{"id":283606,"date":"2020-11-02T07:00:36","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T10:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=283606"},"modified":"2020-11-05T11:32:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T14:32:02","slug":"hammam-soap-is-inspired-in-moroccan-bathhouses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/hammam-soap-is-inspired-in-moroccan-bathhouses\/","title":{"rendered":"Hammam Soap is inspired in Moroccan bathhouses"},"content":{"rendered":"

SS\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The Brazilian businesswoman Claudia Mendes, of Santos, S\u00e3o Paulo, travelled on tourism to Marrakech, Morocco in 2018, while living in Lisbon, Portugal. Taken with the trip and with Morocco\u2019s traditional bathhouses, she envisioned the opportunity to start a new business. Back in Brazil, she established Hammam Soap<\/a> to sell artisanal soap, hydrating and exfoliating products with aromas including rosemary, lavender and bergamot.<\/p>\n

Arab bathhouses offer warm baths with lots of steam. In Marrakech, they use a blackish brown soap made from eucalyptus and olive oil, Mendes said. \u201cThe hammam are usually next to the mosques, and they are considered sacred. Bathing is regarded as a cleansing process before prayer, and as a place for fraternizing as well,\u201d she told ANBA. When she went to a bathhouse, she got an exfoliation with soap. \u201cAn employee will apply the soap foam and then exfoliate you with a kessa glove that\u2019s similar to sponge gourd.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Claudia Mendes in Marrakech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hence the brand\u2019s name and the desire to make soap and to work with aromas. \u201cI created the black Maktub product as an olive oil- and salt-based exfoliant. The name is a tip of the hat to to Arab culture and tradition,\u201d Mendes said regarding one of the first products in her line. Maktub is Arabic for \u201cdestiny\u201d or \u201cit was written.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next came the lavender- and rosemary-based lines, which are the brand\u2019s flagship products, as well as the bergamot one. Also available from Hammam Soap are other aromas, including aloe vera and coconut (pictured above), and cedar- and fig-based lines that are due out this year.<\/p>\n

The soaps are handcrafted and some of the lines are vegan. Instead of using palm oil, Mendes uses almond oil, coconut oil, grapeseed oil, and shea butter. She doesn\u2019t saponification; instead, she\u2019ll buy plant- or animal-based fat, and she argues that her soaps are rich in glycerin, which she claims is really important in ensuring soap bar quality. \u201cBar soap is better than the liquid kind, because in bars you get the oils, and in the liquid you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

The soaps are handcrafted and some of the lines are vegan. Instead of using palm oil, Mendes uses almond oil, coconut oil, grapeseed oil, and shea butter. She doesn\u2019t saponification; instead, she\u2019ll buy plant- or animal-based fat, and she argues that her soaps are rich in glycerin, which she claims is really important in ensuring soap bar quality. \u201cBar soap is better than the liquid kind, because in bars you get the oils, and in the liquid you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claudia Mendes started making her product in July 2019, in Santos, on the S\u00e3o Paulo coast, after attending a soapmaking workshop and putting together a business plan. \u201cAbout twenty years ago I used to make soap and sell it. When I went to Morocco, I got the urge to do it again. I wanted to go back to doing something I really like. It wasn\u2019t a business trip, but it ended up taking me in that direction,\u201d said Mendes, who holds a degree in Interior Design and once owned a clothing store.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Maktub exfoliant is a tip of the hat to the soap in Morocco’s hammams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Morocco was the first Arab country Mendes has ever been to. She said she\u2019s taken Arabic lessons, and that she\u2019d like to go to Marrakech again, and to see other Arab countries, such as Lebanon.<\/p>\n

For the time being, Hammam Soap sells only through Instagram<\/a>, and out of a dermatology clinic in Guaruj\u00e1, S\u00e3o Paulo. Mendes says sales are booming along the S\u00e3o Paulo coast, in the capital, and the countryside. She delivers to anywhere in Brazil, and she has expansion plans in place for next year. \u201cI want to keep doing things artisanally, while evolving with my products, of course. I want to hire people, but in order to do that I need to increase my sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

The soap bars go for BRL 17 to BRL 23. Exfoliants are BRL 53 each, and a 250 ml jar of hydrating product costs BRL 44 \u2013 the same price as liquid soap. Other items are available, including room sprays and diffusers.<\/p>\n

The brand\u2019s design and packaging is influenced by Nordic minimalism, according to Mendes, merely for aesthetic reasons. \u201cThat\u2019s what luxury means for me. It\u2019s about simple things, and I have created a brand that looks like me. Although there may be similar products on the market, none is exactly like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brazilian businesswoman Claudia Mendes\u2019 cosmetics brand delivers artisanal soap, hydrating and exfoliating products across the country. The influence of Moroccan soapmaking came from a trip to Marrakech in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2305,"featured_media":283591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[17862,17861,17865,17849,17863,17850,17866,17867,17864,17868,9943,9558,17860,11722],"class_list":{"0":"post-283606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-bathhouse","9":"tag-bergamot","10":"tag-claudia-mendes-en","11":"tag-claudia-mendes","12":"tag-exfoliant","13":"tag-hammam","14":"tag-hammam-en","15":"tag-hammam-soap-en","16":"tag-lavender","17":"tag-maktub-en","18":"tag-marrakech-en","19":"tag-morocco-en","20":"tag-rosemary","21":"tag-santos-en"},"wps_subtitle":"Brazilian businesswoman Claudia Mendes\u2019 cosmetics brand delivers artisanal soap, hydrating and exfoliating products across the country. The influence of Moroccan soapmaking came from a trip to Marrakech in 2018.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}