A Q&A with Vicki Engsall from The Jojoba Company
WellBeing speaks to Vicki Engsall, who is one half of The Jojoba Company. The other half is her father, Ian, who grows their hero ingredient on his own farm in South-Western NSW. You’ve probably heard of jojoba, a pure, golden liquid that has amazing benefits for skin of any age. Here, Vicki shares the story of how their brand came to be and how they harness the benefits of jojoba to make powerful skincare products accessible to everyone.
How did your brand come to be and when?
Our brand started with my father growing jojoba on his farm in south western NSW. I had been using jojoba right through my first pregnancy in 2005 and had continued to use it on both myself and my baby. My naturopath had recommended it as the safest moisturiser to use and suggested it would help with stretch marks throughout my pregnancy. I had grown to love it and was more than a little excited to find out that my dad was growing it on his farm and had yielded his first crop in 2008. It was then that we decided to start The Jojoba Company and provide our Australian grown jojoba in many different sizes so it was accessible to everyone.
What was the initial vision for your brand? Has that changed over time?
Our initial vision was to bottle up jojoba in many different sizes and have it accessible to everyone. Because of its amazing benefits, we had a vision that everyone would have a bottle of jojoba in their cupboard as it is so multi-tasking and can be used by anyone of any age for absolutely anything! Over time, we realised that jojoba is a very effective ingredient to use in skin care because as well as having its own benefits such as being rich in vitamins, essential omegas and antioxidants, jojoba is able to penetrate the skin and at the same time, carry whatever is added to it down to a deeper level. This is due to the fact that it is not an oil at all, but a liquid wax ester that is the closest botanical match to our skin, so our skin lets it in as a known substance. It has a perfect affinity with our own skin. Because of this, our direction changed to incorporating skin care into our range which had the highest possible concentration of jojoba in each product coupled with proven active ingredients for highly effective natural skin care.
Where did the brand name come from?
We made the name up ourselves. It sounds very simple but it is who we are. We are all things jojoba and we wanted to own it. We don’t just use pure jojoba in our products, we also use jojoba leaf extract, jojoba beads and also hydrolysed jojoba. We are well and truly the jojoba experts so The Jojoba Company to us, reflects this.
What/Who are your products suitable for?
Our products are suitable for absolutely anyone of any age. Pure jojoba is hypoallergenic and suits anyone and any type of skin condition. Our products are gentle enough for sensitive skin and we have a range to suit each skin type. We have a core range called our nourishing range that suits all skin types (pink range), a balancing range for people with more oily or combination skin (blue range), an age defying range where all products within the range are clinically proven to achieve various skin goals to combat aging skin (gold range), a pigmentation range, baby range and of course our pure jojoba range. We pride ourselves on the high quality of our products and the great results people get from them.
What are some of your favourite products in your range?
Being of the age that shops in the anti-aging category, my favourite products are the products in our age defying range. I use them twice a day! I can’t live without my ultimate serum and ultimate youth potion which as a combination are my absolute favourite products. However, our new ultimate day cream is fast becoming a product I can’t live without. My skin feels amazing after I’ve applied it.
Where do you source your ingredients?
Our jojoba is sourced from our farm in South Western NSW in a place called Yenda. All other ingredients are sourced from around the world. We are very deliberate with each and every ingredient we choose to put into our products and we travel far and wide to find the perfect ingredients for each product.
Can you tell us a little more about the ingredients in your products? Why is this important?
Each and every ingredient we put into our products is carefully considered. We have a brand ethos of only using plant based, all natural, cruelty free, sustainably sourced and efficacious ingredients. This can often be a challenge at times but we always make a priority and are proud that our products represent our company ethos. This is important to us as it is who we are. We started with our sustainable farm and in the 10 years of our company, we have stuck to our ethos.
What’s next for your brand?
We have just celebrated our 10th birthday and as a celebration, we updated our packaging with a brand-new look and separated our products into easy to select ranges. We also introduced two new products. We will continue to expand on the existing ranges and create new, relevant ranges and products.
