Passion for natural cosmetics. From Italy to the Canary Islands, Emma's story

Emma has participated in the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program with a stay in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, together with Belinda Flores, founder of the natural cosmetics company A2Manos. From the Technological Institute of the Canary Islands we have been actively working as an intermediary office of the program since 2009. During this time, more than 300 exchanges between entrepreneurs have been managed, in different countries in Europe and the world. Learn about Emma's story and find out how she can benefit from this program with her example!

My name is Emma Bortolotti, I am Italian and I graduated in Pharmacy from the University of Ferrara. For years I have been passionate about ethnobotany, pharmacognosia and everything related to medicinal and office plants. So I chose to study Pharmacy, where I could give a scientific and practical training to my passions.

During my years of study I was able to travel a lot, with several scholarships, studying at the Universities of Granada and Salamanca where, little by little, I approached the world of natural cosmetics and, at the same time, I began to understand how popular knowledge related to the use of local plants is being lost today, knowledge in which I see an invaluable value and wealth.

Before the pandemic, I won a scholarship and went to Ecuador in the Amazon of the East, where I wrote my experimental thesis, studying the Ocimum Campechianum Mill: a medicinal plant rich in essential oils, with remarkable antioxidant properties that make it, among others, a potential innovative cosmetic ingredient. There I began to think that I could be the architect of my own destiny and launch a project in which I really believe, combining the world of medicinal plants and their traditional uses with natural cosmetics.

So I started talking to my friends and family about what I wanted my project to be: open a small cosmetics company that would give a new value to ethnobotanical culture, starting with the culture of my native region: Friuli Venezia Giulia, a region bordering Austria and Slovenia.

Inserting myself in the wonderful network that is being created today among curious young people and travelers, a Spanish friend told me about the EYE program, since her sister was participating in the project on the island of Madeira, Portugal.

Thus, I was informed about the possibility of participating in the program and, to carry it out, I received the help and support of the Italian association AlmaCube de Bologna, which finally put me in contact with the ITC.

For my Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs, I chose the Canary Islands, attracted mainly by the peculiar variety in terms of flora due to all the endemisms present, as well as the cultural peculiarity linked to the use of plants in this area.

I started to investigate the reality of Macaronesia, discovering the work of the Canarian Garden on ‘Ethnobotany and Cultural Biodiversity of the Canary Islands’ and realised that, for me, it could be a particularly interesting niche. So I searched Instagram for companies that could have natural cosmetics activities with a philosophy similar to mine and gave with a2manos.

I wrote to Belinda and we both realized from the first moment that we had made a winning couple, due to the similarity of character, ethics and work philosophy. So, here I am.

In this sense, the ITC was instrumental because it really made this business exchange possible, offering both Belinda and I all the practical support we needed both at the beginning and during the experience.

The exchange formally lasted 4 months, in which I learned a lot.

Thanks to this time with A2Manos I learned to formulate cosmetic products and improved my skills a lot, I became more agile both in organization and production, as well as in sales.

I have also learned a lot from a business point of view, especially with regard to the great difficulties that exist for small companies such as A2Manos, which decide to carry out an artisanal and environmentally friendly activity and decide to do so in a territory limited by definition as an island.

At the moment, I am determined to continue investing energies in my training, looking for the opportunities that the island can give me to investigate and focus on the ethnobotanical culture and the use of Canarian plants, since I have realized how interesting and fertile, both in biodiversity and creativity, the Canarian archipelago can be.

I have not lost my passion for studying, which remains a fundamental component of my personality and is often the engine of my decisions. So, the goal is still to be able to open one day my own natural cosmetics business, but I think I still have a lot to learn about the use of cosmetics as a way to transmit and preserve knowledge, and not only as a way to offer products that respect the environment and our body.

I will certainly continue to support the A2Manos project, as I am doing now, because I think it is a very important reality on the island and I am very proud to have learned so much from Belinda, whom I consider a true teacher.”