Imagine that there is no Milka chocolate, McDonald’s or Nutella in your life. There are also no Apple or Nokia devices, no Chanel or L’Oreal cosmetics, no Columbia winter coats, no Bershka and Mango clothes, no Helen Marlen and Carlo Pazolini shoes, no Mont Blanc pens and even no Colgate toothpaste.
Yet this is exactly what the life of Ukrainian Yulia Savostina looks like since she began a yearlong experiment on Feb. 13 to prove that she could get by using only products made in Ukraine.
The rules are easy: use only those things made in Ukraine over the course of 12 months. Five months into the experiment, Savostina told the Kyiv Post that abiding by this basic rule hasn’t been easy.
“I am not going to torture myself to death, I am not throwing away my computers or anything else, but anything I’ll need during this year will have to be produced in Ukraine,” she explained.
Savostina recalled the state of ruin in which Ukraine’s industries were left following the fall of the Soviet Union and wanted to conduct this experiment in order to see what might have survived the collapse and what has popped up since.
She doesn’t necessarily hope to change the perception of Ukrainian producers in society, she said, but wants to show people that “all the products we need are produced in Ukraine.”
This first and biggest change Savostina made concerned her diet. But that proved to be easier than she had thought.
“Of course I had to give up some sorts of fish, exotic fruits, sushi and McDonald’s, but generally my rations became healthier and cheaper,” Savostina explained. Lemons were substituted by home grown cranberries, while lettuce and basil from Israel and Georgia were replaced with locally grown spinach and parsley.
The variety of Ukrainian-made products she has been able to find have surprised her.
“I had no idea that (Ukraine) grows rice, and I definitely didn’t know that we have our own oysters, or that we raise black boars for jamon,” she said. “And Ukrainian-made Mykulynetske whiskey was just a shock.”
The assortment of locally-made color cosmetics also surprised her.
“(The quality of) everything from nail polish and mascara to personal care products is mostly good,” Savostina said, singling out brand names LCF, Diva, MAG, Malva and Myriam. Most of these can easily be found in Ukrainian supermarkets and beauty stores, she said.
The only time Savostina had to break her own rules was when she had to switch from a Ukrainian face cream to a French one to follow a doctor’s recommendation.
“I had a problem with my skin and just couldn’t risk my face,” she said, adding that later she finally found a Ukrainian-produced face cream that her doctor approved.
Savostina also found Ukraine’s fashion market to be saturated with items made in-country.
“Ukraine produces high quality knitwear and good mass market clothes,” Savostina explained. Her new trench coats as well as a new dress came from Dolcedonna, a popular mass-produced fashion line.
After her made-in-Ukraine year, Savostina plans to go back to her normal lifestyle, but said some of the products she’s discovered during the experiment will remain a part of her daily life.
“I’ll definitely keep (using) the shampoos and cleaners. Our phosphate-free laundry detergents are just the best,” she said.
With more than half a year of the experiment left, there are still lots of things to be tested, beginning with Ukrainian resorts. At the end, the information she gathers during the year-long research project will be compiled into a guide, which she hopes to publish.
Savostina said she would recommend many of the products she has tried this far.
“Believe me, I am a very picky consumer… so when I test Ukrainian products I am not only curious about whether such goods are available, but I also check the quality,” she said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected], and on Twitter at @Iskrynka
