Interview with Ms. Joy Tsang, Founder of of AEVUM SPA and ORiNERGiE
ORiNERGiE, a professional French medical aromatherapy brand, has come to China. “Selling products is not my aim. We want to help Chinese females restore their mental health, inner energy, and a holistic well-being from inside out.” This is the wish of Joy Tsang, the brand’s founder. She is also lucky enough to find the people with the same goal. A group of leading French aromatherapy experts and aesthetics designer contribute to the excellence of ORiNERGiE.
Joy Tsang joined the beauty industry in 2006 and has since been the general manager of Joy Plus. She has successfully introduced many global cutting-edge beauty brands to China including Valmont from Switzerland, [comfort zone] from Italy, Natura Bissé from Spain and HISTOMER from Italy. Her operational goal is to convey positive energy to the world and help people gain true beauty and well-being. That is why she founded AEVUM SPA, positioned as a European noble spa, and today’s ORiNERGiE. SpaChina interviewed Joy, a gentle and graceful lady. She shares with us her experiences of creating and introducing an essential oil brand to China in every aspect from just an idea, to research and development, manufacturing, design and marketing. She also expresses her thoughts about China’s spa industry.
You have recently launched a new product brand, “ORiNERGiE”. Could you share some details about it? Why did you want to launch such a brand?
ORiNERGiE combines two French words: Energie (energy) and Originellel (original). Besides, OR means gold in French, reflecting the rarity and elegance of the product. With ORiNERGiE, we want to guide users to experience the energy from natural plant and find a way back to their inner self. Our philosophy is to “Healing mind and body with French medical aromatherapy”.
I have worked on skincare products for ten years. Gradually, I discovered that solving skin problems alone cannot satisfy guests’ inner needs. They want true beauty and happiness from inside out. So I want to do something more to help them. I hope to create products that can give them holistic healing from heart and soul to body and skin. Then I begin to think and seek for the way. Finally I reach enlightenment. As creations in the universe, it is the natural law for human beings to experience birth, growth and death. Likewise, plants, absorbing the essence of the Earth and the message of the universe, also grow and thrive according to the laws of Nature. So I believe it is a perfect way to use plant oils to improve people’s mind, body and skin condition.
Why did you choose three French experts to develop the products?
First of all, they share the same heart with me in helping guests to restore holistic healing from inside out, from the mind to the body and skin. Besides, French essential oil are the most scientific. In France, it is a normal practice for dentists, pediatricians and physicians to prescribe essential oils to patients. In French families, their medicine chest is half occupied by essential oils with only another half for drugs. I want to bring such good things to China as well. And this wish has attracted three French essential oil experts: Nelly Grosjean, Doctor of Medicine, a pharmacist born in a well-known family of medicine specialized in healing with natural plants; Patrick Colli, Doctor of Medicine, pharmacist and leader of modern French aromatherapy. André-Jean Brin, Doctor of Pharmacy and a senior pharmacist. The support of these three great figures has enhanced ORiNERGiE’s professionalism, safety, reliability and ability to cure, as well as its positioning as “French medical aromatherapy”.
What are the differences between “Made in Europe” and “Made in China” skincare products? What are their strong points and weaknesses respectively?
With growing national power, China’s traditional manufacturing industry and technique levels have already reached international standards. But Chinese people’s awareness of organic skincare and their usage of essential oil products have just started. In Europe, on the contrary, the usage of essential oil products can date back to the Roman Empire. Europe’s early medical institutes were all supported by the achievements of the ancient alchemists. They sought to unlock the mystery of Nature, discover the healing power of herbs and work out various prescriptions to cure diseases and prolong life based on herbs. This is the origin of the extraction of plant essential oils. So Europe does better than China in the blending and application of essential oil products.
Raw materials for ORiNERGiE essential oil products are from the best organic plantations all around the world. Through professional distilling and extracting techniques, we do sterile packaging for the raw materials and then transport them to China. We do packaging in China because we believe China’s production and manufacturing industries have reached and even surpassed international standards. From material production to formulation and packaging, we use the most professional design and technology.
