Allure USA - September 2019

(singke) #1
I recently joined much of
Instagram in Holland
during the six weeks each
year that the country
becomes a rainbow
checkerboard of tulip
fields. Here are things I
now know about these
highly photographable
flowers. (I will impart my
new understanding of
bikes and canals at a later
date.) 1. They are one of
the only flowers that
keeps growing—up to an
inch or more—after you
cut them. 2. They can
hold their entire weight in
water. 3. They have up to
seven times more DNA
than humans.
My tutor was Kim
Jensen, an unlikely
candidate to be the
world’s foremost
authority on tulips in
beauty. She was born and
raised in Australia. Her
parents met in a refugee
camp in Thailand. She
has spent much of her
adult life in Manhattan. “I
never imagined I would
become an expert in
tulips,” she told me in a
sprawling field of them,
25 minutes outside of
Amsterdam.
To understand how
this came to be, we need
to take a quick detour to
Ibiza. There, three years
ago, on the last night
of a girls trip, Jensen met
a guy on the dance floor.
This was clearly not the
beginning of a beautiful
long-term relationship
(because: Ibiza, dance
floor, vacation over). And
then...it was. That guy
turned out to be a fourth-
generation Dutch tulip
farmer. So now Jensen
lives in the Netherlands
with Hein Van Haaster
(told you he was Dutch),

AT A TULIP FARM IN THE NETHERLANDS, ONE BEAUTY


ENTREPRENEUR HAD AN IDEA—AND SHE THINKS


THE ROSE BETTER WATCH ITS BACK. BY JENNY BAILLY


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and she’s found a way to
marry their worlds. In
Jensen’s old life, she was
a beauty marketing
executive. In her new
one, she’s created
Bloomeffects, a skin-
care line (with a little
makeup) that—for the
first time ever—includes
tulip extracts.
So cute, right? But
also no joke. Before she
considered formulating
anything, Jensen got a
grant from the Dutch
government to study
every single part of this
flower for potential
beauty benefits. Twelve
months later, what do
you know: Tulips are rich
in collagen-building
amino acids (red and
pink flowers produce
more than the others)
as well as moisturizing,
plumping humectants.
With that data in
hand, it’s game on:
“We’re going up against
the rose,” says Jensen.
Her initial arsenal is small
but mighty: a cleansing
jelly; a moisturizer that
starts as a thick ointment
and transforms into a
silky, skin-quenching
serum; a pore-purging
mask made with Dutch
peat and flower acids;
and a petal pink lip and
cheek tint. Everything
is free of sulfates,
parabens, phthalates,
synthetic dyes, and
fragrances and
packaged in glass and
aluminum (no plastic
here). And with their first
collaboration out in the
world this month, Jensen
and Van Haaster will
welcome one more baby
this year—a little girl due
in December, while the
tulip fields are sleeping.

M O M E N T


THELIGHT


BULB


From top: Bloomeffects
Tulip Tint, Royal Tulip
Cleansing Jelly,
Dutch Dirt Mask, and
Royal Tulip Nectar.

A FRESH


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