I recently had an opportunity to chat with Rachel Fortino, Lead Stylist and Creative Director for Alessandro Salon, about her newest project the recently launched haircare line Ciccia.
A different approach to beauty.
You have been in the beauty industry for over 20 years. What inspired you to start your own line?
I’ve always had aspirations to do great things within our industry.
Creating my own product line has always been a cherished dream of mine.
The idea for Ciccia all started with a conversation I had with my sister, Sarah, who shares my passion for saving the environment. She inspired me to take a different path within the beauty industry, one that prioritizes sustainability.
Tell us a little about the line.
I believe that beauty lines that focus on minimal waste without sacrificing the excellence of the product are the future of our industry – it has to be.
Ciccia Haircare uses salon quality ingredients and packaging that is friendly to our environment.
Ciccia is a beauty line that uses salon quality ingredients and eco-friendly packaging. Each 65g bar of shampoo and conditioner replaces (3) retail size bottles of cream shampoo and conditioner.
Each product bar is named after a member of my family. It is with great luck that each member has a different hair texture and there is enough of us to cover all of them: fine, normal and coarse to oily, sensitive, one for grey/blonde and of course babies and kids.
The first three I am releasing are named after my two amazing sisters The Sarah for fine hair and the The Vee for dry/course hair. The Oliver is named after my first nephew and is for normal hair with an earthy sent.
The story behind the name.
pronounced chee-cha
Can you share the story behind the name?
It is named after my daughter Francesca Jane who we affectionately call Ciccia, a Southern Italian nickname for Francesca.
Family connections.
Rachel and I also chatted about the logo for Ciccia. She wanted to link the two logos in a subtle way to note the brand connection. So she reached out to pure, a digital creative, branding, marketing agency, based out of Hamilton Ontario, who designed the salon logo.
Although they have a different look, aesthetically they have a similar feel – with the scissors linking the two logos.
Creating beauty, not waste.
This journey, from my daughter’s birth to the launch of Ciccia Haircare, has been a labur of love. I’m proud of our sustainable haircare line that embraces a more eco-friendly approach to beauty – minimal waste without sacrificing the excellence of our product.
Rachel has always had a deep seeded passion for her craft, as well as, having an unwavering commitment to the beauty industry. She is always striving to become a better artist, acts as a mentor to her peers, and now is learning the business side of running a salon.
Sustainability has always been important to her. It was Rachel who reached out to Green Circle Salons when she learned of their mission.
Alessandro Salon has been a certified sustainable salon for years now – keeping hundreds of pounds of beauty waste out of the landfills each year. So naturally her approach to developing a line of haircare products would follow the same path.
We are living in a time where social media is at the forefront – likes, followers and going viral seems to cloud people’s judgement a lot of the time. As a result. authenticity seems to be more and more rare these days.
