Based | 2003 (Germany), 2023 (United States)
Headquarters | Santa Monica, CA
Prime Govt | Thomas Lommel, Founder & CEO
Product Class | Private Care
AS YOUNG MAN IN HIS EARLY THIRTIES, Thomas Lommel was already a profitable entrepreneur and deeply immersed in what right this moment could be labeled “hustle tradition.” He’d based companies and was pushing himself to attain extra, satisfied that happiness lay on the opposite facet of ambition. However then he acquired sick and found extra about therapeutic, which means and happiness than he ever may have imagined.
The Path
Thomas Lommel may by no means have foreseen the trail that sickness and burnout would lead him on. Within the late Nineteen Nineties—combating each sickness and the consequences of robust remedy—Thomas discovered himself trying to find solutions about his well being, his lifestyle and which path may lead him out of his circumstances. This soul-searching led to a stunning place: an olive grove. Thomas credit olive oil with saving his life and olive timber for outlining it.
A yr into his therapeutic journey, that revolved solely round integrating olive oil into his utterly revolutionized food plan, Thomas traveled to the Mediterranean to see these miraculous timber in individual and be taught extra concerning the therapeutic they might supply. He believed they’d been beckoning him to be taught extra concerning the connection between nature and therapeutic. Finally, he would observe this olive tree-inspired path; uproot his life in Germany; and transfer completely to the coast of Spain the place he bought an olive grove and constructed a house.
His reference to the timber led him to a different historical remedy that Mediterranean olive growers had used for generations, an elixir created from the crushed leaves of the olive tree. Olive tree leaves comprise polyphenols, protecting natural compounds that permit olive timber to stay for hundreds of years. Thomas started experimenting, making this elixir in his personal olive grove and sharing it in numerous kinds: an ingestible model in addition to topical lotions, oils and serums.
“I purchased my first olive grove with round 120 timber,” he shared. “I constructed my tree home within the grove as a result of I needed to be very shut with my timber. I developed the olive tree remedy and later established the Oliveda Spa on Mallorca. I lived there round eight years with my household on that lovely island.”
The Imaginative and prescient
His imaginative and prescient to share olive tree remedy with the world started with a small line of olive tree leaf-infused magnificence merchandise throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
“I actually jumped in,” he laughed. “I used to be very, very naive. I believe generally it’s essential to be very naive as a result of in any other case you wouldn’t do this. We discovered how onerous it’s to exist in that almost all saturated business on the planet—the sweetness business. There is no such thing as a different business on the planet extra saturated than skincare.”
Since these first retail shops in Europe, Thomas has constructed greater than an olive tree-inspired model—he’s constructed a home of manufacturers that has solely just lately launched in the USA. In the present day,
Olive Tree Folks is dwelling to 6 distinct olive tree-focused manufacturers:
1 / OLIVEDA: Olive Tree Pharmacy
A group of health and beauty elixirs, together with each topical and ingestible formulations.
2 / LA Dope
Merchandise that mix the facility of the olive tree with hemp.
3 / Olive Rose
A soon-to-be-released line of make-up, infused with olive-based components.
4 / OliveMush
A espresso different that harnesses the facility of the olive leaf together with practical mushrooms and awakening herbs.
5 / Olive Reconnected
Olive tree meditation that gives the therapeutic and balancing sounds of the olive timber.
6 / OliveBrain
An AI-powered utility that analyzes customer-provided knowledge factors to make sensible product strategies.
In 2019, Thomas was planning to introduce his merchandise to the American market by means of his personal retail shops and partnerships with magnificence powerhouses like Sephora and Ulta. However then the pandemic hit, and his plans slowed. However in addition they shifted considerably when he found the facility of direct promoting.
“I wasn’t conscious there have been so many direct promoting manufacturers, after which I noticed there’s a risk with actual consultants. I actually appreciated the concept,” he defined. “I dove deeper within the direct-to-consumer world and discovered that probably the most profitable skincare manufacturers usually are not on retail cabinets. That basically inspired me, and I did lot extra analysis. In March 2023, we jumped in with none expertise. We began in my storage in Venice Seashore solely with one packer. We packed 40 containers or one thing like {that a} day. After which we moved into our first, then our second and now in our final warehouse. We’ve grown from 40 to 10,000 containers a day in simply 18 months.”
The Distinction
The corporate calls members of its subject staff “Waterless Magnificence Consultants” as a result of the merchandise aren’t simply modern due to what’s in them—they’re recreation altering due to what’s NOT in them.
Years in the past, as Thomas was formulating his olive tree remedy, specializing in the facility of the polyphenols inside olive tree leaves, he discovered how conventional skincare is formulated and preserved. And what he found modified every thing. Most topical magnificence merchandise are made primarily of water—usually 70 % water and even larger.
However water-based merchandise aren’t shelf secure, they require preservatives to grow to be shelf secure and secure for customers to make use of. Most magnificence merchandise are emulsions, mixtures of water and a refined oil— usually a vegetable oil that’s been handled with sizzling steam; sanitized with bleach; and handled with different chemical compounds to make it final on the shelf.
For Thomas this was an enormous downside. He understood that the facility of the olive tree, from its oils to the elixir created from crushing its leaves, rested in how alive or bioactive it was. Bioactivity permits it to cut back irritation and profit the microbiome each on the pores and skin and within the intestine. However most oils in skincare merchandise aren’t simply useless—they’ve been so chemically handled that they create irritation. So, he selected to create merchandise with out water and educate customers about why.
“I really feel that to most individuals it makes loads of sense. I really feel that’s additionally the rationale why our consultants are so profitable. Lots of people inform us that they didn’t know concerning the 70 % water in skincare. They don’t need to pay for 70 % water. They need to attempt one thing totally different and have a 365- day assure.”
The Bushes
“We constructed this stunning group across the tree,” Thomas shared. “We can’t entice everybody, and we can’t please everybody, however I really feel we’ve constructed one thing extraordinary, one thing robust and exquisite.”
In nature, timber assist one another in group, simply because the rising collective of Waterless Magnificence Consultants bands collectively to impression change throughout cultures. The synergy and variety of over 35,000 consultants brings a energy that has fueled the corporate’s explosive development over the previous two years.
Olive Tree Folks has extra rising to do within the quick time period, with the upcoming launch of the Olive Rose model of waterless make-up; a flagship retailer expertise in Santa Monica set to open in 2025 and worldwide enlargement in Canada and the UK on the horizon.
The corporate’s philanthropic impression is rising, too. Thomas is keen about eliminating water in his merchandise however he’s equally dedicated to creating entry to water by means of “OLIVEDA for Africa,” a mission to construct one effectively in Africa for each 100 hectares of mountain olive land the corporate acquires.
“I referred to as myself an olive tree farmer as a result of that’s actually one of many largest goals I had after I healed myself with the facility of the olive timber,” he shared. “I wouldn’t be right here with out these timber.”
From the December 2024 difficulty of Direct Promoting Information journal.
