October 9, 2024 • 37 mins
Thousands of years ago, Cleopatra used olive oil to keep her skin beautiful. Today, Agatha Relota Luczo has created a “clean” beauty business based on this common kitchen ingredient. The model and entrepreneur uses fruit from the ancient olive trees on her Sicilian farm (the oldest is more than 1,000 years old!) to make Furtuna Skin's organic skincare products. From her daily shot of extra virgin olive oil to her olive oil-based cleansers and moisturizers, Agatha is an evangelist for the beauty benefits it provides “from inside out.” She talks to Martha today about the transformative effects of this ancient ingredient and the business she has built around it.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I think it always goes back to the personal touch
that we put into everything we do, and the farm
really sets up our standards for quality.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Agatha rilottel Lusco grew up in New Jersey, but these
days she spends her time between Paris, where she is
raising four beautiful children, and a farm in Sicily that
is the foundation of her organic skincare line for Tuna's Skin.
I met Agatha recently in Paris and had the opportunity
(00:36):
to try her products. She's here today to talk about
her commitment to clean beauty and the transformative attributes of
olive oil. Welcome to my podcast, Agatha.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Thank you so much for having me. It's a thrill
to be here and to be talking to you and
your audience today.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It's very nice to see you here in New York.
The Olympics were quite fun. We were saying at the
same hotel at the George sank I was there the
first week of the Olympics, and did you say much longer?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
No, I only say the first week and then we
went off to Croatia after that.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Oh lucky.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, But the Olympics were amazing.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
They were I just told Agatha that I thought Paris
did France proud and the world proud by hosting such
an amazing, amazing series of sports events that event in
a most beautiful country. It was great. Well, we want
to talk about your skincare line. Agatha is a young
(01:33):
mother of four, as I mentioned, but she was a
former model. She is now the face of her brand
and her skin speaks for the brand itself. Thank you
so much, you're so gorgeous. Thank you. What inspired you
just start a skincare line?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
So it all started back when my husband was ten
years old and he made a promise to his grandmother
that he's going to buy this land back and bring
it back into the family because she always spoke about
how amazing it was. Her stepfather sold it. He wasn't
such a kind guy. It was a Cinderella and reverse
(02:11):
story where in sicily.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Right, oh my gosh, the land of the Godfather exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
And so fifteen years ago we went on this journey
to find this land and we did. We found it.
It was a half acre large, and then we ended
up buying eight hundred acres all around her property where
she was born on and all eight hundred acres is
certified organic. Eighty percent is part of a biopreserve, one
(02:41):
of the most important biopreserves of the European community, which
means what which means we practice regenerative farming and agriculture.
You have different species of birds. You're committed to being
part of this community of you know, preserving plants and
biodiversity of Sicily. We have natural.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Spring group there on Sicily. Because that's kind of surprising,
just because it's so insular. I visited Sicily quite a
few times. I love that island, but I would beautiful.
I didn't know it was so progressive.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yes, we're an hour and a half outside of Carlione
and there's nothing around our land. It's a truly a
working farm and we have so much different elevation on
the farm. It's incredible. You have Mount Castro on one
side and then Mount Peru on the other end. Beru
and Arabic means to the sea, so if you climb
(03:39):
up to the top of this mountain you could see
all the way to the Mediterranean seats. Phenomenal. Yeah, and
we've planted over twelve thousand olive trees on the farm.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
We have some very ancient olive trees too.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
We have Yes, we have some ancient olive trees, some
that are thousands of years old. And then we have
a cultiv called Biankalila Centinada that was on the brink
of being extinct and we brought it back from being extinct.
So they are four thousand of that variety over farm Beyonce.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Is it a weight olive, yes, light colored all of it. Yes.
Oh yeah, so I'd love to see that sometime. When
do you harvest? You must be getting ready. We're getting
ready to harvest, yes, And how do you pick in
a few weeks? How do you pick the olives off
an olive tree? It's always been a mystery to me.
I've never seen an olive harvest. I've seen a great harvest,
but I haven't seen an olive harvest.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You shake the trees, yeah, so it's either picked by hand,
and then we've just started incorporating the shaking. Because the
ground in Sicily are on the farm, it's not very
even so to have the farmers climb up on ladders
is not always the safest.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So but can you drive it? Can you drive a
small vehicle to shake the tree?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah? We have tractors.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Oh you do? Okay?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Actually, the funny story is one day, not a few
years back, when we were on the farm, my husband goes, oh,
I have a surprise for you. I bought you a Lamborghini.
And I was like really. I was like, that's that's
that's a little uh yeah, yeah, a little extravagant. He
goes check it out and it was a Lamborghini tractor.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Oh, how great.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, it's all great.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Probably make more money selling like Lamborghini tractors.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
They do. They're phenomenal, they're tractors.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Oh how great. Yeah, I'll have to look into that.
I have I have drawn deers and cabodos, so now
maybe I can look into a Lamborghini. Kind of sexy,
that would be fun. So so olive oil, now you started.
Did you know you were going to start a skin
caroline before you planted the olive track.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
So we started actually a food line first called Bonafertuna,
which I brought you some of the goodies from Fortuna.
We make extroverts and olive oil, few different cultivars of
them and blends pasta ancient green pastas. We have tomato
sauce from the colors tomatoes and also some herbs and
for cooking this is the olive oil from Fortuna skin.
(05:59):
So this is the six we picked. There's twelve different
varieties on the farm, and we picked six varieties for
for tuna's skin. And if we looked at doctor Pasquale,
who's our chief scientific officer, he's on the farm every day.
He has a double PhD In botany biology and he's
an agronomist. And you looked at the six different cultivars
(06:21):
that would be the best for drinking extra virgin olive oil.
Because that's how I start my day every single morning,
is a shot of olive oil and with a squeeze
of lemon on it. Sometimes it's amazing for your microbiome.
Digestion helps regulate blood sugar. It's a beautiful way to
start the day. Anti inflammatory of olive oil tablespoon. Oh yeah,
(06:43):
so just fill it up a spoon.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I could do that.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, it is amazing for your health. The benefits of
extra virgin olive oil is just off the roofs. I'm
obsessed with extra virgin olive oil. I'm an olive oil
samelier as well.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So how do you get to be an olive oil.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Some courses a school out of Spain, and then one
in London as well, and then I'm actually working on
another one out of Italy as well. But it's great
being an olive oil sam alier, being able to taste
the olives, be able to tell the different origins where
they come from.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Well, if you're going to put olive oil on your face,
we'll put the best olive oil on your face. Right,
that's your theory. How do you actually distill or make
the olive oil not too oily for your skin?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
So we actually use a process called sound bath extraction.
On the farm. We have over eight hundred different floras
and herbs and eighty different medicinal plants on the farm.
So we also use our plants and our ingredients are
wildly put in plants I call them for in our products.
