A Kitchen Staple and Facial Cleanser in One

The olive tree is one of the staples of Mediterranean life. “It’s been a piece of our culture for thousands and thousands of years,” says Baronessa Consuelo Cali, partner in an Italian line of olive oil-based cosmetics. “It’s the most important plant in our culture.”

Olive oil is a well-known staple for Mediterranean cooking but lesser known for its use in beauty treatments, according to Cali, whose centuries-old family farm outside Rome was turned into a health farm--known as a spa today--in the 19th century. For the skin, olive oil has been used as a moisturizer. And, when mixed with chamomile, the oil is applied as a day cream. With lemon verbena, it’s a cleanser.

The practice is not entirely new to Americans. A number of us remember our mothers and grandmothers using olive oil on their skin and hair. While natural products, such as emu and rose oils, rosemary and even black tea, are now used in skin care lines, olive oil has yet to be widely used in and marketed for cosmetics.

Cali and partner Eric Kloper are convinced that America is ready to try olive oil outside of the kitchen. They are offering hair and skin products that mix olive oil with chamomile, lemon verbena, rosemary, even Mediterranean sea salts under the Cali Cosmetics name.

Many of these products are adaptations of ancient recipes from Cali’s family farm. Even before it turned into a spa, the farm was famous for indulging visitors with relaxing treatments using fresh herbs mixed with olive oil. As a spa, it has attracted guests from Europe, the United States and Japan. These days, the clientele is mostly the elderly, says Cali.

Kloper was originally hired by Cali’s father. The plastic surgeon had his own line of skin care products, which he hired Kloper to represent. On Kloper’s first visit to the Cali Beauty Farm, the New York City attorney walked into the kitchen and saw women cooking. On one side of the kitchen were pots full of food; on the other side, pots of beauty products.

Cali, who had been running the farm for 10 years, was directing everyone. Kloper had a vision. He suggested to Cali that they form a partnership to bring the cosmetics to the United States. But “it took two years for Consuelo to learn English,” says Kloper, who does not speak Italian.

He used those two years for research on the products to give them a shelf life beyond their usual two days. Then he quit his practice, and Cali left the spa for good.

In August, they introduced eight products, including shampoo, body scrubs and lotions. The products sell in specialty shops such as Palmetto in Santa Monica and Larchmont Beauty in Los Angeles, and local spas such as the Clarissa Day Spa in Malibu and Allen Edwards Salons in Brentwood and Woodland Hills. Prices range from $15 for shampoo to $17.50 for facial cleansers.

Jane Kennedy, owner of Palmetto, says the line is doing well in her store. “It has an unbelievably beautiful scent,” Kennedy says. Usually a cosmetics line takes about a year to develop a loyal consumer following, but Kennedy is confident enough to add Cali to her 50-some-line inventory.

Cali and Kloper plan to open a spa in New York in three years similar to the ancient Italian one. They plan to have another in Los Angeles and one in Miami’s South Beach in five years. The company owns 130 more family recipes for products, which Kloper says they will introduce slowly.

The recipes are secret, both say, but they did offer one home remedy for dry scalp. Rinse your hair in hot water and then rub in a handful or so of olive oil. Comb your hair and then wrap it in a towel for 10 minutes. Shampoo and rinse. They suggest the home treatment twice a month.

Hair Glare: Nothing goes with sun-kissed skin like sun-kissed hair. The 1990s version of Sun-In highlighting spray may be the new Lightening Gel. The gel styling product lightens locks without the sun. But the gel has peroxide in it, so it may not be suitable for brittle or damaged hair.

Those who absolutely have to be in the sun may want to try a TanToo. It’s a temporary tattoo decal you wear while you tan. Peel the decal off after a day on the beach and voila! Instant tattoo.

Double Latte Lotion?: From Body Shop’s Self-Tan lotion to Banana Boat’s Sunless Tanning Mousse, almost every beauty line has a tanning product on the market this summer. But there are a few that caught our eye.

Health nuts who swear by vegetables can now wear them. Bronzo Sensuale International’s line of self-tanning lotions is made from carrots.

For today’s coffee culture, there’s even a tan accelerator made from coffee beans. Supre’s Cafe Bronzer combines tan maximizers with self-tanning bronzers and coffee bean extracts.

Actress Denise DuBarry has launched her own line of self-tanning products under the name California Beauty. (And who doesn’t want to be a California beauty?) The self-tanning system includes three products: an exfoliating cream with alpha hydroxy acids called “sand,” a body tanner called “sun,” and a shimmering moisturizer called, you guessed it, “sea.”

Look for self-tanning products at beauty supply stores and tanning parlors.

Barbara Thomas and Booth Moore can be reached at socalliving@latimes.com.