'A Rose Is A Rose Is A Rose'

Gertrude Stein coined this phrase to describe how things are just what they are. In the case of Fresh’s new Rose Deep Hydration Sleeping Mask, the roses are more than just roses, as Ng Yi Lian discovers in Morocco.

- Ng Yi Lian

We all know the importance of first impressions and the lasting effect they have. I first met Fresh founders Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg last year when they came to Singapore for the debut of their brand’s Black Tea Kombucha Facial Treatment Essence. Amid 150 people in a noisy, crowded room, I struck up a private conversation with them for a whole 15 minutes – a rare occurrence at a two-hour launch party, and with the founders themselves, too. They shared personal insights and stories of their early struggles, with no holds barred.

When we reconvene a year later in Morocco during a press trip for the launch of the Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Sleeping Mask, Glazman and Roytberg’s personable earnestness allows us to pick up exactly where we left off. At the first dinner of the trip at the Royal Palm Marrakech, I am seated right next to Glazman, and we chat ceaselessly for hours.

He tells me with palpable excitement about the 15 Moroccan rugs he’s spent an entire day shopping for to decorate his new lifestyle project – The Maker Hotel in Hudson, New York. We talk about our mutual love for Japanese fashion designers such as Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto. (When he learns I’ve met Kenzo Takada before, he relishes every detail I have to share.) And we confess our facial masking obsessions to each other.