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Oskia

The name OSKIA is derived from the ancient Greek for 'delivering nutrients' and 'beauty'.
 
OSKIA is a high performance, nutritionally-designed, natural skincare range with a unique dual-action approach to delaying the signs of premature ageing: Supplying the skin with a comprehensive diet of essential cell nutrients (vitamins, minerals, proteins or amino acids, glucides and essential fatty acids) from both the inside and the outside to help rebuild cell health and efficiency, and harnessing outstanding pioneering bio-actives clinically proven to further promote a radiant, younger-looking complexion. In all OSKIA products, the MSM-Regen Complex™, with its natural collagen boosting, repairing and regenerating properties, is combined with breakthrough botanical, mineral and marine bio-actives that are scientifically-proven to work.
 
OSKIA only uses the most pure, proven natural ingredients. OSKIA uses 98% natural and nature-identical ingredients. All products are free of all skin-unfriendly ingredients, paraben free and suitable during pregnancy.
 
What is Nutritional Skincare?
We all know the feeling we get when we’ve been eating unhealthily. Tired, lacking motivation, skin and eyes lacking sparkle, all a bit gloomy. That’s because your body and brain need properly balanced fuel to work to their optimum levels. And the skin’s no different – it’s just another organ of the body.
 
The most effective way of delivering nutrients to the deeper layers of the skin is to take them orally. Nutrients are absorbed via our digestive system into the blood stream, where they are carried to the skin via dermal capillaries, a network of fine blood vessels that supply each and every skin cell. Our bodies are designed to obtain nutritional elements from our diet. If we’re not feeding our skin with a comprehensive diet covering all its nutritional needs, from both the inside and the outside, then how can we expect it to look healthy and radiant?
 
One of the best ways to help improve your skin health and complexion and fight the signs of premature ageing is to combine a healthy diet with supplements which target skin health and creams and serums that provide your skin directly with all the nutrients it needs to rebuild cell health and efficiency. That’s why OSKIA, together with our renowned cosmetic scientists and nutritionists, have developed the Skinsense range to feed your skin with essential cell nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, glucides and proteins, and give your skin the diet it deserves. In addition to these nutrients OSKIA products also contain the very best pioneering bio-actives.
 
The OSKIA Philosophy
Inside / outside. Rebuilding cell health to help prevent premature ageing:
 
Oskia believes that the secret to a beautiful complexion lies not only in what you put on your skin, but what you put in your body. Oskia products are therefore nutritionally-designed to improve the skin's condition from both the inside and the outside. The first step in any beauty regime should be to develop the health of your skin, and key to better health is a good diet. OSKIA understands the nutritional requirements of the body, so our products feed the skin with essential cell nutrients – vitamins, minerals, proteins or amino acids, glucides and essential fatty acids - from both the inside, by way of supplements, and from the outside, topical skincare products. These combine and act in unison to help your skin to develop the perfect cell – one which is healthy, efficient and working to its optimal level.
 
MSM - Helping your skin help itself
 
All OSKIA products contain our patent-pending MSM repair and regeneration complex containing MSM – one of nature's most remarkable medicines. Known as both the ‘Beauty Mineral’ and the ‘Healing Mineral’, MSM is the most bio-available form of sulphur, which is critical to all cell processes and collagen production. It is structurally and functionally important to 150 bodily compounds, including amino acids, collagen, elastin and keratin.
OSKIA use MSM to provide your body with the natural materials required for the production of collagen and elastin - a longer-lasting approach to promoting cell regeneration and renewal, leading to supple, stronger, healthier skin. MSM has traditionally been used as a joint supplement to increase flexibility and mobility by promoting the regeneration of cartilage (of which collagen is the main component) and connective tissues, and in addition to improving skin condition is also known to strengthen hair and nails, highly desirable added benefits of its use in your daily skincare regime.
 
Active beauty based on cutting-edge science and pioneering bio-actives
 
In addition to the essential cell nutrients, all OSKIA products contain pioneering scientifically-proven actives such as Swiss Apple Stem Cells, Ribose, MPC Milk Peptides, Biosaccharides, Glactoarabinan, Niacinamide (B3), O3 Stressed Yeast Lysate, Immortelle Bleue, to name just a few, all of which combine to provide an intense effect promoting radiant, glowing youthful-looking skin and helping to combat the signs of premature ageing and environmental damage.

