At the Canadian Cosmetic Cluster have had the wonderful privilege of working with Diego Lapetina on many projects over the years. Diego is a true professional and a wonderful part of the team. We talked with Diego about his business and how he can help a company make their brand and creative visions come to life. 

XO Lab  is here to make life more easier by providing innovative formulas without the headache. Product development can be expensive and time-consuming - best to leave it to the professionals. XO Labs help you navigate the world of product development. From formulations that work to beautiful packaging that can capture the audience. 
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Together we can create a line of skincare products that can set you apart from the masses. Beautifully and purposefully formulated to address your clients’ top concerns, every product is scientifically-formulated with ingredients that work and textures you will love. Plus, like every XO product, some added uniqueness.

STOKHOUZ is a new Canadian online website dedicated to cosmetic wholesale. The Canadian Cosmetic Cluster will be partnering to help bring in brands from around the world, by providing regulatory support, drop-shipping, responsible person services and marketing services. 

We help you navigate the complicated world of wholesale in the North American Market, 

More information coming soon! If you are interested please leave your information below to get onto our waiting list. 

We are happy to welcome Maulie Anand to the Canadian Cosmetic Cluster team. She will be joining us to help organize our cluster events. Get to know Maulie in our brief interview below. 

1. What Brings You to the World of Cosmetics?

​Growing up, I saw my mother and grandmother take immense care of their skin and they paid emphasis on the same along with the need to investing in good cosmetic products which is what brought me to the world of cosmetics!

2. What Are Your Favourite Beauty Brands?

​Some of my favourite brands are Bobbi Brown, YSL, Elizabeth Arden and Clinique

3. What do you think is the Meaning of Beauty?

​Beauty is about embracing yourself as you are. Its ageless and timeless. 

4. Would You Like to Have Your Own Brand One Day?

​Yes! I would love to have a brand for skin based essential oils.
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5. What Is One Beauty Tip You Grew Up With That You Would Like To Share?

Don’t underestimate the power of a good 8 to 9 hour sleep on your skin!

Time to shine a spotlight on an other one of our new ChemBox Suppliers. Meet Alternative Plants a raw material producer from Latvia that specializes in botanical extracts and plant stem cells. 

1. Tell us about your company? What inspired you to get into the cosmetic ingredient
industry?

Prior to founding Alternative Plants for more than 10 years, co-founders worked with cosmetic
companies providing testing and consultancy services. Collaboration with cosmetic companies revealed several challenges that the industry is facing. Most important were identified to be ingredient availability, sustainable sourcing as well consistent quality and high efficacy of natural botanical compounds. On the other hand, much inspiration to start the work on plant cell cultures came from nature itself. Plants are rich sources of high chemical diversity of beneficial compounds. Unfortunately, growing numbers of medicinal plants that are rich in antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, anti-ageing and anti-microbial compounds are inaccessible to the industry. Today up to 20% of medicinal plants have been used in traditional medicine and cosmetics are threatened. This is due to the overexploitation of natural resources, destruction of habitats. As biologists we saw an opportunity to tackle all these challenges with the help of biotechnology. We see plant biotechnology as a tool to make inaccessible and turn traditional botanical ingredient manufacturing into a much more sustainable production technology. We take tiny samples from wild plants without killing them and using our knowledge find the best conditions to isolate and grow them. By finding the best growth conditions we are capable of boosting production of desired compounds. As a result, today we can grow bulk quantities of plant cells and extract mixtures of precious biologically active substances without exploitation of the land and lower water and energy consumption.

The ChemBox is now live! We are happy to have the third edition of the ChemBox up and running. As the ChemBox grew into ChemConnect we have adapted the box and the services to help elevate the companies.  Find us on JoinChemConnect to learn more.
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We would like to introduce you to one of our New ChemBox Suppliers, REBTECH. This ingredient company is from China and is passionate about the ingredients they make.  From the very beginning of their founding, REBTECH has had a clear vision and undertook the responsibility to provide quality products for the improvement of human health. We spoke to Maggie Xu who is the business developer managing REBTECH about the future of REBTECH.

1. Tell us about your company? What inspired you to get into the cosmetic ingredient industry?  

Osmanthus is the sweetest fragrance of our town in autumn, the air is stuffy and hot, the fragrance of osmanthus lasts long; the most fear is an autumn rain, knocking down all the osmanthus; in that materially scarce era, the childhood memory is the face cream with the fragrance of osmanthus which was a gift brought by my father on a business trip to Shanghai. After I grew up, met my husband his whole family are all engaged in pharmaceutical chemical research and development field, so there are more opportunities to do some product innovation ideas.

In the 21 century, the economies in various parts of the world are developing very fast; however, these developments are accompanied by major challenges to the health of humans. We are dedicated to the provision of high quality products in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food ingredients markets worldwide and believe our technology is our main competitive advantage, with continuous improvements in our production processes and quality control. Made in China no longer means “low quality and cheap price” and we are committed to being among the best in our areas of operation.
 

In the edition of Industry voices we talk with Laura Mazzuca of Mi-el Skincare. Laura took a passion for beekeeping and combined it with a love of skincare. She became a beekeeper to make a positive impact on saving the bees and helping the planet. Honey is one of the by-product of beekeeping and is also wonderful for the skin. We talked with Laura to learn more about her business. 

​​1. How did you start you cosmetic journey?

My cosmetic journey started when I was about 16 and began using honey to clear up breakouts, I was really into skincare, makeup, and fashion, and my mom always put a large emphasis on using natural products. I went to Ryerson University for Business and after I graduated during the pandemic my boyfriend and I began beekeeping as a hobby. I began to do further research on the benefits of using bee byproducts on the skin and started reaching out to various formulation and cosmetic chemists. I ended up connecting with an amazing Canadian female cosmetic chemist and we began developing the formula for our first product, the Honey Infused Hydration Mask. I found a Canadian manufacturer to produce our formula and that is how my journey in Skincare and Cosmetics began.