During the pandemic, Ana Catarina Andrade decided to take her life in a new direction. With the stress of working in a hospital during COVID-19 and seeing that her skin reflected that same stress, the creator of SAZOREA decided to get to work and create a line of cosmetics to her liking, always influenced by her Azorean roots. In June 2024, the brand was finally launched, which, according to Ana Catarina Andrade, managed to convey what the Azores are like through synaesthesia.

Correio dos Açores – How did you come to create SAZOREA?

Catarina Andrade (SAZOREA’s creator) – I was born in Corvo and trained as a cardiology technician. I spent a few years working in Ireland in a hospital.

At a certain point, I wondered if this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to try other things, and this coincided with the start of COVID. At the time, with COVID-19, working in a hospital wasn’t easy at all. That was when I said, “This isn’t for me,” and started thinking about what I could do. I’m very creative and wanted to explore that side of creativity more. I think we waste a lot of time at work and don’t have time to live life, so I wanted something where I could explore both sides: being creative and managing my time in the best way without being stuck in a job from 9am to 5pm, even though I now work longer hours than I used to (laughs). But since I work in my own business, it has a different flavor.

I started to see what I liked doing, and I’ve always liked cosmetics. I was the girl who used many hair products since I have curly hair, and I’ve always been cautious with my skin. My grandmother also made soap at home, so I thought I’d try it. As I mentioned, this was all at the time of COVID, when I was already under the natural stress of working at the time and had even more stress because I wasn’t happy at work. Then, I started to notice changes in my skin. Skin problems are often psychosomatic, meaning that stress and tiredness are reflected in the skin. My skin started having problems, and the solutions I found weren’t solutions, nor did I like the products. SAZOREA was born from the combination of these two things: the problem I was having with my skin and the desire to do something else, taking advantage of my love of cosmetics.

I took advantage of the fact that most things were done online at the time of COVID, and there were no distractions with the lockdown. Although I didn’t do it because I worked in a hospital, nothing could distract me. So, I started studying online at a school in the UK to learn how to make cosmetics and cosmetic formulations. And I got the taste. So, I started making them for myself and saw my skin improve. Then I started offering it to my friends, and they liked it. I also got a taste for making cosmetics and wanted to study more. So, in 2021, I returned to the Azores, specifically to Corvo, where I was doing a master’s degree in Cosmetic Sciences and then a postgraduate course. When I returned, I already knew what I wanted to do, I had a business project, and I had the idea of developing cosmetics with ingredients from the Azores and that the brand would be about the Azores. I submitted an application to the Regional Government’s support program, Açores 2020.

By the end of 2021, things were moving forward, and I kept the two jobs side by side. But there came a point when I said to myself that I had to continue this project from the Azores, that I had to go back, that I really wanted to do this, and it wouldn’t be possible to do it in Ireland.

When I returned, everything I could do was already done and developed, namely the products themselves. I had already created the prototypes of the formulas. I found a partner laboratory because my project didn’t envisage setting up a laboratory as it would involve a high cost and a lot of logistics. Creating a cosmetics laboratory in Corvo wouldn’t have been expensive.

I presented my prototypes to a laboratory with partnerships with other brands, told them what I wanted and we worked for about a year to improve the formula. It was only after this step was completed that I started looking for partners to design the packaging, create the website, take photographs of the products when they were ready, design the logo, and everything else that was needed to get the brand onto the market in addition to putting the formula in a bottle. So, in June of this year, we launched the brand.

Were you able to develop partnerships in the Azores to promote the brand?

We’re present at the spa in Aldeia da Coada, in Flores, and at the Senhora da Rosa hotel, in São Miguel, in the spa and facial treatments area, as the hotel has a store. So far, these are the two points of sale, and we’re closing another point of sale here in the Azores.

At the time of the launch, we held an event with influencer Carolina Meneses, where she very kindly shared the products at the launch.

Does the name SAZOREA have any meaning?

Imagine an anagram where you have the letters Azores and change the order of the letters. As I said, I wanted the brand to represent the Azores. The products contain ingredients from flowering plants from the Azores in their formula, and I wanted it to be more than that: I wanted the name to be Azores and even the logo to have something from the Azores in it (it has the 9 referring to the nine islands). I wanted the whole story surrounding the brand to be about the Azores and it didn’t make sense for me to have products from the Azores and for the brand to be called ‘Catarina Cosméticos’. There was no connection. In a brand, there has to be a whole story to tell. So we took AZORES and, fiddling with the letters, came up with the name SAZORE. But I didn’t like the phonetics. There was something that didn’t sound right about the name. As I’m Ana Catarina, and it has the A for Azores, we put it at the end, and SAZOREA was born.

