Interview with Mike Aziri – Partner & Responsible Product Development & Training at TOI Soins Naturels
Mike, can you tell us more about the philosophy behind TOI?
At TOI (French for YOU…), we believe that beauty is multidimensional, and our brand philosophy is grounded in the believe that everyone is abundant and unique. With our products we boost the natural beauty in everyone, creating a strong sense of self-comfort and ease.
We want to support you to confidently go out there and in your own way master all the challenges and opportunities life throws at all of us!
How does this philosophy influence the positioning & development of TOI’s products?
When we started with TOI back in 2015, we declared it our mission to craft unique, high-performing products, in a more natural way.
With a clear philosophy on restricting the use of chemical components that are potentially harmful to your body and the environment. Instead borrowing existing solutions out of nature’s wealth, based on ancient wisdom of natural Swiss alpine plants and other precious raw materials.
We took the decision to add more thought, effort and certainly much more goodness into TOI, even when this makes them consequently more expensive, for us and our customers. This is the price we are willing to pay for a superior product experience. We are absolutely convinced that modern, more conscious consumers will support our decision and join us in investing in more natural, performant and sustainable hair beauty care experiences.
How did the concept of Biomimicry influence the realization of your first product ideas?
In the science of Biomimicry { learn more here }, there is the strong believe that nature had already have to find solutions to most, if not all, of our today’s problems. Meaning during billions of years of Earth’s evolution, plants and animals have constantly adapted to develop for example effective protection and care mechanisms to external influences. These natural solutions are what we ultimately want to offer to our TOI enthusiasts through our products.
You position your products as ‘by design free from Silicones, Parabens, Lauryl & Laureth Sulfates and colorants’, tell us more about that.
Even when broadly used in hair care products in salons and offered in retail stores today, these ingredients are in many cases responsible for most of the issues and problems people do have with their scalp and hair! They unfortunately became overtime an accepted industry standard, as they are effective, very cheap and give consumers a deceiving impression of a good hair care treatment, while and after usage.
This really sounds disturbing! Can you be more specific and give us some examples? Why are Sulfates or Silicones as example problematic ingredients?
Let’s take Lauryl & Laureth Sulfates to start with. Hair care products need to foam nicely, otherwise we believe they are of bad quality. Pleasant foaming is widely achieved by using products such as these Sulfates, which can be aggressive to your scalp and hair. They might irritate your scalp and drying it out, while weakening your hair roots. Consequently, you might experience itching of your scalp or other allergic reactions. There are also scientific assessments available that report on the potential cancerogenic potential of these Sulfates, so certainly something you want to stay away from as far as possible!
The story of Silicones in hair care is very similar. It is widely used as a cheap ingredient that gives you the false impression of perfect combability of your hair after washing. In reality, Silicones create an air-tight type cover of your hairs, similar to when you would continually walk around in a diving suit. This weakens your hair and leads overtime to hair-breakage and hair-loss.
How did TOI achieve to completely avoid such harming chemicals?
We had effectively had to invest into more natural solutions from Swiss Nature. This means our product development experts had to work very closely with me to find more natural ingredients achieving that WOW effect when you treat your hair with TOI.
We have defined a range of Signature Ingredients, building a strong natural base for all our hair beauty care treatments.
How important is the claim ‘100% Swiss Made’ for TOI in this context?
Switzerland is our amazing home and authenticity to well-acknowledged Swiss values such as reliability, trustworthiness and last but not least, excellence in quality, is paramount to how we understand all our daily contributions. In that sense, our proud 100% Swiss Made claim is a promise to our customers to keep them constantly in the center of our efforts!
Do not hesitate to reach out to us here at any time.