The Montalto Natura story. The first in Italy for innovation and tradition.

Our story begins in 1957 when Filippo and Giulia Montalto followed their intuition and opened one of the first well-being centres in Italy, in Busto Arsizio in the Northern Italian province of Varese. There was also a small laboratory for the production of cosmetics attached to the centre. The company’s original name, Juliette Alysque, was in keeping with the fashion at the time, when a French-style name for anything that was connected to cosmetics and beauty was a must.
However, in all other respects, the Montalto life-style and working philosophy was anything but conventional.

They were the very first, right in the midst of the sizzling seventies when collective enthusiasm for oil, plastics and chemistry was the norm, to choose a different path which would prove to have been ahead of its time a few decades later. Instead of synthetic ingredients, Filippo and Giulia chose to use natural ingredients of vegetable origin in their beauty products. They were helped in this choice by Giulia’s botanical knowledge, a result of her years spent living in the mountain valleys of the Bergamo area.

The Montaltos were also forward thinking in terms of raising public awareness – Filippo, together with some of the other prestigious Italian names in herbalism, created Herbora, the first Italian herbalism fair.

In the eighties, Filippo and Giulia’s son Giuseppe, a specialist in phytocosmetology, joined the company. He put his passion for chemistry and his interest for anthroposophy to good use, creating, in 1981, the first range of natural make-up in Italy, Trucconatura, made using only vegetable colours and accredited by the Province of Varese health and hygiene services.

In 1990 the company decided to change its name to Montalto Natura, making it plain to all just exactly what the company was about, and focusing, as always, on providing the very best quality.

Giuseppe Montalto. Love and respect for humankind and the environment.

"I love my work. I have always been guided by a holistic vision of beauty and well-being and the knowledge that there is a close relationship between humankind and the environment, an approach that is summed up in the word biobellezza, from the Italian words for organic and beauty.

I believe that we should choose a cosmetic for its quality, just as we do when choosing food or clothing. Cosmetics can be considered to be ‘food’ for our skin, and as such it is therefore important that they be made from natural, organic raw materials, grown in harmony with nature’s cycles and rhythms and rich in vitality and energy.

Our certified organic cosmetics do not contain synthetic preservatives or colouring; nor do they contain silicones, lacquers or substances obtained by killing animals. They are made from only carefully controlled raw materials and plant extracts, which are either wild or organically and biodynamically grown and sourced in Italy or around the world. The water used in our products is revitalised water, rich in positive vibrational information.

Our choice of packaging is also in line with the Montalto philosophy – the materials used are non-toxic and are recyclable or biodegradable. The containers used for our creams are ‘airless’, that is to say a vacuum, to avoid contamination from contact.

Our demandingly high standards have led to prestigious results that testify to the quality and importance of the work we do. In fact, all our products are either certified, or undergoing certification, by the Italian government-recognised organic certification organisation CCPB (Consorzio per il Controllo dei Prodotti Biologici), whose exactingly high standards concerning the composition and the origins of ingredients are met by our products.

We have also reaped the rewards of our excellence abroad – our products are to be found on the shelves of the best organic cosmetic shops in France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Japan and Canada.”