It’s been a long, exciting path to this huge milestone in NOYA’s journey to store shelves. We are proud to announce that the big day is finally here and NOYA can now be purchased throughout select stores in NY, with more to come in Florida and California over the next several months. You can access the following link for an updated list of stores that carry NOYA lip balms.
In order to share in the celebration, we thought we would take you on a quick trip along the steps it takes to create a simple, all-natural and kosher product such as our yummy lip balms.
Step 1: Finding nature’s secrets
The concept of adding a protective layer to the lips has been around for 100 of years, yet in recent times we have begun to complicate this very simple need. Before creating NOYA, we found that most balms had a long list of ingredients in them, each requiring hours of laborious research just to find out a) what they are and b) what they do. Finally we thought to ourselves: there must be a simpler, more natural way to nourish and protect the lips, and that is when the idea behind NOYA lip balms was born. It wasn’t easy to find just the right textures and ingredients to work with, but finally we settled on the three main components of NOYA balms: extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and beeswax. (Check out our NOYA Lip Balm Series for a description on why we selected each of the ingredients we use!)
Step 2: Finding a balance
Once the ingredients were settled on, it took extensive work just to finalize the right balance and combination to create a formula that’s light yet extremely hydrating and non-greasy but substantial enough to last through hot coffee sips and late night kisses 😉 Plus, we wanted the balms to be a little more fun than your standard lip product and have a taste that’s irresistible! We chose to use all-natural Stevia to add some yumminess to two of our balms, the Cherry and Vanilla along with all-natural flavoring. After multiple trial and errors, we came up with a Vanilla flavor to rival the sweetest of cupcakes, and a cherry that’s a tangy dance on your taste buds. The Mint was a bit tricky, but we think we balanced our spearmint balm to be a perfect, cooling minty sweet goodness that perks you up while moistening your lips. Lastly our Classic lip balm is a simple, no nonsense flavorless lip balm meant for the purists among you! It has only three ingredients and as far as we know is literally the simplest, purest lip balm there is on the market! If nature itself were to create a lip balm, this might be it. 🙂
Step 3: Perfecting the packaging
The original NOYA lip balm tubes were bright and colorful! Hard to believe, but we had a completely different, crayon box inspired look in mind for our NOYA brand. The packing itself was going to be bright and full of colors as well, but after hours of back-breaking work by a design team, (and some sleepless, caffeine-infused nights for us) the colors slowly melted off. We felt that a more modern edge to our packaging conveyed our brand’s mission of a simple and natural lip care line more than the bright, vivid packaging ever could. Even our signature splash of water design went from being a monsoon-sized graphic eating up the packaging to a more demure, eye-friendly wave.
What’s up next for NOYA’s creative team? Perhaps a line of completely biodegradable packaging? Hmm… 🙂
These are just three of the unexpected and fun aspects of creating a lip care line. A lot of time, we had to work off the cuff and experiment with new flavors or create completely novel ways of packaging our lip balms. And we aren’t done yet! Our team is already researching ingredients for new products, and we promise to keep you posted. Stay tuned! And as always, live divinely.