(07:53):
We use a sound bath extraction method to extract the
nutrients from the plants.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
How does that work?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
So we looked to the science, We looked to the
sign community of how they extract the nutrients from the plants,
and we look to the pharmaceutical industry.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, pharmaceuticals toeah that don't they Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
And they incorporated it in about twenty twelve because they
need precision for all of their products that they make.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Do perfumers also use that I think they do. Perhaps
they do get to extract the particular sense from different flowers. Yeah,
I think they probably use that same sea.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
And it's a great way to extract the nutrients. Because
that Fortuna skin were all about how do we preserve
that potency of the plants, because the potency of the
plants is what drives the transformational results on the skin,
and so we do that every step of the way,
from having our plants being fed with the natural spring
(08:50):
water that comes down the mountain from Mount Peru to
practicing regenerative agriculture and farming and Marthino this best from
everyone how important soil is for feeding the plants and
promoting that potency. So we try to figure out how
do we preserve that potency, and we found the sound
(09:11):
bath extraction method, which is basically ultrasound. So instead of
using harsh chemicals to extract the nutrients from the plants,
we can use our own base of either extra virgin
olive oil or olive fleaf water, which tested three times
more potent than any olive flea water on the market.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
What is that it's basically.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
The distilled olive leaves with using ours ours a spring
water from our farm, and it is really high in
anti accidants. I love drinking also making my own olive
tea or in the summertime and olive iced tea, all
of leaf iced tya.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Now are you packaging the leaves for us that we
can do that.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Too, it's coming.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
That would be good. Yeah, it would be next thing.
I would love to buy a big tin of olive
leaves and make sure. I like tea. I like all
different kinds of teese. I like herbal teas, peppermint, mint, spearmint,
so I would love leaf.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Olive tea has three times antioxidants of green tea. Really
that is so great health. So I love using the
whole olive tree. So even in our exfoliator we ground
up the olive pits as the exfoliation.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I have been using your exfoliation. I love that. Thank you. Yeah,
that's really really great, Yeah, really great. Yea.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
And the way we also formulate is about protecting the
skin barrier of the skin.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
What is it an olive oil that is so good
for your skin? What is it exactly? Is it a
what kind of compound.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
So what's amazing about extra virgin olive oil is that
it's one of the only oils on the market that
you could just actually take the fruit and squeeze it
and you get the juice from the olive. It is
full of anti accidents and polyphenols. It has an antioxidant
in it called oliocanthal that mimics mutrin in nature. Oh really, yes,
(11:09):
So it's super anti inflammatory and helps reduce the inflammation
in the body. There's so many amazing studies done by
Harvard and Oxford University a Yelle showing how it helps
reduce dementia and any anti inflammatory diseases.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
So we should be eating a lot of olives.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, and cooking with it. Cooking with it is amazing
because there's like a nutrient exchange with the vegetables that
actually enhances the vitamins and food.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
One olive tree. You might know this because I think
about this all the time. I think about scarcity, and
I think about productivity, and I think about where is
all the coffee coming from that is being drunk all
over the world, Where is all where are all the
peppercorns that are being ground every single day for seasoning
(11:59):
our food, And I think about olives too all the time.
Where are all these olives that produce enough oil for
the entire world to be cooking with or seasoning with?
Where are they When we open up a bottle of
olive oil and it says virgin olive oil on it,
is it really virgin olive oil?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It's hard to say.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It is hard to say. It's hard to say if
it's extra virgin. So I sometimes think the pepper corns
when you open a little paper packet of pepper, you know,
in a deli or someplace, and I think, God, this
looks like sawdust.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah, So it's important on the packaging of the bottle
to find a single estate grown olive because then you
know those olives are coming all from that one estate.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
One tree gives how many gallons of olive oil a year?
That's a good question that depends on the should know
these kinds of things?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Just yea. It depends on the tree and the age
of the tree. Because what's great about olive trees is
that they keep giving more and more every single year.
So the older the tree, the more and more olives
it produces. And olive trees are great because they don't
need that much attention and care.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
They're there in that rocky soil on a hillside somewhere
in Sicily, producing beautiful fruit exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I mean, this farm is truly magical. When you're on
this farm, you can feel it has a heartbeat.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And it looks like it. I guess I shared some
photographs of this amazing, amazing piece of property. And how
often do you go there?
Speaker 1 (13:30):
We try to go as often as possible, depending on
the kid's schedule, so at least five times a year,
if not more.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Oh, it's just the most magnificent place. I still don't
know exactly what's in those al is that makes our
insides so healthy and our skins so beautiful.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
All those amazing antioxidants in the polyphenos.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Now, where are the best olives in the world grown
on Sicily?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I would say at our farm. I mean, the attention
of the detail that we put on everything we do
is just incredible, and from the start to the finish.
So we have our own olive mill on the farm.
It's a seventeen thousand square foot olive mill that we
everything is, you know, starting from the water which is
(14:24):
natural spring water, till the end product it's bottled right
there on the farm, so we're in control over the
whole entire process.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
So how do how do you grind your olives for oil?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
We use a milling process, so doctor Pasquale is there
and just running.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Stone on stone or what do you use to actually
grind the olives is like a centrifuge.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Centrifuge exactly, refuge.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, I bought a centrifuge for myself just to see
because Nathan marveled. Have you have you had Nathan at
your farm?
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yeah? Not at our Yes, I think he did come
and visit our farm. And he's a good friend as well.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Oh he's fantastic. I'm just going he's sattle to visit
with him.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Nathan and Rosemary good friends.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Oh yes, Well, Nathan taught me about centrifuge's and how
you can extract oil from carrots. Yeah, and they almost
all vegetables have some sort of natural oil in them,
so I assume that olives of course have one of
the highest concentrates of oil in them. Yeah, since that's
what they're used.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
But from all the oils on the market, it's the
only one that you can just take the fruit and
you're not using any chemical process and so like a
seed oil to make the oil.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So when you when you squeeze the when you squeeze
that olive or centrifugeon, that's that's pure olive oil.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Pure olive oil, pure olive juice.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I have to come juice to see you.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You need to come. It's amazing. I mean I do
everything with extraversion olive oil. I bake with it. I
make an amazing olive oil cake.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Oh I bet.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
And I actually fry with it and do everything with
extra virgin no butter. Sometimes France has amazing butter they do.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Oh and Agatha lives in Paris with her family during
this during the school year.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Yes, and we get spoiled with amazing produce in France
as well.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Oh, yes, so beautiful. The food was so good during
the Olympics. So the Sicilian terrain is perfect for what
you're doing.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Oh, this soil is so full of minerals in volcanic ash,
so it really adds to all the nutrients to the
plants in.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Addition to what's there naturally. Do you have to feed
these trees? Do you do you use any other kinds
of supplements for the trees?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Just all organic supplements if needed. But we really practice
the regenerative farming, which is hard. It's hard on farmers
as you know, to be able to you never know
what weather conditions are going to to come.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Have you had a drought there, for there is a drought.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Right now, but this land is it hasn't hasn't rained,
and I feel like in a few years in so
and this rain, we're actually bringing buckets of water to
our neighbors to help them out because we have all
the natural springs and we have so much you know,
natural spring water on the farm.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Do you have to irrigate the orchards, the all of orchards, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
And then we also wild forage plants on our farm.
