News

Red Flower's Indulgence

April 1st, 2008

Interview with Yael Alkalay, founder and creator of Red Flower

by Anne Marie Cummings

Maybe it does take a life-threatening experience for some of us before we begin to appreciate the wondrous simplicities of life to the very fullest.  And this is what happened to the young and stunningly beautiful Yael Alkalay, founder and creator of Red Flower - a line of bath and beauty products that remind us to slow down and enjoy the moments of ritual in our lives.  Red Flower products allow us to feel sensual, peaceful, and connected.  The rituals when Yael was a young girl, making rose jam, violet liqueurs, and pouring olive oil on her wet skin after a shower may be the essence Yael brings to a line of products that indulge the senses, particularly the skin.  After sampling the Red Flower Hammam Cardamom Amber Oil, my body was invigorated, my mind relaxed as if it had been whisked away to a Turkish spa.  And for the rest of my day?  It was dreamy -- no doubt because of the unmistakable warming scent nearby.

 

Where did your inspiration for the Red Flower line come from?  The belief that one should live life fully.

What was it that made you start this business?  It's a very personal business.  I think it's imperative that each individual take a hold of life, and this is something I could only do through the vehicle of Red Flower.

And how do you determine the combination of ingredients in your products?  Are you hands on in that process?  I took the approach of looking at traditional healing methods from my family in combination with the study I did in anthropology.  My mother was a pharmacist, my grandfather was the first dermatologist in Bulgaria, and I grew up with a need to take care of my skin in a very serious way.  Through the tremendous research that I've done, reading and trial and error, Red Flower was developed.  We now have a chemist on staff, G.D. from the New York area.  His family is originally from Chile, but they left.  His grandfather was a Senator under Allende and they had to leave because of the coup.  So what G.D. brings to Red Flower is the sense of revolution, which Red Flower is all about.  Part of my family came from Turkey, and they all left their country for similar reasons as his left Chile, social and political unrest.  The other side of my family, on my mother's side, left Spain under the rule of the church - every Jew had to leave Spain out of the same port.  So there's a sense of righteousness and holding onto what is important to tracing your family's roots.  We are all from someplace different which is not the same place where we are from now. 

What do you love about your work?  Everything, but mostly the people I work with.  Creating something that really does inspire a great feeling.  Red Flower provides an opportunity for people to shift their point of view with something as simple as taking a shower or a bath.

Who influences you?  I read a lot, I wander through Manhattan.  Inspiration comes from engaging and listening to the world.  And of course I've been inspired by my mother.  She has an incredible will to live fully, and to engage in life in a complete way.  I feel blessed to have that genetic imprint on my own outlook.  It's also the willingness I have to explore and discover new things.  I'll put anything on my face to try it once.  This comes back to the development of products.  It's a series of trial and error really.  I'm working with all natural materials, and thankfully G.D. has developed his background in non-paraben preservative systems.

There seems to be an underlying spiritual component to your products.  Yes.  Right before I started Red Flower I had a stroke.  I was twenty-seven, skiing in France, and before I knew it my life flashed before me.  It was the day before Christmas when everything there was closed, and something unbelievable happened.  It was one of those moments of health crisis.  Because of that I believe I've been reminded of what I have and what I need in order to take care of my whole being.  That was big for me to understand at a young age.

How do you define your own spirituality?  Humanist, universalist, naturalist.  I draw from many pieces of nature, and life.

How do you take care of your own health?  Finding time to live life is essential.  I minimize stress, that's key.  I have a purpose behind everything I do.  It's not always easy to walk the walk, but this has become an essential practice in my life to remind myself of the aspects I propose as my mission.  And there's a lot of love in my life, the basic needs of human life.  My family is really wonderful.  I incorporate simple practices: I do yoga, I eat well, I'm a vegetarian, I use all organic products, and I simplify the emotional and environmental toxins in my life.

Was there one product that launched your business?  I would say our Indian Jasmine Candle, and our Organic Lavender Tea.

How do you distinguish your products from others?  Our intentions are very authentic, and our execution is pure.  I believe that people feel that.

Your line is created on the basic principles of ritual, celebration, wellness, integrity and aesthetic.   What inspired this interesting combination of concepts?  I think the inspiration was there, and then came the deconstruction of it, figuring out the approach.  I felt creating Red Flower was a burst into the world, a guide as a way to live, a point of encouragement. 

How do you embrace your principals living in a sometimes chaotic city like Manhattan?  For me there's no other place I would want to live.  I draw a lot of energy from Manhattan.  Sometimes it is exhausting, and then I have the common sense to know when I have to leave.  That's when I go and visit everything from the beaches that are close by, the museums, to just taking a walk in Central Park.  I think knowing what you need and recognizing the moments when you have to escape are essential to respond to.

Your mother is from Buenos Aires, and your father's family is from Turkey and Bulgaria.  It's obvious how Turkey has been an influence on some of your products, for example the Hammam products, but how has Buenos Aires been an influence for your line?    In Argentina there's a sharing of tea.  When they drink their tea they use bombillas (bom-bee-yah), it's a metal straw to sip the tea.  There is a want of sharing, creating harmony in a group.  This is what comes out in the Red Flower tea line.

Which country do you think has influenced you the most in terms of developing your products?  I wouldn't say there is one.  It's a global approach.  I am certainly inspired by Japan.  I lived there for four years.  There's a principal discipline and philosophical approach to living there which I found incredibly inspiring. 

