Imagine a skin-care company recommending exercise, enough sleep, and a good diet as a way to achieve healthy looking skin. A skin-care company that cautions people on its website to “Remember, cosmetics are ‘cosmetic,’ and not medicine.” Whatever next? A denial that there’s such a thing as the fountain of youth or that it can be found in a bottle?

But that’s exactly what Tval does. Tvål is the Swedish word for soap, inspiring the name of a business that began life as a small basement shop in downtown St. John’s, N.L., back in 2003.

Anna Hellqvist and her husband had moved to Newfoundland from her native Sweden when he accepted a job at Memorial University. With degrees in biology and chemistry, plus an aesthetician’s licence, Hellqvist had the background to turn the soap-making skills she had learned from her grandmother into a commercial enterprise.

While she was apparently happy to keep a low profile and just make soap, her brother-in-law, Bobby Bailey, had a different idea. A native Newfoundlander, he had spent many years in Toronto working for a well-known cosmetics company. That company’s ground-breaking business model inspired him and when he saw what Hellqvist was doing with Tval, he decided to chuck in his job and join her. That was in 2005, and while Hellqvist has since returned to Sweden, Bailey continues to operate the growing business. One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is the unique purity of Tval’s products in contrast to the competition.

“Cosmetic companies lie,” Bailey says. “People buy into it because there’s so much out there they think, ‘Maybe this one works.’ A lot of times you pay for packaging and the name. We wanted to keep it simple and with a reasonable price for things that work.”

Bailey believes in Tval’s products. He cites one example of how much the correct product can help and there is a catch in his voice as he describes what happened. “We have one customer with many, many bad allergies who couldn’t find soap or shampoo that didn’t cause rashes. She buys unscented products from us as we make an unscented version of all our products, and her skin is transformed. It’s changed her life. Her arms had been covered in a red, scabby rash, and now they’re perfect.”

This is more an instance of what not to put on your skin to help it; a reduction, rather than an increase. For most of us the case is different. Expect not miracles, but enhancements of what’s already there. “Most of what you put on your skin won’t penetrate past the first layer; 99.9 per cent of your skin won’t absorb stuff. So you’re only treating the top layer. Our products are the best you can do.”

That’s not to suggest just treating the top layer isn’t a good thing. Bailey says some of their products are tried and true through the ages. Shea butter, for example, has been used for 2,000 years and stands the test of time. He compares rubbing it into your skin to polishing leather. It will lubricate it and make it shine.

All products are made in house with natural ingredients from more than 30 suppliers. They include such offerings as raspberry exfoliate, cucumber melon hair mask, and cleansing milk with almond oil.

Some of the products seem to just be about having some fun with your skincare regimen. In the autumn the store features, naturally (in every sense of the word), pumpkin spiced latte bath treat and monster mash bath treat. And, not surprisingly, gingerbread bath treat and candy cane bar soap are waiting in the wings for the next holiday season.

Clients seem to be lapping it up, or lathering it on. The company has changed locations four times since 2004, moving to bigger quarters each time. Now in the heart of St. John’s, it has lots of space for the shop itself and a large kitchen in the back where eight workers make the products.

Bailey couldn’t be happier with the direction the company is taking. His brother, now working in Sweden, has connected him with biologists there who, he says, are developing an exciting new ingredient that works really well.

Beauty may only be skin deep, but to the customers who flock to Tval, loyalty seems to go much deeper.