Green Apple
Spring. April and May, when the apple orchards around Almaty are in blossom.
The purity and freshness
of the Alatau
Shampoo, cream shower gel, cream hand soap and dishwashing liquid. Made in Almaty. Every bottle shows its own place in the mountains.
Almaty — a city named after the apple tree
Forests of the Sievers apple, the wild ancestor of the domestic apple, still grow in the mountains above the city. Alma is Kazakh for “apple”. Add forest, and you have the name: an apple forest.
We live at the foot of the mountains and see them from our windows every day. Those are the views we put on our labels.
Alma Forest has eleven bottles and eleven places: Butakovka Waterfall in autumn, the Aksai River at dusk, Lake Kaindy at dawn, the meadows of Kok-Zhailau, yurts on a summer zhailau, orchards in blossom. Each scene was drawn for its own bottle.
The shape of the window on the label tells you what is inside: an arch for shampoo, a drop for cream shower gel, a bar for cream hand soap, a round plate for dishwashing liquid. The window and the logo are finished in raised gloss varnish; the rest of the label is matte. It makes you want to touch the picture.
Туған жердің тауы ыстық.
Four windows
In a yurt, the window was the sky
Light came into the yurt from above, through the shanyrak. We gave each bottle a window of its own, and its shape tells you what is inside: an arch for shampoo, a drop for cream shower gel, a bar for cream hand soap, a circle for dishwashing liquid.
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SUSABYN SHAMPOO
Shampoo
Wind · 450 ml
A pearlescent shampoo for everyday use on any hair type. It gives a rich, creamy lather, gently cleanses the scalp and lengths, and makes hair easier to comb. SLES-free, with panthenol and glycerin.
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KREM-GEL CREAM SHOWER GEL
Cream shower gel
Water · 750 ml
A creamy gel with a pearly sheen. Mild coconut-based cleansers, glycerin and panthenol. It lathers richly and rinses off easily.
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KREM-SABYN CREAM HAND SOAP
Cream hand soap
Zhailau · 450 ml
A creamy liquid soap for frequent hand washing. It does not leave skin feeling tight. A convenient pump: one or two presses are enough.
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YDYS JUĞYŞ QŪRAL DISHWASHING LIQUID
Dishwashing liquid
Orchard · 750 ml
Dissolves grease even in cold water. Suitable for children's dishes, glassware, fruit and vegetables. After washing, rinse under running water.
Each fragrance is a season and a time of day
Eleven bottles. Three fragrances for personal care and two for the kitchen.
Lemon & Ziziphora
A soft morning. Kiikoty, a fragrant herb of the foothills that people here have long brewed.
Chamomile & Mountain Honey
Morning and summer. Tuimedaq, or chamomile, on mountain meadows, and honey that bees gather at altitude.
Kaymak & Honey
A golden evening on the zhailau. Bal kaymak is thick cream with honey, traditionally served to elders.
Ripe Aport Apple
Autumn. September in the foothills, when the Aport ripens and the leaves of the wild apple trees turn red.
Places on the bottles
Every scene is a landscape of Almaty and the Alatau. The map is an impression, not to scale: tap a point to see the scene and its bottle.
The map is drawn as an illustration; distances are approximate.
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Spring
Orchards in blossom
In April and May the apple trees around Almaty are white and pink with blossom, while snow still lies in the mountains.
Dishwashing liquid · Green Apple -
Soft morning
Ziziphora slopes
Kiikoty, or kokemaral, is a fragrant herb of the Trans-Ili Alatau foothills. It has long been brewed here, and bees make honey from its flowers.
Dishwashing liquid · Lemon & Ziziphora -
Evening
Aksai River
The Aksai rises in the glaciers of the Trans-Ili Alatau and flows 70 kilometers before joining the Kaskelen. Its gorge lies southwest of the city.
Cream shower gel · Kaymak & Honey -
Autumn, wind
Wild apple forests
Forests of the Sievers apple grow in the foothills of the Alatau. In autumn the leaves of the wild trees turn red, and the Aport ripens in the orchards.
Shampoo · Ripe Aport Apple -
September
Aport orchard
The Aport is harvested in the second half of September. Today the variety is being revived; the first mother orchard was planted in Talgar.
Cream hand soap · Ripe Aport Apple -
Autumn
Butakovka Waterfall
A waterfall in the Butakovka Gorge, just outside Almaty. In winter its streams freeze. On our bottle it is autumn, framed in russet leaves.
Cream shower gel · Ripe Aport Apple -
Golden evening
Zhailau
A summer mountain pasture: yurts, milk, bees. Milk is boiled in the evening, and a day later the kaymak is skimmed off.
Cream hand soap · Kaymak & Honey -
Golden evening
Steppe at the foot of the mountains
Golden grass and a horse's mane. The steppes of Kazakhstan hold some of the world's oldest traces of the bond between people and horses.
Shampoo · Kaymak & Honey -
Summer morning
Kok-Zhailau Plateau
Almaty's favorite plateau, about 2,200 meters up and ten kilometers from the city. Scientists have counted 110 species of bees on its meadows.
