What it means to both of us is feeling proud that we have built a business based on healing the skin. It is fantastic when you hear the testimonials of women who have tried everything on the market to have the best skin possible and then they try Kosmea and it’s an instant hit with their skin. The advice I would give to other women who want to follow their dreams is: when you find something that you are so passionate about, then take the bull by the horns and go for it, as passion is one of the best ingredients for a successful business.

Kosmea is still essentially a family-run business. What have been the benefits and challenges of ‘keeping it in the family’? What role do you think your mother-daughter bond has had in your success?

The benefits of Kosmea being essentially a family business are far and wide, such as flexibility, independence, creativity and control. Also, being a family business provides for a closer contact with management, less bureaucracy, an built-in trust factor with established relationships, and hands-on training and early exposure of the next generation to the business.

Some of the challenges of running a family business are not knowing when to stop working and having a work-life balance policy in place. Another challenge is when family members are very close and work together, you can sometimes brush over important issues as you think they just ‘get’ you, when sometimes they don’t. In addition to our  inherent mother-daughter bond, we attribute our success to shared business philosophies. From day one, we had the same expectations and goals. Kosmea’s motto is “skincare as nature intended” and your range of skincare products centres on organic rosehip oil. Why are natural and organic ingredients so important to you both?

We are living in a world full of synthetic and harmful chemicals that are slowly destroying our earth. Kosmea is an Ancient Greek word meaning ‘harmony’ and that is our mission. Our skincare products contain only the best ingredients that do not cause harm to our earth and, more importantly, do not strip and unbalance our skin.

Kosmea now has offices in Australia and the UK and sells its products across the world. What’s next for the Kosmea brand? 

To develop more export markets, in particular China. We will be distributing our products there before the end of 2012.

And finally… The Jenkins family is originally from Adelaide, South Australia (just like me!). What are both of your favourite things about our city and state? 

Adelaide is the best kept secret, it’s what I call a big country city. I love the fact that within 20 minutes you can drive from the beach to the Adelaide Hills. Adelaide is the most fantastic city to bring up a young family and the food is the best in the world.

Cooling, water-based liquid lipstick with the creamy texture of a lip gloss with the long-lasting, vibrant finish of a lipstick. Rich in line-smoothing, antioxidant raspberry & pomegranate extracts to protect against free-radical damage and smooth lip lines for softer, more youthful looking lips. Certified organic acai palm pulp oil moisturizes and soothes the lips creating a long-lasting, creamy texture.

Apparently Greece can’t avoid economic doom, but they can sure make some good organic beauty products. So that’s something, I guess. Cult Greek beauty brand Korres is available in Australia at Mecca Cosmetica, and although you can’t buy the Raspberry Antioxidant Liquid Lipstick Trio in Soft Pink, Red and Berry there, each of the Liquid Lipsticks are available separately for a concerning $29.95 AUD each… Or you could turn to the welcoming but slightly shifty bosom of the grey market and pay much less.

Korres Liquid Lipsticks are packaged in a lip gloss-style tube with a traditional doe-foot applicator:

Korres Liquid Lipsticks in Soft Pink, Berry, Red

I am happy because the Liquid Lipsticks contain certified organic ingredients and Korres are a cruelty-free brand. Also because they all smell like vanilla cake batter. However, Korres market this product as a liquid lipstick, and… I’m sorry. No. These are merely creamy, pigmented lip glosses; don’t get me wrong, they’re excellent lip glosses, but they do not ‘set’ in the way a lipstick does and they are not particularly long-wearing. I can’t quite pick a favourite. Soft Pink is a soft, neutral, medium grey-pink with micro-shimmer. Berry is a vibrant, slightly cool berry pink with a cream finish. Red is a bright, true red with a cream finish. None of the colours lean too warm or cool.

Here are some arm swatches:

1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

This book was the inaugural choice for the not-so secret Seekrit Reeding Klub, which comprises of literary Twitter babes. I think you could describe it as a psychological thriller. It is sort of strange, and charming, and formal to the point of being sometimes boring, and a bit hopelessly sad.

