The Story of Two Women

Posted by Tom Locke on July 7th, 2015 filed in Business, Education, History, Life, Technology

When you work in the business consulting game you often never know where your contacts will  lead you.

Two summers ago I reconnected with a colleague of mine.   One night over dinner he (Max) and his significant other (Iwona) shared their vision of bringing a revolutionary European skincare product line to North America.

Given my off and on battle with rosacea and my routine six month trips to my dermatologist over the last 15 years, what they presented to me was most fascinating.  So much so, that I assisted them in raising the necessary capital to make their vision a reality.   And, over the last six months, I have been  involved in introducing these products to the North American market place.

As remarkable as the products are, the story of their evolution is even more remarkable.

Ela Drzazga grew up in Poland during the communism era with no sense of personal freedom or fulfillment. She was in her twenties when communism collapsed and for the first time in her life she believed that she could create her own destiny. She acted on it immediately and enrolled into a Western MBA program ” the first woman in Poland to do so.

After successfully completing the program, she decided to start a distribution company of high-end skincare products from Italy and Spain. Like any other woman, Ela loved cosmetics, their beautiful packaging, scents, textures and the promise of eternal youth. They encapsulated a sense of luxury that was not attainable during the grey communist era. But her initial fascination quickly vanished. She found herself disagreeing with the standards: from the use of unsafe ingredients, to the lack of authentic results, to the manipulative aspects of the industry.

It was then when Ela decided to create a professional skincare line which was safe to use, featuring only natural/organic ingredients, and delivering real, lasting results. She embarked on that quest with a team of world-class experts and scientists. After 6 years of research and development, the OrganicSeries skincare line was born and launched in Poland in 2009. Manufactured in France and Poland, OrganicSeries skincare is now available in over 4,000 medi-spas throughout Europe.

Ela has always been an enthusiast of yoga and a healthy lifestyle. In the fall of 2010 she attended a yoga class led by Iwona Kozak, a yoga/holistic lifestyle teacher who also had a long career as a business executive in North America and Europe. Ela and Iwona became friends and later business partners unified by a common desire to offer ecologically friendly products which were safe and delivered results.

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         Iwona and Ela

Iwona’s passion for integrating business with a healthy lifestyle and her commitment to Ela’s vision and her product line, led her to co-founding Holistic Brands Corporation which is now the exclusive distributor of OrganicSeries products in North America under the brand ElaSpa.  Check out www.ela-spa.com and see what you’ve  been missing.

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