Today, the 1980s and 1990s generations are the main consumption force in China’s spa and skincare market. As a spa owner and product seller, how do you meet their needs in your spa services and product development & design?
As a naturopathy, spa helps to balance the Yin and Yang of the human body. To the 1980s and 1990s generations, spa is a necessary part of their daily life. However, due to different social and family status, their needs for products and functions also differ. The1980s generation is not only the main consumption force of the society but also the pillar of their workplace and family. Most of them are facing sub-health conditions. So their main demand is to recover from tiredness of the body and set their heart free from burdens. They desire to be purified in body and mind and gain more energy during the spa experience. So we will tailor every detail of the treatment from their perspective, aiming to pamper their inner parts, and strengthen their mental and physical capability. In comparison, the 1990s generation are more direct in expressing what they feel and what they want. So they are less stressed than the 1980s. When choosing spa treatments, they show more interest in a wider scope of functions. To them, skincare such as whitening and anti-acne goes before spiritual treatment for stress release and energy lifting. Our customer service staff contact our members regularly to get their feedback. Also, after every treatment, the therapists will ask guests about their experience and feeling. This feedback becomes our precious first-hand information for further product and treatment development.
ORiNERGiE is undoubtedly a professional and high quality aromatherapy brand, but Chinese customers today haven’t yet gained a profound understanding about essential oil products. And young customers are often easily attracted by product packaging or media promotions. How will you guide them to focus more on the quality of the product, and let them gain more knowledge about aromatherapy?
We will do market promotions for ORiNERGiE via different steps and channels. We believe that user recognition is the best reward. We will first promote our possibly most acceptable and affordable products to the public and establish our brand image on professional information platforms such as Baidu and Zhihu. Meanwhile, we actively work with different media to share with consumers the practicability and application methods of essential oil products. Moreover, we launch “free try” activities through official WeChat account and help consumers solve their problems with our expert products.
Could you tell us where ORINERGIE products will be designed and manufactured? What are your distribution channels and development plans in China?
ORiNERGiE advocates nature and skincare aesthetics. We invite French leading designer Jean-Christophe Gaydon for the packaging design of ORiNERGiE products. With a deep understanding and recognition of the brand’s aesthetics philosophy, he has created an elegant French style, with black and white as the main colors, going together with hand-drawn flowers, conveying the purity and gracefulness of our brand.
Each raw material of ORiNERGiE products comes from the best plantation of the particular plant. Our R&D team is based in France where Dr. Nelly leads pharmacists to develop formulations that best suit Chinese females. Currently in China, we have our We-shop on WeChat platform. We are also seeking agents in different provinces. But selling products is not our goal. What we want to do is to help Chinese females release from physical and mental stress as well as other problems with our essential oil products. Therefore, we will also shoot a series of massage videos for a better application of essential oil products, and send the videos to our consumers via the agents. In the future, we hope to promote our products more on e-business platforms like Xiaohongshu, Tmall, and JD.
How will you integrate ORiNERGiE products with AEVUM Spa treatments to offer better services to customers?
ORiNERGiE and AEVUM will be closely weaved together. AEVUM itself is positioned as a European noble spa that offer professional treatments integrating global leading brands such as Natura Bisse from Spain, [comfort zone] from Italy and LPG from France. Our main spa treatments are focused on stress release, anti-aging and body shaping. We want to deliver more humanistic care in our spa offerings, turning from skin-deep beauty and body treatments to overall mental restoration and energy enhancement. So we will integrate ORiNERGiE with our treatments to comprehensively protect female health from all aspects of body, mood and mind.
Do you have any suggestions for the spa and skincare industry in China?
China’s spa industry has changed and improved a lot over the years in terms of both market segmentation and professionalism. I hope that we can move a further step forward to care more about people’s mental problems today and help them release stress and restore mental balance. Products should be more professionalized and categorized. We need to design more treatments to target different physical and mental needs together with different massage skills so that guests can get complete relaxation both in body and soul and embrace their work and life as a brand new self.