2. The Killing Joke by Alan Moore

I read this on the plane back from Melbourne while squealing through inner ear issues and the two things are bound together in my mind. Evil BDSM gear-wearing cherubs and ear pain. This is my boyfriend’s graphic novel; my sweet, geeky boyfriend, who reads and draws his own comics (which are also vaguely depraved).

3. Monkey Grip by Helen Garner

It took me so long to read this book. Helen Garner is one of my favourite writers and I liked reading this; it felt pretty real. I think it took me so long to read because instead of winding down deeper into the two main characters’ relationship, the story follows them pulling away from each other and springing back together again and again, so you as a reader feel that repetition and then the book just sort of stops.

4. Breath by Tim Winton

I just finished reading this book. I grew up in the country and my brother and father both love to surf, so there were many points of familiarity for me. It’s about men, growing up, physicality, inevitability, beauty. I don’t generally like young adult writing but I think Tim Winton is a powerful writer.

So, nine down, forty one to go. Easy, right?

Dread nothing. Get tangle free with this perfect union of nourishing Australian natives. Cold-pressed organic Argan and Macadamia oils combine to recondition the hair leaving it glossy and knot free.

Coral and navy is one of my favourite colour combinations at the moment. Coral is a summer colour? I’m living on the edge, baby. OPI Nail Lacquer in OPI on Collins Ave* ($19.95 AUD) is an opaque coral-red cream (and a dead ringer for OPI Nail Lacquer in Cajun Shrimp). Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Gloss in Coral Reef ($21.95 AUD) is a semi-opaque orange-coral with a touch of milkiness.

Note: OPI do not conduct animal testing, but they are owned by L’Oreal, who do conduct animal testing. Revlon do not conduct animal testing. The product marked with an asterisk was provided for consideration in accordance with the Disclosure Policy.

Behold the last ever Glossybox. Well-framed photograph? Pah. From next month the beauty sample box brand has been taken over by Lust Have It, which effectively cuts my beauty sample box subscriptions to two. Two. What an agreeable number. It’s not usually strange to have two of anything. This month’s Glossybox claims to have a ‘natural beauty’ theme. The ironic air-quotes represent my thoughts about Nivea, owned by multinational personal care manufacturing corporation Beiersdorf, and YSL Beauty, owned by the world’s largest beauty brand L’Oreal, being represented as natural brands. The products included from the other three brands – La Purete, Everescents, and Jurlique – seem pretty neat and I’m itching to try them out. This is a high dollar value box, which will please some, but its also pretty much devoted to skincare (with the exception of the hair treatment), which will bug others.

This month’s Glossybox included:

YSL Forever Youth Liberator Serum ($120 AUD/30mL), 5mL = $20 AUD value
Nivea Express Hydration Body Lotion ($5.40/250mL), 30mL = $0.65 AUD value
La Purete Okuru Protective Day Creme ($59.90 AUD/30mL), 15mL = $29.95 AUD value
Everescents Organic Moroccan Argan Oil ($8.90 AUD/5mL), full size = $8.90 AUD value
Jurlique Intense Recovery Mask ($55 AUD/40mL), 15mL = $20.60 AUD value

Total value = $80.10 AUD

Note: Although Beiersdorf do conduct animal testing, they state they do not conduct animal testing on their cosmetics brands, including Nivea. YSL Beauty states that they don’t conduct animal testing, but they are owned by L’Oreal, who do conduct animal testing. Neither brand guarantees that they don’t contract third-party animal testing or buy ingredients from suppliers who test on animals. La Purete, Everescents and Jurlique are all cruelty-free brands. These products were provided for consideration in accordance with the Disclosure Policy.

At my imaginary wake, my imaginary husband will catch the end of an imaginary guest’s sentence, gaze into the middle distance and say, smiling sadly, “Oh, blog sales. How very dearly she loved a blog sale.” Because I really, really do. I bought Chanel Vitalumiere Fluid Makeup in 20 Clair Cameo for $22 AUD and MAC Lipstick in Shy Girl for $13 AUD from Jenny’s blog sale recently, which I’m enjoying almost as much as I do the delicious smugness of feeling I’ve got a bargain.

