Oiled Up

Three New York City doctors/restaurateurs and an Italian geneticist walk into a bar – really, no joke- with a shared love of olive oil and a belief in its benefits that led the group to create Bottega Organica, a natural beauty brand based on scientific principals. All ingredients in the body, and hair-care line are grown without pesticides or synthetic fertilizers and made with extra virgin olive oil, healing herbs and medicinal plants. Nearly every ingredient in the almost-40 product collection is grown on co-owner Paolo Manfredi’s farm in Liguria, Italy. Manfredi also co-owns the NY Italian restaurant Quartino and is a Harvard-trained neurologist. When Manfredi met Andrea Alimonti MD, an Italian molecular geneticist, while working together at Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2012, their plan for Bottega Organica was hatched.

The two began talking with Manfredi’s partners in the restaurant- a cardiologist and ophthalmologist – as well as other doctors who were regulars at Quartino, and now serve as advisors. The idea behind Bottega Organica was to blend powerhouse medicinal plants with pure olive oil, which is rich in skin-loving antioxidants and nutrients, with the objective of maintaining skin’s youth for as long as possible. Manfredi and team are all obsessed with pure and natural ingredients and wondered why people who are very careful about their diet didn’t worry more about what they apply to their skin, as chronic diseases can be caused by environmental toxins that can be ingested or absorbed through the skin. Now they just need to add some wine with all that olive oil. www.bottegaorganica.com