So doctor Pasquale I call him the plant whisper because
he can look at a plant and he can tell
when it's at its full potency. We were just sighted
recently in the journal called Anti Accident for our plant
(17:37):
called Nagella demicina that's found on our farm. It's grown
in the wild.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Nigela. I know Nigela, and it is a beautiful flower.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yes, there's there's a Nagella sativa and Nagella demicina. And
what they did was they showed that our Nagella demicina
on the farm, grown in the wild is more potent
than being cultivated.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
And he uses those little black seeds from the flower, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And we also use petals and different We use different
parts of the plants at different times of the years.
So mimoonos want to exactly pick what.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Part of that's going also into your skincare line? Yes, okay,
how many people are working on the farm. What's the staff?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
So we employ about at different times of the years,
depending on when we're foraging or harvesting, up to forty people.
We're the largest employeer in our area. We give back
to the community. My husband and I we always say,
if we're going to be doing anything, how are we
going to leave this world a better place than we
found it? And for us, it's important to give back
(18:41):
to the community. So we've built a house for people
of need. We give to the schools, donate computer and
technology and give back to the community and provide jobs.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
And what kind of maintenance do all of oil trees need?
Do they get pruned or do they just get left?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
They get left every few years. They need to be
brewn back They're amazing because there they're a symbol of
strength and heritage and longevity exactly. And we know that
dating back to the time of Cleopatra used to use
extra virgin olive oil for skincare.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
How do we know it is extra version between virgin
olive oil extra virgin olive oil. What's the distinction?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
The distinction is how it's being pressed and taken care of,
and then if there is any defects in the extra
virgin olive oil. So as an olive oil solier, I'm
gonna judge on some of the competitions. I will be
one next week in Paris, Oh, Yes, with Pire Garnier actually,
(19:52):
and we can taste for defects. And sometimes these defects
happened when the olives are being picked, or if they
were frozen, they could The defects can also happen in
transportations when olives are picked, sometimes they're transported to a
different mill for a few hours and they could become
(20:12):
fusty or musty, or even after during the bottling process,
if they're not bottled properly or a bit of contamination,
they can become a defect.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Well, I'm anxious to see how you chaste all of oil.
Somebody taught me how to taste it once, and I'm
anxious to see if you do. It's the same way.
So the harvest is coming. Do you go for the harvest?
Every year?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I try to go to the harvest.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I would think that's an exciting time.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
It is so exciting to be at the farm for
the harvest.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
And to see all those millions of olive us being harvested.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah. I think's one of the reasons we moved to
Paris was once to internationalize our children a little bit
and also to be closer to the farm. Our kids,
I feel, speak a few languages. My family originated from Croatia,
and so they speak a bit of Croatian, and they're
fluent in French, They're learning Italian, and I just want
them to be able to travel around the world, being
(21:05):
able to communicate and connect with people lovely.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
It's so important, so important. What about span Spain because
the Spanish.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yes, one son is learning Spanish.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Oh, because you can easily now expand your business to Spain.
Is the olive oil good enough?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah? The olaves are great in Spain.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
And Croatia has some of the best olive oil, olives
and olive oil as well.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
We're in a little box here. See how many people
to I know? This is great.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
I love the studio.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
It's so great. How did you particularly develop your formulations?
Did you work with cosmeticians or with scientists?
Speaker 1 (21:41):
And my co founder, she's a master formulist and also
very passionate about plants and formulation, and she was working
in the clean beauty sphere.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Oh she was, Oh yeah, and so what are your
particular rituals for looking so beautiful?
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Oh? Thank you?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Besides drinking your tablespoon of olive oil every morning.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Drinking extra virgin olive oil every morning, I only use
fatuna skin on my skin because I do want people
to see the transformative results of our products, and they
do work and eating healthy, drinking lots of water, being dancing.
I love to dance. One of my passions is ballroom
and Latin dancing.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Oh really? Oh oh great?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah great?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
And New Jersey. It's so unusual to talk to someone
I grew up in New Jersey. I'm from Nutley, New Jersey,
and my insul sphere has kept me within a two
hundred mile radius. And here you are off in Sicily
and Paris and so exciting.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah, it was exciting. I was born in New York
City at Savanson's Hospital, which used to be down in
the West Village. Now it's a condo building. And I
grew up in Chatham, New Jersey, and then I started
modeling when I was sixteen and graduated high school here
the city at the Professional children and School.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Oh, I see, but the Jersey is a great state.
And so how did modeling influence you in terms of
entrepreneurial behavior?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
You know, I mean we were both in the same
industry and modeling traveling around the world.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Doesn't it help you? Doesn't help you with like self confidence?
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Self confidence? Yes, meeting people. You're always on a photoshoot,
meeting new people. And I worked with some of the
best makeup artists in the world that inspired me for
my rituals with makeup and skincare. But it was great
working with Carlagerfeld and if Saint Laurent and and Terry Moglaire.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Oh, I know, and where are they? Where is poor
Carl Lagerfeld. Isn't it sad? Yeah? Yeah? I interviewed him
in Paris for during one of his collections. It was
so interesting to talk to him. He was very interesting
and so talented, so talented. So you have big fans
(24:03):
all over the place. Women's Where Daily Julianne Moore, the
actress Courtney Kardashian is very much a fan of your skincare.
So what appeals to them about your products? Do you think?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
I think it always goes back to the the personal
touch that we put into everything we do at for
Tuna Skin and the farm really sets up our standards
for quality.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Have you taken a tour people on a tour of
your farm?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
You know, we've only started recently to that would be.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Kind of a book for magazine editors, influencers whatever to
go and see, uh see the operation because Sicily, first
of all, is such a wonderful destination. And then to
to see something uh so uh so devoted to purity
as your as your wonderful farm, it's hard to call that.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Ah. Yeah, I mean we're planning a press trip hopefully
next May.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
That would be great.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
And yeah, I'd love to have you come. It'd be
amazing to have you come and see the farm.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I love Cecily, and I especially love the food. I
don't know, I just love love the food.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Isn't it, Because everything is about the quality and the
simplicity of just the ingredient itself and the produce.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
So I don't know how large your business is, but
what is your vision for the future of for tuna
skin to.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
You know, we have a five year product pipeline. I
have endless amount of ideas and I'm just excited about
sharing this piece of magical this farm with the world
and all these amazing ingredients. Being able to to give
our customers these products is incredible. I'm a big believer
(25:55):
in transparency. So even if you look at the packaging,
the bottles are clear, and the reason they're clear is
because I want to be able to communicate that transparency
and show the people how beautiful our products are.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I want to do this test. I want to see
what you brought here.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Oh okay, let's do this test.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I'd love for you to have you tried our olive oil.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I have I have. I have an olive oil cabinet
in my kitchen and I'm always looking for the best
of the best. Just no, can I show you how
I was taught how to do it? Oh? Yes, Oh
it's so weird. No, I don't even use a glass.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Oh you don't know.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
I was taught that what is this one? Oh? This
is your extra special lx R. So I was taught
to do this and then just oh, and to lick
it from the hand. It's like a pure olive. It
tastes like I just ate an olive, which is what
you're looking for, right, Yes, Then after you do all
the tasting, then this, I guess it was a soli
(27:04):
of olive oil. Told me to just rub it in
my hands and then put it all over my face.
