THE POWER OF DAILY RITUALS

As Director of Innovations & Sustainability at Rituals, Niki Schilling is tasked with making the company even more sustainable and helping to create a brand fit for the future. While passionate about her work, (like any job worth doing) it’s not without its challenges. Luckily, she has a few tricks up her sleeve to help clear and calm the mind and keep her feeling her best.

What are your favourite mood-boosting rituals?

“Scents have very strong effect on your mood. That’s why I also like to use scents for my mood-boosting rituals. For example, I put on the incense cones from Ritual of Mehr: the perfume of orange and sandalwood give me energy. The relax serum from the Ritual of Jing: with the ingredients of Chinese peppermint has a cooling effect and helps me focus when my mind is tired. On a working day, I generally try to go for at least two walks outside in nature. It helps to calm down the nervous system, ground my energy and gives me lots of energy and fresh spirit to continue my day.”

As the brand’s Director Innovations & Sustainability, which sustainable innovation are you proudest of?

“At this moment, I’m most proud of our most recently launched collection, the Classic Home Collection with sustainable improvements next to the marvellous redesign. These improvements include the introduction of all-glass fragrance sticks bottles, making them fully recyclable and our refill bottles are now completely transparent. Next to the fact that this reduces coating, it also makes it easier to recycle the bottle with the right glass colour. Next to making visible improvements there’s also lots that won’t be detected right away. For example, the bottom of that beautiful secondary packaging is now made from carton, reducing the CO2 footprint of the pack. These improvements make sure that our products have a minimum impact on the planet.”

How does Rituals ensure that its supply chain is both environmentally and ethically sustainable?

“Within Rituals we believe enacting positive change is very important. By doing business, but it also sits within everyday decisions and cooperating with colleagues and suppliers. That’s why we live by our code of ethics –a set of rules and guidelines how we want to work together. In addition, we’ve included requirements on sustainability in all our important business policies. We also ask our suppliers to adhere to these principles. Next to that, we are assessing our key suppliers on their performance on both social and environmental responsibility. We use the external business rating tool called EcoVadis. The assessment focuses on 21 criteria, grouped into four themes: Environment, Labour & Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement. The assessment helps us to cooperate and nudge our suppliers to constantly improve on environmental and ethical sustainability topics.”

What part of the day do you look forward to and why?

“That’s actually difficult to answer, as I truly enjoy different parts of the day, as they all give me something special! My meditation and visualisation moment in the morning. It sets the tone and energy of my day and makes me feel positive and grounded. But I also love starting and finishing my days with my kids, connecting with them – it nourishes my feeling of ‘home and love’. During my workday I really enjoy having focused meetings with my teams, to create together, fine-tune our progress to reach our goals. This gives me lots of energy.”

What does your relaxing/unwinding routine at home look like?

“Mindfulness and inner peace help me to stay balanced. I used to start my day with an hour of meditation every day. I was totally zen when I went to work. But with two little children it is a challenge to do this every day. Now I do a gratitude ritual each morning I wake up. I shut myself down for about five minutes and focus on the things I’m grateful for that day. The ritual helps me to feel lighter and gets me ready for a day full of energy. I also love to end my day with a candle meditation. By staring into the flame and releasing the day it increases the amount of melatonin.”

What advice would you have for people who want to reduce stress in their everyday lives?

“A healthy body and mind is extremely important. What triggered me is something the Dalai Lama once said: ‘I do not understand you Westerners; you spend five minutes on brushing your teeth, but the time you spend on your soul does not come even close to these five minutes!’ Even though my young children are running around in the morning, I always find five minutes to meditate or do my gratitude ritual. You will be amazed what those few minutes can already do for you. For that reason, there are five-minute meditations available in the Rituals app. Plug in your headphones and the routine of waiting for a train is suddenly much more relaxing. The app will incorporate serenity into your daily life.”

What wellness items are worth investing in for the home, in your opinion?

“In general, a house becomes a personal place because of the rituals of the person who lives there. I love how a particular scent can transform a space and give it a specific energy. Whether it’s a relaxed or energetic atmosphere, scented candles have the power to create a special atmosphere that fits a particular mood. It will probably not surprise you that I have many scented candles in my house, one in each corner. A good tip is to spread a different scent in each room. After a while you get used to a certain fragrance and by moving to another room with a different smell, your brain is stimulated again. Personally, for my kitchen I use various kitchen products, such as detergent, hand soap and hand balm. These products are available in all rituals in different colours, so fun to switch fragrances and colours now and then. I even fragrance the interior! With just a single spray of the Parfum D’Interieur, it immediately personalises a room to create an invigorating ambiance at any moment.”

How can fragrances have an influence on our mood?

“Fragrances are one of the most important elements of our product as scents have a particular influence on your mood and nervous system. Even in ancient China, 5,000 years ago, people burned flowers and herbs at home for more energy, healing or rest. They used several mixtures at different times, which had specific effects on mood. With Rituals we offer different products with different fragrances to nurture body and soul. I have different fragrances in my house and choose a different scent every day intuitively. Every day you are different and you need something else. That's why we keep innovating and launch new products and scents on a yearly basis.”

Which fragrances can make us happy?

“The power of fragrance is unmistakable. Sometimes it depends on the person as a fragrance can be linked to a personal memory. For example, you will never forget the perfume of your grandmother. A fragrance can conjure up long-forgotten memories, give you the confidence to make a personal statement and influence your mood and emotions. Besides this there are also fragrances that give a certain emotion scientifically, for example uplifting scents like the Ritual of Mehr evoke happy feelings aroused by the ingredients of sweet orange and cedar wood. Whereas the Ritual of Jing contains the calming ingredients jujube and lavender which leads to a relaxing mood.”

Can you share any exciting things you’re working on?

“Oh, there are so many exciting things we are working on, I wouldn’t know which one to pick. And after all I want to surprise you when they come. But one thing I will say: as you know we very much care about the planet, and as we have just gotten our BCorp certification – sustainability is really important to us. So you can expect many exciting developments in that direction, in combination with the many surprising innovations you know us for.”

Which Rituals product brings you most joy?

“I am not lying when I say that every Ritual brings me joy, as each of them have a very special meaning to me. I of course really love all of our limited editions, as they are always very exciting to work on. But also the home collections – both our private and classic – are really dear to me. We put extra focus on them right now, as with the current circumstances the ‘Home is your sanctuary feeling’ has gotten even more important. But I will be honest, my favourite Rituals are Karma and Namaste. I love fresh, natural and summery perfumes, and hence you will always find those in my bathroom.”

SHOP BEST-SELLERS

MORE TO READ

For many, skincare isn’t so much of a routine as it is a ritual. And with warmer weather fast approaching, it’s time to reevaluate what’s on your shelf. Discover your new ritual in Spring Clean Your Skincare.