Natural is Essential

Therefore Colleen Malwah-Aqui of RODCO Home Essential, based in Tacarigua, is making the effort to harvest the benefits of these, albeit in a different form.

Malwah-Aqui is a manufacturer of handmade personal care items including soaps, body scrubs, lip balms, body lotion, body butters, face masks, face oils, body sprays and roll-on perfumes.

Some of her locally inspired soaps include Aloe Vera; Mango; Pumpkin, Papaya and Aloe; Noni; Goat Milk; Rachette and Yogurt (from Mount St Benedict Abbey); charcoal (from burnt bamboo); Tulsi - which is used to make tea; Neem and Carailli.

She noted that carailli has many vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants that help in the preservation of the skin. However, she said carailli does not have a natural scent so she uses grapefruit and tangerine essential oils to give it a pleasing aroma. Malwah-Aqui grew up bathing with rachette (a type of cacti), using it as soap and shampoo, and taking bush baths prepared by her grandmother.

Therefore, she also intends to develop a “bush bath” line of products dedicated to her grandmother.

“It is all part of my background growing up. I am a real country girl at heart. We are losing those traditions because many older folks are not passing them on. Instead of these natural remedies, everyone is buying pills, chemicals. People would rather go to the grocery and buy things ready-made than make them anymore. We need to bring some of those traditions back because they had incredible benefits.

We have a wealth of local raw materials available that I think we are now tapping into,” she said.

Malwah-Aqui has also developed a line of cocoa products including seven chocolate-inspired soaps namely Chocolate and Coconut Cream; Peppermint Mocha; Chocolate with Almond, Oatmeal and Honey; Chocolate and Orange; Chocolate and Hazelnut - which is chocolate with hazelnut coffee; Cocoa Butter and Coconut Milk; and an unscented Three-butter Soap (cocoa, shea, and aloe butter).

In fact, she said she uses cocoa butter in all her soaps.

“Cocoa has its benefits in eating, drinking and, of course, in skin care products but it’s not just about the numerous benefits to the skin. It’s also comes back to supporting our local farmers and our local industry because we have the raw materials. Even in my normal, everyday life, I try to use as many local products as possible,” she said.

Her soap-making journey all began because Malwah-Aqui felt the need to take better care of her skin as she got “younger.” She said her skin was not behaving or looking like it used to, including dry patches that no amount of lotions or oils would help. Since she was eating reasonably healthy, she figured that was not the problem so the next step was to take care of her skin using better products.

“In today’s world with all the smoke, the fumes we inhale, make-up, the things that we eat, we have to find better ways and means to take care of the only skin we’ve got,” she said.

Therefore, she started to do research and paid more attention to the labels of the skin care products available. She realised the ingredients were more chemical than natural and so turned to two of her friends, Sharon Benjamin and Desiree Phillip, who manufactured soaps.

“Their products were helping but I am a very curious person.

I wanted to go a little further than just buying a product. My interest went deeper than that.

I wanted to make them myself,” she said.

In addition, Malwah- Aqui said Benjamin and Phillip had only six or seven types of soaps while she wanted to try a wider variety.

Therefore, they assisted and guided her in making her own products.

They even suggested that she contact CARIRI to learn the chemical process of soap-making, which she did, and there she was assisted by a chemist.

Malwah-Aqui stated that another friend, Lisa Marie Griffith, had the same skin concerns and so they began their soap-making journey together. She thanked her friends for their love, advice, and support, saying that although they are technically business competitors, they maintain close friendships and continue to be happy for and proud of her.

And so, with friends at her back, and chemical formulae in her brain, Malwah-Aqui began manufacturing soaps in 1998.

She gave her friends and relatives the soaps she made and they enjoyed them so much that they encouraged her to sell.

Malwah-Aqui said her grandmother had a shop in Runny Mede, Tobago and from age six she would help sell goods. From a young age she developed a love and joy of having her own business and meeting people so the move from manufacturing to business was not a difficult transition.

After much study, experimenting, and expansion of her product line, she finally took the step in 2005 and registered RODCO Home Essentials.

However, the manufacture of personal care items is not all there is to Malwah-Aqui. She has also been making scented candles for the past 20 years, and has been teaching soap making for the past 14 years.

Now, RODCO Home Essentials can be found at Normandie Hotel in St Ann’s, The Cocoa Pod in Port-of-Spain, Akimbo in Arima, Bang Bang Home Store in Canaan, Tobago, Things Natural in Scarborough, Tobago, and many of the local craft markets.