Beauty naturally
 
OSKIA’s products contain 98% natural or nature-identical ingredients. The 2% 'non-natural' are our Ecocert and Soil Association approved preservatives. Our bodies are constantly absorbing a cocktail of chemicals - from air pollution, the food we eat, and even some so-called skin ‘care’ products - you wouldn’t drink petrol, so why feed your skin with it? It’s therefore vital that we minimize the intake of these chemicals, which is why OSKIA products are so full of natural or nature-identical ingredients. Certain vitamins, amino acids and MSM cannot be extracted directly from nature, either for technical or stability reasons, and so are made synthetically but so that they are identical to their counterparts in nature. All our natural skincare ingredients are proven to work. OSKIA also uses organic skincare ingredients wherever possible, if  they’ve been proven to benefit your skin.
 
Honesty...honestly
 
One of the key motivators behind the development of OSKIA was our concern at the lack of honesty surrounding skincare brands, particularly with respect to pricing, the limited number of active ingredients in some products and the use of the term ‘natural’, all of which OSKIA felt were being exploited by some companies. OSKIA have therefore done everything we can to ensure that products are honestly priced, overflowing with actives of the highest quality and efficacy, and while they might 'only' contain 98% natural or nature-identical ingredients, OSKIA are 100% open and honest about them. OSKIA are passionate and proud of what they are doing.
 
Education
 
OSKIA aim to offer in-depth information on natural skincare, greener living and ingredients (not just our own) so customers can make their own informed decisions.
It’s a good question.
 
Why Natural
When Oskia was first conceived of many years ago, their principle aim was to formulate a range of skincare products that really worked. While they always hoped they could use only natural ingredients that the body had evolved with, that formed part of our environment, they were adamant that the efficacy of their products had to be the guiding light for what they were doing.
 
The issue they faced was whether natural ingredients could be as effective as ‘un-natural’ ones, those that had been conceived in a laboratory without reference to the world around us. And in some ways they’ve been very lucky with their timing. There have been in the last few years some incredible technological advances in the science of natural skincare and natural ingredients. No longer does using ‘natural’ mean that you are compromising on efficacy. Advances in trans-epidermal carriers, being molecules that aid the ability of nutrients to be absorbed through the skin, and new ingredients that work at cellular levels, are the two most important advances.
 
A few years ago, natural skincare ingredients were limited to oils, butters and extracts. Now, there is a new wave of highly technological and scientific ingredients that penetrate the skin to work on cellular levels - for example, plant stem cells, amino acids, peptides and bio-available nutrients. They’ve also benefited from the ability to use ‘chemically identical’ natural ingredients, or “nature-identical” ingredients. That means ingredients that are found in nature or within the body but, because they are either impractical or impossible to extract directly from nature, are produced within the laboratory. They are identical on a molecular level to their counterparts in nature.
 
Natural skincare for the first time can offer genuinely effective anti-ageing solutions, and it’s OSKIA's belief that long-term health, including the health of your skin, is better served by working with nature. That’s why OSKIA products contain 98% natural or nature-identical ingredients. Their natural philosophy dictates not only what ingredients they can use but also those they can’t. They appreciate that science is moving forward and changing our understanding of the effects of some chemicals, and often you hear a number of conflicting viewpoints on a subject. They’ve therefore taken the approach that where the jury is still out on some potentially harmful ingredients, such as parabens, they’ll tread cautiously. As long as they’re not risking the efficacy and quality of our products, it seems like the right thing to do. So, as you’ll see clearly on the packaging, OSKIA products are FREE FROM artificial fragrances, colourants, silicones, parabens, sulphates, propylene glycol and all other harmful chemicals.
 
One area that all natural skincare manufacturers struggle with is preservatives. Natural skincare products need help if they are to remain stable and survive for a number of months without growing harmful moulds and bacteria. You’d be amazed at the effort they put in to finding a natural preservative that worked in the complex formulations. Unfortunately, they’ve yet to find one that will.
 