Have your sales expectations been met?

We’re at the beginning, and I’m aware that all beginnings take time, but so far, we’ve had a volume of sales that is within expectations for the beginning. The media has also been beneficial in spreading the word, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them publicly. Working with Carolina has also helped a lot.

Everything is on track for the time we have on the market. He turned five months old on the 17th.

And what are your expectations for the Christmas season?

I’m hoping for a sales boom (laughs). We’ve had good sales, but I hope to see a slight increase now. We’re also going to work on some Christmas campaigns. It’s always that time of year that sells. We’re confident, and we already have a campaign underway to buy our products. We’re convinced that it will go well.

Is it challenging to be an entrepreneur in the Azores?

It’s generally challenging to be an entrepreneur in Portugal. The Azores have logistical problems, and Corvo has even more.

The Regional Government’s support programs are great for providing that initial capital boost. They are non-repayable grants. However, when setting up a business, which is common in Portugal, there are bureaucratic processes: setting up the company and registering the brand, which also takes time.

Speaking of cosmetic products, it’s not just about creating, manufacturing, and putting it in a box. A series of tests have to be carried out. All cosmetics made in Portugal are safe because, by law, we are obliged to carry out a certain number and type of tests. These are European Union laws that are then applied in Portugal by Infarmed, which is the body that regulates not only medicines but also cosmetics. Many processes are lengthy and time-consuming to comply with the legislation. And then there’s all the bureaucracy of setting up a company.

It’s difficult, but I thought it would be more so. I was lucky to be surrounded by excellent partners who helped me with the initial application. I had a consultancy company that helped me along the way, and all my suppliers are people who have their own businesses and know what it’s like to have a business, and they shared a lot of advice and direction. I can say that SAZOREA today is not the SAZOREA I envisioned in 2019. There has been a change, for the better, in growth because I’ve been able to surround myself with people who have taken me in the best direction for the brand. Everything I’ve been able to create in the Azores has been made in the Azores, also to help the local economy. We all worked for the same thing: to do our best for a brand that would give visibility to the Azores. This also made the process easier. Being in Corvo having a company based in Corvo has the barrier of logistics with the accessibility of shipping the products. Even having a space to host the company since Corvo has no business incubator. There is this local difficulty in Corvo’s reality.

What difficulties have you encountered because the company is based in Corvo?

They’re the ones I mentioned above. The question of accessibility is more complicated now that we’re entering winter when there are fewer flights. But everything can be done. My mentality is to work with what we have, and I can’t create a solution that doesn’t exist. Our customers also know that if they order our products today, they won’t have them at their house by noon tomorrow. It’s all about managing our expectations and the customers, too.

Do you have any message you’d like to give to those who haven’t tried SAZOREA yet?

I say give it a try (laughs). Our logo is ‘Azores in a Bottle’. As I said, it’s not just the name or the ingredients; it’s a whole experience of the Azores.

When I emigrated, I missed the Azores every day, so I thought I’d create a product that those who have been to the Azores and buy it will remember the Azores. We have an olfactory memory, where we remember a smell and a moment in our lives. This is called synesthesia when we associate colors and smells with places, moments, or people.

With the set of essential oils, plants, and extracts, we created an aroma that made me want to open the bottle and have my memory take me to the Azores. It’s a whole experience of smell and memory. Those from the Azores will open the bottle, use it, and feel it’s the Azores. Those who have been to the Azores will wear it and remember what they are. And those who haven’t been to the Azores will want to go to the Azores when they use our products. We are committed to communicating the Azores, not just the product, on our social networks and website. We want to convey what the Azores are all about through nature and sea videos so that it’s not just an olfactory experience but also a visual one. We’re not selling a product but an experience. In this sense, SAZOREA is for anyone who wants to feel what the Azores are like.

Frederico Figueiredo is a journalist for Correio dos Açores-Natlaino Viveiros, director.

https://sazorea.com/en/#

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADE.