Born From Healing

ONE IS AMERICAN, the other Japanese. But adversity strikes regardless of geography or culture. Cord Cohen and Kazumasa Kawasaki have both shown how they overcame personal health crises to create their own skincare and wellness brands in the process.

Mr Coen, 41, is the founder of Zents, a luxurious body care product line, which is available at Chi, The Spa, at the Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore. At 19, a devastating car crash left him with physical and brain injury, including chronic pain and almost complete loss of smell. He underwent two years of rehabilitation, and when his healing hit a plateau, doctors told him he simply wouldn't get any better.

Not one to accept his fate, he packed his bags and travelled to India, where he heard about a doctor who specialised in alternative therapy. In India, he spent a year doing yoga, receiving massage and internal herbal treatments and practising meditation. Miraculously, his pain subsided, his sense of smell returned and his body healed. It was in India where the idea of Zents came about.