JUST as it means, the story of Pili Beauty & Wellness is about choice—of choosing to share the Philippines’ precious beauty secret and choosing to use natural ingredients in their beauty products in an ethical and sustainable manner.
• Rediscovering Pili
As Bicol’s signature tree, the Pili stands as a metaphor for the region. It is highly resilient to the storms that regularly pass through Bicol. Endemic to the Philippines, local farmers have long been cultivating Pili. The nut of the Pili tree, especially, has become its most famous by-product. An ubiquity in shops that sell delicacies, it has become the region’s leading commodity.
However, for organic agricultural advocate, Rosalina“Rose” Tan, Director of Elemie Naturals Inc. makers of Pili brand of natural personal care products, as well as the founding president of the Organic Producers Trade Association (OPTA), chose to push pili’s potential further than standard pasalubong fare.
“As an advocate for adopting an organic lifestyle, I wanted to explore other uses of pili that stays true to my beliefs,” says Rose, “I wanted to come up with a product that benefits both the customers and the people that make them.”
• The Start and Science of PILI Beauty
In 2004, while collaborating with a team of scientists from one of thetop universities in the country, Rose experimented the use of the meticulously processed Pili oil to various personal care products including soaps, lotions, lipsticks, etc. having in mind to inject the natural moisturizing and other benefits properties inherent in the extracted Pili oil. Since then this has led to new potential applications of the oils extracted from different parts of the Pili tree. This was the start of Pili Beauty and Wellness.
Clinical testing reveals that its components contain high level of carotenoids (anti-oxidant), phytosterols (reduces inflammation), tocopherol (maintains healthy cells), oleic acid (hydrating properties), and linolenic acid (moisturizing properties).
All these ingredients found in every PILI Beauty & Wellness natural personal care product, not only makes it a powerful anti-oxidant and natural germicide, but it also an ultra-hydrating moisturizer.
• The Heart of PILI Beauty
It’s this unique human quality to harvesting Pili that makes it a valuable industry for the Bicol region. Currently, there are around 14,000 farmers and farm labourers who are supported by the pili industry.
With this is mind, Rose rooted PILI Beauty and Wellness in her passion to turn her organic lifestyle advocacy to a business that will be able to generate jobs and provide additional income for local farmers.
“Through PILI Beauty and Wellness, we wanted to provided pili farmers and the community with a new source of revenue,” says Rose “While keeping true to our advocacy of promoting an organic lifestyle.”
By rediscovering other potential use of the Pili tree. PILI Beauty has reinvented it into a line of globally quality personal care products.
• The Next Generation
“When I made the choice to develop PILI Beauty, I was making it for the local farmers, farmhands, the environment, and my advocacy,” says Rose. “Little did I know that I was leaving a legacy for the next generation to have a choice.”