Jade Lily

Magnolia is called Yu Lan 玉兰 in Chinese: “jade lily”. For Chinese people, it is a wonderful idea. The first western cosmetics brand for billions of Chinese was not #Loreal, not #EsteeLauder, not even #Lancome, but… #OilofOlaz. At that time it was still written Oil of Olay. The brand was translated based on the English sound as “Yu Lan You 玉兰油”, or “jade lily cream”. Everyone, including me as a young girl, thought the wonderful cream was made from oil from jade lily blossoms and became enthusiastic customers. This meant that P&G was already able to generate billions of dollars in sales in China long before other western brands recognized the country as a major sales market. It was only years later, after I arrived in Germany and saw Oil of Olaz in every drugstore, that I realized that the brand was "completely normal" and that the product had absolutely nothing to do with jade lilies - well, everyone was naive once. In Germany, I also saw "real" magnolia blossoms for the first time and immediately loved them, they were exactly what I imagined! Now we have a magnolia tree in our garden and the beautiful blossoms are also in our #MayTreeSilk collection 😊