Farewell to Maria Van den Broeck, founder of Istrilene

Our very first and best user of the Collagen Elastin Enriched cream, 91 years young, is no longer with us.

On November 7, 2022, we said goodbye to Maria Van den Broeck , wife of Guido Van den Brande, founder of Istrilene .

When we were making our three newsletters about 55 years of Istrilene a few weeks ago, we consulted her to ask how that start-up had been.

Maria was back in Belgium at the time, after wandering around in Beirut (Lebanon) (1960) and Malmö (Sweden) with her husband who worked for Sabena at the time, together with the three children. As a very active woman, who also wanted to do her bit, she came into contact with Tupperware. There she quickly worked her way up to 'Super Monitor', and as the first of +- 2500 demonstrators received a Golden Beaver + the very first car of the company.

After a few years of sales she realised that you couldn't go to the same customers every three months, because after a while their kitchen cupboards were full of Tupperware, a real quality product that never broke, and if something did go wrong, it was replaced free of charge.

Through her sister, a hairdresser, contact was made with Mrs. Mortelmans, who wanted to sell a product, namely mink oil. Maria saw her chance and started testing the brand Vison Rève (later Mylene) for sale at demonstrations. Shortly afterwards their paths parted, and together with husband Guido and many saleswomen from Tupperware the brand Istrilene was baptized and production, under own management, started.

In the beginning there was mink oil, cleansing milk and tonic. Soon day & night cream, bubble bath, shampoo, lipstick, nail polish and make-up were added.

After 10 years, and as the very first in Europe, the collagen cream was launched on the market, a formula that was later made even stronger by adding collagen-elastin.

Maria, due to her busy life and also genetically determined, developed heart problems and was one of the first in Leuven to undergo her bypass operation, something that was still in its infancy at the time and only happened in America.

The result was a huge scar on her chest. Very soon Maria started applying collagen cream to the scars several times a day. This had the amazing result that after a long time you could no longer see that she had undergone that heavy operation, and that she proudly dared to go to parties with her cleavage open. Maria also had a very good nose and chose the perfumes for our products. Traveling through Europe and visiting numerous fairs meant that Istrilene regularly brought out the trendiest products on the market, before the 'greats of the earth' brought out similar formulas and products.

But above all, she remembered one thing very well from her Tupperware days. Quality , quality, and personal service and attention to the customer ! That is why our products still carry this quality label today, only high-quality raw materials are used, and the 'active' parts in the products are used to the limit of the maximum of the formula.

Maria suffered a severe brain haemorrhage in 2000 and disappeared from the picture, but was always present behind the scenes. She continued to use her collagen cream until the last day and you can see that very well in the photos where she has beautiful skin and face, even though she was already 91 years young 😊.

The intention was to stop the brand after the first covid wave at the end of 2020, because no demonstrations could take place for 2 years, but due to great demand from customers and demonstrators at the time, it was decided to make a kind of restart (after 6 months of complete inactivity), with sales only via the webshop.

Many regular customers have looked for replacement brands/products in shops or pharmacies, but they find their way back to our brand and especially its quality, to their great satisfaction, which they often express in telephone calls or emails to the company.

We, the Van den Brande children and the Istrilene team, will cherish the warm and beautiful memories of our mother, and will continue to follow the direction, philosophy and quality of Istrilene that she indicated, so that you as a customer can enjoy her legacy for a long time to come!