Esmé wants to pour oil on troubled skins

By Shaanaaz de Jager

A BUSHMAN’S River housewife is working on top-secret research at a laboratory in Summerstrand to develop a range of healing oils and creams.
Esmé Nevay has played around with science experiments for more then a decade and finally is seeing “the light at the end of the tunnel” after developing her Nevana range of five creams and oils.
That “light” is the nod of approval from the Chemical Technology Business Incubator, Chemin, which offers not only technical assistance but also business, financial and training services.
The national organisation, based in Port Elizabeth, is providing Nevay with an office, laboratory and equipment, as it does to all its tenant clients, as reported in the Weekend Post this past Saturday.

“I want to be right at the top and see my products in hospitals, clinics and especially pharmacies,” says Esmé.
Being on-site, Nevay works in the laboratory where she continues to develop new products while making more of her existing creams and oils to sell.
She has agents in Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Durban, George, Bushman’s and Kenton-on-Sea.
“I’ve received significant support from Rodger Gillson at Provincial Pharmacy in Westbourne Road which stocks my product and Peter Makowem at Rowallan Park pharmacy, who gave me helpful marketing tips from a pharmacist’s point of view,” she says.
Her product range includes an all-purpose cream; an anti-itch oil aimed at eczema and psoriasis sufferers, after-sun oil, a burn ointment, an anti-inflammatory and various cosmetics, including a moisturiser.
“I’ve received tremendous help from Dr Hugh Laue at Chemin who especially helped when I didn’t understand all the medical terminology.
“He also accompanied me when I visited King Edward Hospital’s burn unit and the Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban. Because of him those doctors and specialist listened to me and took an interest in my product.”
She uses only 100 per cent natural ingredients to make her products but says “it’s the combination of oils used that makes the difference” in her oils and creams.
Chemin’s chief executive officer Joe Kruger says the incubator is “selective” when assisting clients as it has limited resources.
It supports mostly only projects that have novel technology with high market potential, or projects that promote government’s socio-economic objectives of BEE, or women in business, or which have high job creation potential.
“We are careful when it comes to other people’s technology.
Part of the criteria is making sure the product has realistic market potential. There must also be a need for the product in the long term.
“Once this has been established, the person then becomes either an on-site tenant client or a virtual client based anywhere in South Africa, having full support of our staff for possibly up to three years.
“There is also continuous supervision, mentoring and project management,” he says. Dr Alvaro Viljoen of the department of pharmacy at Wits University, had helped with a literature survey of the products which confirmed that Esmé’s work was “founded on real scientific evidence”, says Joe.
“This survey means that if she wants to market her product she can always refer to evidence from the Wits study.
“Her products have global potential and are a cutting edge development for a country like South Africa.
“There is a growing world-wide demand for natural products.
“This also means that once she has her business off the ground more job opportunities will be created.This production of natural formulations is part science and part art and Esmé seems to have a unique talent for this,” he says.
Self-taught Esmé has for the past 15 years experimented with different oils and creams only in order to help people feel better.
“I’ve come full circle with my work,” says Esmé, who is staying in Port Elizabeth while working on her Nevana (named after her surname) product range.
She started making her own cosmetics in her kitchen mixing herbs on her stove, picked from a friend’s garden.
“I loved cosmetics and always thought I’d be the next Estée Lauder,” says Esmé.
Creams and oils developed to soothe aching joints, calm burn victims of their agony and help eczema sufferers sleep better, was more then enough reason to keep Esmé at her “on-and-off” projects.
“I love helping people and now with Nevana that’s exactly what I’m doing,” she says.
In fact she loves helping people so much that she will even check up on them – whether they are being treated for eczema or burns – to see how much the products have helped.
“I have been very blessed to have amazing support of my children, family, friends and Chemin, who has become like friends to me now and helped either sell, promote, research or give me the strength to carry on when times got tough,” says Esmé.