Dead Sea Dream Beauty Regime – Women Talking talks to Louise Lisztman founder of Dead Sea Dream a range of six gender-neutral skincare, body care and hair care products, formulated with Dead Sea Minerals to pamper yourself from head to toe, while recreating a spa experience at home. Louise is keen to share her love for self-care with the rest of the world to help you to relax, unwind and renew.
It is easy to focus on the face when we think about skincare, but our faces and bodies often share the same skin conditions, which is why she felt inspired to change the way we approach our spiritual and physical wellbeing: how we nourish our bodies, balance our lives and restore value in talking time as well as care.
The Dead Sea sits at the lowest point on earth and is more concentrated in salt than any other sea in the world, making it deeply enriched with an array of rejuvenating minerals. The mineral rich Dead Sea provides an abundance of restorative properties from deep within the earth.
Treasured and trusted for thousands of years, the hydrating, replenishing and soothing properties of Dead Sea salt hold the secret to skin balance and stress relief.
Have you always been interested in Wellness?
“I have always been interested in Wellness and aware of the impact of Wellness on one’s health. However, after finishing my studies, I worked in Finance in London for big hospitality groups, such as Mandarin Oriental and Four Seasons and had a very fast paced lifestyle. I would work long hours, spend hours in commute and wake up very early to fit a 6am workout before the work day would start. I was aware that taking more time and care for myself would be beneficial to me, but I just didn’t make the time for it.
“I think the start of the pandemic has been a turning point for me as it has for a lot of people.
“This is when I decided to reflect on my life, its meaning and what I wanted to bring to the world. I started focusing more on my wellness and on finding out what I really wanted to do with my life. The moment I started taking care of myself, self-caring at home, eating healthy and exercising, I quickly realised that it made me become much more productive at work with a better outlook on life in general, what is important and what is not.
“As I started working on Dead Sea Dream, wellness has become an integral part of my life/ daily routine and it is now an integral part of the brand DNA”.
Is this a career you have trained for, or a path you found yourself following?
“I have a background in Hospitality and Finance, so skincare is a path that I found myself following and learning so much from. I worked alongside a formulator and expert consultants for almost two years to develop six unique gender-neutral formulas, inspired from ancient rituals of the Middle East and designed for modern living. I had to research and learn about ingredients, raw materials, sustainable packaging options and cosmetics regulations extensively in order to be able to launch this brand”.
Why did you choose Dead Sea minerals and what are their properties?
“As a French/Israeli, I have always been visiting the Dead Sea frequently since a very young age and fell in love with the properties of Dead Sea minerals for the face, hair and body. When I would go to the Dead Sea, I’d feel transported to another world, floating in a wellness pool, my mind & body would feel totally rejuvenated after that; it felt as I hit the reset button.
“Just to give you a bit of background, the Dead Sea is the lowest place (-427 metres below sea level) on earth and is more concentrated in salt than any other sea in the world (10 times on average), making it deeply enriched with an array of rejuvenating minerals. Dead Sea salt has been proven to detoxify the skin by removing dead skin cells and boosting cellular renewal to help relieve from skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis. In addition, Dead Sea water has soothing and nourishing properties to the skin, leaving it soft and smooth. Finally, Dead Sea mud reduces skin impurities and helps treat acne and breakouts for a healthier skin.
“People travel from all over the world for the soothing, healing, and purifying properties of the Dead Sea. Even Pharaoh Cleopatra VII believed that the Dead Sea had mystical healing powers, she built the world’s first spa off the shore of the Dead Sea.
“I couldn’t find any accessible, affordable and engaging brand in Europe catering the benefits of Dead Sea minerals, which is why I decided to create Dead Sea Dream”.
How did this journey in business begin and what have been your highs and lows?
“The process is long and has many steps. It all starts with the needs you want to fulfil and how the product formulation will answer those needs. It’s a lot of research and development into choosing the right ingredients, textures and fragrances. I find the formulation process fascinating, as I love learning about the benefits and background of the ingredients we use in our formula.
“Then there’s the packaging selection, which is increasingly difficult with the sustainability challenges we’re faced with. I feel like the beauty industry is slowly starting to adapt to minimise the waste associated with single-use plastic or glass containers. There are not a lot of sustainable options out there, which is quite frustrating. This is why I chose to go with local suppliers, close to my manufacturer to avoid transporting empty packaging from across the world and reduce our footprint to a minimum. All of our packaging is recyclable and we encourage people to be more conscious about recycling our products at the back of the pack and through our marketing communications.
“There are also mandatory tests, safety assessments and notifications to be done to be compliant with the UK and EU cosmetic regulations, which take about 3 to 4 months. These are done to make sure that the products and ingredients are safe to use, define the shelf life and expiry date of a product and make sure that the formula will be stable in the chosen packaging.
“The final steps before launching the brand were to develop the website and social media channels and build a strong internal team. I think that seeing the website come to life with the product photography was definitely rewarding as the brand was finally starting to become real. And of course, this could have never been done without the help of my incredible team.
“Finally, I think that the all-time high of this journey were the positive customer feedbacks, which also contributed to our growth since we launched in October 2022 to now being distributed on sephora.co.uk and superdrug.com”.
Why is it important to pamper ourselves?
“For me self-care means taking time for myself, taking a break from social or work obligations. It doesn’t necessarily have to involve beauty products, even though my beauty routine is one of the self-care moments I enjoy the most. It can be reading my favourite book, cooking a healthy meal, taking care of things around my flat. It allows me to recharge and refocus so that when I do work or see my friends/family, I able to give the best version of myself.
“Honestly self-care is not selfish, quite the opposite. When you’re burnt out or all over the place, your useless in your work and useless with your friends, you’re not doing anyone a favour, especially not yourself. As I said before, prioritising myself, my mental and physical health as enabled me to do so much more than I used to. I wake up every morning with a lot of energy, ready to attack the day, achieve milestones for Dead Sea Dream, support my team and help my friends and family. I also take much more satisfaction in what I do, focus on what matters and learnt to let go of minor frustrations”.
For more information and to start your wellness journey visit Dead Sea Dream here.
Poppy Watt