Meet Wow Woman Olivia Thorpe of Vanderohe

Olivia, please share your daily wellbeing routine with us.

I don’t follow any particular diet – I think it’s dangerous to cut out certain food groups, so instead I make sure I listen to what my body needs and I always try to eat only organic food. Running around after my kids and juggling my business with home life makes it difficult to allocate time to consciously unwind, but my most important ways to re-center and wind down are running, swimming and taking a long, relaxing bath in the evening, filled with aromatherapeutic plant oils. All three keep my mind feeling fresh and help to get rid of the fog from the sleepless nights that come with having a baby.

What are the 3 things that you need in your daily life for you to ‘be your best you’?

My husband and our two sons. They fill my day with laughter and love and that’s all I need to be the best version of me.

How important is it for women to have cheerleaders? Who are your cheerleaders?

I think it’s very important and I think if those cheerleaders are women then all the better. To have honest, open, encouraging female support is gold dust. I’m so grateful to all the women who have recognised the work and love I put into my business. Who have believed in me and who have actively and selflessly wanted to help me along the way and be a part of the journey too. My dear friend May, in particular, who is also an expert and professional in beauty, has been an amazing, unwavering pillar of support for me, a tireless sounding board and a fountain of inspiration.

How do you manage stress/relax?

It depends on the time of the day… a run, a bath, a good book, a massage, a hug from my kids, a shopping splurge or a lovely glass of wine all help!

What motivated/inspired you to launch your brand Vanderohe?

I had tried thousands of beauty products whilst editing Vanderohe.com (Editorial) and I never found anything that satisfied my skin sensitivities and that I felt that I could trust 100%. It always seemed to me that even the “organic, green, clean” brands cut corners or just skimped on transparency and so the trust wasn’t there for the products I was using. When I was pregnant this trust for what I was putting on my skin became vital and I started creating my own products… that was the starting point.

Read our review of the Vanderohe No 1 Nourishing Face Serum here

I love that your brand ‘Vanderohe’ was initially born out of a need for a solution to a personal need: do you believe that there is a link between wellbeing, outer beauty and ultimately inner strength?

Yes. Wellbeing is so important and it’s not about yoga or meditating or eating kale, it’s about feeling good about yourself, feeling at your healthiest and strongest, feeling loved and feeling love for yourself. That is, for me, what governs an overall feeling of wellbeing and connects inner and outer beauty.

Olivia, your products appeal to the senses on all levels, the most obvious being the sense of smell. Why is fragrance so important to you and so impactful on us?

Our sense of smell is arguably the strongest sense we have and can unlock doors, cross time frames and move us emotionally out of apparently nowhere. It has been both neglected and destroyed in the majority of skincare products with either scentless formulas or overpowering synthetic scents. I personally had never found a skincare product for my face before, with a totally natural fragrance, which had the power to access and affect an emotional part of my brain.

In your journey as an entrepreneur, what have you discovered about yourself that surprised you?

That I can bring together all the little necessary and varied cogs and make them run smoothly to drive an idea into becoming a beautiful product, no matter where I’m working from or what my distractions are.

Do you think that how women define their beauty is changing to a more individual approach or are we still being dictated to by society at large?

It’s certainly changing but it’s going to take a long time to undo the years of brainwashing we’ve unwittingly suffered through clever advertising and simply not being provided the knowledge and information we should have had.

Do you think that social media has helped to push the cause for greater inclusiveness in the beauty industry?

Definitely. I think social media is actually to thank for the green beauty movement as a whole.

If you were asked to give a ‘TedTalk’ what would you talk about?

The ugly truth about beauty.

What makes you laugh out loud?

My boys.