Good enough to eat!
When Rena Hine ordered her DIY soap kit, she had not really thought about what she would do with the soaps she made. It was already late afternoon when the box arrived and she opened it intending only to read the instructions. She was so mesmerised...
When Rena Hine ordered her DIY soap kit, she had not really thought about what she would do with the soaps she made. It was already late afternoon when the box arrived and she opened it intending only to read the instructions. She was so mesmerised that she worked her way through all the samples sent - until 1 a.m.
Ms Hine was originally trained to run a health food outlet and started with a shop in Cornwall selling organic teas. She tried selling a few soaps and within just two months found that they were outselling the tea.
"They were really boring ingredients and really boring shapes at first," she admitted.
"Now I am constantly experimenting with new herbs as well as shapes and sizes."
After a brief sojourn in Germany, Ms Hine came to Malta with her children, opening Sarahs-Nature in the Best Buy arcade in Victoria at the beginning of this month.
The art of soap making has married her love of all things natural with her love of health and wellness. Her soaps are not labelled only by whether they are best for dry or oily skins but also by the impact of their ingredients on the psyche. Each soap comes with a printed card advising the best way to benefit from its use.
The ingredients range from chocolate to spinach powder, from coconut and honey to rosemary and roses, always with a real glycerine base. The only thing you will not find is sodium lauryl sulphate, used in commonly found foaming agents that can irritate the skin. It took her two years until she found a satisfactory substitute but she is convinced that it was worth the effort.
"These are soaps the way they were made before commercialisation. But of course, without artificial ingredients, the end result is different: Real soaps breathe and sweat - so you need to treat them like real chocolate.
"I see my soaps as being somewhere between aromatherapy and a delicatessen for the skin!" she laughed.
Her new shop has been an instant success and she only had 10 types of soap in stock out of the 85 in her repertoire.
Ms Hine is planning to do more than just sell. She plans to sell DIY kits as well as to run courses on her copyrighted and certified recipes, which can then be sold under licence through the students' own outlet if desired.
Her range is not cheap but her clients keep coming back for more.
"They don't just come in and choose a soap to match their bathroom! I like to spend some time understanding the problems they have with their skin. My best seller is a sage soap for acne sufferers," she said.
She is also a savvy marketer. She has a range of mini-soaps and bath-melts in an elegant box that look just like pralines, popular as gifts in hotels. She also has fun-shaped soaps for children, which she designs herself.
"At the moment, things are just taking off but if it carries on at this rate, I will soon have to start looking for sales reps. I would also like to have enough space to begin making the soaps on site as hand-made goods always have more value when you can see the considerable work that goes into them," she said.
Ms Hine was originally trained to run a health food outlet and started with a shop in Cornwall selling organic teas. She tried selling a few soaps and within just two months found that they were outselling the tea.
"They were really boring ingredients and really boring shapes at first," she admitted.
"Now I am constantly experimenting with new herbs as well as shapes and sizes."
After a brief sojourn in Germany, Ms Hine came to Malta with her children, opening Sarahs-Nature in the Best Buy arcade in Victoria at the beginning of this month.
The art of soap making has married her love of all things natural with her love of health and wellness. Her soaps are not labelled only by whether they are best for dry or oily skins but also by the impact of their ingredients on the psyche. Each soap comes with a printed card advising the best way to benefit from its use.
The ingredients range from chocolate to spinach powder, from coconut and honey to rosemary and roses, always with a real glycerine base. The only thing you will not find is sodium lauryl sulphate, used in commonly found foaming agents that can irritate the skin. It took her two years until she found a satisfactory substitute but she is convinced that it was worth the effort.
"These are soaps the way they were made before commercialisation. But of course, without artificial ingredients, the end result is different: Real soaps breathe and sweat - so you need to treat them like real chocolate.
"I see my soaps as being somewhere between aromatherapy and a delicatessen for the skin!" she laughed.
Her new shop has been an instant success and she only had 10 types of soap in stock out of the 85 in her repertoire.
Ms Hine is planning to do more than just sell. She plans to sell DIY kits as well as to run courses on her copyrighted and certified recipes, which can then be sold under licence through the students' own outlet if desired.
Her range is not cheap but her clients keep coming back for more.
"They don't just come in and choose a soap to match their bathroom! I like to spend some time understanding the problems they have with their skin. My best seller is a sage soap for acne sufferers," she said.
She is also a savvy marketer. She has a range of mini-soaps and bath-melts in an elegant box that look just like pralines, popular as gifts in hotels. She also has fun-shaped soaps for children, which she designs herself.
"At the moment, things are just taking off but if it carries on at this rate, I will soon have to start looking for sales reps. I would also like to have enough space to begin making the soaps on site as hand-made goods always have more value when you can see the considerable work that goes into them," she said.