Born and raised in Mauritius until her majority when she left for England to study combined honors in Management and Beauty Therapy. She also decided to take the option of studying Aromatherapy and Reflexology during her second year and that’s when her passion for alternative therapies was born. After her graduation in England, she decided to go to Montpellier to do an additional year in sales and marketing, being trained by the big companies such as Estée Lauder, Kenzo, Thierry Mugler, L’Oréal. Shiseido etc. At the same time, she entered a makeup competition at her private school for fun and got selected to be in the national team of makeup artists for the Miss France organization. “It was an incredible experience to follow the candidates everywhere in France and to especially discover the French culture, towns, and villages.” This helped her gain confidence and not let others walk on her feet.
Her dream was to combine work and travel and she did everything to be able to get this job even though she got numerous refusals for the first few years due to being told that she was not experienced enough and too young. After a year of working closely with Terry de Gunzburg, founder of the luxurious brand By Terry, and being constantly coached by her, the latter finally gave her the chance to travel on her own and do all the product launches and training internationally. At 24 years old, her career as an international trainer began and she enjoyed every bit of it, however exhausting it was to constantly be on the road. She had worked very hard, harder than the French girls to reach there and had never complained and will forever be grateful to Terry for having given her this chance to travel in her company for press conferences worldwide.
However, there was always a little voice inside that kept calling to go back to skincare. She then got a job as an international trainer for Decléor, owned then by Shiseido Group. Although it was hard to say bye to By Terry, it was her next step up in her career. At 27, she was traveling about 75% of her time worldwide to train the team in each country on new product launches as well as training on massage and treatment techniques. All the teams could feel her passion through the training.
At 30 years old, she was approached by a head hunter and managed to get to International Training Director at La Colline, a Swiss high-end brand located in Paris. Although a smaller business structure, it was there that she learned the most thanks to the trust of her Managing Director who allowed her to put her projects in action for the training department.
About 4 years later, she moved to London but still worked for La Colline as a consultant. However, the hectic lifestyle and constant jet lags were aggravating her eczema which she contracted after an emotional shock when she got attacked in Paris at 24 years old. She then decided to dig back into her first love: natural skincare and Aromatherapy to treat her skin issues. That is when she started to formulate a multi-purpose balm to soothe the itchy and red skin on her face and body. She wanted a multi-purpose balm as she was still traveling a lot and preferred to travel light. Her balm was working wonders on her skin and was very practical to have in her purse anywhere she was going. She decided to call it All-In-One Balm and that’s how the very first product from o.Moi was born in June 2014 in London.
Shortly after, her husband got a job in Copenhagen, Denmark and they moved there in October 2014. Her formulation of the All-In-One Balm had already been tested and validated in Laboratories in London and there were many more in the pipeline too. Therefore she decided to launch the brand o.Moi in Denmark at the beginning of 2015, although the country and language were unknown to her. She didn’t spend all her time on her brand as she had to go to language school 4 times a week as she had to pass the O Level exams in the Danish language – which she did 1 ½ years later. It helped a lot too for her business and to truly integrate into the Danish culture.
Before the birth of her second child, Kristèle and her husband had decided to return to the country to be closer to her family especially and friends. Then Covid-19 happened and the closed borders forced them to stay longer in Denmark than had been planned before they could finally return to Mauritius in September 2020.
What is the philosophy behind O.Moi?
o.Moi is a contraction of the French words “Oh Moi” based on the philosophy of taking time for oneself – truly take some time for oneself (even a few minutes), one’s own “Me Time”. It is a holistic brand with the use of essential oils as Aromatherapy is at the heart of each formulation. This is to bring an instant feeling of well-being upon the application of the product through the sense of smell before acting on the skin.
The “Me Time” is what Kristèle was constantly searching for during her numerous business travels. She sometimes just wanted some spare time alone and in silence, just to reset and reconnect with herself, as one is always surrounded by people/ colleagues during a business trip.
This also applies to everyone today as we all live in a world that changes so fast and we’re constantly hooked to do something. We all have a tendency to voice out that we don’t have enough time, but we can try to spare only a few minutes for ourselves daily – maybe it is just sipping your coffee quietly, or appreciating the feeling of your cream on your face as you massage it in or simply closing your eyes, focusing on your breathing to reset.
For Kristèle, being also a Registered Yoga Teacher, yoga helps her ground, reset and keep a positive attitude. Combining her yoga with O.Moi is the holistic approach to inner and outer wellbeing. This has also been the inspiration for the Respire Yogi Body Oil, which can be used before yoga practice to ground oneself or after the practice to relieve muscle tensions.
Why did you decide to create a Vegan skincare range?
Because I have reactive and sensitive skin, I used only natural ingredients of high quality to reduce the chances of having any rashes, allergies, or irritations. I have furthermore developed a balm for babies and kids, certified allergy-free as I didn’t want my two kids to suffer from any harmful chemicals in the product I was using on them. Moreover, vegan skincare products are never tested on animals and therefore are 100% cruelty-free.
What is one skincare tip that everyone should know?
I would say two things: cleanse and moisturize.
Many skip the cleansing step but honestly, this is so essential. There is no point in spending loads on a “miracle” cream if your skin is not perfectly cleansed. It’s like applying cream on a layer of dirt that has formed like an invisible barrier on the skin surface, hence reducing significantly the absorption of the nutrients from your skincare product.
Also if you are the lazy type, at least moisturize your skin. A skin that lacks moisture will gradually have its natural hydrolipidic film (natural skin barrier) depleted and this will, in turn, accelerates skin aging with the faster appearance of wrinkles.