It was funny.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
In competitions, usually it's in a callboalt glass. Not to
see the color of the extroverts and olive oil, so
like that you're not influence by the color. And so
you cover the top and you warm up the put
your hand on the underneath to warm up the extraverts
and olive oil to awake all the aromas. Okay, And
(27:33):
then after you do this for a few seconds, doing.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
This in a small like it looks like a little
brandy snifcher. But it's tiny, like a little shot glass. Yeah,
but it's round, not sharp.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
So after we warm it up, we smell it to
smell the aromas, and we should smell fresh cut grass,
maybe some artichokes, tomatoes, and it usually smells green. And
then when we go to taste it, we slurp it
and then we do as it's called strapaggio to awaken.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
All the very smooth.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
This is very peppery.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
It tastes absolutely fresh.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
So the peppery taste in the back of the throat
is the oleocantol. So the stronger the pepper flavor, the
more oleo cantal there is in the extra virgin olive oil.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
And is that the Is that the antioxidants, that's the antiaxid. Yeah,
and then you have the bona fortuna. This is the
extra virgin olive oil can blend.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
And when you're tasting the olive oil, it should have
harmony and balance, and you taste the bitterness on the
tongue and the pungency in the back of the throat milder.
It's milder. This because it's a blend. To have a
few different trees.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
For tuna is milder olive oil.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
But we not all of them. We have a forte,
we have the pure blend of Biancolia sentinada, and we
have many different ones at bonafertuna. So one is better
for stronger flavor, which is better for meat. And then
the lighter one, this one I love using for cooking
(29:12):
with fish or finishing it with fish.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I like drizzling olive it. I just picked the most
beautiful arugula for my garden yesterday and just the lightest
olive oil, but fresh, fresh, fresh olive oil.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
So yeah, that is a bit milder, but you can
still feel the peppery.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah, but it's also very tasty, very tasty. And you
know because sometimes when you open an olive oil and
you taste it like that, it will taste really acrid.
I have my grandchildren are expert olive oil tasters. You
should meat them sometimes. Oy. No, they love tasting things
(29:53):
for perfection. And which one is this?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
This is just a generic one for market.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Okay, this is one that you see in the supermarket.
Almost every supermarket has this brand of olive oil. Let's
see what that tastes like. It doesn't even taste like olives.
After tasting yours, it does not. It can taste the
it's vegetable oil, yeah it does. Wow.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah. So this on a competition, we'd say it has
a defense.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
It does well, it's a major defect. It does not
taste anything like the real thing. And it's still expensive. Yeah,
all olive oil is expensive, and the more single estate
olive oils are very expensive. Now A leader of the
(30:47):
best olive oil in my in my local grocery store
is something like sixty nine dollars. Yeah, that's a lot
of money.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Yeah, extords and olive oil is expensive, but there's so
much attention that goes into making extra virginal olive oil.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
And back to the thing about where are all the
olives coming from? Is there going to be a shortage
of olive oil? Do you think has anybody worried about that?
We don't see there being I worry I worry about.
Isn't it any plant the rest of those acres? Yeah,
Algatha has how many more acres to plant? You, oh,
thousands of more acress. You have a lot of room
(31:25):
in cil places, but that would be it would be.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
We just have our mill there built and we have
this small little house that we found the the foundation
of where my husband's grandmother was born in and we
rebuilt that house as one bedroom. So it's great. When
we go to the farm. The six of us stay
in this one bedroom. All the kids are on the couch.
It's like good glamping. There's no TV. The kids are
running around, driving the tractors, hiking around and it's so
(31:53):
wonderful place, maybe one with nature.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
So what are you give me these two recipes for
our listeners that which uses your best olive oil? What's
what's the one that you would that you would suggest,
like right now if I wanted to go home with
this bottle of extra virgin olive oil, the Bono Fortuna
or where do you sell this in these in the
States anywhere?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yes, so we're sold at Whole Foods and now we
just got in yes, oh great, yes, just recently this year.
And we're also at Erawan oh go, oh you are.
And then the best is always to buy direct from
Bonafertuna's website.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Okay, we can go do DCC, DTC.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
And then for the Alexar, we are sold at for
Tuna Skin's website.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Oh okay, oh good.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
And what's great about the Alexor I forgot to mention
is that after we pick it, it's pressed within six hours,
oh six to eight hours after picking, okay, which is great.
And then we also go through all of the olives,
take out the bruised ones for this one, and we
wait for twenty five minutes after the pressing to start
(33:02):
bottling it.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
And then after bottling or not, does it have to
be pasteurized or just put in the bottle.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
It's put into the sealed and sealed.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
So if you're if you're going home tonight, what would
you make for your family with your olive oil?
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Something a beautiful fresh salad, drizzle of the extravergin olive oil,
perhaps a nice little piece of soul fish and some veggies. Yeah,
with drizzling it and then finishing it off with an
amazing olive oil cake.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
How do you make that? Where's that recipe from?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
It's had been inspired from a few different restaurants around
New York City.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
The best olive oil cake I ever had was at
Valentino's house. He invited me for dinner one night to
design your Valentino and his chef made the best olive
oil cake. I tried and tried to get the recipe
out of him, and even and no, I didn't get
it out. And then now he did come out with
a cookbook, a beautifully illustrated cookbook, and you know I
(34:02):
forgot to. I have not yet looked to see if
that olive oil cake is in there. I'm going to try.
But if not, I would like you to share it.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I will share it. I will share.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I won't publish my recipe.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
You can publish it.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Okay, I want you. I want to try it because
I really love olive oil cake.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Yeah, and it is so moist and delicious. And there's
a restaurant here in the city called our TUSI. Oh, yes,
they make a delix.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
They do. Oh that's good to astro.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Version all of oil cake. And they're also sold on
gold belly. So sometimes when we were living in California
or it or went over because it's just a beautiful cake.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Oh great. Tell us your line of products for the
for the skincare.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
So we have a complete line of products. We have
our cleansing oil Bomb. It's a beautiful ten percent of
it has the olive fleaf water in it. It takes
off all of the makeup and residue from your day.
We have our Missler Water, which I call the Frenchwoman's secret.
And what's so special about our Missler water is made
(35:01):
with our olive leaf water and also an olive extract
instead of a coconut extra. And then we have our
award winning hero product, the Biphase oil. It just made
the list of wwd's one of the one hundred greatest
skincare products ever made.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
How great?
Speaker 1 (35:19):
So exciting, and it really represents all of the olive
tree because it has the olive oil in it, olive
leaf water and sew of different botanicals from the farm
and also stabilized vitamin C. And then we have our exfoliator.
We have our Face and Eye Serum, which is a
(35:39):
vitamin bath or a botox and a bottle. It's incredible
for the face and the declote the before and afters
from the Face and Eye Serum is just incredible. And
we're launching a new product this weekend, lip Bomb Olive
butter lip bumb and exfoliator for the loves.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
How great. Yeah, Well, so everyone look on online at
the for Tuna Skincare line for Tuna Skin dot com
and you can order there. You can also find it
of course. And are you and Sephora No, not yet.
