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About Us
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PHYTOSPHERA AZORICA

Our company is rooted in the Azores islands and reflects their essence in our core values: Green, Pure and Authentic. We value and promote conscious consumerism, prioritize the preservation of our environment and consider all aspects of its sustainability. Only the best local and sustainably sourced ingredients are selected to incorporate into our products so they reflect the pure, whimsical Nature that emanates from this magical place.

Translating Nature into cosmetics has been a life-long dream that materialized in the last 5 years. With a background in Biology research and over 18 years expertise in the study of physiology, functional molecular mechanisms and application of natural compounds, the following steps deemed natural: identify the most compelling elements from the surrounding nature and develop cosmetic products.

Educating our consumers is a key element to us – teaching you about cosmetic ingredients and their functions enables you to choose better for yourselves, boost your health, protect your families and contribute to your communities.

We combine our passion for Nature with in-depth knowledge and a profound wish to create wonderful, immersive sensory experiences that bring you joy, confort and an enhanced sense of well-being.

Phytosphera. The World of Plants.

Feel at Home in Your Skin.

Blog
Over the past few years, people have been increasingly aware of the presence of ingredients from the petrochemical industry in all sorts of cosmetic products, ranging everywhere from showering products to skin moisturizers, to lip balms and even to your toothpaste! So you might often be "eating" mineral oil and not even be aware of it. The truth is, petroleum-derived ingredients are amazing! The petrochemical industry has been well established for over a century, and most of the organic compounds obtained from crude oil are well characterized. Moreover: petroleum holds so many different compounds and they can all be separated into fractions, mostly according to their fusion points. These fractions can then be used as liquid oils, oils that are only liquid at certain temperatures, oils that do not go solid in cold temperatures, waxes with different temperature ranges, polymers, etc. The list goes on and on and it's easy to imagine all the applications that these oils, waxes and so on can be used for. And the magic of it: all these compounds are versatile! This means that most of them can be changed easily, by adding or subtracting hydrogen and oxygen atoms, by playing around and transforming alcohols into ethers, or carboxylic ethers into esters... Well, for a passionate and creative chemist working with petroleum brings upon endless possibilities! So no wonder petroleum-derived ingredients have dominated the cosmetic industry for so long. They are the base of many facial creams, body washes, shower gels and shampoos; they are in lip balms, in mascara, in lipstick, in gloss. It's fairly easy to spot these ingredients in a cosmetic product, as worldwide legislation demands for labelling the ingredients in order of percentage in each formula. For example, if you find the word "liquid paraffinum" early in the formula (for example: water, liquid paraffinum, etc) you can be assured that it is one of the dominating ingredients in the formula. Here are some of the most usual culprits: Benzene, Mineral oil, Paraffinum liquidum, Liquid paraffin, Paraffin wax, Petrolatum, Petroleum jelly, Toluene. (The list goes on, but these are the most evident). Many of the ingredients listed are used for its occlusive properties. "Occlusive" is a quality people look for in a make-up product, such as a BB cream or a CC cream, when they have an uneven skin surface and they look for a product that spreads across the skin, leaving it with the appearance of a smooth surface. What shocks me at times, is that some of these occlusive ingredients can be 30% of a cream formula (in which 60% is water) designed for atopic skin, treating eczema or psoriasis, skins that have structural anomalies, feel dry and itchy and require a replenishment of lipids in various skin layers. So, if 60% is water and 30% is occlusive material, so that your skin feels protected and smooth, what happens with the remaining 10% of ingredients in the formula? Is is your skin really being nourished? Considering that in the remaining part of the formula you still need emulsifying agents, stabilizers, preservatives and possibly fragrance, how much nutrition are you actually providing the skin with? And: do you get oils which are compatible with different layers of your skin, which can be absorbed and incorporated, to help renew your deep skin tissue? Being aware of the petrochemical ingredients is only the beginning. The real work is learning about natural, plant-derived oils that are compatible with our skin and how they can supply the nutrition the skin requires, at the same time taking over the benefits of the better-characterized petroleum ingredients. Hence, the first part of the work is to come up with combinations of seed oils best suited for each skin complexion, adapted to different temperatures and climates around the world, and translatable into various types of cosmetic formulas. The second part of the challenge is to find batches of raw materials that are constant over times. And, as we know, Mother Nature is not very constant, and depends of many factors and climate suprises, so the same production field can produce very different batches of virgin olive oil in consecutive years. Therefore, one needs to be constantly updated on the technical information for each batch, ready to adjust the % in each formula and, even, to replace the seed oils whenever necessary. Not an easy task! However, we find that knowing our plant seed oils and their many benefits is key to our business proposition and our business ethos. At Phytosphera, we thrive to bring you the best ingredients for you to achieve the best outcomes. In the simplest, rawest, purest way possible. Phytosphera. Feel at Home in Your Skin.
Os padrões de consumo mudaram. O mundo abrandou durante algumas semanas e quer queiramos, quer não, fomos intimados a pensar não só sobre o modo como interagimos uns com os outros, como nos movemos, mas também que impacto temos no ambiente, com que frequência consumimos, o que consumimos, e consequentemente o que fazemos com os resíduos do que consumimos.
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Shop Phytosphera Azorica

In our Shop you will find a variety of Phytosphera cosmetic products as well as a selection of the best ingredients so you can formulate your own cosmetic products in the confort of your home.

Following a careful selection of suppliers and service providers with ethos in line with our core values, we thrive to bring you the best, freshest ingredients, preferably locally sourced.

Whenever possible, we foster a close proximity relationship with our clients, allowing for package-free retail sale, as well as recovering and reusing exhisting packages. Contact us with any questions or suggestions you may have.

Phytosphera. The World of Plants.

Feel at Home in Your Skin.