{"id":330781,"date":"2023-06-05T12:07:28","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T15:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=330781"},"modified":"2023-06-06T18:14:06","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T21:14:06","slug":"saboaria-rondonia-makes-natural-and-sustainable-cosmetics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/saboaria-rondonia-makes-natural-and-sustainable-cosmetics\/","title":{"rendered":"Saboaria Rond\u00f4nia makes natural and sustainable cosmetics"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 A buriti palm oil in the backyard, BRL 152 on her bank account and a dream. That\u2019s how the story of the Saboaria Rond\u00f4nia<\/strong> started. Its founders Mareilde Freire and her daughter Jaqueline Freire wanted to make a moisturizer that helped hydrate their dry skin but wouldn\u2019t get sticky under the heat of Rond\u00f4nia. Pictured above, Mareilde (R) and Jaqueline (L).<\/em><\/p>\n

After a few attempts, she arrived at the recipe of the buriti body moisturizer. She knew the properties of the buriti oil<\/strong> were great for various types of cosmetics, so she started making soaps, at first with glycerin, and now she has natural soaps free from synthetic ingredients, face and body scrubs, moisturizing mists, hair products, lip balm, and others.<\/p>\n

The flagship of the company is the burity oil that\u2019s extracted by approximately twenty women from rural communities in Rond\u00f4nia \u2013 in Ouro Preto do Oeste, Cacoal, and Machadinho d\u2019Oeste \u2013 and also Acre.<\/p>\n

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Mareilde with a basket of soaps and her daughter Jaqueline<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOur firm has three pillars: rural women\u2019s empowerment, sustainable development<\/strong>, and the promotion of the regional supply chain. And on these pillars, we create connections and support each other,\u201d Mareilde told ANBA during the 10th Rond\u00f4nia Rural Show Internacional in Ji-Paran\u00e1.<\/p>\n

Besides taking women into the oil extraction market, the soap manufacturer also holds training sessions and workshops, as well as leisure activities. \u201cWe held a milk workshop, since we\u2019re in a milk producing region, distributing dairy products, and we held spa days for them in order to raise awareness on the range of possibilities we have,\u201d said Jaqueline.<\/p>\n

Mareilde stresses she wants to sell more to be able to expand the business. \u201cFor us to thrive and expand not only as a manufacturer but as a whole chain, to engage more women, more family farming, empower the small producers. We see an abundant natural wealth, but we don\u2019t have much technology, so each person has to play their role,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The original idea came back in 2015, when the BRL 152 were used to buy the first ingredients for the glycerin soaps, and then after noticing the moisturizing power combined with what they had in her backyard, they started the soap business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we had to create criteria. We\u2019re bringing this development by sustainably harvesting the burity, the baba\u00e7u, so we can\u2019t exhaust what nature provides us. This balance is what makes the soap manufacturer what it\u2019s today,\u201d said Mareilde.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow a standing buriti palm means income, food, and conservated forest, as when we extract the oil, we use it in cosmetics, while the seed becomes a seedling and goes back to the environment. We now have a reforestation area. We are discovering the bottlenecks, as the whole supply chain has to adapt and be structured,\u201d said Jaqueline.<\/p>\n

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Buriti body cream and buriti oil<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A buriti palm takes 7 to 15 years to start bearing fruit. The reforested trees are starting to bear fruit. \u201cIn a few days we\u2019ll harvest from our own plantations for the first time,\u201d the daughter said.<\/p>\n

For now, the sustainably managed harvesting is made by rural women. \u201cLast year, in 2022, we did a mapping and identified each buriti palm in our own property and the partners\u2019, so now if you want to adopt a burity palm, you can, and you\u2019ll be able to track it as it\u2019s identified,\u201d said Mareilde. The same goes to baba\u00e7u.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose the buriti for what it gave me, as it improved my complexion so that I\u2019m not aged thanks to it. I wanted our first moisturizer to not be sticky due to our Amazonian climate, and it also retards the aging process and brings back the skin\u2019s natural hydration,\u201d said Mareilde.<\/p>\n

Besides buriti, the soap manufacturer uses other fruits from the Amazonian biodiversity, such as copa\u00edba, pracaxi, murumuru, andiroba, baba\u00e7u, tucum\u00e3, dragon\u2019s blood sap, and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understood that we have a wealth here if we know how to take care of it. My family comes from a poor background \u2013 we escaped hunger in the Jequitinhonha Valley in Minas Gerais, a very poor region, and then we came to Rond\u00f4nia, and Rond\u00f4nia welcomed us with open arms. And now it\u2019s time to give it back, as my parents used to contribute for the deforestation, due to ignorance, and now it\u2019s time for us to go the opposite direction, bringing back what we can,\u201d the founder said.<\/p>\n

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Supernatural soaps on the top shelf and glycerin soaps on the bottom<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The supply chain of the Saboaria Rond\u00f4nia is small but meets the demand. \u201cIt isn\u2019t large-scale, but we manage with time; it\u2019s a small industry. But when we talk natural cosmetics, people seek added value, not quantity. They seek a cause, a value. And I say we don\u2019t sell cosmetics, we sell solutions,\u201d said Mareilde.<\/p>\n

The products are free from colorants, chemicals or conservatives. The body scrub, for instance, is made from Amazon Robusta coffee beans from farmers that use environmentally friendly practices and feature women in their supply chain.<\/p>\n

The supernatural soaps, as Mareilde calls them, don\u2019t have any synthetic ingredient. They are made from oils and butters using a natural method. There are three types, baba\u00e7u and pracaxi, buriti and murumuru, and andiroba and copa\u00edba.<\/p>\n

They also have glycerin soaps, for those who want stronger colors and smells. These come in the shape of flowers, bees, cocoa, and others.<\/p>\n

Mareilde has recently visited Switzerland to talk to a firm that fell in love with her story and wants to import the products. \u201cWe\u2019ve shipped our products to Switzerland, Portugal, and the United States, but we want to break into the Arab world, too,\u201d she said. She\u2019s studying the possibility of getting a halal certificate.<\/p>\n

In Brazil, Saboaria Rond\u00f4nia<\/a> sells to the whole country on its own website. You can also buy on the Flor de Jambu<\/a>\u2019s website that sells Amazonian products.<\/p>\n

And the soap manufacturer was selected to join the Hub de Acelera\u00e7\u00e3o Clean Beauty of Soneda<\/a>, a multi-brand cosmetic stores in S\u00e3o Paulo. Only twenty firms were selected. The hub is located in the brand\u2019s flagship store on Rua Augusta.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe soap manufacturer will be accelerated, and we\u2019ll have different payment terms, as it\u2019s hard to break into this retail,\u201d Jaqueline. The mentorship will last for six months.<\/p>\n

The journalist traveled at the invitation of Rond\u00f4nia\u2019s Secretariat for Economic Development (SEDEC).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read more on Rond\u00f4nia:<\/em><\/p>\n