São Paulo – Lebanese olive oil is the raw material for manufacturing a cosmetic line in Minas Gerais. Olisoft brand’s flagship is the olive oil-based soap created by Gabriel Tarquinio Bertozzi. Innovative in Brazil, the brand is inspired in the Lebanese tradition of producing cosmetics from olive oil. “In the Mediterranean, making soap from oil is part of their culture. I brought it back; for them it is a daily thing, but I refined it, made a whole store about it,” – Gabriel Tarquinio Bertozzi is an agronomist who specializes in olive trees and founded Olisoft five years ago
The Brazilian is an agronomist, and for 18 years he has worked and spread the olive tree plantation in the region of Poços de Caldas, where he was born and now has the company’s stores. “Before that I used to work in landscape agronomy. Then I traveled to the south of Italy, in the ‘heel of the boot,’ and learned about it. Afterwards, I brough seedlings from Spain to spread the culture around here, traveled to Chile to learn more about their production and couldn’t stop since,” he said.
The olive oil used in the recipes is produced by the Al Badawi owned by Charbel Naim Barakat of Lebanon. “As I’m deeply involved with the olive oil topic, I ended up meeting Charbel, and his family has had the farm for 60 years. He is focusing on exports and supplies the olive oil I use now,” Bertozzi explained.
Kadmous Lebnen 