Entrepreneur Stories: Cristina Martelli and her organic cosmetics business

In defining M.O.T.H.E.R. Project’s target, we came up with a category that is M.O.T.H.E.R. workers. This categorization was born to identify youths who work or would like to work in close contact and connected with the land in their hometowns contributing to their development.

In Cristina Martelli’s entrepreneurial story the connection with the land, in this case Calabria, a land rich in raw materials, played a determining factor despite not being her birthplace. Half Piedmontese and half Calabrian, she was born and lives in Turin, but the link with her father’s place of origin has always been very strong.

Her adventure starts while strolling through her family’s hazelnut groves, when she asked herself if it was possible to start from a long tradition anchored in the production of the Tonda di Calabria hazelnut to create innovation. Thus a sustainable and successful idea brought her from extracting the oil from the organic Tonda di Calabria to launching her own cosmetic line bringing to the market oils for face, body and hair, body scrub, and many other products with natural hazelnut oil.

The pure oil, as it comes out of the cold mechanical pressing of the unroasted fruit maintain all its properties, especially vitamin E, which the hazelnut already contains by nature, creating products unique in their kind and of exceptional high quality under the brand “Avelca“.

Be inspired by this success story and embark on your own business idea!