Our humble beginning in business was purely from crafting hobby. Yet our family and friends were almost all saying to us this: “are you crazy?”. After a lot of receiving “are you crazy?” expressions, we do think that we are crazy enough to start a business in the cosmetics market. Even more, in a country that has already over-saturated in personal care products. However, flashing back then on how we were starting at first, it was such a journey in many little steps.

Shifting a Hobby

Transitioning my hobby from cooking-baking in the kitchen into cake-like soaping was giving the same level of satisfaction. Even more, knowing that cake soaps can last forever compared to real cakes. Samuel was complaining at first that his ‘goûter time‘ was changed into a different reality that he could not swallow. As a French, not having goûter or snacking time around 3-4 PM in the afternoon, was an ordeal.

A Natural Soap Bar Maker

So, I was really into creating more and more soap design. Every day I came up with several soap sketches, including the visual look of the finished soap; the botanical oil-blends for the claimed properties; the herb-blends for the aroma; and incorporating the spice, flower, or clay for the colours.  Once the soaps can be cut into slices, I took some nice pictures. I made sure that the picture would describe the soap I planned initially. Then after, I would be busy working on the product description before posting it on my Facebook page. Our Facebook Page was Frida’s Little Soap, back then. People liked the shape and how it looked and smelled. Each slice of soaps mostly ended up as gifts. I was really happy that it, at least, pleased someone else. Someone who received the gift. If you want to see my past cake-like soap creations, welcome to enjoy it here.

Controlling Every Ingredient

Little that I knew what was truly inside the soap-base. This soap-base often called glycerin soaps. The glycerin soap-base comes in transparent, white, and even in colours like pink, green, and blue blocks. My curiosity put me in the position to know more about this glycerin soap-base block, as I feel fully responsible for the product descriptions. Thus responsibility in mind turned into an action. It made me want to control every ingredient involved in the soaps I made. Every ingredient should pass through my understanding and consent. So, I started to study the natural ingredients, eagerly, every single day from the beginning 2012. This is how we ended up having nearly 500 Skincare Ingredients in our current inventory.

“Frida…are you crazy?”