Note: While MAC is a cruelty-free brand, it is owned by Estée Lauder, who conduct animal testing where it is required by law. Chanel do not test on animals themselves but do not guarantee that their suppliers do not test on animals. Chanel is on my phase-out list but I totally failed.

This versatile favorite brightens cheeks and lips with creamy, translucent color. Tap onto cheeks and press onto lips. The sheer tint adds an inherent glow to the cheeks while lips bloom with fresh, radiant color. Our two-in-one compact holds the key to easy, monochromatic makeup.

I really like love. My boyfriend really, really likes love. He is a hand-holder, a pet-namer, a sentimental card writer. He planned a special dinner for our recent one year anniversary and I was quite pleased because Stila Convertible Color in Petunia ($48 AUD) had arrived on my doorstep that very morning. I’d bought it from Beauty Bay for $25 less than the Australian RRP (with free shipping). This happy coincidence sounds like a great start to a lovely night, doesn’t it? No. Sadly, I made the same mistakes I invariably make every time I get ready to go out to dinner, which are:

1. Leaving myself almost no time to get ready, even though I’m usually doing something non-critical in the lead-up, like shopping online for the makeup that I should be putting on my face at that very moment.
2. When I finally get around to putting on makeup, for God knows what reason I always decide to use either makeup products I’m unfamiliar with or makeup application techniques I haven’t yet mastered.

Predictably, this meant that I ended up jamming my stippling brush into the Convertible Color in Petunia and smearing it desperately onto my cheeks, trying to fix the problem with powder foundation, getting teary, wiping it all off and starting again, then being so late for dinner that my boyfriend had started to wonder if I’d ditched him.

This was all my fault, of course, not that of Stila Convertible Color in Petunia. Petunia is a bright, warm, light-medium coral-pink cream blush (and supposed lip colour, although I don’t think it’s ideal for that purpose). Although it’s bright enough and pigmented enough to provide serious colour, it has an underlying sheerness that makes it difficult to overdo (Although… I managed). Petunia has a gel-cream texture (more gel-like and less creamy than MAC Cremeblend Blushes) that suits being blended out. I find it reasonably long-lasting, although not so much as powder blushes (I tend to set it with translucent face powder).

Here’s a hand swatch:

P.S. My boyfriend was in total love overdrive that day so he forgave me straight away, thankfully (much more easily than I would’ve forgiven him if the situation was reversed, I’ve got to say).

Note: Stila are a cruelty-free brand. I think I’m going to start listing each brand’s animal testing status with every post rather than assuming every reader is familiar with my policies.

Thank you to everyone who entered my Burt’s Bees Natural Anti-Blemish Solutions Pore Refining Scrub giveaway, sponsored by natural health and beauty online retailer Echolife. There were 16 entries in total; fourteen Facebook comment entries and two bonus Twitter entries. I loved hearing everyone’s stories about what special thing of theirs was sneakily ‘borrowed’ by their partner, family member or friend!

I used Random.org to find the winner:

2. Isabella Marrocco

My sister sneakily uses my Body Shop moisturizer every moring. One day I was feeling a bit dry then I walked into my bathroom and found her using it as a moisture mask. By the time I got my hands on it agian it was basically finished. I would love to win this product because my friends have told me all about it and then I can have something of my own!

Congratulations Isabella! I have contacted the winner through Facebook; if I do not hear from her within 24 hours I will re-draw the winner.

April 2012′s Lust Have It box ($14.95 AUD) contains:

De Lorenzo Elements Ocean Mist Sea Salt Styling Spray ($23.95 AUD/195mL), full size = $23.95 AUD value
True Solutions All Day Tinted Moisturising Cream SPF 30 ($60 AUD/100mL), 20mL = $12 AUD value
Spa Fresh Blends Romantic Discovery Bathing Ritual ($15.95 AUD/250mL), approximately 50g = $3.20 AUD value
I Nuovi Glitterati in Nude Glamour ($19.95 AUD/2.5g), full size = $19.95 AUD value
emerginC Kombucha Cleanser ($44 AUD/120mL), Phytocell Detox Mask ($65 AUD/50mL) and Phytocell Moisturiser ($105 AUD/50mL), 3 x 3mL = $11.30 AUD value

Total value = $70.40 AUD