The 2% ‘non-natural’ ingredients in OSKIA are therefore the preservatives. But what they have done is used the safest and what they think are the best alternatives, phenoxyethanol, dehydroacetic acid and sodium lactate. These are the preservatives that Ecocert and the Soil Association have certified for use in the organic and natural skincare fields. And they promise to keep searching for the perfect, all-natural preservative.
What makes OSKIA different?
  • Oskia is the first premium skincare brand to utilise MSM as an anti-ageing active
  • Oskia is the first brand that is nutritionally-designed by a team of nutritionists and cosmetic scientists to provide the essential cell nutrients your skin requires to function properly and rebuild cell health.
  • Oskia products are carefully formulated to contain all the very best pioneering actives. They are unique because they are packed full of pioneering ingredients rather than just relying on a small handful. For example, you will find Swiss Apple Stem Cells, Niacinamide, Hyaluronic Acid, Peptides, Prebiotics in all OSKIA products, in addition to numerous others.
  • Oskia believes that the secret to beautiful skin lies not only in what you put on the surface, but also what you put in your body. Oskia products are nutritionally-designed to improve the skin's condition from both the inside and the outside.
  • Oskia products are designed to make the skin work harder to slow down the natural ageing process. For example, by stimulating the production of the skin's own natural antioxidants and collagen.
  • Oskia believes that prevention is better than cure.
  • Oskia only use ingredients that are scientifically proven to work and not simply for their organic or natural status.
  • Oskia is 100% honest in what goes into our products. They are 98% natural. We use synthetic Ecocert and Soil Association approved preservatives. We feel very strongly that skincare products need to be preserved 100% effectively. So called 'preservative-free' products can be a health hazard.
  • OSKIA are NOT certified organic by any certification board. They will always use the organic option if it is available and effective, but decided AGAINST certification because it dramatically reduces the amount of active ingredients available to use. Oskia only chooses ingredients that work, not ingredients due to their organic skincare certified status.
  • Oskia products are unisex. The same principles underlying our products apply to both sexes; that men should be able to enjoy the same benefits of a nutritional skincare range as women; and appreciate that men also want to look their best.
  • The Skinsense range is aimed at people in their mid twenties - late forties, when cell turnover begins to slow down and the signs of skin damage and ageing begin to come apparent.
  • Oskia products are FREE FROM artificial chemicals, fragrances, preservative, colorants, petrochemicals, phthalates, silicones, DEA, TEA, sulphates or parabens.
  • OSKIA do not make inflated promises
  • OSKIA are strongly against animal testing.
  • OSKIA use ethically and environmentally friendly packaging and production methods.
The Oskia Skincare Founders

OSKIA's founder, Georgie Cleeve (ex food editor and skincare therapist), was inspired to create a nutritional, MSM-based, natural skincare range having seen the benefits of MSM first-hand through her father's business, which produces natural nutritional supplements and which introduced MSM into Europe as a joint supplement over twenty five years ago.

Not only did she see the miraculous results in those that benefited from her father’s products, but first-hand too - having had numerous knee operations due to damaged cartilage, Georgie was advised not to play sport again. However, having been put on a course of MSM by her father, her damaged cartilage strengthened more than any specialist thought possible, and since then she has competed in numerous triathlons and spent a season as a ski instructor. But what she hadn’t expected was the remarkable response to the MSM that her skin showed....her early age eczema disappeared, and the seed of an idea about an MSM-based skincare range was planted.

Working as Deputy Wine & Food Editor for House & Garden Magazine, Conde Nast, for four years, Georgie also became fascinated with the obvious health benefits of organic food and the connection between nutrition and skin health. So the idea of linking MSM with a nutritionally-designed natural range of products steadily began to grow.

Also frustrated at the lack of honesty in terms of ‘pricing’ and in the use of the word ‘natural’, both of which appeared to be used as nothing more than mere marketing ploys, she started researching skin care and therapeutic, natural ingredients and OSKIA came to life after four years of extensive research and product development by herself and an internationally recognised cosmetic chemist, Dr Colette Haydon, as well as a team of nutritionists and skincare specialists.

After several years of advising and assisting Georgie and developing his knowledge of skincare, Georgie's husband, ex-lawyer George, joined the business in early 2009.

All OSKIA products are carefully manufactured using only the very best, active ingredients at the OSKIA factory in the rolling Welsh hills outside Monmouth.

View the Oskia natural skincare range now