The three leading cosmetic companies in Greece offer original methods for skin beautification and covering the traces from lack of sleep and time, which leaves its marks on the face and body.

The big internationally famous cosmetic companies in Greece are “Apivita,” which is famous with products made out of bee honey, “Korres,” whose first product was a honey and anise cough drop, and last – “Symmetria,” which offers products developed by French experts for facial skin problems.

Following the bees

“Apivita” was founded by the 62 year old Nikos Koutsianas, who was nominated as one of the “20 to know” in 2008 by “Global Cosmetic Industry Magazine.”

Mr. Koutsianas has been producing natural products ever since 1970 and has a long experience as a pharmacist and an apiarist. Long before the “natural products” trend came along, Mr. Koutsianas had started following the bees, which led him to his treasure – the idea of producing crèmes and cosmetics based on honey, bee glue, and royal jelly. In order for the crèmes and lotions to reveal their miraculous powers, Mr. Koutsianas used more than 5 000 plants, including Cretan sea dill and fraxinella. “Apivita’s” team had found more than 50 000 formulas, which make their products successful in more than 4 000 pharmacies in Greece and many newly opened stores worldwide.

“Right now natural and organic products are the fastest growing cosmetic industry with annual share of 17%,” says Mr. Koutsianas. “There two effective ways to make such products: science and nature. The brands, which manage to combine those two factors in a successful way, will make it on the market. Our company is the leading one in shampoos – we sell more than 60 000 bottles per year.”

Even in today’s hardship, the 30 year old company is succeeding, because just like the bees, its owners care for her. “People were coming to me with a mild cough and I used to give them cough syrups but after that I asked myself – why should I do this? In my village we would have been drinking herbal tea. My mother was still living in our village when I got the idea. I asked her to gather some herbs and this is how we started making extracts and ointments. Little by little we developed phytotherapy. We kept the ordinary medicines on the back shelves of the pharmacy and the rest of the room was full of herbs, honey, royal jelly, cough syrups, constipation syrup and herbs for psoriasis. We were the first pharmacy in Greece, which did that.”

Koutsianas continued his education, he specialized in economics and law and after that his wife for 36 years, Niki came along. When they met, Niki was studying pharmaceutics and she wanted to do her 3 month internship in the Koutsianas family pharmacy. This was when the first love sparks flew between them and since then, they are not only partners for life but successful colleagues as well.

When they founded the company in 1979, they four people all together. Now their number exceeds 220 people. The first innovative product, which they launched on the market under the name “Apivita,” was a soap made out of propolis and right now the company has over 300 new products. “Apivita” is famous as the company pioneer in the biocosmetic sector and its products are made entirely of natural products. The company is preferred by consumers and is number one in the hair care market with a share of 40%.