Brad Brundoff, Goodman, goop up the mercury. It's been so
(36:18):
interesting to speak with you and thank you so much
for having me on this original and very very interesting venture.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Thank you so much. I just have to say, Martha,
you're such an inspiration to me and everything that you
have done. You're so kind and lovely and so warm.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Thank you so much as much for meeting you, and
I love you. I love talking to people who get
it done, and you're getting it done in a very
interesting way. Thank you, really and truly thank you. Eight
I think it always goes back to the personal touch
that we put into everything we do, and the farm
really sets up our standards for quality.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Agatha rilottel Lusco grew up in New Jersey, but these
days she spends her time between Paris, where she is
raising four beautiful children, and a farm in Sicily that
is the foundation of her organic skincare line for Tuna's Skin.
I met Agatha recently in Paris and had the opportunity
(00:36):
to try her products. She's here today to talk about
her commitment to clean beauty and the transformative attributes of
olive oil. Welcome to my podcast, Agatha.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Thank you so much for having me. It's a thrill
to be here and to be talking to you and
your audience today.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It's very nice to see you here in New York.
The Olympics were quite fun. We were saying at the
same hotel at the George sank I was there the
first week of the Olympics, and did you say much longer?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
No, I only say the first week and then we
went off to Croatia after that.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Oh lucky.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, But the Olympics were amazing.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
They were I just told Agatha that I thought Paris
did France proud and the world proud by hosting such
an amazing, amazing series of sports events that event in
a most beautiful country. It was great. Well, we want
to talk about your skincare line. Agatha is a young
(01:33):
mother of four, as I mentioned, but she was a
former model. She is now the face of her brand
and her skin speaks for the brand itself. Thank you
so much, you're so gorgeous. Thank you. What inspired you
just start a skincare line?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
So it all started back when my husband was ten
years old and he made a promise to his grandmother
that he's going to buy this land back and bring
it back into the family because she always spoke about
how amazing it was. Her stepfather sold it. He wasn't
such a kind guy. It was a Cinderella and reverse
(02:11):
story where in sicily.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Right, oh my gosh, the land of the Godfather exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
And so fifteen years ago we went on this journey
to find this land and we did. We found it.
It was a half acre large, and then we ended
up buying eight hundred acres all around her property where
she was born on and all eight hundred acres is
certified organic. Eighty percent is part of a biopreserve, one
(02:41):
of the most important biopreserves of the European community, which
means what which means we practice regenerative farming and agriculture.
You have different species of birds. You're committed to being
part of this community of you know, preserving plants and
biodiversity of Sicily. We have natural.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Spring group there on Sicily. Because that's kind of surprising,
just because it's so insular. I visited Sicily quite a
few times. I love that island, but I would beautiful.
I didn't know it was so progressive.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yes, we're an hour and a half outside of Carlione
and there's nothing around our land. It's a truly a
working farm and we have so much different elevation on
the farm. It's incredible. You have Mount Castro on one
side and then Mount Peru on the other end. Beru
and Arabic means to the sea, so if you climb
(03:39):
up to the top of this mountain you could see
all the way to the Mediterranean seats. Phenomenal. Yeah, and
we've planted over twelve thousand olive trees on the farm.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
We have some very ancient olive trees too.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
We have Yes, we have some ancient olive trees, some
that are thousands of years old. And then we have
a cultiv called Biankalila Centinada that was on the brink
of being extinct and we brought it back from being extinct.
So they are four thousand of that variety over farm Beyonce.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Is it a weight olive, yes, light colored all of it. Yes.
Oh yeah, so I'd love to see that sometime. When
do you harvest? You must be getting ready. We're getting
ready to harvest, yes, And how do you pick in
a few weeks? How do you pick the olives off
an olive tree? It's always been a mystery to me.
I've never seen an olive harvest. I've seen a great harvest,
but I haven't seen an olive harvest.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You shake the trees, yeah, so it's either picked by hand,
and then we've just started incorporating the shaking. Because the
ground in Sicily are on the farm, it's not very
even so to have the farmers climb up on ladders
is not always the safest.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So but can you drive it? Can you drive a
small vehicle to shake the tree?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah? We have tractors.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Oh you do? Okay?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Actually, the funny story is one day, not a few
years back, when we were on the farm, my husband goes, oh,
I have a surprise for you. I bought you a Lamborghini.
And I was like really. I was like, that's that's
that's a little uh yeah, yeah, a little extravagant. He
goes check it out and it was a Lamborghini tractor.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Oh, how great.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, it's all great.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Probably make more money selling like Lamborghini tractors.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
They do. They're phenomenal, they're tractors.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Oh how great. Yeah, I'll have to look into that.
I have I have drawn deers and cabodos, so now
maybe I can look into a Lamborghini. Kind of sexy,
that would be fun. So so olive oil, now you started.
Did you know you were going to start a skin
caroline before you planted the olive track.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
So we started actually a food line first called Bonafertuna,
which I brought you some of the goodies from Fortuna.
We make extroverts and olive oil, few different cultivars of
them and blends pasta ancient green pastas. We have tomato
sauce from the colors tomatoes and also some herbs and
for cooking this is the olive oil from Fortuna skin.
(05:59):
So this is the six we picked. There's twelve different
varieties on the farm, and we picked six varieties for
for tuna's skin. And if we looked at doctor Pasquale,
who's our chief scientific officer, he's on the farm every day.
He has a double PhD In botany biology and he's
an agronomist. And you looked at the six different cultivars
(06:21):
that would be the best for drinking extra virgin olive oil.
Because that's how I start my day every single morning,
is a shot of olive oil and with a squeeze
of lemon on it. Sometimes it's amazing for your microbiome.
Digestion helps regulate blood sugar. It's a beautiful way to
start the day. Anti inflammatory of olive oil tablespoon. Oh yeah,
(06:43):
so just fill it up a spoon.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I could do that.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, it is amazing for your health. The benefits of
extra virgin olive oil is just off the roofs. I'm
obsessed with extra virgin olive oil. I'm an olive oil
samelier as well.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So how do you get to be an olive oil.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Some courses a school out of Spain, and then one
in London as well, and then I'm actually working on
another one out of Italy as well. But it's great
being an olive oil sam alier, being able to taste
the olives, be able to tell the different origins where
they come from.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Well, if you're going to put olive oil on your face,
we'll put the best olive oil on your face. Right,
that's your theory. How do you actually distill or make
the olive oil not too oily for your skin?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
So we actually use a process called sound bath extraction.
On the farm. We have over eight hundred different floras
and herbs and eighty different medicinal plants on the farm.
So we also use our plants and our ingredients are
wildly put in plants I call them for in our products.
