Can new DIY natural beauty brand Oleum Vera disrupt skin care and body care?

The company is looking to a future where consumers invest in slower, smaller, simpler personal care and where branded kits or product portfolios strike a balance between being made by trusted companies and delivering the home-grown wisdom and remedies of friends.   

“I believe many of us are now looking to get back to basics: a few carefully sourced, natural ingredients rather than a list of 20 unpronounceable ones,”​ says Jonathan Coutu, founder and CEO of Oleum Vera in a press release announcing the brand.

All trends at once          ​

Oleum Vera has aligned it mission with the DIY trend, the natural beauty trend, the movement for sustainable beauty, small batch beauty, and more.

Do-it-yourself beauty products are by default personalized and custom. With its kits, Oleum Vera is targeting that trend too. The brand aims to “[provide] women and men with the ingredients and the knowledge they need to re-appropriate their body care routine and tailor it to meet their own unique skin and hair needs, with the kits’ high customizability setting them apart from other DIY products currently available on the market,” ​explains the press release.

Product collection​

Oleum Vera launched with six different DIY personal care kits: one each for cleansing, moisturizing, whole body care, spa-style pampering, hair care, and men’s body care.

It seems the brand is founded on a hero objective rather than a hero product. “What we really wanted was to present a complete natural beauty routine, right from the get-go,”​ Conutu tells the press.

The kits comprise essential oils, plant-based oils, containers for the finished product, and an instruction book. Some kits also include algae, powdered clays, and dried flower petals. And, certain formulas in the how-to guide require “fresh ingredients from their pantry and fridge.”​

Oleum Vera kits are certified organic and “all ingredients were handpicked for their numerous benefits to the skin, hair and senses, always with sustainability in mind,” ​as the press release notes.

For now, the Oleum Vera kits are available in France.  ​