Shampoo · Chamomile & Mountain Honey -
Dawn
Lake Kaindy
The lake was born of an earthquake more than a century ago. Trunks of Tien Shan spruce still rise from its turquoise water.
Cream shower gel · Chamomile & Mountain Honey -
Morning, summer
Chamomile meadow
Tuimedaq, or chamomile, blooms on the open slopes of the Trans-Ili Alatau from May to July.
Cream hand soap · Chamomile & Mountain Honey
The Kazakh home and cleanliness
In Kazakh culture, cleanliness means caring for guests, for the home and for water. We drew on these customs when we created the line.
Qol juu — pouring water over a guest's hands
In an aul, a Kazakh village, the youngest in the family goes around the guests with a kumgan, a jug with a long spout, and pours water over their hands above a legen basin. This is done before the meal at the dastarkhan and again after it. Our cream hand soap continues this gesture in your home.
Қуыс үйден құр шықпа.
Even from a humble home, no guest leaves empty-handed.
The dastarkhan and clean dishes
A kese for tea, a platter for beshbarmak: at a Kazakh table, the dishes are always on display. Our dishwashing liquid cuts grease even in cold water and smells like a spring orchard, or like lemon and ziziphora.
Тазалық — денсаулық кепілі.
Cleanliness is the key to good health.
Nauryz: springs and renewal
Each spring at Nauryz, whole families went out to clear the springs and plant trees, and homes were cleaned for the holiday. Today the ten days of Nauryznama include Zhanaru Kuni, the Day of Renewal, and Tazaru Kuni, the Day of Cleansing.
Бұлақ көрсең, көзін аш.
When you see a spring, clear its source.
The Alatau, homeland of the apple
Here, the apple is part of the city's history.
September 1, 1929
The botanist Nikolai Vavilov arrived in Alma-Ata and saw whole forests of wild apple trees in the foothills. He realized he had found the place where the cultivated apple began. DNA studies later confirmed it.
1865
According to the best-documented account, a settler named Yegor Redko brought Aport saplings to Verny, as Almaty was then known, and grafted some of them onto the local wild apple. This is how the Almaty Aport came to be.
Today
The Aport has become a symbol of Almaty. Since 2024 the country has been running a program to revive it, and the first mother orchard was planted in Talgar.
Sources
- Яблоня Сиверса — Википедия (in Russian)
- Informburo: Вавилов в Алма-Ате, 1929 (in Russian)
- Informburo: кто привёз апорт (in Russian)
- Минсельхоз РК: сад для возрождения апорта (in Russian)
Ingredients, honestly
We don't write “natural” or “eco”. We write what is inside, and why.
- A gentle base
- Coconut-based cleansers: sodium coco-sulfate, betaine and glucosides. They give a creamy lather and cleanse gently.
- Moisture and softness
- Glycerin helps retain moisture. The shampoo and cream shower gel contain panthenol; the shampoo also has a conditioning polymer against static.
- Pearlescence
- The creamy, pearlescent texture of the shampoo, cream shower gel and cream hand soap comes from glycol distearate, a wax.
- Fragrance
- Aport, kaymak and honey, chamomile: these are fragrances, not ingredients. We chose them because they smell like Almaty.
The ingredients are printed on the back of every label, together with all the required text in Kazakh and Russian.
Qys · Keş — a winter evening
The fifth window is yours
Our labels open four windows onto the Alatau. The fifth is at home with you — the one where the mountains turn pink at dusk.
Where to buyWhere to buy
Alma Forest is about to go on sale. Stores and marketplaces will be listed here as soon as sales begin.
For stores, salons, hotels and restaurants
We supply directly from the manufacturer, COSMEX. Write to us and we will send our price list and terms.
Frequently asked questions
Who makes Alma Forest?
Alma Forest is a brand of COSMEX. The products are made in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
What does the line include?
Shampoo 450 ml, cream shower gel 750 ml and cream hand soap 450 ml, each in three fragrances (Ripe Aport Apple, Kaymak & Honey, Chamomile & Mountain Honey), and dishwashing liquid 750 ml in two fragrances (Green Apple, Lemon & Ziziphora). In total, 11 products.
Does the shampoo contain SLES?
No. Alma Forest shampoo is made without SLES, with mild coconut-based cleansers, panthenol and glycerin.
Can Alma Forest dishwashing liquid be used for children's dishes?
Yes. It is suitable for children's dishes, glassware, fruit and vegetables. After washing, rinse the dishes under running water.
What is pictured on the labels?
Landscapes of Almaty and the Alatau: Lake Kaindy, Butakovka Waterfall, the Aksai River, the Kok-Zhailau Plateau, summer pastures, apple orchards. Each bottle has its own scene.
Why is the front of the label in Kazakh Latin letters?
The product type and fragrance on the front are written in Kazakh, in the new Latin alphabet of 2021: SUSABYN, KREM-GEL, KREM-SABYN, YDYS JUĞYŞ QŪRAL. The full text on the back is in Kazakh (Cyrillic) and Russian.
Where can I buy Alma Forest?
The line is about to go on sale. Wholesale buyers can reach us on WhatsApp at +7 700 155-09-09 or by email at info@cosmex.kz.