(07:53):
We use a sound bath extraction method to extract the
nutrients from the plants.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
How does that work?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
So we looked to the science, We looked to the
sign community of how they extract the nutrients from the plants,
and we look to the pharmaceutical industry.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, pharmaceuticals toeah that don't they Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
And they incorporated it in about twenty twelve because they
need precision for all of their products that they make.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Do perfumers also use that I think they do. Perhaps
they do get to extract the particular sense from different flowers. Yeah,
I think they probably use that same sea.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
And it's a great way to extract the nutrients. Because
that Fortuna skin were all about how do we preserve
that potency of the plants, because the potency of the
plants is what drives the transformational results on the skin,
and so we do that every step of the way,
from having our plants being fed with the natural spring
(08:50):
water that comes down the mountain from Mount Peru to
practicing regenerative agriculture and farming and Marthino this best from
everyone how important soil is for feeding the plants and
promoting that potency. So we try to figure out how
do we preserve that potency, and we found the sound
(09:11):
bath extraction method, which is basically ultrasound. So instead of
using harsh chemicals to extract the nutrients from the plants,
we can use our own base of either extra virgin
olive oil or olive fleaf water, which tested three times
more potent than any olive flea water on the market.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
What is that it's basically.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
The distilled olive leaves with using ours ours a spring
water from our farm, and it is really high in
anti accidants. I love drinking also making my own olive
tea or in the summertime and olive iced tea, all
of leaf iced tya.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Now are you packaging the leaves for us that we
can do that.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Too, it's coming.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
That would be good. Yeah, it would be next thing.
I would love to buy a big tin of olive
leaves and make sure. I like tea. I like all
different kinds of teese. I like herbal teas, peppermint, mint, spearmint,
so I would love leaf.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Olive tea has three times antioxidants of green tea. Really
that is so great health. So I love using the
whole olive tree. So even in our exfoliator we ground
up the olive pits as the exfoliation.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I have been using your exfoliation. I love that. Thank you. Yeah,
that's really really great, Yeah, really great. Yea.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
And the way we also formulate is about protecting the
skin barrier of the skin.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
What is it an olive oil that is so good
for your skin? What is it exactly? Is it a
what kind of compound.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
So what's amazing about extra virgin olive oil is that
it's one of the only oils on the market that
you could just actually take the fruit and squeeze it
and you get the juice from the olive. It is
full of anti accidents and polyphenols. It has an antioxidant
in it called oliocanthal that mimics mutrin in nature. Oh really, yes,
(11:09):
So it's super anti inflammatory and helps reduce the inflammation
in the body. There's so many amazing studies done by
Harvard and Oxford University a Yelle showing how it helps
reduce dementia and any anti inflammatory diseases.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
So we should be eating a lot of olives.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, and cooking with it. Cooking with it is amazing
because there's like a nutrient exchange with the vegetables that
actually enhances the vitamins and food.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
One olive tree. You might know this because I think
about this all the time. I think about scarcity, and
I think about productivity, and I think about where is
all the coffee coming from that is being drunk all
over the world, Where is all where are all the
peppercorns that are being ground every single day for seasoning
(11:59):
our food, And I think about olives too all the time.
Where are all these olives that produce enough oil for
the entire world to be cooking with or seasoning with?
Where are they When we open up a bottle of
olive oil and it says virgin olive oil on it,
is it really virgin olive oil?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It's hard to say.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It is hard to say. It's hard to say if
it's extra virgin. So I sometimes think the pepper corns
when you open a little paper packet of pepper, you know,
in a deli or someplace, and I think, God, this
looks like sawdust.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah, So it's important on the packaging of the bottle
to find a single estate grown olive because then you
know those olives are coming all from that one estate.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
One tree gives how many gallons of olive oil a year?
That's a good question that depends on the should know
these kinds of things?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Just yea. It depends on the tree and the age
of the tree. Because what's great about olive trees is
that they keep giving more and more every single year.
So the older the tree, the more and more olives
it produces. And olive trees are great because they don't
need that much attention and care.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
They're there in that rocky soil on a hillside somewhere
in Sicily, producing beautiful fruit exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I mean, this farm is truly magical. When you're on
this farm, you can feel it has a heartbeat.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And it looks like it. I guess I shared some
photographs of this amazing, amazing piece of property. And how
often do you go there?
Speaker 1 (13:30):
We try to go as often as possible, depending on
the kid's schedule, so at least five times a year,
if not more.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Oh, it's just the most magnificent place. I still don't
know exactly what's in those al is that makes our
insides so healthy and our skins so beautiful.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
All those amazing antioxidants in the polyphenos.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Now, where are the best olives in the world grown
on Sicily?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I would say at our farm. I mean, the attention
of the detail that we put on everything we do
is just incredible, and from the start to the finish.
So we have our own olive mill on the farm.
It's a seventeen thousand square foot olive mill that we
everything is, you know, starting from the water which is
(14:24):
natural spring water, till the end product it's bottled right
there on the farm, so we're in control over the
whole entire process.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
So how do how do you grind your olives for oil?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
We use a milling process, so doctor Pasquale is there
and just running.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Stone on stone or what do you use to actually
grind the olives is like a centrifuge.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Centrifuge exactly, refuge.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, I bought a centrifuge for myself just to see
because Nathan marveled. Have you have you had Nathan at
your farm?
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yeah? Not at our Yes, I think he did come
and visit our farm. And he's a good friend as well.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Oh he's fantastic. I'm just going he's sattle to visit
with him.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Nathan and Rosemary good friends.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Oh yes, Well, Nathan taught me about centrifuge's and how
you can extract oil from carrots. Yeah, and they almost
all vegetables have some sort of natural oil in them,
so I assume that olives of course have one of
the highest concentrates of oil in them. Yeah, since that's
what they're used.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
But from all the oils on the market, it's the
only one that you can just take the fruit and
you're not using any chemical process and so like a
seed oil to make the oil.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So when you when you squeeze the when you squeeze
that olive or centrifugeon, that's that's pure olive oil.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Pure olive oil, pure olive juice.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I have to come juice to see you.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You need to come. It's amazing. I mean I do
everything with extraversion olive oil. I bake with it. I
make an amazing olive oil cake.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Oh I bet.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
And I actually fry with it and do everything with
extra virgin no butter. Sometimes France has amazing butter they do.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Oh and Agatha lives in Paris with her family during
this during the school year.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Yes, and we get spoiled with amazing produce in France
as well.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Oh, yes, so beautiful. The food was so good during
the Olympics. So the Sicilian terrain is perfect for what
you're doing.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Oh, this soil is so full of minerals in volcanic ash,
so it really adds to all the nutrients to the
plants in.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Addition to what's there naturally. Do you have to feed
these trees? Do you do you use any other kinds
of supplements for the trees?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Just all organic supplements if needed. But we really practice
the regenerative farming, which is hard. It's hard on farmers
as you know, to be able to you never know
what weather conditions are going to to come.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Have you had a drought there, for there is a drought.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Right now, but this land is it hasn't hasn't rained,
and I feel like in a few years in so
and this rain, we're actually bringing buckets of water to
our neighbors to help them out because we have all
the natural springs and we have so much you know,
natural spring water on the farm.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Do you have to irrigate the orchards, the all of orchards, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
And then we also wild forage plants on our farm.
So doctor Pasquale I call him the plant whisper because
he can look at a plant and he can tell
when it's at its full potency. We were just sighted
recently in the journal called Anti Accident for our plant
(17:37):
called Nagella demicina that's found on our farm. It's grown
in the wild.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Nigela. I know Nigela, and it is a beautiful flower.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yes, there's there's a Nagella sativa and Nagella demicina. And
what they did was they showed that our Nagella demicina
on the farm, grown in the wild is more potent
than being cultivated.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
And he uses those little black seeds from the flower, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And we also use petals and different We use different
parts of the plants at different times of the years.
