Product curation is intuitive to me. I remember the days of hoarding skincare. My vanity top would always be filled with tons of half used products. Obviously, that was a very telling sign because I hadn't found the right ones yet to finish a product! 

So, I searched for years to find my own Holy Grail and it’s a journey. Empties speak volumes for a skincare junkie like me. If I can go through bottle after bottle of a single product, it means we have something great going on. 

Some perfect examples of empties (and coincidentally our store’s best sellers) include:

Future Cosmetics’ Beauty Drops, Mask Heritage, Flash 10 Botanical Cleanser;

Oumere’s No.9 daily exfoliating lotion, Serum Bioluminelle, Eye Serum ;

New luxury line Auteur's Definitive Optimizing Mask & Definitive Ezynme Cleanser. 

You can shop them at our online store, Freia247 here.

And therein lies the foundation of my curation process; the result of numerous testings to give our clients (yes, you!) the best products, free of marketing hype, and packed with efficacy.

So, how many products are vetted?

At any given time, our curation team is testing between 10 and 15 products. It is crucial that as curators, every single product has been tested by Serene and her team of beauty experts.

How long do we test them? 

It’s imperative we test products out properly. We usually test them for at least 6 to 8 weeks; sometimes, it takes longer. While some products shine through instantly, others take a while to reveal their full potential. That's why we want to give each product the due course of time it needs.

What do we look out for?

Lots! The things that we look out for in a beauty product include: 

• Texture and feel (how does it melt into the skin? Is it greasy?)
• Penetration (how long does it take for the product to penetrate into the skin? Does it just "sit" on the skin?)
• Key benefits (does it do only one thing or is it a multi-tasker?)
• R&D capability (how innovative is the brand?)
• Efficacy (how quickly can we see the results and how consistent is the line?)
• Brand’s philosophy (very important because it must resonate with ours)
• Price point (diversity ranks high on our list, and we ensure our offering is broad enough to cater to all skin types, skin concerns and budgets)
• Is it the best of the best?

Of course, every brand we choose to carry in the Freia family is purposeful, high-performing and discerning. I look out for that personal touch that transcends most evidently from the founder of the brand; I search for the brand’s “soul”. 

That's because it translates into the highest manufacturing standards we can get in the industry with the greatest mission: To develop the most stellar products which are best for the community we serve. 

When a new line is introduced here at Freia, clients can be sure that there will be a huge focus on educating clients — how to use the new product in tandem with their existing routine. 

This stringent process also means that every now and then, when a brand no longer possesses such qualities, we will make the decision to stop carrying them, no matter how “hyped up” they may be. 

This could be inconsistency in performance (reformulations galore), large restructuring, shifting to be “commercial” and mass market.