Hello, Sigla: This Wellness Resource Lets You Discover Joy in Health
L'Officiel Philippines speaks to Jovy Acuzar, founder and director of lifestyle and wellness brand, Sigla.
What is Sigla and what made you start it?
Jovy Acuzar: Sigla is a lifestyle brand I started last 2020 with the intention of providing nutrition, health, and wellness tips to my local community.Your website reads: "Your Guide to a Happy and Healthy Way of Life." What is this for you?
JA: Living a happy and healthy life means being able to do the things you want to do and enjoy the things you want to enjoy, it means understanding your body and learning how to tune in and listen to its needs, it means treating your body right, it means understanding that food is fuel. That’s why at Sigla, we really focus on providing fresh and fun content that shows that living well doesn’t mean restricting yourself all the time. Instead, we find ways to make healthy dishes more fun, we bring products we know would be easy to incorporate into your self-care routine and we create fun and excting products within this space.
How do you curate your selection on your shopping site?
JA: When I was living in New York during my culinary program, I had always been the person obsessed with looking for new health and wellness products, be it in food, or beauty, skin or fitness. I was inspired by places like the East Village Organics, The Clean Market, The Popup Grocer, and so many more that had such a well-curated selection of products for wellness enthusiasts. During these times, I had already been scouting for brands and products I felt would have potential in the local market. We select them based on their quality, and of course, price. Also, it always has to bring something unique and different to the table which I think most of our partner brands do.
You also have a line of "Sigla Goods." How did you decide what items to come out with first? Are your goods made locally? How does product development go?
JA: Our Sigla Goods line had always been part of the plan, I really wanted to create our own line of wellness and food products that were up to our standards. We started with the Sigla Mat in mind but we extended this to other detoxifying tools and sustainable products such as our bamboo toothbrush, Gua Sha stones, and most recently, our Detoxifying Dry Brush, which has been such a hit. So many people come to us telling us of the benefits they’ve experienced adding dry brushing to their routine or tell us how much they love our mat and its colors, it really fuels us to do more.
Are you planning to expand Sigla Goods? What kind of products are you looking to include in the range?
JA: We’ve got loads of products coming soon. Our Matcha Powder, which we source straight from Japan, is the highest grade matcha available and is certified organic. It took us a while to find the right powder because a lot of the ones available were organic but were too bitter and didn’t have the aroma that matcha is supposed to have. We finally found one we were happy with, after having so many matcha lattes in the process of testing. We are also launching some really cool merch soon! I’m particularly excited about our boat bags and some more ideas that I won’t discuss here as I want it to be a surprise.In your site you introduced a team of three women—yourself, Iyay Ignacio, and Alexe Villamarzo. How do you guys bump heads or brainstorm on ideas? It seems all of you love food and mindful eating. Who does which in terms of running the business, the socials, the look of the brand, etc?
JA: I’m very proud about my team being mostly female! I head the team and run the business, I am involved in all aspects from design, product development, business development, etc., but the secret to Sigla’s success is being big on collaboration. I love to brainstorm ideas with my team and we love testing products together. We have a very casual and relaxed setting at work but we always get things done. Alexe and I work heavily on the design elements of the brand together, she is so talented and skilled in graphic artistry. Iyay contributes recipes for us and she is such an amazing part of the team! She has given us so many wonderful recipes that focus heavily on using local ingredients whilst incorporating our products, she’s also a professional chef so we learn a lot of great tips and tricks in the kitchen from her.
Coming across Sigla, we felt it fulfilled an unaddressed niche in the local wellness market. Did you have this thought when you planned on putting up Sigla? Did you always plan on creating Sigla as an overall wellness resource and not just a shop?
JA: Oh, I’m so glad to hear that! Yes, we definitely had this idea in mind. We really wanted to be a one-stop shop for goods but also for people to learn more about these topics that we feel are never really discussed — i.e., why you should go gluten-free? What is sugar’s effect on the body? Why should I be eating vegetables? We also tackle topics like eating disorders which we feel is very important. So many of us beat ourselves up for not being perfect about what we eat and how much we exercise.What's in store for Sigla in the next five years?
JA: We’re hoping to expand by having more products and goods under our brand name. We also hope to be able to set up a physical retail space where we can really interact and communicate with our customers.
