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18 March 2014 | beautystorebusiness.com BEAUTY STORE BUSINESS: For those who may be new to SKIN&CO; Roma, please provide some insight into the company's storied history and the use of truffles within the brand. BALESTRA: SKIN&CO; started with my grandmother, Giuseppina Balestra, in the 1950s. I always call myself the co-founder because she really was the founder, not me. I'm just the messenger. She was mak- ing botanical oils and creams in perhaps the best time of the past century for Italy. My grandfather and grandmother bought a very small piece of land from the Vatican in 1928, and while my grand- father was selling the food products and vegetables harvested from those farms, my grandmother—who had a background in botanicals—loved to look at the ben- eficial part of those plants for the skin instead. Together they built an empire. I always consider them pioneers for their age. Just think, my grandfather had to sell truffles in the back of his store in Umbria because truffles were so taboo. There was a weird misconception that because they smell funny and grow underground, they were the product of witchcraft. Sometimes I like to think that truffles are so trendy and luxurious today thanks to [the two of them], since most of the local people would only feed them to pigs. Their success was extreme. In 1952, my grandmother, who was visited by women from the large surround- ing cities—such as Florence, Perugia and Rome—to try her "miraculous" oils, decided it was time to open one of the "Emporio Balestra" in Rome. Her brother was a camera assistant at the time on a big movie going on in Rome—that movie was "Roman Holiday" starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. He managed to bring A-list celebrities at that time to my grandmother's store—and that's how her dream began. Quietly, she had been making homemade oils for many celebrities and wealthy women for more than 30 years. Ironically, she passed away the year I was born, so SKIN&CO; was very much a calling for me, perhaps. In 2008, I was doing something completely different— working at a leading magazine as a fashion editor. One cold Christmas, my parents and I went through my grandmother's journals and photos. A year later I left the magazine and started studying again. I partnered with Italy's oldest university and began studying truffles and, most importantly, the question, why truffles? After three years of endless days and nights, the answer came and we found out that the "beauty truffle" she was using wasn't just any truffle but a specific truffle that grows in Umbria and is harvested during a full moon. Again, not any full moon, but a specific one: the thirteenth full moon of the year, which only happens once every three years. That truffle is extremely rich in SOD, an enzyme that catalyzes the dismutation of superoxide into oxygen and has the fastest turnover number of any known enzyme. The properties behind SOD are strongly antioxidant. Where are you and the company based? The company is based in the middle of miles of fields in Umbria, Italy, just one mile from my grandparents' original head- quarters and very close to the farms. We just recently relocated to a brand new 70,000-square-foot building to monitor all of our new markets. Our U.S. headquar- ters is in Connecticut, although most of my creative team works with me in the financial district in New York. Your beauty collections all follow an Italian theme. Do your products incorporate Italian ingredients? As the collections grow, I always try to use certain ingredients that are local or [are part of] a tradition in my territory. There are so many untold ingredients that generations have been using for many years. That's what my passion is. While I love to look for innovative extracts, I also love to see what it is that worked for the past 200 years and how we can make it more modern. Your grandmother, Giuseppina Balestra, began the company in Italy in 1952. Do you remember any stories about her early beginnings? My grandmother was a bit like me, I am told. Unfortunately, she left as I entered the world. I was told she was passionate and stubborn, just like me. When she first started her store, she was just a normal lady from a small village. But she was a very fabulous lady. I have pictures of her in a Fiat 500 Topolino in St. Peter's Square wearing a big hat. Today, only the Pope's car is allowed to access that square! In another photo, Gregory Peck is holding her products. She knew how to get there. She worked so hard to cre- ate something from very little, and it's a very personal cause for me and an honor to give a future to her dream. What was the inspiration for the new Truffle Therapy Anti-Aging Collection? The inspiration was definitely all from my grandmother. We tried to use three main extracts that she was using at that time. With the help of the University of Ferrara, we made the formula better able to deal with today's skin conditions, climate, pollution, etc. What products are included in the Truffle Therapy Collection? The Truffle Therapy Collection offers pretty much anything essential you would need, from body care to skin care. We have produced body gels, cleansing foams, serum and creams. We're used to truffles being expensive, but your products are affordable. How do you accomplish this? Since the very beginning, I wanted to make SKIN&CO; available to everyone. Whether someone can afford an $80 serum or not, she should have a piece of it. Being the largest producer of truffles and having extended acres of truffle farms and many other ingredients is what makes it possible. With beauty retailers bom- barded by new products, what sets the Truffle Therapy Anti- Aging Collection apart from others they've seen recently? Why should they carry it? SKIN&CO; embodies a story and legacy that carry a lot of weight, and it shares an ingredient that is unusual and unique. Additionally, SKIN&CO; meets a fine line of tradition, while offering natural products "We feature many sampling and retailing opportunities. We can tailor any promotion around a retailer's needs." Continued on page 62 All images courtesy of SKIN&CO; Roma-USA A T a s t e o f I t a l i a n B e a u t y . i n d d 1 8 A Taste of Italian Beauty.indd 18 2 / 4 / 1 4 1 : 3 0 P M 2/4/14 1:30 PM