The 42 year-old Argentine Carina Cavazza founded La Pasionaria with her husband in March 2003, building an appealing, innovative company whose products are mainly based on botanical species typical of Argentina. A graphics designer with a degree from the Escuela Superior de Diseño Gráfico in the city of Rosario in Argentina’s Santa Fe province, Ms. Cavazza worked for the advertising agency Davide & Galli in Piacenza, Italy prior to setting up her own company.
Currently, La Pasionaria produces more than 50 different kinds of soaps as well as lotions and essences. Soap production, the company’s key asset, covering 40% of its business, features such lines as La Pasionaria, made of native flowers like ceibo, jacaranda and pasionaria; Aromas de la Patagonia, with musk rose, lavender and fruits of the forest; Tango, recalling songs such as Naranjo en Flor and Nostalgia; and the line For Export, which uses local ingredients such as yerba mate and dulce de leche.
“The Chicago-based cosmetics distributor Smallflower, owned by Anthony Qaiyum, will distribute La Pasionaria products in the United States and Canada starting in the first quarter of 2010,” said Ms. Cavazza. The firm has three points of sale in Rosario, and one door in the Unicenter Shopping Center in the city of Buenos Aires. It also boasts two franchises in Pilar and Canning, both in the province of Buenos Aires, as well as a franchise opened last December in Costa Rica.

Cristina Kroll

Beyond Beauty MAG #28