So mimoonos want to exactly pick what.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Part of that's going also into your skincare line? Yes, okay,
how many people are working on the farm. What's the staff?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
So we employ about at different times of the years,
depending on when we're foraging or harvesting, up to forty people.
We're the largest employeer in our area. We give back
to the community. My husband and I we always say,
if we're going to be doing anything, how are we
going to leave this world a better place than we
found it? And for us, it's important to give back
(18:41):
to the community. So we've built a house for people
of need. We give to the schools, donate computer and
technology and give back to the community and provide jobs.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
And what kind of maintenance do all of oil trees need?
Do they get pruned or do they just get left?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
They get left every few years. They need to be
brewn back They're amazing because there they're a symbol of
strength and heritage and longevity exactly. And we know that
dating back to the time of Cleopatra used to use
extra virgin olive oil for skincare.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
How do we know it is extra version between virgin
olive oil extra virgin olive oil. What's the distinction?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
The distinction is how it's being pressed and taken care of,
and then if there is any defects in the extra
virgin olive oil. So as an olive oil solier, I'm
gonna judge on some of the competitions. I will be
one next week in Paris, Oh, Yes, with Pire Garnier actually,
(19:52):
and we can taste for defects. And sometimes these defects
happened when the olives are being picked, or if they
were frozen, they could The defects can also happen in
transportations when olives are picked, sometimes they're transported to a
different mill for a few hours and they could become
(20:12):
fusty or musty, or even after during the bottling process,
if they're not bottled properly or a bit of contamination,
they can become a defect.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Well, I'm anxious to see how you chaste all of oil.
Somebody taught me how to taste it once, and I'm
anxious to see if you do. It's the same way.
So the harvest is coming. Do you go for the harvest?
Every year?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I try to go to the harvest.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I would think that's an exciting time.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
It is so exciting to be at the farm for
the harvest.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
And to see all those millions of olive us being harvested.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah. I think's one of the reasons we moved to
Paris was once to internationalize our children a little bit
and also to be closer to the farm. Our kids,
I feel, speak a few languages. My family originated from Croatia,
and so they speak a bit of Croatian, and they're
fluent in French, They're learning Italian, and I just want
them to be able to travel around the world, being
(21:05):
able to communicate and connect with people lovely.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
It's so important, so important. What about span Spain because
the Spanish.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yes, one son is learning Spanish.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Oh, because you can easily now expand your business to Spain.
Is the olive oil good enough?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah? The olaves are great in Spain.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
And Croatia has some of the best olive oil, olives
and olive oil as well.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
We're in a little box here. See how many people
to I know? This is great.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
I love the studio.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
It's so great. How did you particularly develop your formulations?
Did you work with cosmeticians or with scientists?
Speaker 1 (21:41):
And my co founder, she's a master formulist and also
very passionate about plants and formulation, and she was working
in the clean beauty sphere.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Oh she was, Oh yeah, and so what are your
particular rituals for looking so beautiful?
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Oh? Thank you?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Besides drinking your tablespoon of olive oil every morning.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Drinking extra virgin olive oil every morning, I only use
fatuna skin on my skin because I do want people
to see the transformative results of our products, and they
do work and eating healthy, drinking lots of water, being dancing.
I love to dance. One of my passions is ballroom
and Latin dancing.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Oh really? Oh oh great?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah great?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
And New Jersey. It's so unusual to talk to someone
I grew up in New Jersey. I'm from Nutley, New Jersey,
and my insul sphere has kept me within a two
hundred mile radius. And here you are off in Sicily
and Paris and so exciting.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah, it was exciting. I was born in New York
City at Savanson's Hospital, which used to be down in
the West Village. Now it's a condo building. And I
grew up in Chatham, New Jersey, and then I started
modeling when I was sixteen and graduated high school here
the city at the Professional children and School.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Oh, I see, but the Jersey is a great state.
And so how did modeling influence you in terms of
entrepreneurial behavior?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
You know, I mean we were both in the same
industry and modeling traveling around the world.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Doesn't it help you? Doesn't help you with like self confidence?
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Self confidence? Yes, meeting people. You're always on a photoshoot,
meeting new people. And I worked with some of the
best makeup artists in the world that inspired me for
my rituals with makeup and skincare. But it was great
working with Carlagerfeld and if Saint Laurent and and Terry Moglaire.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Oh, I know, and where are they? Where is poor
Carl Lagerfeld. Isn't it sad? Yeah? Yeah? I interviewed him
in Paris for during one of his collections. It was
so interesting to talk to him. He was very interesting
and so talented, so talented. So you have big fans
(24:03):
all over the place. Women's Where Daily Julianne Moore, the
actress Courtney Kardashian is very much a fan of your skincare.
So what appeals to them about your products? Do you think?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
I think it always goes back to the the personal
touch that we put into everything we do at for
Tuna Skin and the farm really sets up our standards
for quality.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Have you taken a tour people on a tour of
your farm?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
You know, we've only started recently to that would be.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Kind of a book for magazine editors, influencers whatever to
go and see, uh see the operation because Sicily, first
of all, is such a wonderful destination. And then to
to see something uh so uh so devoted to purity
as your as your wonderful farm, it's hard to call that.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Ah. Yeah, I mean we're planning a press trip hopefully
next May.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
That would be great.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
And yeah, I'd love to have you come. It'd be
amazing to have you come and see the farm.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I love Cecily, and I especially love the food. I
don't know, I just love love the food.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Isn't it, Because everything is about the quality and the
simplicity of just the ingredient itself and the produce.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
So I don't know how large your business is, but
what is your vision for the future of for tuna
skin to.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
You know, we have a five year product pipeline. I
have endless amount of ideas and I'm just excited about
sharing this piece of magical this farm with the world
and all these amazing ingredients. Being able to to give
our customers these products is incredible. I'm a big believer
(25:55):
in transparency. So even if you look at the packaging,
the bottles are clear, and the reason they're clear is
because I want to be able to communicate that transparency
and show the people how beautiful our products are.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I want to do this test. I want to see
what you brought here.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Oh okay, let's do this test.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I'd love for you to have you tried our olive oil.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I have I have. I have an olive oil cabinet
in my kitchen and I'm always looking for the best
of the best. Just no, can I show you how
I was taught how to do it? Oh? Yes, Oh
it's so weird. No, I don't even use a glass.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Oh you don't know.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
I was taught that what is this one? Oh? This
is your extra special lx R. So I was taught
to do this and then just oh, and to lick
it from the hand. It's like a pure olive. It
tastes like I just ate an olive, which is what
you're looking for, right, Yes, Then after you do all
the tasting, then this, I guess it was a soli
(27:04):
of olive oil. Told me to just rub it in
my hands and then put it all over my face.
