SA.AL&CO, Everything You Need To Know

We caught up with our friends at SA.AL&CO, the Austrian, organic and easy male skincare brand that focuses on being sustainable, simple and beneficial to all. Created in Austria, Tryol find out why we love them!

#1 Can you tell us a little bit about how the brand was formed and principles behind SA.AL&CO?

The idea when forming the brand was to create a sophisticated men’s skincare brand, one that poses a modern alternative to the established brands by the means of design and product experience. By doing so, the brand principles focused on sustainability - by creating certified natural, even vegan skincare, using alpine spring water a s a based ingredients as well as 99% recycled aluminum as packaging material.

#2 What did you do before SA.AL&CO? Why did you get into grooming?

My background is in finance as we as working in the family company, which is a shoe component producer within the premium leather industry. Skincare excited me as I'm truly a curious consumer myself, seeking out authentic brands across clothing and interiors. I this felt that men’s skincare has not been served the same pleasure of sensory and scent experiences as the broader lifestyle skincare universe has known for years- think Aesop.

#3 Why is sustainability important to your and your brand?

I think sustainability must be at the forefront of any ongoing and especially emerging company - no matter what they create, do or sell. I’m going to be the first generation who will experience climate change in its brutality and will have to face my children, who will wonder what i have done to change things. Without exaggeration, I believe these conversations with our children will be very similar to those our parents had with their parents about what they did in the world wars. The impact of climate change will have such catastrophic impacts and likely, id we don't do enough fast enough, works. Having the privilege to be a creator and in a position to change things, there was no doubt in my mind about sustainability and its role in my brand - truly, reflected sustainably including recycling packaging materials. Only if everything thinks this way can true catastrophe be avoided.

#4 How important is using natural ingredients to SA.AL&CO?

Using natural ingredients to me is the foundation of thinking about building a sustainable brand - one that creates a sustainable footprint, using the best of what we have at our disposal without wastefulness. The issue with synthetic materials oftentimes isn’t that they could be harmful, as many are absolutely not, even quite the opposite, their production and environmental impact are in sunth with a world where we want to live in with natural and not off of nature.

#5 How do you ensure your products are of a good quality?

Quite simply by working with a stop notch manufacturer who is committed to only producing natural skincare, it’s the company philosophy. Consequently they are focused on ensuring the highest quality products leave the manufacturing line as they are on a mission to introduce the quality natural skincare from Austria to people around the world.

#6 Do you have a favourite SA.AL&CO product and why?

My favourite is the 011 Hair & Body wash, using it in the morning, when i’m still a bit grouchy, sets my mind in the right mood. The scent calms my nerves and wakes me up whilst my skin feels nicely pampered, cleaned yet not stripped of moisture and even recharged with oils as the product is very rich in texture.

#7 Other than SA.AL&CO what other skincare brands and products do you use?

I like Patricks hair care products. The products from shampoos to hair wax are not just a delight to look at and hold but are very powerful in formulation with fantastic scents. I also use a serum from 320 MHx, which is made from cold pressed roses and is 100% natural. Its texture and skin feel are unsurpassed to me among all serums I have tried, and we tried a lot of products to compare with the competition. And of course I am still also hooked on Aesop, they are leaders in sophisticated lifestyle skincare in my opinion.

#8 How do you maintain a sustainable lifestyle?

It’s a lot of little things whilst being conscious of the fact that my life does have a significantly higher carbon footprint as my job requires me to travel a lot, and flying the best option in most cases. Though within a 6 hour drive radius, I’ll take the car! I therefore focus on eating food, even if just lunch near the office, at restaurants that have a food mission and keep an eye on their impact. I don't buy clothing wastefully and have always been a believer in buying organic cotton or otherwise highly qualitative materials, mostly avoid synthetic threads and will always buy quality that o can then repair over and over. My classic dress shoes may cost several times what a regular pair of sneakers cost but i wear them for up to 10 years only having to exchange the heels. The long term thinking in my opinion makes a huge difference, as fashion is the second largest polluting industry in the world whilst, apparently, in the western world people have 4 times as much clothing in their closet compared to 1980.

#9 What inspires your choice of ingredients?

I don’t believe that we are in the business of innovative ingredients. Quality to me is not just innovation, just like clothing i don't derive pleasure from aerospace materials, but high quality organic fabrics thus the ingredient focus lies on quality, efficiency as well as concentration. Concentration is very important to me as for example we use Hyaluronic Acid in the 041 Intense Moisturizer at a high, which will have more effect than using a drop of something that NASA is using for its astronauts oe that will only be found in products retailing at 100 EUR+.

#10 What are your favourite natural or organic ingredients used in skincare at the moment?

I’m not an ingredient trend guy, the ingredients that are the best to use in natural skincare in a sustainable way are the same for decades. Even more importantly, when using rare, new ingredients that are fashionable at the moment, one must wonder if using those is still sustainable when sourcing them from far flung places around the world.

#11 What do you see for the future of SA.AL&CO

I believe we are hitting a nerve in a segment that is oftentimes overlooked and misunderstood, we hope to continue to fill that void that is growing and play our part in delighting men in using quality, natural products.

If you weren't already familiar with SA.AL&CO I hope this has inspired you to make those steps towards a more sustainable lifestyle and skincare routine.

Patricks can also be purchased on The Modern Man.