Natural Woman: Eco Diva Skincare Opens First Shop in Cape Town [Review]
My skin has been through the wars lately and after weeks of struggling with dehydration and the most annoying red, flaky reaction above my left eye, I finally realised it was time to make a change to my skincare routine. By nature, my skin is quite reactive — and by quite I mean it’s more sensitive than Kim Kardashian at a Drake concert and this latest reaction above my left eye was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Luckily for me, this epiphany came at the same time that I was due to meet up with Nicole Sherwin, owner of natural skincare brand, Eco Diva. After 5 successful years selling products online, Sherwin and her team had just opened the brand’s very first brick and mortar shop in De Waterkant, Cape Town and I was curious to check out the range and find out more about the exciting planet-friendly product refill station in store. I didn’t know it then, but my skin was soon to be super grateful to me for setting up that meeting. Now, four weeks on, I’ve got the Eco Diva glow and have said good riddance to the painful reaction above my eye (hallelujah!).
Tucked away inside a luxury sofa shop on Waterkant Street, the Eco Diva store is a haven for anyone looking to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. With everything from skincare and haircare to home cleaning products on their shelves, the little natural skincare emporium offers the bare necessities everyone needs to look after themselves and their home. But this isn’t just any old natural beauty brand, in fact, a big part of the brand’s success comes down to Nicole Sherwin, who lives and breathes the Eco Diva philosophy. The daughter of a homeopath and ex Editor of Simply Green Magazine, Sherwin first gained notoriety in the natural skincare world when she started sharing her recipes for natural beauty and lifestyle products as a cosmetic chef on the Expresso Show. Her segment was so popular that viewers started requesting that she package and sell the products she created on the show and hence, Eco Diva was born.
Reduce, re-use, recycle!
The physical store and re-fill station is the next step in the Eco Diva, and Sherwin’s, natural journey and aims to not only give Eco Diva customers a chance to touch, feel, and smell the products in the range but also to be a little kinder to the planet by offering them a place to refill their products once they’re finished. The refill station is key for those who want to cut down on the amount of packaging they use when buying products and encourages customers to get into the habit of re-using something again and again by offering a 5% discount on refilled products. The Eco Diva products are packaged in high quality, recyclable glass pots and bottles, making them easy to refill several times or pop into your recycling bin at home once you’re done with it. The ethos of recycle and re-use is an important one for Eco Diva, and even the store itself is recycled. The shelves, fittings, and floor used in the Cape Town store are all up-cycled and reclaimed items that have been giving a new lease on life in order to create the store’s raw, organic look and feel.
As for the products, they’re all about getting the maximum use out as well! Almost all the products in the Eco Diva range are multi-purpose and Eco Diva fans are known for discovering all sorts of creative ways to use the products in the range. Labels be dammed, at Eco Diva a luxurious body butter can just as easily be used as a hair mask and a hydrating face serum quickly morphs into a hair repair oil to feed hair from root to tip. In fact, there are so many clever little gems in the Eco Diva range it is almost impossible to choose one stand out product. The range is also super simple and instead of having a range to treat different skin concerns, the Eco Diva range concentrates instead on promoting a healthy pH balance on the skin, making them suitable for all skin types and people of all ages, even babies! The locally produced products are also vegan-friendly, one hundred percent natural, as well as free from parabens, nasty chemicals, and artificial preservatives — basically an all-natural gal’s dream come true.
Winter weary skin transformed
After four weeks of treating my skin with Eco Diva skincare products and overcoming that whole fiasco with the reaction above my left eye, I’m officially a huge fan of the brand. To help my skin recover from what was clearly product overload, I decided to ditch all the expensive, fancy pants skincare products I was using before and take my skincare routine down to the essentials. For the past month I’ve been using nothing but the Eco Diva Face Wash (R335, 200ml), Hydrating Masque (R385), and Face Cream (R345) and have really loved the results. Of course, because the Eco Diva products are multi-use, I really haven’t felt like anything has been missing from my routine, except maybe an exfoliator.
The Eco Diva Face Wash is gentle, refreshing, and surprisingly hydrating while the Hydrating Masque helped to really give my skin the pick-me-up it need after a long, hard winter. Sealing the deal was the luxurious Face Cream which works as a day and night cream for the face and neck, as well as an eye cream. This cream is all about maximum hydration and gives you a beautiful natural glow that you almost don’t want to cover up with makeup. I have loads to say about these incredible products so make sure you click here to read my full review of the above Eco Diva skincare products. I loved trying out these products and it was super easy thanks to Eco Diva’s new travel kits.
The travel kits are not only ideal for fitting in your bag when you’re jetting abroad or going away for the weekend but they’re also a great way to try the Eco Diva products and save money finding the ones you love rather than investing in a full-sized product. For example, the face wash can be bought in a 50ml travel size (instead of 200ml) for R125, the Hydrating Masque in a 10g travel size (instead of 50g) for R115, and the Face Cream in a 10g travel sized (instead of 50g) for R105. The products really go a long way and the travel sizes have lasted me more than a month so far, even after I over did it on the face cream, so they’re super great value! You can buy the travel sizes individually or in ready-packed kits packaged together in a Eco Diva beautiful toiletry bag. For the full Eco Diva skincare experience try the Eco Diva Travel Face Kit with 5 travel size skincare products, including the Face Wash, Exfoliant Skin Polish, Hydrating Masque, Liquid Vitamin Hydra Mist, and Face Cream, at R915.
Visit Eco Diva Cape Town
If you’re in Cape Town and want to find out more about Eco Diva and their products I would highly recommend visiting the new store in De Waterkant. The team behind the brand are super passionate about the products and can help you find the right products for your skin needs plus you’ll get the chance to try all the different samples in store and suss out which products are up your alley. The store is also a great place to buy gifts for friends and family who need a little bit of pampering in their lives!
Find the Eco Diva shop at 115 Waterkant Street, De Waterkant, Cape Town. For more information visit the Eco Diva website.
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