By Steve Urbon
The Standard-Times, New Bedford, Mass.
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) A Massachusetts woman is getting rave reviews for a skin brush she created called “OctoVie.” The brush cleanses, exfoliates and micro-circulates to detoxify, oxygenate and revitalize the skin.
FALL RIVER
A local entrepreneur and breast cancer survivor has made a big leap with her invention of a skin brush: Amazon has given her product the green light and today it is racking up multiple five-star customer reviews.
Pamela Auger, a Swansea resident and Rhode Island native, said that her invention emerged from her own experiences dealing with the dry, burning and darkened skin that resulted from the radiation treatments she underwent on seven lymph nodes on her upper chest and shoulder five years ago.
She beat the disease and decided to make a product that would easily and inexpensively make it possible to treat the skin to alleviate number of conditions.
Her product is called the OctoVie Skin Brush, “vie” being French for life and “octo” referring to the octopus design of the small nubs on the face of the product.
Auger, a nurse and medical aesthetician, is a substitute nurse for two school districts who has been pushing hard to get the word about her product since its launch last October, Cancer Awareness Month.
Amazon, she said, was “a lot of paperwork” and extensive inquiries about the product, where it is made, how many can be shipped, and so on.
With this leap forward in the marketing, Auger continues to seek promotional opportunities.
She recently competed in the EforAll pitch competition in New Bedford. She did not win, but she’s determined to try to take advantage of EforAll’s mentoring program so she can better manage and expand her one-person operation, now headquartered in an elegant office in a converted mill building on North Main Street in Fall River.
The OctoVie is designed to fit comfortably in the hand, rubbery but not absorbent, so lotions and creams will easily wash off after use. It is also latex-free and easy to carry around, unlike loofahs, washcloths and sponges.
It can be used dry but the non-slip nature of the patented design could cause redness. She demonstrated how it could be used with about any kind of lotion to promote the removal of dead skin, promote circulation and minimize wrinkles.
The technique is to vigorously rub the OctoVie on the skin in whatever area is affected by radiation, acne or other skin afflictions. She said that her own doctors were impressed with how well the skin brush worked on her dry skin, which had given her the negative body image that so many of her clients have when they come to her.
The skin brush cleanses, exfoliates and micro-circulates to detoxify, oxygenate and revitalize the skin, she said.
OctoVie is designed and manufactured locally.
Until recently it was available only on her website, OctoVieskinbrush.com. Now it is available on Amazon for $14 and at some Whole Foods stores as well. A brush, used twice a day for two minutes each time, should last three months or more, Auger estimates.
Call 508-812-0714 with orders or questions.
