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In January 1980, I started growing my own cosmetic range in Ermelo. My husband Leslie was a pharmacist and he did the formulation and manufacturing of the products. This was the start of what is today a well-known skin-care range – Placècol.
Placècol was the first full cosmetic range manufactured in South Africa which was only supplied to pharmacies and Beauty Clinics. This was before the time of modern technology like Google, Internet, e-mails, GPS’s and all the well-known technology of today. It was quite the challenge, especially with the marketing – but we made it!
I clearly remember the early stages of Placècol where I very much played the role of CEO, Rep, bookkeeper as well as the courier!
After a lot of research we found the use of Manketti Oil (Recinodendron Rautanenii Schinz) to work extremely well in our products. Manketti trees grow all around the Caprivi area. During that time the war was in full swing in that specific area and that made it quite difficult to find enough Manketti nuts. Patent rights for the use of Manketti oil was registered (Patent 83/8842). Manketti Oil was unique and this breakthrough helped significantly to build the Placècol brand.
I attended an overseas CIDESCO world congress in 1982 where I saw the first soft laser machines. After this congress I formulated my own laser treatment and started to do laser treatments in pharmacies. These laser treatments soon became very popular and boosted Placècol sales in pharmacies. I eventually patented my Laser Treatment Method (Patent 98/00404). The patented “Elma McKenzie Laser Treatment Method” was then sold as a franchise to qualified beauty therapists. These laser treatments were given in various pharmacies across different regions in South Africa. Placècol sales grew significantly because of the combination of this unique service and the good results achieved by their excellent products. The huge success of the laser treatments became the inspiration to start the well-known Placècol Beauty Clinics.
I sold the Placècol business in 1998 and always continued to use the Placècol skin care range in my Elma McKenzie Laser Clinic.
Placècol grew from strength to strength throughout the years. The Placècol skin care range is distributed through Beauty Clinics, Pharmacies, Spas, well known chain stores, internationally and is also available throughout the Internet. The Placècol skin care products continue to touch and improve the lives of many people, which was my original intention when Placècol was formulated over 40 years ago.
I am so thankful to see how God has blessed my dream to become such a huge success!
