By: Rudy Sanchez
Inspired by the desire to improve the lives of women in war-torn and distressed countries, Canadian journalist Barb Stegmann took an unlikely turn into the world of cosmetics after a friend was injured trying to liberate women and girls in Afghanistan.
In 2009, she sourced her first cup of orange blossom oil from Afghanistan and has now expanded her cosmetic enterprise The 7 Virtues by gathering ingredients from Haiti, Rwanda, India, Iran and Madagascar. Stegmann has empowered local Afghani farmers by enabling them to earn more with legitimate crops such as orange and rose instead of illicit poppy growing in Afghanistan, providing income opportunities for adult orphans and HIV widows in Rwanda, or teaching the blind to become perfumers in India.
“My real job is to make rebuilding more exciting than destruction. I do this through perfume,” Stegmann has said.
The perfumes are vegan, organic, fair trade and cruelty-free. The alcohol base is organic and non-GMO, and all perfumes are phthalate free, paraben free, sulfate free and formaldehyde free. The packaging is FSC certified, meaning it is made from materials responsibly forested, as well as Green-e certified, made from 100% renewable green electricity.
The bottles are designed simply, with labels featuring the primary oil ingredient against a single color background and a description on the back in both English and French. The boxes are similarly styled, using the same typeset font as the bottle labels.
Through social entrepreneurship, companies like The 7 Virtues empowers women and others in places with fewer economic opportunities than industrialized nations to create and grow legitimate businesses that can, in turn, create positive change through economic opportunities. Better still, they not only leave customers feeling good but smelling good as well.
Rudy Sanchez
Rudy Sanchez is a product marketing consultant based in Southern California. Once described by a friend as her “technology life coach,” he is a techie and avid lifelong gamer. When he’s not writing or helping clients improve their products, he’s either watching comedies on Netflix, playing the latest shooter or battle royale game or out exploring the world via Ingress and Pokémon Go.
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