Behind the Brands: Zeosoft

There’s no denying that the Beauty Crew are huge fans of New Zealand brands, and we especially love discovering new Kiwi brands and products. One of our latest discoveries is the fabulous brand, Zeosoft.

Zeosoft has created a superb range of skin and body care products that are designed to cleanse, detoxify and revive the skin, thanks to the active mineral Soft Zeolite, which is found in New Zealand’s geothermal lands, as well as natural ingredients and essential oils.

Of course, it wasn’t enough for us to simply admire the products, we needed to know more, so we were ecstatic when Phil Connolly, CEO of Zeosoft, agreed to have a chat. So what’s it like creating a natural beauty brand? What challenges are faced? What successes are seen? And just how does one get an amazing New Zealand netballer to be the face of your brand….

Read on!

Phil, tell us a bit about yourself…What is your background?  How long have you been in the Beauty Industry?

I have a tech background and have been involved in Tech start-ups for over 20 years in NZ. I became involved in the beauty industry by helping out a friend who had started Zeosoft in about 2011. My role was as an advisor to develop local and international sales strategies, plus raise capital for the business. Long story short – I then ended up managing the business.

My involvement in the beauty industry is relatively recent with the development of our skin cleansing range. My wife and daughters have been using the products from the outset, and say they are great, as do independent users in the trials, which I have to rely on to validate the products.

How did the idea to launch Zeosoft come about?

Leading Geoscientist Dr Ray Merchant discovered the zeolite deposit 20+ years ago. Zeolites are an active mineral that absorb negatively charged elements, and Ray soon realised that this deposit, in the Ngakuru Valley, had special properties that could be used in repairing and reviving the skin.

Then in the late 2000s, the Zeosoft founders spent over 2 years trying to suspend the zeolite rock into a liquid formulation using only natural ingredients, with the requirement for it to be an effective cleanser. This process we have now patented.

What is the philosophy behind Zeosoft?  What does it stand for?

Zeosoft stands for ‘soft’ zeolite, meaning young and very absorbent zeolite that is soft on the skin.

Zeosoft’s philosophy is about being good to use, good for you, and good for the environment, using natural ingredients.

What is Zeosoft’s best selling product?

The cleansers are the best selling products, as the zeolite’s absorbent properties naturally lend themselves to cleansing and repairing skin. Currently only part of the range has been released, so watch out for the washes and blemish removing products as they come onto the market.

What is it about this product that makes it so popular?

The story is a unique New Zealand story. We are essentially cleaning the human skin with a rock straight out of the ground. The soft zeolites remove contaminants from the skin, and the Opal silicas, plus the natural soap base, leave the skin feeling fresh and revived. The ingredients actually do good things to your skin, and the environmental benefit adds to the story. 

The combination of key ingredients make these products great to use. Also of importance, is the products do what they say they will do.

What’s your favourite product from the Zeosoft range?

I love the soap bars, but I think that is just a boy thing. My wife loves the Face Scrub and my 18 year old daughters have taken to the Skin Cleanser.

What advice would you give to someone reading this who would like to do what you’ve done?

Don’t do it – get a safe job! No seriously, produce and sell what the market wants and not want you want to sell them. They may not be aligned. Spend the time and money to confirm this. We made the mistake early on thinking people would want to buy our heavy duty hand cleaner products, but this wasn’t the case even though they were 100% natural and performed well.

We love that international New Zealand netball player, Maria Tutaia, is the face of your brand. How did she come to be on board?

Maria is fantastic. Naturally beautiful, a lovely person and she believes in natural products. Plus the product is from her home town – Tokoroa.

It was very important to us that Maria loved the products, and could feel the benefit of the products on her skin. Not an easy task given her beautiful skin. Maria also wanted to understand the unique story around the ‘soft zeolites’ which was cool for us.

We connected with Maria via her manager, David Steele who I knew through other businesses. He wanted to build Maria’s brand with brands that reflected her values and we discussed how our Zeosoft personal care range would be an ideal fit being unique, natural, premium and from her home town.

What’s been the biggest highlight you’ve experienced since launching Zeosoft?

Definitely being able to produce products that people really like that are good for people, and the environment. Having people say we ‘love’ the products, our skin ‘feels great’ and it is ‘making a difference’ to our skin, is very cool especially coming from a no knowledge base. I didn’t even do chemistry at school, so quite the learning curve!

You don’t get that response developing software!

What has been the biggest challenge you've faced? 

Without a doubt producing the products. While the formulations are like a food recipe, get one step wrong and the batch turns to custard, or in our case solid rock!  The formulations are not normal chemical liquid formulations. Zeolite is an active ingredient which very few chemists know how to work with, and zeolite can ‘eat’ other ingredients in the formulation. This is why we can only use essential oils as fragrances, the zeolite eats artificial fragrances.

We even had the ‘Original Skin Cleanser Range’ formulators (over 100 years’ experience), produce their 1^st batches incorrectly!

To many people, you would have their dream job, what is the best thing about working for such a gorgeous beauty brand?

Being a bloke I’m not a big user of the range myself, - it is having people say these products are great and we ‘love’ the product.

Getting people to ‘like’ products is relatively easy, but it’s much harder to get people to ‘love’ them.

If you could give one piece of advice to people about how to maintain beautiful skin, what would it be?

Take the time to understand what you are putting on your skin. You will be amazed what is in products that you apply on your skin. Known brands and expensive products don’t necessarily translate into being good for you and/or the environment.

What does a normal day for you consist of?

Right now it is all about getting product to market and executing marketing campaigns. I am currently working with a combination of local and international distributors (we already have some interest from Australia, UK and Asia).

How do you relax?

I try to keep up with up with a family of women, play a bit of golf, and keep fit!

Can you give us a hint about what is next for Zeosoft?

Watch out for our Blemish removal product (acne removal product). This is currently in trial, and results have been impressive. Interestingly it is one of those accidental products!  Also, the body wash is not far away.

Thanks so much for chatting with us Phil, and for giving us further insights into your amazing beauty products. Want to find out more, or want to discover the benefits of Zeosoft for yourself? Visit their website, www.zeosoft.co.nz. And keep an eye out for the Best Beauty Box Ever’s upcoming NZ Brands Two box, which will feature one of Zeosoft’s fabulous products!