About VITAS
Made in France. Made for how Hong Kong trains.
Why VITAS exists, where it is made, and what changed when we stopped saying things we could not prove.
It started with a smell
Anyone who has shared a lift in Hong Kong after someone applied a traditional medicated rub knows the problem. The products that work on tired muscles announce themselves — a sharp wall of methyl salicylate and camphor that follows you into the office, the MTR and the meeting you are already late for. Most people solve it by not using anything until they get home, which is to say by not using anything at all.
VITAS exists because of that gap: something you can actually use in the middle of a working day, on the muscles that are tired now rather than the ones you will get to tonight.
Why France
The formula was developed and is still made in France, by a cosmetics manufacturer producing with EEC GMP standard. That decision cost more than making it closer to home, and it was made for two reasons: the regulatory framework for cosmetic manufacture in the EU is strict and documented, and the plant-oil expertise — grape seed in particular — sits there.
The result is a short list: grape seed to carry, eucalyptus to cool, niaouli to round the scent. No hormones, no steroids, no methyl salicylate, no camphor. It is a smaller promise than most of the shelf makes, and it is one we can keep.
On the shelf, in Hong Kong
Getting a small brand onto the shelf at Watsons and Mannings is the hardest thing to do in Hong Kong retail, and it took years. It is also the part of this business we are proudest of: it means someone can pick the tube up, read the carton and decide for themselves, without a website in between.
The founder
A note from Rosana Li, founder
I started VITAS because I wanted something I could use at three in the afternoon without changing the air in the room. I trained, I sat at a desk, and I was tired of choosing between a product that worked and a product I could be seen using.
The hardest decision of the last year was to say less about what this cream does. It is a good product, honestly described: it warms before training and cools after, it absorbs, it makes a ten-minute massage possible, and it does not follow you around. That is the whole promise, and I would rather earn a customer with it than sell one a story.
Rosana Li
Pre + post workout
Soothing Cream Gel
Order online with free delivery from HK$250, or pick it up at Watsons and Mannings across Hong Kong.