You've seen the ostrich egg omelet, the ostrich meat burger, and the jewelry and bags made out of ostrich leather. But Nancy Marin isn't stopping there. In a few minutes, she will be launching her cosmetics line with products made from ostrich oil. There are three main products, for your skin and hair, and after tonight, you'll be able to try it for yourself. Courtney Menzies visited Marin's Ranch Craft Eco Park ahead of the launch to find out more about the products. Here is that story.
We've followed Nancy Marin's ostrich venture from arrival, to edible eggs, to crafts, and now cosmetics. Indeed, at Nancy Marin's ostrich farm, nothing goes to waste. Tonight, she is launching her new cosmetic line, which has skin and hair care products made out of pure ostrich oil.
Marin says this sector of her ever-growing business was always in the plan:
Nancy Marin, Owner, O Cosmetics
"From the onset when I decided to get into the ostrich industry, I wanted to explore every possibility of the industry and. The cosmetics line is a very competitive industry in the world market. I do believe that Belize needs to be in that world market, not just in cosmetics but in other value added products, Belizeans are very talent, unlike popular belief - I had to put in that punchline - but I started from the onset, from the first ostrich we got, I was so excited about it, I was excited for our possibilities, for what I want to see on the shelf and that's why we put in all this work, I'd say about 3 years in the making, we consulted with labs in Mexico, with other farmers in Mexico, because we know that we have not yet gotten our import license so these are the first set of products that are Belizean oil, but if we don't get the import license, I don't want to stop this and so I will have to get the raw material from Mexico."
Three years to perfect the formula - which is completely natural and doesn't include very many extra ingredients. The process starts with extracting the oil from the ostrich.
Nancy Marin, Owner, O Cosmetics
"The ostrich is a very unique animal, where the oils sets exactly right under the skin and it doesn't seep into the meat, so you get a full layer of fat from the ostrich and that fat is what we use to process, the processing method is very easy, we use heat to process. We don't add anything at that point until it gets to the point where we're doing our mixes, then we add in some of them, like the hair food, we add rice oil, this one the serum is with chamomile oil, we mix it with chamomile oil, and of course, the face is rice and sea salt mixed with the ostrich."
And Marin says it doesn't take long for these products to take effect:
Nancy Marin, Owner, O Cosmetics
"You can really feel the difference, for my skin, I felt the difference immediately, you feel it, but you start seeing the difference, within like a week. For me, my major problem, and you caught me at a time with no makeup on but my major problem and anybody that knew me before, was that I work a lot in the sun so I had a lot of sunspots, like all under my eyes, I lose a lot of night sleep because I work a lot so I had all the bags and stuff under my eyes and I can see the difference. My pores were also enlarged and that's been fixed with, I think it's three months that I've been using ostrich oil. My hair, I no longer have to be hunting for sunscreen, because it keeps it nice, the omegas in the ostrich oil really are protective and rejuvenating."
"And a lot of people are skeptical with using oils because of our environment, it's so hot and everything, but actually, your skin sucks it up, you don't feel it, in like a minute and a half after you put it on your skin, your skin does not feel or look oily, it does not stay there so it does not clog the pores or anything like that."
But you don't have to take her word for it, after tonight, you'll be able to order your own:
Nancy Marin, Owner, O Cosmetics
"They can order online through our websites or social media, we are actually still looking for business people who want to carry the line, we haven't gotten that far yet, but Channel 7 will be the first to know when we get to that point, and the price range I can tell you that the products will be under $100, a lot less for the different items."
Marin also has additional products in store to add to this cosmetics line, including a lip balm.
