Zenology founder Jeroen Oude Sogtoen.
Source:
https://scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3017204/sustainable-skincare-dutch-brand-changing-fragrance-and Fashion & Beauty
Sustainable skincare: the Dutch brand changing fragrance and body care industry one spray bottle at a time
- Zenology prides itself on bringing hotel luxury into the home; its products are made without parabens, sulphates or colourants
- Its sustainable sprays and creams were initially used in hotels and travel kits, but can now be bought at luxury department stores
Zenology is a fragrance and body care brand.
Most beauty and body brands make it big before being selected to go in hotel rooms and travel kits – Zenology, however, did it the other way around. The Dutch brand conquered the travel-amenities trade before making it into luxury department stores around the world.
Its founder, Jeroen Oude Sogtoen, did not set out to create a beauty brand. The Dutchman had been working in the fashion industry when he became involved in a project to build what he calls Amsterdam’s first boutique hotel.
“It was during the peak of change in the fashion industry, when suddenly, instead of four collections per year, we had to do 12 collections per year,” he recalls. “The tempo was like, new, new, new, new – and I was so fed up. Why do we need so many new clothes?
“At that time, my husband was the chairman of the Dutch Hotel Association, and he had a lot of complaints about the hospitality level in the Netherlands, because when you travel – when you go to Asia and when you go to America – the service level is much higher. [It’s like] because we’re Dutch, we are so proud, we don't want to give good service. It's a bit in our genes to be not too humble.”
So his idea was to create the College Hotel, which could educate the next generation as well as meet the high standards of modern guests. He assembled the architects and interior designers, and then, when it came to the amenities, Oude Sogtoen drew a blank.
“Till today, everyone still, unfortunately, agrees with me on this: when you travel and go to a hotel, you don’t want to put the hotel shampoo in your hair because it’s, most of the time, bad quality. For this hotel, I was in search of a hotel amenity line that, first of all, was good quality, but was also sustainable,” he says.
“It was impossible to find, so I decided to start my own. I created Zenology, and [took special care with the] sustainability part, to be as green as possible.”
Today, sustainability is a big topic in the beauty industry, but a decade ago, when Zenology was launched, it was far from it. Even today, most hotels still indulge guests with single-use amenities, unlimited towels and excessive packaging, a practice that’s even worse in the luxury sector.
“I was always looking at hotel cleaning carts … [with] the big spray bottles. I was like, ‘That's a cool idea’. [I liked the idea of having] a functional spray bottle, but with good perfumes inside to finish the cleaning of the room. That's when I created the Ambiance Trigger spray bottle, which is really our iconic product.”
Zenology Ambiance Trigger spray bottles.
“I was, from back in the day, a believer in big sizes, in big bottles in hotel rooms that could be refilled. But it’s only been [in the last] two or three years, approximately, that people [have] started to see the benefit of this. Hotel groups were afraid of this, because people could do bad things with the hotels, people could steal the bottles, blah blah blah.”
It wasn’t his intention to grow Zenology from a hotel amenities line into a global retail brand, though his business partner was keen. “My partner said to be successful, you also need retail outlets. I was like, ‘No. Why? I’m a specialist in this field. Why would that not be enough?’ In my opinion, they were thinking in an old, traditional way. But he kept on pushing, and at the same time, I got a lot of requests from guests.”
Zenology is now available in markets from Africa to the Middle East, and can be bought in Hong Kong at Joyce Beauty. Most of its products come in large bottles, inspired by those cleaning-cart spray bottles, but they are much more sleek and chic. Products include body and hand creams, as well as the Ambiance Trigger room sprays with scents such as sycamore fig and tobacco wood.
Zenology Jet Set Kit Black Tea.
And its ingredients list is, and has always been, as friendly as possible to the earth. “It all started because I was in the shower, and I put some products on [my body] and I was looking at the drain. I was like, ‘Wow, millions of people do this on a daily basis, [washing] products [down the drain] that go to sewage that then go where?’ It made me think, and so we started from the ingredients: no parabens, no sulphates, no colourants,” he says.
Today, besides this, the company also works with the Earth Day Network so that a tree is planted for every order that is made on Zenology’s website.
A decade on, the brand is still staying true to its roots of providing quality products to weary travellers. You can find it everywhere from sustainable hotel chain QO – “In my opinion, one of the most sustainable hotels worldwide” – to inside American Airlines’ business-class amenities kits (it’s been in KLM pouches for four years already).
Look out for more stories from SCMP Lifestyle this month about sustainable living.