A former PR expert, Suchita Ullas, launched a skin care brand after retiring. Suchita an her husband now sell 500 bars of homemade soaps every month through a successful business run from their home
Suchita, now 64, and her husband Pradeep Ullal have formed a business, called ‘Suchi’s Handmade Skincare Products.’ Through this business the couple create, promote, and sell homemade soaps, lotions, and shampoo bars that are completely natural.
A former corporate communication and PR expert, Suchita, didn’t want to waste time after retiring five years ago. She claims she wanted to launch a tiffin service in Bengaluru that catered exclusively to the requirements of senior persons, or she wanted to learn how to produce natural soaps.
Suchita says she’s always wanted to learn how to create natural soaps, and the course looked like the perfect opportunity. Her son, who was living in Switzerland at the time, would always request that natural soaps be given to him from India. While Suchita would buy them by the dozen and give them to him, she was always perplexed as to why I couldn’t simply make them for him. That’s when she decided to take a soap-making class, which revolutionised her life.
Suchita claims she never intended to create a business when she attended the training. The business was simply an incident that occurred along the road. Suchita started the venture by investing around Rs 15,000, which includes the charge for the first workshop.
Suchita says she loved making the soaps, during the session, and then spent the next year doing online research. That was an unusual time period for her since she spent a lot of time manufacturing soaps and failing in equal measure, she chuckles. Suchita was left with 100 strange soaps at the end of a year-long trial. She recalls a time before COVID when there were numerous flea markets put up throughout the city.
In 2016, the couple started their business at a flea market, where they set up a stall. Suchita says it was wonderful to see that at the end of the day that all the products had been sold.
Because this flea market was put up at a downtown hotel, in-house guests came in to buy the soaps as well. Some people tried it and then came back for more. This achievement led Suchita to create more and consider this as a possible business opportunity.
From the first flea market where Suchita sold all 100 of her soaps, she and her husband now ship close to 500 goods per month.
Each batch is made by hand with the utmost care in the couple’s home in tiny amounts. The soaps are free of hazardous parabens and sodium lauryl sulphate.
Shampoo bars, body butters, underarm cream deodorants, lip balms, and beard butters have all been added to the line. All marketing has been done solely through social media and word-of-mouth.
Suchita says it has been a totally organic growth.