Why have you spent time in Turkey?   I go to enjoy myself.  The last time I went it was for a family reunion of one-hundred-fifty people from all over the world.   I brought my daughter along with me, it was really incredible.  We went to great deal of Hammams, and in fact one of the women at our family reunion was from Australia, and she had a great diary of Hammam visits, visits from her mother and her mother's mother.  I think my work is my life, and my life is my work.

Since the concept of your line is based on rituals, what were some of your favorite rituals growing up? Drinking maté after school, making rose jam with my mother when the house would smell like roses, making violet liqueurs, going to the ocean no matter what time of year it was.  It's there, it's the sea, and there's nothing more engaging than letting the ocean speak to you.

Which line of your products provides your favorite ritual? I like to light the Red Flower candles.  It's in the simple act of taking the petals off and lighting them.  I also treasure the times I exfoliate and use the Japan scrub - that's very important for me.  When I can get a whole jar for myself and do the seven-step Japan treatment...you start with the wash, the scrub, you put oil and cream over the body, and it doesn't take any longer than a regular shower, but it extends it into something so revitalizing.  And I'm truly obsessed with tea.  I'm a big lavender and jasmine tea drinker.

What made you decide to place scented dry petals on top of your candles? I wanted a ritual to start with something.  Lighting a candle can be something you don't think about.  So the first experience is touching something alive, you're touching petals and then you have to think of something to do with them.  You can put them in a bowl, you can throw them in the air, it's a layer of complexity added to such a simple act.

I noticed that guaiac (from a South American tree) is used in a few of your certified organic perfumes.  What does guaiac smell like and why were you attracted to it?  It smells incredible.  Now there's another place where Argentina influences Red Flower.  It smells like cashmere leather, tobacco, the wild.  It's got that incredible tree and bark smell, that's what Argentina smells like - a freshness and rawness mixed together.  It's got a smoky quality to it.

Are you planning on creating more teas in addition to the three you have now?  I love the aspect of loose tea.  I'm interested in the internal and external approach to beauty, and I'm very interested in the practice of importing organically and biodynamically grown herbs. 

How old are you?  I'm thirty-nine.  I can't believe that!

I love your gift sets - maybe the one I love the most is your organic massage oil set - can you tell me more about the inspiration behind that set?  I think using oil in general is a missing step in our country.  I grew up getting in the bath water and being covered in avocado oil and then drying myself off - the skin when it's wet can absorb more oil.  It's just been a practice for me my whole life to use oil on my skin.

Is there a country that you are interested in visiting for the purposes of new Red Flower products?  Soon I'll be going to Scandinavia.  It'll be my fifth or sixth trip there.  I'm planning on studying their sauna processes, and working with specific wild-crafting farmers so I can study with them on location to determine how to distill their wild mushrooms and berries.

Isaac Mizrahi has been quoted as saying that your Spanish Gardenia scented candles are for special occasions, but out of all of them, which is your favorite?  French Lavender.  It reminds me most of Argentina, it has pepprina in it which only grows in Cordova, Argentina.  That whole region smells like mint, it's not a mint like any other mint, it's very peppery.  It reminds me of that place and that time of my life.

What was it about the Japanese bath ritual that inspired you?  It's communal, it's not extraordinary, it's part of every day life, and it's accessible to everyone.  Mostly it feels incredible.  The restorative qualities are very powerful - all the aspects of the ritual are deeply healing and so rich in texture - truly an experience of the five senses.  And it's not trying to be something it's not.  It's very complete, natural.  It's not like someone came and planned this ritual, it just is.  It's infused with prayer and taking care of the body.

Another one of your popular products is the Red Flower Hammam Cardamom Amber Oil - I know that I like cardamom in my food, but how does it invigorate the skin?  It's used in aromatherapy to awaken the mind.  Sometimes cardamom is used in coffee, it opens the nasal passages, and on the skin it works to invigorate the metabolism and warm the skin which improves circulation, increasing the temperature of the body which helps with detoxification.

I noticed that on your website you have a list of scents.   Each one is named after the country of origin - they are tied to a place.  These extracts are site-specific, even when it doesn't make sense.

Are you thinking of opening a Hammam spa?   Oh I'm thinking about doing a lot of things, maybe not a Hammam spa, but I do have a desire to create a place, a retreat, that would be a signature of Red Flower. 

Red Flower's collection is entirely botanically based, 100 % vegetarian, and paraben free.

www.redflower.com

7 Step Ritual Based Body Treatment - offered here at Rasa Spa

JAPAN  

begin

by washing.  to purify and hydrate.

yuzu mimosa sea algae wash

 

then gently scrub

to stimulate blood flow, energize and firm.

ohana gingergrass bamboo scrub

 

softly buff

to nourish and soften.

wild cherry blossom rice buff

 

generously mist

to anti-oxidize, revive, replenish and reduce the effects of harsh water.

rose camellia plum soft-water mist

 

warmly glow

to increase blood flow, warm the body, create glow, deeply scent.

kinmoxei wild lime silk oil

 

feel

to silk, seal, scent and soften.

plum blossom silk cream

 

sometimes soak

to draw water's energy into the skin.

hinoki mint mineral bath soak

 

<<< Back