Last Thursday, on behalf of Modern Mix Vancouver, I met with Lev Glazman, the co-founder of the wildly successful beauty brand fresh. Despite being in interviews all day, he’s no short of energy and his warm personality immediately puts me at ease. It’s his first time in the city, and Vancouver is putting on quite the show with the sunset behind us at the Fairmont Pacific Rim. It feels like the perfect setting to talk with him about fresh‘s latest collection, featuring black tea. Over the past two decades, fresh has revolutionized the skincare industry with ingredients like sugar, soy, milk, and yes – sake.
For Lev, it’s all about exploring ancient traditions of beauty. His passion is working with natural ingredients that have withstood the test of time and he believes nature has an answer for everything. Pairing natural ingredients with technology is how he wants to bring these traditions to the forefront of the beauty industry. The Black Tea collection is fresh‘s latest inspired by that mantra. First launched in 2008, the collection has already won three best of beauty awards with Allure. My initial thought about this line is that tea is meant for drinking, but Lev quickly dispels any hesitation by explaining that black tea is a skincare super ingredient. Black team in particular has a few more bonuses above other teas:
- It contains double the amount of caffeine, which helps with circulation. In comparison, green tea has 2% and coffee has 8-9%.
- It has a very high level of antioxidants
- It contains tannins, which is considered to include antiseptic properties
With these benefits in mind, the Black Tea Collection is based on a proprietary complex made of four key ingredients: Black Tea Ferment, Black Tea Leaf Extract, Blackberry Leaf Extract, and Lychee Seed Extract. Each ingredient is carefully selected to work in conjunction with the other in fresh’s black tea product collection:
- fresh Black Tea Instant Perfection Mask – This feels less like a mask, and more like a gentle, silky moisturizing cream. The mask feels like it put moistures back into my skin instead of sitting on the top and flaking off into a dry crust. I love that the smell is neither too pungent nor too sweet. When developing this product, Lev shares that he was on a long flight to Asia when he looked out the window and wanted to emulate the feeling of the clouds.
- fresh Black Tea Age Delay Eye Concentrate – Lev refers to it as his desert product because if he had to choose just one, this would be it. This powerful eye cream includes a fifth ingredient that works especially well for the delicate skin around our eyes – noni fruit juice. By locking in moisture, it works with the proprietary complex to reduce dark circles and puffiness. Meant to be used day or night, you can wear it under makeup to revive tired eyes.
- fresh Black Tea Age-Delay Instant Infusion – It’s silky and smooth and you don’t need a lot. Described as somewhere in between a toner and essence it’s meant to be used right after you wash your face to lock in moisture.
- fresh Black Tea Age-Delay Cream – This firming treatment is meant to reduce the signs of aging and protect against further damage while providing 24 hours of moisture support. It’s also available in a serum for a lighter option on those hot summer days.
With only good things to come, Lev’s curiosity continues to lie in being a pioneer for the beauty industry. He hopes to continue to challenge the way technology is used to revolutionize the industry without forgetting about its past. We can’t wait to see what’s to come for this beautifully simplistic and elegant brand. With fives stores in New York, locations in London, LA, and San Fran, fresh is currently exclusively available at Sephora. That is, until we can convince him to open a flagship store in Vancouver, which we would full heartedly embrace! For more details on the Black Tea Collection check out the store online or on sephora.com.
