Page 132 - EM - Export Magazine Perfumery Edition

INTERVIEW
Dr.ssa REYNALDI
A WHOLE LIFE DEDICATED TO
NATURAL COSMETICS…AND MORE!
we wanted to interview Dr Maria Grazia
Reynaldi because her professional story,
which started in the 1970s, is particularly
interesting. Thanks to her courageous
initiative and sense of entrepreneurship,
Dr Reynaldi’s company today is of great
importance in the beauty sector, both for its
brand and as a private label manufacturer of
cosmetics and toiletries. Andrea and Marco
piccolo Reynaldi are making the company
progress even more, both at R & D level and
technological. One of the present aims is to
relaunch the Dr.ssa Reynaldi brand in Italy
and on international markets.
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EXPORT MAGAZINE: How did tour professional life
start?
GRAZiA ReYNALDi: I graduated in Pharmacy in 1970 with
an experimental thesis on the chemistry of cosmetics. It
was the first year that a Chair of Pharmacy held this type
of course, and Prf. Gianni Proserpio had been invited to
hold it. Recognized by all as one of the fathers of Italian
cosmetics, he has always been fascinated by botany and
natural products, as well as being an excellent chemist.
On his suggestion, in my thesis I had replaced Vaseline
and petroleum jellies by natural oils and plant extracts,
against every current trend, which mainly followed the
guidelines of the pharmaceutical companies. My passion
for cosmetics soon had to do with my activity as a wife
and mother. I got married in 1971 and within two years
Andrea and Marco were born, who obviously absorbed
much of my energy, without silencing my desire to ‘do
something’, also to contribute to the household budget.
My husband, an excellent engineer, was working for Fiat
but his salary was not enough to reach the end of the
month. I started making camomile shampoos for my
boys in the kitchen, yes I really said in the kitchen, in the
pasta saucepan, then foam baths, intimate cleansers
based on menthol; my friends asked me for them as
well; then some chemists’ in the neighbourhood called
me for quantities of 20 kilos at a time, to sell to their
customers with a personalized label. One bathroom at
home had become my laboratory and as in September
the boys would have started school, to avoid queues
for the bathroom in the morning, I had to find premises
where I could start my business. In May 1979, I seized
the opportunity of a building under construction in Via
Cardinal Fossati in Turin, which was to have shops on
two floors. We rented one shop with access for customers
on street level, with a view of the laboratory underneath
and we said to ourselves: may God help us, if the worst
comes to the worst we’ll take a step back… My mother
was one of my great supporters, also helping me in some
phases of the actual work.