Trilogy: Natural, Sustainable & Cruelty-Free Skincare for the Festive Season

Behind the number one skincare brand in New Zealand + a special Sassy offer

Finding beauty products that are great for your skin, deliver results and aren’t detrimental to the environment can be pretty tricky. Luckily for Sassy readers, we’ve recently discovered an amazing skincare brand that ticks all the boxes; Trilogy offers gorgeous products that use the best natural ingredients, with Rosehip Oil as the star. Offering natural alternatives for skin, hair and body care and supporting ethical practices, Trilogy is now the number one skincare brand in New Zealand.

To find out why Trilogy is so loved down under in NZ, we decided to dig a little deeper and chat to CEO Angela Buglass, who recently spoke at the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit in Hong Kong. We chat to Angela about how Trilogy started, why it’s important for them to use natural ingredients, the brand’s stance against animal testing and reports that the Duchess of Cambridge uses Trilogy products…

Tell us a bit about Trilogy and how it started.

Trilogy was founded in 2002 by two New Zealand sisters after they discovered the amazing skin-loving benefits of Certified Organic Rosehip Oil. There wasn’t much in the way of natural skincare back then, and nothing that offered benefits that could rival the more mainstream products available. Sarah and Cath saw an opportunity to create a range of modern, high-performance natural skincare and launched our original range with five products, all based on rosehip oil. Our story grew from there. We started exploring more pure plant oils and botanical actives and have been formulating beautiful, effective and unique natural skincare with them ever since.

Which are your favorite, must-have Trilogy products and why?

My top three would have to be:

• Rosehip Oil Antioxidant+ – there’s simply nothing to match it for maintaining a fresh, healthy glow!
• Age-Proof CoQ10 Booster Oil – it’s a wonderful blend of pure plant oils, proven to reduce wrinkles and boost radiance, and I love cleansing the day off and just letting this melt into my skin.
• Everything Balm – there’s little it doesn’t do and when you travel as much as I do, a supreme multi-tasker is a handbag essential

Trilogy is against animal testing – what are your thoughts on animal testing and how does it affect the beauty industry?

We don’t believe animal testing is necessary to ensure the safety of cosmetics. Trilogy has always been cruelty-free, it’s one of the foundations of our brand and a stance which is important to our customers. For us, the very fact of the European Union ban, which was passed into law in 2004 and came into full force in 2013, is proof enough that animal testing is an outdated and unnecessary practice.

Ample safety data exists for most cosmetic ingredients, many of which have been around for decades. There are now excellent, and widely accepted, alternative testing methods available to validate the safety of new ingredients and products, without resorting to the use of animals. As a company, we choose to make cruelty-free products and we only work with ingredient suppliers who share the same principles.

Tell us about the ingredients you use – why is rosehip such an important ingredient and why choose only natural and organic?

Pure plant oils are at the heart of natural beauty; they’ve been used to care for skin for thousands of years. Rosehip oil leads the list for its sheer versatility and concentrated natural goodness. What other single ingredient could you use, from top to toe, on any skin type, any age, which delivers healthy and radiantly beautiful skin?

Many women – and men, for that matter – are becoming concerned at the chemical overload inherent in our modern world and are looking for simpler, more natural alternatives to their favourite products. There’s a huge and growing demand for skincare which is non-GMO and free from petrochemicals and silicone oils.

We’ve always believed you don’t have to sacrifice performance for natural and, thanks to constant innovation in natural and organic skincare, you can get the same, or indeed better, results without resorting to synthetics. We source our ingredients from all over the world and select only the highest quality natural actives which offer proven performance, backed up by robust manufacturer data  The concentrations of these potent ingredients in our formulations are the reason Trilogy products deliver results.

In a city as busy and polluted as Hong Kong, do you have any beauty tips on how to keep skin clear and fresh?

I spoke to our beauty expert Corinne Morley for this one! Here’s her advice:

Our skin plays an important role as a barrier against pollution in the environment. Air pollutants rob the skin cells of oxygen and encourage free radicals to form. Nitrogen dioxide, smoke, soot and carbon dioxide are very common in cities and the tiny particulates can easily infiltrate the skin barrier, penetrating to the deeper layers and causing damage.

Antioxidants are a vital component of modern skincare to help protect against ageing and tissue damage caused by pollution and environmental free radicals. Antioxidants protect the skin by binding with free radicals, preventing them from attaching to healthy skin cells in a process termed quenching. This helps ensure the integrity of these cells, promoting healthier, more radiant-looking skin. Rosehip Oil Antioxidant+ is an excellent choice to help protect the skin.

Double cleansing is also a good idea, especially if wearing make-up. Thoroughly removing make-up along with daily grime is essential to keep skin clean, fresh and healthy. It also prepares the skin for maximum absorption of much-needed repair products (night creams, oils etc).

You’re the number one skincare brand in New Zealand – where would you like to be number one next?

Our key growth markets are Australia, the USA and the Asia region. We have strategic expansion plans in place for these markets and we’re looking forward to seeing the results over the coming years.

What’s next for Trilogy – where do you see the brand in five years and any exciting future plans?

Recent research published by Grandview Research estimates the global organic personal care market will reach USD $15.98 billion by 2020, driven largely by growing demand for organic and natural skincare, hair care and cosmetic products.

We’re positioned to take full advantage of this trend with our NATRUE Natural Cosmetics Certification guaranteeing the authenticity of our products, and our reputation as a pioneer of sustainable beauty. We intend to continue innovating and growing the business, challenging the mainstream and cementing Trilogy as a cult global beauty brand.

Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton recently mentioned Trilogy in an interview – which was her favorite product and why?

US Weekly reported that the Duchess of Cambridge had been using our Certified Organic Rosehip Oil during her pregnancy with Princess Charlotte to fight fine lines without using potentially harmful retinoids. The story quoted a royal household source who said she loved the effect it had on her skin.

Trilogy uses recycled packaging – how did this develop and do you have any other initiatives that consider the environmental impact?

Our mantra is ‘maximum effect on your skin, minimum effect on our environment’.  This covers carbon-neutrality, sustainable ingredient sourcing, how we transport our products around the world and more.

Our packaging is recyclable (not recycled, although we are looking into this area) and uses biodegradable, non-bio-accumulating vegetable-based bio-inks and varnishes. All paper and board is FSC-certified paper and we comply with Australia’s Illegal Logging Prohibition Act, which requires confirmation that timber products used in the supply chain are from ethical sources. Trilogy is a carboNZero certified organisation and led the way in New Zealand as the first skincare brand to achieve carbon-neutral status back in 2007.

We are also long-time supporters of the #beatthebead initiative, the global campaign against the use of plastic microbeads in the cosmetics industry. Microplastic pollution of our oceans is a serious problem for the whole world.  We’ve never used plastic microbeads and never will – there are plenty of highly effective, biodegradable and ocean-safe natural alternatives. Corinne Morley was invited to speak on this topic at a summit convened by the Global Marine and Polar Programme at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Monaco last year.

Love the ethos behind Trilogy? Well, now’s your chance to try out the products themselves! From Monday, 28 November to Sunday, 18 December, 2016, simply use the code “SassyxTrilogy” for 15% off, exclusive to Sassy readers. And that’s not all, as you’ll also receive a Trilogy Sampling Pack (worth $100) for free upon purchase of any Trilogy item! What are you waiting for?! Time to stock up on your winter skincare!

www.healthnliving.com