have uplifting effects that are great for starting or ending a day. Shaham is intent on fostering positive feelings through customers touching and smelling Dafna’s Personal Skincare’s products. “I wanted the emotional part of it and not just the physical,” she says. “It goes beyond skin deep.”
When Shaham began developing products four years ago, she focused on what her clients—primarily city-dwelling women in their 30s and 40s—needed from their skincare. She says the formulations aren’t the standard fare of natural skincare because they’re boosted with biotechnology to drive results. “I call it the new generation of natural skincare because it’s not just the basic oils or creams,” asserts Shaham. “I really wanted to have a feeling that you’re putting something that’s really rich and luxurious over the skin.”
Shaham is currently working on a collection of spa products. Specifically, she’s creating facial oils with a twist. “I don’t want it to just be an oil that you put on your face, and you get the feeling that you’re putting on kitchen oil,” says Shaham. Her versions will be sophisticated and spotlight extracts chosen to smooth the skin. Some of Dafna’s Personal Skincare products are already in spas in Finland, but Shaham hope to expand their reach to spas elsewhere in Europe.
Dafna’s Personal Skincare’s retail distribution encompasses stores online and offline across Europe, notably Content Beauty & Wellbeing, Love Lula and Indulge Beauty in the United Kingdom; JC Apotecari, Eva Villar Beauty and Ikons Gallery in Spain; and Douglas, the major beauty retailer headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. At Douglas stores in Spain, Dafna’s Personal Care is grouped with Kora Organics and The Ordinary in displays concentrating on rising beauty brands. Shaham’s objective going forward is to forge stronger relationships with the retailers Dafna’s Personal Skincare is currently stocked by and further understand the preferences of its customers.
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