It was funny.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
In competitions, usually it's in a callboalt glass. Not to
see the color of the extroverts and olive oil, so
like that you're not influence by the color. And so
you cover the top and you warm up the put
your hand on the underneath to warm up the extraverts
and olive oil to awake all the aromas. Okay, And
(27:33):
then after you do this for a few seconds, doing.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
This in a small like it looks like a little
brandy snifcher. But it's tiny, like a little shot glass. Yeah,
but it's round, not sharp.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
So after we warm it up, we smell it to
smell the aromas, and we should smell fresh cut grass,
maybe some artichokes, tomatoes, and it usually smells green. And
then when we go to taste it, we slurp it
and then we do as it's called strapaggio to awaken.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
All the very smooth.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
This is very peppery.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
It tastes absolutely fresh.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
So the peppery taste in the back of the throat
is the oleocantol. So the stronger the pepper flavor, the
more oleo cantal there is in the extra virgin olive oil.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
And is that the Is that the antioxidants, that's the antiaxid. Yeah,
and then you have the bona fortuna. This is the
extra virgin olive oil can blend.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
And when you're tasting the olive oil, it should have
harmony and balance, and you taste the bitterness on the
tongue and the pungency in the back of the throat milder.
It's milder. This because it's a blend. To have a
few different trees.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
For tuna is milder olive oil.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
But we not all of them. We have a forte,
we have the pure blend of Biancolia sentinada, and we
have many different ones at bonafertuna. So one is better
for stronger flavor, which is better for meat. And then
the lighter one, this one I love using for cooking
(29:12):
with fish or finishing it with fish.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I like drizzling olive it. I just picked the most
beautiful arugula for my garden yesterday and just the lightest
olive oil, but fresh, fresh, fresh olive oil.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
So yeah, that is a bit milder, but you can
still feel the peppery.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah, but it's also very tasty, very tasty. And you
know because sometimes when you open an olive oil and
you taste it like that, it will taste really acrid.
I have my grandchildren are expert olive oil tasters. You
should meat them sometimes. Oy. No, they love tasting things
(29:53):
for perfection. And which one is this?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
This is just a generic one for market.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Okay, this is one that you see in the supermarket.
Almost every supermarket has this brand of olive oil. Let's
see what that tastes like. It doesn't even taste like olives.
After tasting yours, it does not. It can taste the
it's vegetable oil, yeah it does. Wow.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah. So this on a competition, we'd say it has
a defense.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
It does well, it's a major defect. It does not
taste anything like the real thing. And it's still expensive. Yeah,
all olive oil is expensive, and the more single estate
olive oils are very expensive. Now A leader of the
(30:47):
best olive oil in my in my local grocery store
is something like sixty nine dollars. Yeah, that's a lot
of money.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Yeah, extords and olive oil is expensive, but there's so
much attention that goes into making extra virginal olive oil.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
And back to the thing about where are all the
olives coming from? Is there going to be a shortage
of olive oil? Do you think has anybody worried about that?
We don't see there being I worry I worry about.
Isn't it any plant the rest of those acres? Yeah,
Algatha has how many more acres to plant? You, oh,
thousands of more acress. You have a lot of room
(31:25):
in cil places, but that would be it would be.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
We just have our mill there built and we have
this small little house that we found the the foundation
of where my husband's grandmother was born in and we
rebuilt that house as one bedroom. So it's great. When
we go to the farm. The six of us stay
in this one bedroom. All the kids are on the couch.
It's like good glamping. There's no TV. The kids are
running around, driving the tractors, hiking around and it's so
(31:53):
wonderful place, maybe one with nature.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
So what are you give me these two recipes for
our listeners that which uses your best olive oil? What's
what's the one that you would that you would suggest,
like right now if I wanted to go home with
this bottle of extra virgin olive oil, the Bono Fortuna
or where do you sell this in these in the
States anywhere?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yes, so we're sold at Whole Foods and now we
just got in yes, oh great, yes, just recently this year.
And we're also at Erawan oh go, oh you are.
And then the best is always to buy direct from
Bonafertuna's website.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Okay, we can go do DCC, DTC.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
And then for the Alexar, we are sold at for
Tuna Skin's website.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Oh okay, oh good.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
And what's great about the Alexor I forgot to mention
is that after we pick it, it's pressed within six hours,
oh six to eight hours after picking, okay, which is great.
And then we also go through all of the olives,
take out the bruised ones for this one, and we
wait for twenty five minutes after the pressing to start
(33:02):
bottling it.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
And then after bottling or not, does it have to
be pasteurized or just put in the bottle.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
It's put into the sealed and sealed.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
So if you're if you're going home tonight, what would
you make for your family with your olive oil?
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Something a beautiful fresh salad, drizzle of the extravergin olive oil,
perhaps a nice little piece of soul fish and some veggies. Yeah,
with drizzling it and then finishing it off with an
amazing olive oil cake.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
How do you make that? Where's that recipe from?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
It's had been inspired from a few different restaurants around
New York City.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
The best olive oil cake I ever had was at
Valentino's house. He invited me for dinner one night to
design your Valentino and his chef made the best olive
oil cake. I tried and tried to get the recipe
out of him, and even and no, I didn't get
it out. And then now he did come out with
a cookbook, a beautifully illustrated cookbook, and you know I
(34:02):
forgot to. I have not yet looked to see if
that olive oil cake is in there. I'm going to try.
But if not, I would like you to share it.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I will share it. I will share.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I won't publish my recipe.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
You can publish it.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Okay, I want you. I want to try it because
I really love olive oil cake.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Yeah, and it is so moist and delicious. And there's
a restaurant here in the city called our TUSI. Oh, yes,
they make a delix.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
They do. Oh that's good to astro.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Version all of oil cake. And they're also sold on
gold belly. So sometimes when we were living in California
or it or went over because it's just a beautiful cake.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Oh great. Tell us your line of products for the
for the skincare.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
So we have a complete line of products. We have
our cleansing oil Bomb. It's a beautiful ten percent of
it has the olive fleaf water in it. It takes
off all of the makeup and residue from your day.
We have our Missler Water, which I call the Frenchwoman's secret.
And what's so special about our Missler water is made
(35:01):
with our olive leaf water and also an olive extract
instead of a coconut extra. And then we have our
award winning hero product, the Biphase oil. It just made
the list of wwd's one of the one hundred greatest
skincare products ever made.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
How great?
Speaker 1 (35:19):
So exciting, and it really represents all of the olive
tree because it has the olive oil in it, olive
leaf water and sew of different botanicals from the farm
and also stabilized vitamin C. And then we have our exfoliator.
We have our Face and Eye Serum, which is a
(35:39):
vitamin bath or a botox and a bottle. It's incredible
for the face and the declote the before and afters
from the Face and Eye Serum is just incredible. And
we're launching a new product this weekend, lip Bomb Olive
butter lip bumb and exfoliator for the loves.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
How great. Yeah, Well, so everyone look on online at
the for Tuna Skincare line for Tuna Skin dot com
and you can order there. You can also find it
of course. And are you and Sephora No, not yet.
Brad Brundoff, Goodman, goop up the mercury. It's been so
(36:18):
interesting to speak with you and thank you so much
for having me on this original and very very interesting venture.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Thank you so much. I just have to say, Martha,
you're such an inspiration to me and everything that you
have done. You're so kind and lovely and so warm.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Thank you so much as much for meeting you, and
I love you. I love talking to people who get
it done, and you're getting it done in a very
interesting way. Thank you, really and truly thank you. Eight
Host
Martha Stewart
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