If it wasn’t for Puche, I wouldn’t have known DECIEM in the first place. Thanks to her, I got to know one of the brands under its umbrella, NIOD, sometime last year and eventually the marvelous work of Brandon Truaxe, the company’s founder. From there on, my curiosities peaked and found out that DECIEM is from Canada. What’s even better, it’s from Toronto no less; the city where I went to college and a witness to some of the most important events in my life.
It truly is wondrous how the universe works. I knew DECIEM just opened their first retail store in Toronto sometime ago and at the time I had already purchased a flight ticket to the city for my brother’s wedding. I was really excited to finally get to see the products in real life. I have every intention to visit the store and this is where it gets even more interesting.
A completely harmless conversation occurred:
B (Bro) : You know, I have a friend who works in a skincare lab. If you want, I can introduce you to her so you can check it out.
K (me) : (hearing the word “lab”, I instantly asked) DECIEM?!?!?!?!
The rest is history, written on this post. Through this friend, I was able take a tour inside DECIEM‘s spacious headquarter and really, living the dream like a child in a candy store. This is to me, like watching How It’s Made live, without the LCD screen.
Warning, this is a picture-heavy post.
As soon as I saw the building, my heart palpitated.
It was a sunny day, hotter than usual with the sun shining so brightly and its rays brushed my skin in a rather uncomfortable way. I wore sunscreen of course. I had my cameras ready to go and I made my way down to the HQ. I was thrilled and nervous at the same time and the feelings multiplied as I got closer. Once I made that turn, I spotted the building with the black bricks straight away.
This is it.
The infamous yellow double doors.
Once inside, I sat for a bit while cooling down because I was sweating; combination from the hot weather, walking and being anxious. From where I sat, I instantly love the open space and the high ceilings. It certainly has an industrial vibe with raw elements in the interior such as the brick walls, metal light fixtures, and exposed pipes and ducts in the ceiling. There’s that “unfinished” touch and I absolutely dig this sort of space!
A few minutes later, I was met by Mira (Partnerships Director) and Eric (Social Media Guru) and we’re off wandering around the expanse. In DECIEM, everything is done in-house. From the management, finance, marketing, sales, branding, website, graphics and photography. Down to the lab formulation, production, logistics and shipping. Because of the openness of the space, it really isn’t hard to navigate around.
Cool space to work in.
The industrial vibe.
Next, we entered the lab where all the magic happens. Hylamide, NIOD, HIF, Hand Chemistry, etc. All are made here. This intimidated me as someone who didn’t pass chemistry in high school. There were so many things (labeled, of course) scattered around. It’s a good kind of mess, for sure!
Mira was explaining about “light-prism something” that they’re working on. Honestly I was just overwhelmed by the massive little bottles and jars laying around. I felt I’d been hit by a literal form of science, right on my face.
The mess.
Not even going to try reading the labels. As if I’d understand.
Love the candle touch on the desk.
Then we went into an alley between the lab and management into where the production area located. In here, the products were made into batches before packaged and labeled accordingly. There are 6 machinery in the production’s vicinity and each has its own function. There’s also an area to wash off used tools and equipment.
All the raw materials. There’s another warehouse nearby to store materials as the company is growing bigger and bigger.
Today’s production was for NIOD Hydration Vaccine.
Another one in progress. This is AB Crew Carving Gel. Supposedly to burn fat under the abs. I WANT ONE. For all over my body.
A new machine to pack sachets. As the business is expanding, it’s important to have little samples for people to try. These sachets will go into beauty boxes as well.
Working on Hylamide Booster C25, nifty-packed and ready to go.
Rolls and rolls of HIF labels. I wanted to grab each and stick ’em on the wall 😀
Tiny bottles of NIOD Fractioned Eye Contour Concentrate…
Into the box of NIOD Set 1. Consists of travel sizes. Also perfect for trial purposes.
Ready to be shipped! Currently, DECIEM is catering to 18 markets. Apart from Toronto, new retail stores will open in the coming months in Seoul, Sydney, Melbourne, London and Mexico City. Hopefully, they’ll hit South East Asia soon!
Products laying freely on the long wood table, waiting to be played around. It’s the perfect way to introduce the offerings to guests and clients.
The finance and money handlers are in the second floor, also Brandon‘s office, I suspect! Too bad the man wasn’t there, otherwise it would’ve been more epic! There’s also a little room that’s being utilized as a quick fitness room and photo/video studio. The team have been filming quite a lot of videos recently, showing the textures on the products as well as how they spread and blend on the skin. If any, I do notice there’s a lack of DECIEM‘s product reviews out there and these videos will be a great reference for us.
Totally appreciate the white shirt getup 😉
Thank you so much Mira and Eric for the warm hospitality. Also the rest of the crews who were friendly. Lots of smiles were given, which to be honest can be hard to come by in my own city. There’s a sense of familiarity between the division. Everyone knows each other and it makes such a nice environment to work in. If I was qualified, I’d love to be one of the monkeys LOL!
I had a lot of fun exploring and getting to know better about DECIEM. It’s been an absolute privilege to land this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and to say I’m grateful is underrated.
P.S. There’s a part two for this, I promise!
[…] the continuation of DECIEM‘s office visit in Toronto, I was also able to do an interview with none other than Brandon Truaxe, the […]