Am cunoscut-o pe Lydia Jordane în urmă cu o săptămână, când a venit în România pentru a participa la lansarea brandului său pe piața noastră. Am fost plăcut surprinsă să întâlnesc o doamnă încântătoare, deschisă și dinamică și nu o prețioasă divă, așa cum probabil v-ați fi așteptat de la cea supranumită “Regina epilatului”. Lydia și-a prezentat produsele și povestea brandului său, declarându-și încrezătoare vârsta (67 de ani) apoi a acceptat să răspundă la cinci întrebări. Pentru acuratețe, am păstrat intacte răspunsurile în limba engleză, știind că pentru cititoarele mele nu constituie o barieră.
Lydia Jordane a creat în adolescenţă prima ceară în bucătăria părinților, comandând ingredientele necesare în secret. Cu ajutorul tatălui ei, chimist cosmetic de profesie, a reuşit să descopere formula perfectă care dă rezultate uimitoare şi care azi e lider mondial de piaţă, fiind prezentă în 67 de țări. Brandul LYCON a apărut ceva mai târziu, în 1987, fiind acum distribuit în întreaga lume şi privit ca fiind cea mai calitativă ceară de pe întreg globul.
How did you manage to develop your business from just a type of wax to a whole range of beauty products?
LJ: I made one wax for myself, which was a hot wax. When I became an aesthetician many years later and started to sell the wax in 1978, I realised there was need for more waxes to be offered that offer something more specialised and different. The first thing I felt wax needed to be like was, for wax to be more gentle on the skin so clients could have more comfortable waxing. The 1st wax I experimented with from the original wax was the Apricot Hot wax, which I added Apricot Oil to, to make it softer and more gentle on the skin. I realised that the salons preferred the Apricot Wax, so I began to experiment with other aromatherapy ingredients, like Aloe Vera and Azulene and they were a hit too. I felt the salons were very keen to try new types of waxes and as the waxing treatments grew in the salons over the years, I felt it was good for the salons to have more choice in what they can offer. The addition of those types of ingredients made the waxes more gentle on the skin and easier for therapists to work with.
The next wave of waxes for LYCON ware waxes that I added Titanium Dioxide to, which makes the waxes opaque and more creamy in feel and even more gentle on the skin.
I was the first to include aromatherapy in hair removal waxes, in the whole world I think, then Titanium Dioxide and my competitors always copied what I did. So I felt I had to keep on inventing and offer something different.
Competitors copy each other all the time, so I felt I had to and still be a step ahead. It is easy to add similar ingredients to formulas to sound like a competitor is making the same wax as you, but the thing is that my base original formula of our traditional hot waxes used the same ingredients that I did when I first started to make the wax, which no one seems to have cracked, which I am very happy about! (She smiles)
The other inventions I have are the Lycojet waxes, which are very unique and different to anything else on the market. Then there is the LYCOtec and LYCOdream hot waxes, which are the newest waxes I developed. LYCOdream is a blended formula between our LYCON traditional hot waxes and LYCOtec, so it is very different to anything else on the market and also very different to any other LYCON hot wax, which is making huge inroads and is a huge success. The waxing industry has grown a lot since I first started to sell wax almost 40 years ago. Many more people are doing waxing, so it is important that the salons and students in colleges have a wax that is very easy to use and tarin with.
Which was the most difficult step in your career?
LJ: The irregular supply of some raw materials we use to make the waxes, particularly the natural ingredients like Rosin and Beeswax, which get affected by climatic conditions and can sometimes be in short supply.
How did you adapt your products to the market demands?
LJ: The more areas that we wanted to wax, the more need to special waxes. The more I expanded selling wax to the whole world, the easier I feel the waxes needed to be to use. Which is why LYCOtec and LYCOdream are such a success, which are very easy to use and do not require so much training.
The other thing with production is that I have had to improve our manufacturing processes to be able to make more wax. Right now, I am in the process of setting up a completely new manufacturing plant, a new factory and offices, as we have run out of capacity where we currently are. Setting up and gearing up for extra production is very expensive and is a huge investment. The demand for LYCON wax is growing year upon year, which is great and our agents worldwide (we sell to 67 countries at the moment), are growing their businesses with LYCON as well, so we need to increase our production, to make sure we all can grow together.
How important do you consider is for a woman being beauty and to succeed in keeping her beauty?
LJ: I think women cannot get away from wanting to look beautiful and young. But there are many aspects to beauty and I think it all comes really from within. You can have the most beautiful woman, but if a woman is not caring, loving, kind and intelligent, we generally don’t like that woman and do not have much time for a person like that. As they say “beauty is skin deep”. But I don’t think women should let themselves go. I think we should take care of ourselves physically and mentally and not look for external things to make us feel better. I think if a woman wants to improve her looks with some assistance like Botox or fillers, why not. As long as one does not get deformed looking by it and totally different. I feel that we are then not really the same person. I think we become like some alien person that does not match the person people know us as. If we disfigure ourselves through injectables etc, I feel we create some kind of confusion in our own minds and others we know and meet. I have an issue with that.
And a personal question: how do you manage to keep yourself in such a great shape?
LJ: Oh, thank you! That is a compliment!
I thought I was a bit in bad shape over the last few weeks. I always feel like that when I travel, as I eat too much wheat based food when I am on the go.
I generally try to eat clean fresh food. I don’t buy packaged pre cooked food at all, like TV dinners. I like to cook, so when I am at home, I mostly eat the food I cook and know what is in there. Regular meals are important to me, although when I used work in my salon, I often didn’t have time to have lunch, which made me super hungry and weak by 4pm. I find I have better energy for the rest of the day, if I have a salad with some protein at lunch, rather than something with bread. If I have a sandwich at lunch, I get the shakes by 3pm, but not with salad and some protein.
I never drink coffee at home or at the office. When I used to have an afternoon coffee at the office after lunch, I got the shakes and lost my energy by 3.30pm. I stopped drinking coffee and the shakes and weak feelings stopped.
I love coffee, but for me it is a mid morning treat, if I am out somewhere.
I used to do weight training a couple of years ago, but I haven’t been doing any exercise for ages. But whatever I do, I do fast and move in a quick and energetic way. When I travel, I do a lot of walking in my spare time, sightseeing or running around looking at shops.
I would love to get more sleep than I do. I generally get about 5-6 hours a night, sometimes only 3. Not a good thing, but working on a global scale, when I go to sleep, the rest of the world is waking up and email communication begins, so I kind of begin another communication day at about 9pm for me in Australia.
I work with a lot of young people and I think that keeps me young and on my toes, which I love.
I don’t drink a lot of alcohol and when I travel I tend to walk a lot.